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I have some ideas that I want to play with in this story, but Players in a Game of Magic needs a major overhaul before I can continue.
From the very beginning I gave Harry story breaking powers. I actually do think Harry's almost omnipotent power is can be logical and I did create consistent rules. However they are not obvious and it's boring to read.
I completely messed up Harry's personality.
- Harry is meant to show how dehumanization can allow people to be cruel to wonderful people
- Harry is meant to be a manifestation of Wizard101's School of Life. He should value healing, empathy, and growth. His obsession with such ideas may be seen as neurotic
- In canon he is essentially his own parent. He is equipped to serve this role for Dudley
- Harry would have problems that are unusual to most. Harry is able to create more easily than destroy. I wanted to explore the moral implications of creation and what it means to be destructive when doing so takes great effort.
This is what actually happened
- Harry spouts continuous "wisdom" and is never wrong.
- Harry's "flaws" are things like ditsyness and an overzealous desire to defend the weak. He is bishonen Marty Sue. /*He is not a self-insert. I have nothing in common with him all except for green eyes.*/
- He is nurturing in a way that makes him a door-mat and unable to have selfish emotions. The way he expresses it is weird too. Nurturing behavior and kindness is human and not a function of 1950s stereotypes about women. At the time I thought he needed to fill Petunia's shoes. It seems there is no reason for her shoes to be filled outside of forced preference.
- Nature is beautiful and as a product of the natural order (I would argue Harry is a child of fate), I wanted him to be appealing. His appearance should only have been mentioned at relevant points (when Harry is older).
- I am bringing in teenage thought patterns and occasionally forget I am writing about ten year olds. That's not realistic and I have other issues with it
- His appearance appears to be a result of Jungian psychology on my part. I made Harry superior to most Humans, and for some reason people like that are slender, magical, and have pointy ears (aka elves). In hindsight, that seems completely unnecessary.
What I'm happy with that isn't really shown in the story as of now:
- Carlisle is not a noble steed. He is an artificial lifeform that is getting progressively more intelligent. This would have eventually become an ethical dilemma, the details of which I won't reveal.
- The enchanted items I inserted are not random tools to drive the plot along. They have internally consistent logic and eventually pose problems for the characters. I also wanted characters (and readers) to ask At what point are our accomplishments no longer ours?.
- Who Dudley is. Dudley is pretty melodramatic sometimes, and yeah there are some odd inconsistencies, but I like him as a human being.
- The back-story I added to Wizard-101
- The frankly bizarre and potentially disturbing dynamic between Dudley and Harry. Any further work will definitely capitalize on this in non-squicky ways
- Fiona and the Time-lord rip-offs. The idea of Harry being the first to travel the multi-verse is not realistic. There are people who have done it before and they have probably built an identity around doing so. Traveling in this way involves the ability to alter reality. Any organism that can affect its environment will do so in a way as to ensure survival. Travelers would make themselves long-lived, tough, and highly responsive to current conditions. Also Travelers are just not human and don't have human concerns, though their children might. I wanted to play with a scenario where the reason your parents seem like aliens to you is because they are. Oh and you might become just like them
The final problem is the method by which they enter the video game. This story is just unworkable until I address all of these issues. In the mean-time I have medical school, other fandoms that have caught my interest, etc. I don't think I'm going to have any movement unless I get a collaborator to help me with this.
I occasionally get requests to continue the story, but it's a bad product as of now.