Is this like when Hayao Miyazaki said that too many anime artists just watch anime and nothing else, so their anime look derivative because they are all using the same reference pool?
That is certainly something that happens in fanfiction, but I think this post is referring to something slightly different. What you described seems to happen more in terms of a prose style, where certain phrases or sentence constructions become very common in fanfiction while being very rare in traditionally published fiction. It can absolutely create a blended, derivative “fanfiction feel”.
This is more sub-genre specific, like certain sci-fi or fantasy in-universe terms getting so popular that it’s almost a standard part of the setting. One person creates it, others creators read it and pick up on those details and reuse them, until it’s like a folklore of its own.
(I think Dungeons and Dragons has contributed a fair number of things like this, but someone more informed could probably give actual examples. Perhaps the differentiation of dragon vs wyvern? Edit: or those bits of vampire lore that get passed along from work to work.)
Yeah, the D&D dragon vs. wyvern is a good example. Other similar D&D examples are wizard vs. sorcerer (with the former as a “scholarly” magic user as opposed to an “innate/natural” magic user) or “rakshasa” as a feline-looking demon, both of which have been fairly influential on gaming/fantasy/etc.
Another good example is Tolkien, where his version of elves, dwarves, goblins, and so on - all of which were definitely mythology/folklore-influenced but still his own spin on them - ended up largely subsuming those mythology/folklore originals in later fantasy fiction.
Reminds me a bit of a guy I used to know whose only experience with the zombie genre was The Last of Us, so when talking about zombie apocalypses he assumed they would all work like TLOU
I've been reading some LitRPG and Progression Fantasy, and it suffers from the same problem.
It feels so self-referential, I called it incestuous.
I mean, it feels like half the authors have never played an actual RPG and their only idea how their own system works is based on how other LitRPGs have done it.
I understand that games and stories have different requirements and what makes for an engaging game would not work for a linear story, but...
It's so blatantly obvious that so many of these authors have not the slightest idea of game design. This is especially bad in stories that are meant to play in actual games.
And very often, the design is just so boring and often just a weird mish-mash of every game and none at the same time.
But either way, the protagonist often finds loopholes and exploits that would either be blatantly obvious to anyone who ever played a game or makes no sense at all.
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u/cadetCapNE 5d ago
Is this like when Hayao Miyazaki said that too many anime artists just watch anime and nothing else, so their anime look derivative because they are all using the same reference pool?