A Discussion on Settings

Eldurian

So what settings in games have you found the most compelling? What type of setting would you make for an MMO if you were to develop one? Is setting something you care greatly about or just want done well enough it doesn't distract from good gamplay?

Eldurian

Personally I think in terms of setting (Not lore, there are ones that I feel do the lore better) Fable 2 has to be my all time favorite.

I really loved the amazing blend between standard medieval fantasy tropes and an Age of Exploration / Revolutionary War era world.

If I did my own MMO I would want to take this idea and really expand upon the lore. The Age of Exploration was a very interesting age politically. It's also an ideal setting to mix in strong elements of Dark Fantasy. The various intriguing aspects of this setting could lead to multiple major expansions that would really keep things interesting for years to come.

sunandshadow

I really want to see a non-earth fantasy setting which has magic everywhere but isn't medieval and has no non-magical tech.  Woodworking? Magical.  Animal breeding?  Magical.  Sculpting?  Ma. Gi. Cal!

Failing that, I'd like to see a space opera with lots of aliens and alien animals, but little or no politics, war, guns, or computers.  Give me alien biotech mechs, spaceships which are actually space dragons, and ninja jedai please.  Failing that, I will take post-post-apocalypse where there is NO scavengable or buildable modern tech.  Not a dystopia either.  There can be mutants but they should be peaceful villagers or wandering merc swordspeople, not monsters.

Eldurian

@sunandshadow - I feel like your settings would be either absolutely terrible or mind blowingly amazing. Depends on how good of a world builder was constructing them. They're so far out there that I'd imagine people will either absolutely fall in love with them or be seriously off-put.

So I hope you're a good world builder if you ever make an MMO.

iixviiiix

The setting must have double B with extra B . I can chew most any setting as long as the gameplay wasn't so bad , simple and casual .

MrMelGibson

I can get into almost any setting if the game is good and I'm interested.  My favorite original video game setting is probably the Mass Effect universe.  Love sci-fi, but medieval fantasy is great too.  Cyberpunk anything and you have my money.

Scot

Just like in other forms of entertainment if it is done well I will play it.

I agree on the importance of lore, it adds huge depth to a game and comes at little cost when compared to the like of graphics.

kitarad

I love steampunk and as long as you do the setting well I will play it.

TEKK3N

No High Fantasy, no Poll.

How could you forget the most popular MMORPG setting?

Scot

TEKK3N said:

No High Fantasy, no Poll.

How could you forget the most popular MMORPG setting?

Well that's contained in medieval fantasy. Welcome to the same issues we had in the thread about whether this site is naming MMORPG's correctly, no two people will totally agree.  

TEKK3N

Scot said:

TEKK3N said:

No High Fantasy, no Poll.

How could you forget the most popular MMORPG setting?

Well that's contained in medieval fantasy. Welcome to the same issues we had in the thread about whether this site is naming MMORPG's correctly, no two people will totally agree.  

Is it?
I am not sure how anyone could consider WoW or EQ as Medieval settings.
They are heavily inspired by Myths and Legends, plus Magic is the core of the game.
If you have to give it a single definition then we should call it 'Fantasy' which includes Hi-Fantasy, Low-Fantasy.

Medieval games belongs to Historical genre.

Scot

TEKK3N said:

Scot said:

TEKK3N said:

No High Fantasy, no Poll.

How could you forget the most popular MMORPG setting?

Well that's contained in medieval fantasy. Welcome to the same issues we had in the thread about whether this site is naming MMORPG's correctly, no two people will totally agree.  

Is it?
I am not sure how anyone could consider WoW or EQ as Medieval settings.
They are heavily inspired by Myths and Legends, plus Magic is the core of the game.
If you have to give it a single definition then we should call it 'Fantasy' which includes Hi-Fantasy, Low-Fantasy.

Medieval games belongs to Historical genre.

The problem is that most fantasy MMOs are set in worlds that are closet to our medieval period, be it Europe, Asian etc. That's putting the technological setting not the fantasy as the most important factor. But I do tend to think of more historical games then someone says medieval.

But my main point here is not that I am convinced one way or another of how they should be categorised, really just to point out how tricky categories can be. Which applies to the definition of a proper MMORPG just as much as anything else. 

Eldurian

I did Medieval fantasy because for instance, Fable 2 seems to meet all the criteria of high fantasy. You have magic, mystical races, good vs. evil themes etc.

However my DM who loves more traditional fantasy settings hates Fable 2 because he feels like they destroyed the more traditional setting of Fable 1. I don't think this is an uncommon sentiment.

I think a lot of people when they say they love "High fantasy" actually mean they love High Fantasy in it's traditional medieval setting.

4507

The only setting that I absolutely won't play is modern Asian (especially Korean) high fantasy. It makes me feel like a pedophile.

Sovrath

I can't play post apocalyptic, I just lose interest.

I can only play "sci fi" if it's a 4x game or a game like X-Com. Even sci-fi rpg's, rpg's being my favorite, will lose my interest.

Slapshot1188

I think it really depends on your monitor size.  I'm running 1920 x 1080 on my 24 inch.  I don't think increasing it would help.

As far as sound, I keep music fairly low and sound effects around 40-50% so I can hear my friends while playing.

Eldurian

4507 said:

The only setting that I absolutely won't play is modern Asian (especially Korean) high fantasy. It makes me feel like a pedophile.

I think the biggest part that bothers me about many asian games is inconsistent tech levels. For instance, in ArcheAge there are tanks, airships, cars, tractors, robots etc.

For ranged weapons? Bows. And no options but bows.

If I am in a world with cars, and I do ranged combat, I want a gun.

WoW does this slightly better in that you can have guns but the prevalence of shields, bows etc. alongside gnomish tech bothers the crap out of me.

Focus on swords and bows, or focus on robots. I freaking hate when sci-fi, steampunk, and medieval fantasy inhabit the same setting. And I always find the backstories as to why this happens to be more cop-outs than legitimate lore.

Sephiroso

There's few that i just can't get behind. Zombie survival being one of them. Just find it uninteresting.

I'm just a magic junkie. Even though i rarely play magic classes in most mmo's, generally even melee classes have fantastical abilities in games where magic is a thing(it's basically a requirement to have things balanced).

For instance rogues being able to literally go invisible in WoW or teleport behind someone to stab them.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sephiroso

blueturtle13 said:

Also not into Mechs of any kind.   

I hope when Gundams are eventually made that they somehow cause the extinction of all turtles for your blasphemous words.

4507

Eldurian said:

4507 said:

The only setting that I absolutely won't play is modern Asian (especially Korean) high fantasy. It makes me feel like a pedophile.

I think the biggest part that bothers me about many asian games is inconsistent tech levels. For instance, in ArcheAge there are tanks, airships, cars, tractors, robots etc.

For ranged weapons? Bows. And no options but bows.

If I am in a world with cars, and I do ranged combat, I want a gun.

WoW does this slightly better in that you can have guns but the prevalence of shields, bows etc. alongside gnomish tech bothers the crap out of me.

Focus on swords and bows, or focus on robots. I freaking hate when sci-fi, steampunk, and medieval fantasy inhabit the same setting. And I always find the backstories as to why this happens to be more cop-outs than legitimate lore.

Yeah, that's definitely another issue with it, although as you pointed out with WoW, it's not entirely confined to Asian games.

sunandshadow

Eldurian said:

@sunandshadow - I feel like your settings would be either absolutely terrible or mind blowingly amazing. Depends on how good of a world builder was constructing them. They're so far out there that I'd imagine people will either absolutely fall in love with them or be seriously off-put.

So I hope you're a good world builder if you ever make an MMO.

Ha!   I actually don't feel the settings I described are that strange because I've seen them in anime or novels, just not games.  I also think any setting will be absolutely terrible without a good writer to create a setting in a way that has a lot of personality and is self-consistent, and then it's also necessary to have an artist that understands this concept description so they can help bring it to life, and a game designer who will design gameplay, quests, gear, etc. which fit in with the setting rather than contracting it.  So, an uncommon setting concept isn't really at much disadvantage compared to a common one.

Now me personally, worldbuilding is probably what I'm best at, but I probably won't ever be involved in making an MMO.  I've participated in several indie game design projects, but the proportion of game design projects that result in an actual game is tiny, and I've never been a part of one of them.

Sovrath

Eldurian said:

4507 said:

The only setting that I absolutely won't play is modern Asian (especially Korean) high fantasy. It makes me feel like a pedophile.

I think the biggest part that bothers me about many asian games is inconsistent tech levels. For instance, in ArcheAge there are tanks, airships, cars, tractors, robots etc.

For ranged weapons? Bows. And no options but bows.

If I am in a world with cars, and I do ranged combat, I want a gun.

WoW does this slightly better in that you can have guns but the prevalence of shields, bows etc. alongside gnomish tech bothers the crap out of me.

Focus on swords and bows, or focus on robots. I freaking hate when sci-fi, steampunk, and medieval fantasy inhabit the same setting. And I always find the backstories as to why this happens to be more cop-outs than legitimate lore.

I completely agree. The problem is that Asian games aren't really invested in continuity. They seem to be ok with a lot of whimsy and "it's all good 'cause it's fun!"

So I don't really look at cars in those games as "cars". They are just a "fun add on!"

If anything, these additions fall outside the game world alongside pumpkin or apple helmets, fighting with giant forks, and running around in leisure suits.

man, I just have to shake my head at all of it. They have such an impressive and unique art style yet they are "all aboard" with adding anything anachronistic to their worlds.

Cryomatrix

- I won't play wild west anything
- I am okay with steampunk and post-apocalyptic
- I also despise mixing of settings. 
- I am not sure I'd like stuff with vampires, wolves, and such. I think vampires are super boring except in how it is done in ESO.
- I like fantasy settings the best 
- I can do futuristic as well
- I can do contemporary only if done well

- I cannot stand eastern art style, graphics, characters, and the way the games are. It's the cartoony and pedophile-like crap that shows up in them that turns me off. 

anemo

I could never play an MMO that takes place in the "Harem Builder" genre.

Eldurian

Cryomatrix said:

I am not sure I'd like stuff with vampires, wolves, and such. I think vampires are super boring except in how it is done in ESO.

I think I may have actually screwed up the description of dark fantasy a bit. Obviously World of Darkness and the Underworld series are major defining titles in dark fantasy and if you play Magic The Gathering the Innistrad setting was very dark fantasy but the prevalence of werewolves and vampires doesn't really make them the defining aspect.

I feel like The Secret World probably fits into the genre as well. It's really just more horror themed fantasy that deals with things like monstrous creatures and the occult. Apparently Diablo is classified as Dark Fantasy as well and Dragon Age is considered to have a lot of dark fantasy elements despite being high fantasy.