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Wut?

While these novels and others were precursors to a more stat-heavy form of novel, which is LitRPG proper, a Russian publishing initiative identified the genre and gave it a name.

The first Russian novel in this style appeared in 2012 at the Russian self-publishing website samizdat.ru, the novel Господство клана Неспящих (Clan Dominance: The Sleepless Ones) by Dem Mikhailov set in the fictional sword and sorcery game world of Valdira,

printed by Leningrad Publishers later that year under the title Господство кланов (The Rule of the Clans) in the series Современный фантастический боевик (Modern Fantastic Action Novel)[7] and translated into English as The Way of the Clan as a Kindle book in 2015.

In 2013, EKSMO, a major Russian publishing house, started its multiple-author project entitled LitRPG. According to Magic Dome Books, a major translator of Russian LitRPG, the term "LitRPG" was coined in late 2013 during a brainstorming session between writer Vasily Mahanenko, EKSMO's science fiction editor Dmitry Malkin

and fellow LitRPG series editor and author Alex Bobl [ru]. Since 2014, EKSMO has been running LitRPG competitions and publishing the winning stories.