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Is the Sword and Sorcery theme old-school?
tochicool
Member Posts: 153
IS THE SWORD AND SORCERY THEME OLD-SCHOOL?
If you look around the MMORPG list, you will find that most, if not all, are based around the same cliché genre; medieval fantasy. Okay, maybe some have some lil' sci-fi implecations in them but the general structure is the wonderful world of Sword and Sorcery.
The main reason being that is diverse and engaging. Lets face it, at one point in your childhood, you most have imaginged yourself as some epic hero with a massive sword, heavy armour, and a dragon as your ride. The medieval fantasy genre allow us to have realistic, historical meaning in are games yet lets us use are imagination. But is it getting, OLD?!?
*Raises arms up* Now I'm not saying that is necesserily an evil thing. I'm just asking the MMORPG community a simple yet question; Is it getting old, or just plain classic?
FEEL THE FULL
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FANTASY.
Comments
Multiple questions and one pool. It is not clear what you asking about in pool. Do you ask if fanstasy is getting old? or if that sword&sorcery should change or shuould not. You have to be more clear.
Sorry if it wasn't clear enough but Sword and Sorcery IS medieval fantasy. Sword is the Medieval and Sorcery being the Fantasy.
If it confuses you themn just focus on the medieval fantasy bit.
FEEL THE FULL
FREE-TO-FLAME
FANTASY.
Who else hoped this was about a Sword and Sorcery MMO?
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
I agree with Sulaa.
I see four questions there.
As far as it sticking. I'd say that's self evident. For good or bad, you see that there's ALOT of fantasy mmo's.
As far as it changing....
I'm sure every game that is produced probably believes that they put enough of a "spin" on their brand of fantasy
to make it interesting enough to play.
As far as it NEEDING change...
I believe that's up to the potential player base. Every generation of players seem to want something different than the one before it. For example: When I played UO, the friends I played with got sick of PVP.
Then EQ1 came out. It boasted no PVP. We jumped ship to check it out. And it was great for it's time. Some people still love it.
Then, after EQ had been out a while. I saw in chat that people seemed upset when "hell levels" were introduced. Correct me if I'm wrong: weren't they about every 5 levels or so after level 20?
Anyhow, many players didn't want to work so hard at leveling. Suddenly after WOW came into being, that crowd seemed to be pleased. I never played a game so easy to level. I did not have to work as hard.
Recently, I've been reading people seem to want more difficult games again. And I'm seeing more and more people hungry for PVP again.
Perhaps it doesn't really matter if fantasy games change or not. People seem to change very quickly. It almost seems to me that it's a sort of cycle. Coming full circle, maybe?
It's not about fighting, it's about balance. It's not about enlightenment, it's about balance. It's not about balance.
I have no idea what this poll is about. You asked several questions but made no assertions. What is it we can agree or disagree with?
Either make an assertion that we can agree/disagree with (Ie. Medieval Fantasy MMOs are getting old and outdated) and keep your current poll options, or ask a question (Ie. Is the medieval fantasy setting getting old?) and change your poll option to "yes/no" and the like.
Also, I'm afraid you might have the term "sword and sorcery" confused, as most MMOs tend to be High Fantasy, which is Sword and Sorcery's fantasy subgenre counterpart.
Sorry. I have amended the post so it may seem clearer...
FEEL THE FULL
FREE-TO-FLAME
FANTASY.
No, strongly disagree, personally.
Sure there may be shoddy interpretations of S&S in mmorpgs because the archetypes/expectations/mass market from market research says it's the safest one-stop shop in town to do business at, but that's more a case of low quality commercialisation of a genre ie fantasy perhaps high fantasy to be more exact.
A great rendition of the sagas and stories and myths & legends of yore from a retelling by a master storyteller... gotta love it if you can find it. : )
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
You still ask two questions...
"Is it getting old, or is it just plan classic?"
They are basically the opposite. If I answer "Yes" to its getting old, I answer "No" to its just plain classic by default.
Which question are you asking for the poll?
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
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Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I disagree, simply because high fantasy has the most acceptable breaks from reality. We have expectations of historical settings, modern Earth settings, and science fiction settings. For example, we expect people to die if they fall 50 feet or get shot by a laser rifle. It's distracting if you notice that they don't, and MMO conventions basically require that both of those things be survivable. But in high fantasy—especially videogame-ized high fantasy—we've come to expect it. We're okay with fantasy characters easily surviving dozens of axe strikes and fireballs, both because "it's magic so anything goes" and because we've seen it so many times before in that setting.
I think it will die of eventually as time moves on. In the future our current lives we may even be the BIG theme. Thugs and Tech.
FEEL THE FULL
FREE-TO-FLAME
FANTASY.
Disagree.
I prefer fantasy games. I usually find that I eventually lose interest in sci-fi or "modern" games.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
This.
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As for if fantasy theme is going away from mmorpgs? Well no. We'll see quite soon imo more mmos in non-fantasy themes, but still there will be enough fantasy mmos for fantasy beign majority. Just maybe not as overwhelming majority as it is now.
You should have looked at the game list yourself before making your poll, there are (rough estimate) almost 100 non-fantasy games on that list.
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