I've read many critically acclaimed books that where less well written as the novella.
Brian Lumly's Necroscope series being one set of books. Which I thoroughly enjoyed despite that his writing of character dialogues is an inconsistent shambles in many places to how real people should or would converse with one another.
Nor did I ever feel for any of the main characters, it was simply the story that drove me on. I'd rather feel for characters and have a story to drive me on but with all the books in the world I wonder how many would live up to each of our own individual concepts of what a book should do, convey, or make us feel. Not very many, if even any at all. No matter how much I like something, there's always something I'd change.
The short novella with its generic fantasy setting and computer game characters does exactly what it set out to do...introduce the story and world of the game. I wouldn't expect it to stand on its own merits if the game never existed, and nor do I think it is meant to.
