Having a meta moment, fanfic edition

[isi]

So some things I've been thinking about since I posted my fanfic the other day: the logic of how the Minecraft world works in the context of a story, and how these things affect the story (or in my case, how the story changes the way the world works). How do you handle these things? For example, there was some nice discussion in the comments of my fic about how perma-death could be applied to a story, or even how a map reset could be integrated, which was great, but not something I'll likely explore in that particular story. So let's talk about those things here instead, just because I'm interested to see other interpretations of Minecraft game mechanics.

Some of the things you may consider include: How is death treated and of how much consequence is it; how do you factor in separate events like UHC which may have different consequences than a normal Minecraft setting; how do you factor in the guys' real lives, where applicable (which is another thing I've been avoiding in my fic, since in game Guude is very much affected by his real life of raising a child, as it limits his availability and energy, though there's no neat way to explain that in the context of what I'm writing, even though the limited energy part is very relevant to his character); and do these things shape how you tell the story, or if not, how might you change them to suit the story you want to tell?

Comments

[mindcrack_love]

I think about these things a lot. There's some stuff on my journal about it; I can't link to it now, being on my ereader, but it's not hard to find. I find such worldbuilding and research for plausibility more fun than dealing with plot,for some reason.

[lurkey_dfw]

I havent written any fanfics really, but I was actually considering the death thing and how it applies to these settings the other day. I feel like if I were to ever write a fic of sorts, the characters would have to essentially be immortal (in that they can die but they come back), but that every time they died there would be the tiniest fractional chance that they wouldn't "tranfer" correctly back into the correct universe (which would make death have some consequence, like it could potentially be bad to die).

Minecraft physics, too, is something that would be difficult to work into how fanfics turn out. These are reasons I feel the best fanfics are the vague sorts that don't expand on those (but I do like to see how people interpret these things differently too, I'm so wishy washy oops)

I guess in the end, if you can pick a single consistent way that things work into your story, I don't think there's really a wrong way to do it, haha

/wall of text ramble ramble sorry

[placeblocks]

I love this post and am so glad to know I am not the only one constantly thinking about these things. For ficcing purposes, I suspect my ideas on such things would vary depending on the story I wanted to tell. If I wanted to use UHC in a Mindcrack story, for instance, I might view it as a virtual reality game they play together, where it's more immersive than anything we have, possibly even physically painful when you get hurt/die, but obviously not a permanent death. My rules on that might change depending on the story, though. If I wanted a story set solely within UHC, for instance, I might pretend like the Mindcrack world was a separate one. (For instance, Bdubs killing Guude packs a slightly less emotional punch if you know it's just a game and Guude is just gonna respawn two seconds later, totally fine vs. being perma-dead.)

I could also see "IRL" issues perhaps being another "virtual reality" game they play (along with any other gaming things they play together), with the Mindcrack Minecraft server being the "real" world. That way if something happened at Minecon, for instance, that has repercussiosn in Mindcrack I could make it work somehow without totally ruining things...

[theropod]

I think it depends on the context of the story, how you want that specific plot to go. There are those who write with the folks living on Mindcrack yet recording, and those who write with them just living in a mostly deserted world.

The way I'm writing is the latter and I've gone for a slightly more realistic version because I wanted to write about revenge and death threats and if there were people coming back from the dead then it wouldn't really have much weight. I don't have the recording things and as for other games. it's a bit iffy. I'm not going to delve into it too much though that moment from UHC where Zisteau and Guude fought will be briefly mentioned as something along the lines of a friendly match that got a little too serious to the point where Guude came close to accidently killing Zisteau but of course didn't manage it. I imagine there were friendly fights held in the arena, the sand floor perhaps replaced by dirt and trees to give them terrain to fight around.

Minecraft physics is another fun one to translate. Obviously, there are issues with the Lens floating in mid air. In my head, it's powered by an immense amount of coal and redstone, and it's entirely possible that while it floats in the sky, each ring spins very slowly in a different direction to the one below, probably with a soft humming noise. The issue with floating trees? I pretend the trees are normal and they fall over after enough whacks with an axe >_>

The mobs are interesting. In UHC everyone is terrified of mobs they would normally have no issue with. I wanted to echo that since the guys in my story have only one life. When Endermen were first introduced they were supposed to be the most terrifying things in the game and combining that idea with the fact they do a terrible amount of damage and can come out of nowhere, I tried my best to make the Enderman in my story utterly terrifying and I hope I got that across.

Wow I'm just rambling on XD

[isi]

This one, right? Yes, you've got all kinds of fancy things going on, which is great. Especially interesting is your distinctions between Jason and Guude. The swap between them seems to be a major driving force in the story. In your case, it's these interesting worldbuild-y bits that shape a lot of the story. I think I'm the opposite way. I don't think I would ever base a story around the integration of game and reality and would rather stick to one or the other, then flail around the parts where they blur together because I don't know an easy way to explain it without it becoming the whole story. :P

[theropod]

I think this is a good time to reiterate that your story is awesome <3 So glad you took up the prompt.

[isi]

Of course there's no wrong way to do it. There can be any number of systems to make happen what you want to happen, which is why I wanted to see other people's different interpretations. :3

That's interesting about the "transfer" idea. It seems like a lot of people want to give death more weight beyond the in game consequences, where the worse that happens is potentially losing your items or respawning in an inconvenient place, and I'm especially interested in how people do that. After I'm done with my Guude and Beef story I want to do something closer to how the game works, with respawn on so things like "death warping" are possible. But I haven't decided if there should be more of a consequence to being killed, or what it should be.

[isi]

Fun things to think about. In the UHC example, would that mean you couldn't allude to previous seasons? UHC is fun to think about because it's a canon example of perma-death, but then there's the thing where everyone's back again for the next season. Like there would need to be different levels of how dead you are in any given continuity. Actually, I think I'm starting to come up with a new theory. Each Minecraft world (and possibly even the real world) make up a series of parallel universes, which don't necessarily all run on the same rules. While in one of these worlds, the characters may or may not be aware of things that happened previously in other worlds, and the consequences of past actions could even be different depending on which world they're occupying. Hmm...

[isi]

But it's good rambling. :P

Oh, yeah, the recording factor. I didn't even think of that one. Then there's also possible feedback from the viewers and how much they react to that. I'm also mostly sticking to them "living in a deserted world," though I think someone did have a fic where the characters were recording, but the audience response is never seen. Still, that's something to consider when the guys often find out what each other is up to by watching each other's videos.

I like your interpretation of Zisteau's Lens. I imagine it just floating just by magic, or possibly in orbit (though orbit implies the world is round and operates like a normal planet, and all of a sudden you have complicated astronomy problems to work out, so maybe not that after all).

[guiltyshirts]

Well, Altverse has been sort of jerry-built as I've gone along just picking bits to fit. The Mindcrack server is an alternate reality world, other worlds like UHC and FLoBworld exist alongside it. Dying in UHC is permadeath in that world only, so it's still one chance and one life. Death in Mindcrack is temporary, but uncomfortable and possibly painful depending on how you die.

I have a vague idea that there's some sort of high tech/magic involved in creating and manipulating the worlds, and allowing travel between them. The guys choose to live in these worlds and broadcast to people elsewhere as their job.

I don't know what the actual metagame is though. Perhaps there is no going back once you step in, so Mindcrack becomes their homeworld. Perhaps it works like Myst. Perhaps Mojang is an all-powerful megacorp somewhere on the outside. Who knows? :D

[lurkey_dfw]

May I just say, your interpretation of the Lense is freaking AWESOME. I'm going to have a hard time imagining it otherwise now >>

I really do like the realistic approach you take in your story, too, it's different, in a good way *nod nod*

[isi]

That sounds similar to the theory I started making up in my reply to placeblocks. I may start picking bits from your Altverse setup and use them to my own ends. :P

[mindcrack_love]

I originally resisted the idea of other worlds, broadcasting, and non permanent death in my fic, but that was before Genny joined the server, and a Genny without Hermits feels so wrong. Between that and the fact that so much of OOG's canon comes from Legendary, it felt odd and wrong to not include such things as these - but I also really like the idea of a world where they don't get feedback from Youtube trolls. Sigh.

Oh, and I've had the image of Genny's RV driving back and forth, shuttling him between Hermitcraft and Mindcrack. If Arkas ever finishes his mothership, perhaps it will take off too.

[theropod]

I like the Lens idea too, it just seems awesome. I can see the guys up late at night and between bouts of conversation, there's the very soft, quiet hum of the Lens and it's kind of relaxing to listen to.

[theropod]

Hee feel free to imagine it like that forever.

Thanks :D I try to make it Minecraft yet real, as strange as that idea is XD Depending on what future ideas I have, I'll probably vary the sliding scale of realism vs minecraftism.

[theropod]

...Yes. Yes please. Because that image is just kind of awesome (and now in my head all I see is Kurt and Zisteau piloting the Lens in insane flight against the Motheship ><)

[guiltyshirts]

I love the idea of Genny driving back and forth in his RV.

[guiltyshirts]

Hee, pick away. Some of what I started from was inspired by damnreddit's first fic. :p

[guiltyshirts]

Epic space fight! :D