How NOT to Conworld.
Posted: 02 Oct 2011 12:10
What are things that people tend to do with their conworlds that make you lose interest? From stuff that simply makes you roll your eyes to stuff that makes you throw your hands up and walk away.
For me...
Eye-Rollingly Bad
1. Reiterating over and over again how different your world is from Earth. "Okay guys, fair warning -- this next bit is REALLY different from what you're used to, so if you get your mind blown, don't blame me :-)" This is usually a sure sign that the conworld is unimaginative. (1.5. Emoticons. You're introducing me to your conworld, not chatting with me on AIM.)
2. Having X number of intelligent, sapient creatures in your world, including humans, and having the first lines of your description of said humans go something like, "The humans of Conworld are rather average in culture, intellect and physical strength compared to the other races. They're also the most numerous." WTF is the point of having a ton of non-human races if mundane, vanilla humans are not only present in your conworld, but are also the most numerous? Gleesh.
3. Elves.
Deal-Breakingly Bad
4. A map with tons of unpronouncable, discordant names. Nothing personal, but like this. My ten-year-old nephew, who just started conworlding, makes stuff like that, and I only appreciate it 'cause he's my nephew, and is young. Someone in their twenties or thirties (or god-forbid, fourties) should be able to do better. Either way, my interest nosedives when I see something like that.
5. Copy-pasting Tolkien without realizing it. I'm looking at you, Christopher Paolini. To be fair, I think we all start out making highly-derivative works, but that's why I'm listing, subjectively, "things that turn me off of a conworld" rather than making a claim of an objective "doing this is bad." Do what you want, but Tolkien ripoffs repulse me like antigravity.
6. Preaching. I'm not going to bother reading about a conworld if its description is peppered with its creators worldviews, regardless of whether I agree. You can tell me about your conpeoples' gods without sacchrine gush about how humans "need something to believe in" or that "they're stupid for believing in these gods, which are actually false." Needless to say, I almost never read about "utopian" conworlds, because they're invariably based on the half-baked ideals of their (typically very) young creators.
For me...
Eye-Rollingly Bad
1. Reiterating over and over again how different your world is from Earth. "Okay guys, fair warning -- this next bit is REALLY different from what you're used to, so if you get your mind blown, don't blame me :-)" This is usually a sure sign that the conworld is unimaginative. (1.5. Emoticons. You're introducing me to your conworld, not chatting with me on AIM.)
2. Having X number of intelligent, sapient creatures in your world, including humans, and having the first lines of your description of said humans go something like, "The humans of Conworld are rather average in culture, intellect and physical strength compared to the other races. They're also the most numerous." WTF is the point of having a ton of non-human races if mundane, vanilla humans are not only present in your conworld, but are also the most numerous? Gleesh.
3. Elves.
Deal-Breakingly Bad
4. A map with tons of unpronouncable, discordant names. Nothing personal, but like this. My ten-year-old nephew, who just started conworlding, makes stuff like that, and I only appreciate it 'cause he's my nephew, and is young. Someone in their twenties or thirties (or god-forbid, fourties) should be able to do better. Either way, my interest nosedives when I see something like that.
5. Copy-pasting Tolkien without realizing it. I'm looking at you, Christopher Paolini. To be fair, I think we all start out making highly-derivative works, but that's why I'm listing, subjectively, "things that turn me off of a conworld" rather than making a claim of an objective "doing this is bad." Do what you want, but Tolkien ripoffs repulse me like antigravity.
6. Preaching. I'm not going to bother reading about a conworld if its description is peppered with its creators worldviews, regardless of whether I agree. You can tell me about your conpeoples' gods without sacchrine gush about how humans "need something to believe in" or that "they're stupid for believing in these gods, which are actually false." Needless to say, I almost never read about "utopian" conworlds, because they're invariably based on the half-baked ideals of their (typically very) young creators.