(Old) Binary Progression

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

JohnWillStab is the poorly-named shut-in on a quest to get into MMOs after a failed online career backfired leaving him uninterested in his speciality, strategy games.

He discovers an old, abandoned game with an active, albeit very eccentric, community of no more than five-hundred players on a single server maintained by an unknown individual.

Unbeknownst to him, the game he found is more than just an ordinary WoW clone and after many adventures with his group, they make the terrifying discovery that after two full volumes this story becomes a god damn isekai.

What’s worse, JohnWillStab, the number-one edgelord on the server issomehowending up in positions of power despite literally being an undead rogue with evil magic tentacles!

Will John’s edginess ruin the isekai? Why does the doctor have the highest kill-count in the game? Is 👑 really a valid character you could use for your username? Can the chef perform an exorcism? Why is God asking John for chicken nuggets? Really, he could just spawn them in - in fact, we saw him spawning food in before!

Find out like… two of those within the virtual pages of Binary Progression!

Credit

Post-Chapter Banner by @ThatNoLifeArti1 (https://twitter.com/ThatNoLifeArti1)

Icons for end of chapter image by 'Lorc'

Story updates and shit-posting available on twitter @MrBadWithNames1

https://twitter.com/MrBadWithNames1

Old cover by @EldricthAnomaly

https://twitter.com/EldricthAnomaly

Information

Status: Cancelled
Year: 2020
Author: MrBadWithNames

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 233
Views: 558,404

Chapters(323 total)

What readers say about (Old) Binary Progression

“The story is hilarious. It's written mostly as chatlog with brief descriptions of outside events used to help set the stage. Normally I wouldn't like this style but it works for this kind of fiction. The story itself is good but it is largely is in service…”
Jon WanderRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“This is a normal MMORPG novel. No isekai, VR or trapped in the game. It is a hillarious advenrure in an old broken game that has loyal players in it. Lots of roleplaying, memes, jokes, emotes, buggy game parts. It really reminds me of the time i played old…”
Lord WasdRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Jon WanderRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is hilarious. It's written mostly as chatlog with brief descriptions of outside events used to help set the stage. Normally I wouldn't like this style but it works for this kind of fiction.
The story itself is good but it is largely is in service to the best part which is-
The characters and their interactions are what make this. They're absolutely hilarious constantly giving the readers new laughs in the best way. I kinda miss Boniface's orignal speech patterns... but I know I wouldn't be able to keep writing them.
In summary: My own laughing slowed me down too much on what should have been a faster read. Enjoy.
Lord WasdRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a normal MMORPG novel.
No isekai, VR or trapped in the game.
It is a hillarious advenrure in an old broken game that has loyal players in it.
Lots of roleplaying, memes, jokes, emotes, buggy game parts. It really reminds me of the time i played old school RuneScape.
Give it a try!
BTI PennerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style: Quick and clear. For the most part, the author uses an economy of words to keep the story flowing. I noticed a few filter words, but it wasn't a deal-breaker.
Story: If you want a light-hearted romp through an unmoderated world, this is it.
Grammar: I found a few typos that Grammarly or ProWritingAid would have picked up.
Character: The MC is an everyman gamer. He's you. It's a technique that's well employed here.
RobotOnRepeatRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is such a fun ride. It makes me think of all the wacky adventures and accidental things I've ended up doing as a player. It starts off strong, dying when going against a strong player (something I've definitely been guilty of because, well, why not?!)
Style
As far as novel writing goes, it doesn't fit the normal style, as most of the story is pushed forward through chat logs and character actions. For a story revolving around an MMORPG, though, that's really all that's necessary. It makes it really easy to read and doesn't feel like there is an info-dump in the chat logs, which is more realistic. Never once have I ever joined a party and just had a whole block of text from someone with all the info on the game.
Grammar
There are some parts where there are some run-on sentences or the grammar is handled a little awkwardly, but after a read or two, you get the flow and can fill in the commas/words where they need to be and it's completely fine. It's not do distracting that it makes you want to throw a book at a wall. Something I like is that there isn't repetition. Some authors end up repeating the same phrases, sentences, etc. and then I also want to throw a book at a wall because I've read the same thing 3 different times in one paragraph. That's probably something that should be noted in writing style, I suppose.
Story
I love the story, the premise is great. It reminds me of a manga (or maybe it was a visual novel game) I played some time back. It's also very relatable and makes it easy to laugh at the parts that go wrong because, as a gamer, we've all made the same mistakes that the characters do. It flows incredibly well and while there's grinding, the characters make up for it in a way that it doesn't bore you, which leads me down to the next point!
Characters
Bonifacius is the personification of a true role-player. I absolutely love him. While JohnWillStab is the bumbling noob who has no idea what he's doing (e.g., me when I enter any new MMO game),
DistantUndercurrentRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Binary Progression is only up to Chapter 9, but so far, I would best describe it as "a fun take" on a tried and true genre.
This GameLit follows the adventures of JohnWillStab, a luckless MMORPGer who decides to try his hand at a new game. Unfortunately for him, the game is no longer supported by its developers. As such, it is a crazy and lawless place controlled by colorful personalities and plagued by confusing quests and broken plotlines.
I genuinely found multiple parts of this fiction to be hilarious thus far, and I can see that the author it bringing together a well written supporting cast to join John in his broken adventures. This is a 10/10 must-read for folks who enjoy this genre. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes next, and I will update my review as the story progresses.
Sig KusanagiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An enjoyable, humorous tale.
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this, but I am having a blast with this story. It's light-hearted, with well-developed character personalities, and just a delightful premise.
It has dialogue galore, which would be a drag if it wasn't so entertaining to read the interactions between characters, and there's a very real sense of comraderie, like actual friends chatting while playing a game.
This is a great story, and I hope it continues.
TaxReligionRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a lighthearted comedic read. Every chapter there is some hijinx or shenanigans going on, moving from one to the other episodically. I enjoyed the lighthearted nature. There are some grammatical mistakes. Usually, just spelling mistakes, which would make me wonder if why he wasn't using a spell checker, but then I see he also intentionally will misspell things in the chat so I understand why using a spell checker would be annoying.
The style is unorthodox. Since it takes place in an MMO it just displays their chat messages, which makes sense. That said, I would have preferred a bit more description, but that might have also slowed down the pace and that might have been what the author was going for.
The story is great. It's fast-paced. Each chapter presents something new, some comedic situations that the two main characters have gotten themselves into. Reading it was nostalgic for my days playing WoW. He integrates the culture and oddities found in an MMO well.
For character, the problem I had was unclear motivations. The main character has a rough time starting out and there's no explanation as to why he persevered through the starting bumps in the road. Also, I thought Bonificius changed his odd way of talking too quickly. Supposedly he's been playing for years but at a quick mention by someone to talk a bit differently he changes. I understand the author probably spent lots of time translating what the guy wanted to say into the barely legible gibberish he ended up saying, but I just felt the way he switched to speaking "basically english" was unsatisfying.
Overall: I really enjoyed reading this. So five stars. I'd say I hope you continue writing, but I see this is already over 1.4k pages. Wow. Give this story a shot. At first, I was turned off by the cover. I guess it just looks depressing. But it's not depressing in the slightest and is a fun ride.
SaviorfoxOwlisRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Welcome to my first "Royal Ramble" where I take a 1000 words to essay a Fic.
First Chapters: If you reading this review, it's truncated. The full version is actually posted on the final chapter of Volume 1. This is a spoiler-free review.
This is funny stuff.
In the first few chapters, this story ended up being way different than I thought. Badwithnames captures perfectly what makes a game bad, and broken. Throughout, I was impressed, and thought the author played a lot of Roblox. That's more than a joke - the game world in this fiction has hackers running amok.
When it comes to characters, the main characters are JohnWillStab and Bonifacius. John plays straight man to the entire world. Most of it seems whacky because he's playing the game like a normal player. Problem is, he's not walking into a normal world. John is also the smartest player in the game. He acts as strategist, figuring out plans for beating even impossible to beat monsters. For example, he considers using the environment to beat up one monster.
Bonifacius is an RPer. He likes to talk in broken, false Shakespearian English. At the beginning, John cannot even understand Bonifacius. Bonifacius is an abnormal person in an abnormal world. When he's with John, he acts as a mentor. Except... Bony's honor gets in the way sometimes. He'd rather drown than be enslaved by Crown.
Next is Crown. Her harsh sarcastic demeanor always provides more to the comedic aspect of the world. Her introduction is literally "No S@#$ I'm a hacker, my name is a crown." And she provides quite a role in being an assistant to John and Bonifacius. Being the resident hacker, there are things she cannot manipulate. Certain scripts elude her, and if she was to mess with them, she could flat out crash a dungeon or server.
John, Boni, and Crown can be considered the main characters. However, Foxly and Bromy could count as secondary. Bromy being someone who makes weird abominations. Foxly being a joke character almost. His whole race bein
SydorowRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story is perhaps the most enjoyable one I've read on this site. For one, the comedy isn't forced as opposed to other stories I've read. It appears seamlessly with the interactions of the characters, whether that may be among one-another or to the game itself. In addition to this, the comedy itself is enough to garner some fits of laughter from me, making me love the story even more as I continued to read each chapter.
While I wasn't a fan of the initial dialogue format, I eventually managed to go past that tiny sense of discomfort seeing that the dialogue between the characters were always a subject of interest. Literally anything they say would achieve some sort of interest from me; swaying me from thoughts of speeding through the dialogue.
Keep up the good work!
TheWitchOfTheRockRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I literally laughed out loud while I was reading this at points. Keep me giggling and I'll read it. This is the first time I've read a LitRP where the game is abandoned, and the playerbase MAYBE a little toxic. However, I sure as hell have PLAYED those games. It's fun to read it without having to actually, you know, deal with it!
Biggest things that hold this story back is the Style. I hesistated between putting it between grammar and style, but the biggest issue I have is the formatting, and I'm. Throwing that unders style. I'd have the chat lines. Seperate from actions of the characters, personally. Having said that, it doesn't throw me too much, or too often.
I didn't know what I'd think of John at first, but he grows on me. Our main characters so far are pretty interesting. Very real to how people tend to act in games in general.
The story is starting to take off. New player in a game picks all the wrong stuff to start, and gets in trouble. I have been that person.