Explaining LitRPG isn't always an easy task. While you can
definitely trot out the usual definitions and hope that those suffice,
you'll eventually be pressed to compare it to something else. It's
common for new readers to ask if LitRPG is sci-fi, as that genre seems
like a good fit for comparison. Unfortunately, there's not an easy way
to answer that question.
Strict Interpretations
Figuring out how whether all
LitRPG stories should be classified as
science fiction starts, as you might expect, by figuring out a few
definitions. Rather than engaging in the arguments about how LitRPG is
defined, we can simply agree that any LitRPG work has to involve a game
world - it's one of the things that really makes the genre stand out, so
it's the must-have element when defining the concept.
So, does being inside a game automatically make a story science fiction?
If you go with the tradition of sci-fi being defined as literature
based on future technological or social developments, there's a strong
case to be made for the idea that LitRPG is probably sci-fi by its
nature. After all, the idea of going into a game in any way is
definitely a scientific development, albeit one that can be accomplished
by a number of means.
Many people will point out that LitRPG almost always involves video
games, which are by default a science fiction device. While video games
are modern, they way games are portrayed in LitRPG definitely lends a
itself to a more advanced portrayal. It's fairly safe to assume that
LitRPG is a subgenre of science fiction in most cases.
Outliers
The big roadblock that makes the question hard to answer is that there
are some examples of LitRPG that definitely don't work as science
fiction at all. If you look back to the 1980s Dungeons and Dragons
cartoon, for example, you'll see something that follows all the LitRPG
tropes but has absolutely no science fiction elements. Likewise, you can
look at Jumanji as another example of LitRPG that fits more easily into
a fantasy or magical-realism sort of setting.
If the game in which the protagonist has his or her adventure isn't a
video game, there's a good argument to be made that the story isn't
science fiction. So long as the methods and execution rely on something
more like magic, you get the same stories that really should be shelved
in a totally different section.
Outliers don't necessarily change the nature of the big works in the
genre, though. There's plenty of LitRPG that could be considered
straight sci-fi, of course -
Ready Player One and
Sword Art Online don't
have much that would exclude them from being typical sci-fi works.
The fantasy-inspired examples make it harder to call LitRPG pure sci-fi.
While these stories definitely help to broaden the scope of what can be
considered LitRPG, they don't do fans any favors when they're trying to
give a simple explanation to new readers.
Combining Genres
Of course, it's pretty tough to pigeon-hole LitRPG by strictly calling
it science fiction when there are outliers to consider. Like most types
of sci-fi, LitRPG tends to be a little more of a genre mix. For example,
it's entirely possible for a character to transported into a game by
mystical means, moving LitRPG from a hard sci-fi concept to more of a
sci-fi/fantasy hybrid. At the very least, you're looking at something
that's not really hard sci-fi - it's closer to cyberpunk in many cases,
which has its own rules and tropes with which an author can play.
The fact that you can add in elements from other genres makes LitRPG a
very versatile type of literature. While you'll probably find these
books shelved or organized with sci-fi, that doesn't mean the rules are
going to be followed particularly strictly by writers. There are plenty
of circumstances in which these books are sci-fi by default rather than
by inclination, which can further help to blur the genre lines. We talk about this and more over at the
LitRPG Forum.
Is LitRPG science fiction? If there's a quick answer here, it has to be
'maybe'. It's certainly true that most of the LitRPG on the market uses
many science-fiction tropes and that LitRPG definitely tends to fit into
that space, but it doesn't have to do so. Instead of trying make LitRPG
fit into another genre, it's perhaps easier to classify LitRPG as its
own subgenre - one that can borrow from sci-fi, but does not have to do.