The year 2024 has been marred with controversies in the world of literature, from tweets posted by J. K. Rowling to the shenanigans caused by Cait Corran. Indeed, literature is full of issues and problems. But none more so than to the world of niche genres and the self-publishing industry.
And in the realm of a little genre known as LitRPG, one name stands among pariahs. A writer by the name of Aleron Kong.
For those who don’t know, LiTRPG is a genre about stories taking place in a tabletop or video game-like world, with an emphasis on role-playing mechanics. It’s a special genre that only gamers-slash-bookworms know. But it is a growing genre that is slowly gaining mainstream popularity from films like Free Guy to anime like Sword Art Online.
The subject of this article, Aleron Kong, is a writer of this genre. Before he became a writer, he was already an avid software programmer and gamer, who played various hobbies ranging from video games to gyms. His writing tends to have problems, both in grammar and in structure. However, while he lacks experience and training in writing, he makes up for his ability to create believable video game-like worlds and action-packed fight scenes. He brought a progressive element into a genre, courtesy of being both a jock and a geek. And his series, entitled The Land, became beloved during the mid-2010s.
And then, things suddenly turned for the worse, which was wholly caused by Aleron Kong himself. After gaining such a large fanbase from his 8 book series, Aleron Kong decided to call himself the “Father of LitRPG”. He began to address himself as such in his books, social media, and through several journalistic articles. Other people, both writers and readers of LitRPG, got understandably confused and pissed. Aleron Kong was a good writer, but he was from being that noteworthy, or even notable. People then began pointing out to him that other writers before him deserved the title more, like Connor Kostick and his Epic series, Tad Williams and his Otherland series, and other writers from Russia, Korea, and Japan.
Kong did not let up. He changed his title to “Father of American LitRPG” instead but the people still disagreed. Like a hard headed child, he began to block anyone who disagreed with him online, and even allegedly commanded his fans to harass them. The LitRPG community was furious, and they also blocked Kong and all his cronies and fans from hubs and sites dedicated to the genre.
Nowadays, Aleron Kong is a pariah in the world he once thrived in. He has stopped making further titles for his series, and his name is mentioned with disdain, egotism, and tragedy in forums and review sites. He still has his fans and his books are still remembered fondly even today. But whatever contributions he made to the genre has been tarnished by his pride and bad reputation.
