Potato is yum

For the longest time, I’ve been sort of against all of the stories that generally fall under the umbrella of “VR” webcomics. I have tried reading the OG “VR” webcomic which is that whatever painter it is called but honestly never found it to be a genre I would go out and try to find. Another examples from this genre that are pretty well known is Overgeared and many others. To be honest, I’ve read a crap ton of these “VR” webcomics and have just generally found the whole idea behind the genre kind of meh as a personal opinion. I can see the appeal but it’s not for me. That is, until I found Murim Login. So then that got me thinking, why don’t I like it?

So typically, the “VR” element of the story is introduced as a way to essentially have two running stories that are connected by the main character. This makes the story much more difficult to follow because it literally is a story that goes through two worlds. Now this isn’t unheard of in fantasy where you could have different dimensions and such but one of the major differences between portal fantasy and “VR” is the lack of challenge in crossing between the supposed worlds. One of the big foundational ideas that a lot of the “VR” stories follow is the idea that you can just join up into the virtual world and there you go, instantly transported to a different dimension where a typical fantasy story would have some kind of mechanic that must be used to bridge the gap between worlds.

We see from newer “VR” stories an attempt at putting some kind of barrier between the reality and the virtual world to add some kind of resistance between crossing the barrier whenever something gets difficult. To name a more traditional example, Ready Player One is a perfect example of a book that uses VR but adds friction between the worlds in the form of danger from the virtual world spilling over into the real world. This kind of barrier adds tension and makes the virtual world feel like it has actual impact on the character.

Now when we compare Murim Login and Overgeared we can see how both use some kind of virtual world however the effects of the virtual world have a much more direct impact in Murim Login as the powers he gains in the virtual world transfer over to the real world. For the main character of Overgeared really nothing other than more wealth is transferred over. This makes it feel like the character in the game is a totally different character as the one in reality since the character progression of the character in both worlds is so loosely linked. I think this is the biggest reason why I tend to dislike these virtual reality stories which divide the real and virtual world without having risks or progression carry over between worlds.