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Andy Steinberg's Reviews > Mogworld
Mogworld
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The only thing that carries over from Yahtzee's video game reviews is his unfailing cynicism. While that works well for him as a critic, it does him little favors as a novelist. The protagonist is essentially Yahtzee's internet persona thrown into a fantasy world, and his never-ending stream of complaints and pessimism about the book world only serve to make him impossible to like as a reader. If I've learned anything about writing through my years as a reader, it's that you should never have an unlikeable protagonist.
Yahtzee does a lot of other things that also scream amateur. The writing is childish and poorly thought out. The book is filled with contradictions, sometimes contained within the same page. The characters are one-dimensional and predictable. There are no surprises that emerge from either their actions of the plot as a whole. This makes sense when you consider that many of Yahtzee's reviews complain about too much story and not enough gameplay.
In the end, I don't know why Yahtzee wrote this book. Aside from financial motivations, of course. It kind of reads as a criticism of the MMO genre, but Yahtzee has already done that far better in his reviews. I wish I could recommend this at least to fans of his, but even that I cannot do. Everything about it is bad. It's so bad, that if it were a game, you would say, "I can't wait to see Yahtzee tear this thing apart!"
Yahtzee does a lot of other things that also scream amateur. The writing is childish and poorly thought out. The book is filled with contradictions, sometimes contained within the same page. The characters are one-dimensional and predictable. There are no surprises that emerge from either their actions of the plot as a whole. This makes sense when you consider that many of Yahtzee's reviews complain about too much story and not enough gameplay.
In the end, I don't know why Yahtzee wrote this book. Aside from financial motivations, of course. It kind of reads as a criticism of the MMO genre, but Yahtzee has already done that far better in his reviews. I wish I could recommend this at least to fans of his, but even that I cannot do. Everything about it is bad. It's so bad, that if it were a game, you would say, "I can't wait to see Yahtzee tear this thing apart!"
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Reading Progress
November 21, 2011
–
Started Reading
November 21, 2011
– Shelved
November 25, 2011
–
Finished Reading
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Ivan
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May 03, 2013 05:45AM
You should *never* have an unlikable protagonist, otherwise known as an antihero? Never, ever, ever?
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Ivan wrote: "You should *never* have an unlikable protagonist, otherwise known as an antihero? Never, ever, ever?"Antihero doesn't mean unlikeable. Antihero means not wholly good in terms of morality. There's no reason an antihero can't be likeable.
I actually read this book as more of a loving sendup of MMOs rather than a criticism... I mean, yes, there are critical things said as well, but the charm MMOs have for their players is here too. I actually really liked this book... it reminded me strongly of when I was young and dreamed about what it would be like to somehow be alive within a video game (this was long before the modern graphical MMO). Not just the generic concept of crazy weapons or epic battle or whatever... more like the simple magic of seeing actions you take in the world very quickly cause change, of climbing a mountain into the darkness and touching the sky, or the idea that this is all inside a computer and one could somehow interact with the machine from inside it. A simpler time, haha.
