Multiplayer Online Games Become Reality: A New Literary Genre

Online literature that responds flexibly to users’ opinions is an interesting projection of the imaginary. Multiplayer online game literature is often a combination of science fiction (a world of the future with advanced digital immersion technologies) and a built-in virtual world. The main features of the genre (called LitRPG and RealRPG) at its current stage of development are the unity of the player in two worlds (or the everyday world becomes a game one), and the influence or even absorption of everyday reality by the game. The refusal to separate the game avatar from the person to some extent extrapolates the idea of the development of Metaverse. The System (i.e., assessment of development, notifications of the pumping of skills, quests) turns out to be not just a digital model of reality, but a global law of the universe, allowing us to disregard the customary laws of the physical world, to connect spatially divided worlds, neglecting death. An interesting aspect is the new attitude towards non-player characters inhabiting the virtual layer of reality. In many works of the genre, the original consideration of their main characters as «a piece of the code» is replaced by awareness of their authenticity. In general, the division into players and non-player characters in the literature is beginning to reflect the level of capabilities in the system rather than the way a character is controlled by a person or artificial intelligence. In a number of works, non-playable characters are played by socially unprotected groups of sentient beings, or the player character can play artificial intelligence in one’s absence. Social relationships in literary game worlds build an interesting way of dividing beings with whom one can adequately interact and which one can thoughtlessly destroy. Technical artifacts are considered specialized mobs with a single, clear purpose and a limited range of actions. Those who are capable of diverse reactions and unconventional behavior deserve human treatment.