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Comments
See, his ego is running rampant!
Goddammit, Juan. I told you to keep your living planet on a leash!
But he's so full of moguu~
OH HELL NO!
Apparently, the traps can digest diseased human flesh
I love the idea behind this game, but I'm having more and more reservations about the choices. I'm not sure what "MOBA" refers to, but I get the feeling it's the turn-based combat style of the likes of Dragon Age and MMOs. This strikes me as a wasted opportunity because there's only ten players to any given match, so there's no justification for choosing a non real-time option unless it was really the correct choice.
also blah blah historical accuracy blah blah PLATE ARMOUR WITH SHIELD FFFFFFFFFFF
While this idea recontextualises fantasy games via being both a dedicated RTS and a dedicated RPG, I seems like a wasted opportunity. Apart from that closing of distance, it seems like it's the same old thing.
(starts reading)
All I see is a big ol' pile of generic.
--opens tab--
--sees the faerie--
boring, fuck this shit
It would be cool if there were more fantasy games without fantastic sapient races, so every conflict happened in context of human interest against human interest. It's easy to go "Alright, we'll put Orcs here. Orcs are mighty warriors, right? Big and strong. And I guess their magic should be shamanstic.", but it would be creative to go, say, "Orcs are really just a racial stereotype used in propaganda against X faction, drawn mostly from the imagery of bloated corpses".
I mean, most fantasy races are ultimately humans with a paintjob anyway, so you might as well cut out the middleman.
It's frustrating to see how fantasy literature is really growing up and expanding its horizons while fantasy games are just derping around with the same old tired stereotypes. One would almost think that the people behind these games don't think beyond the boundaries established by existing fantasy heavyweights in the industry.
I was going for hyperbole there, to be honest. Although I do feel that fantasy shouldn't rely so much on fantastic species.
I know, but my thoughts are the same either way.
My general point is that fantasy is the one narrative genre that has absolutely zero restrictions. Even if you want a medieval European fantasy, there's a whole lot that hasn't been done, or done with good execution. Every time a big name fantasy game comes out these days, I'm disappointed because they always choose the path already trod.
It's like Summer blockbusters, you know? Ticking all the boxes irrespective of whether it's really good or not, or has serious thought put into it.
Oh, it's just that I've often been taken way too seriously here to not feel like clarifying all the time. >_>
Honestly, I'd argue that there's no such a thing as a genre with restrictions so much as expectations. You can break away from those expectations any time, but it'll certainly look and feel bizarre.
Well, doesn't every genre have at least some restrictions in the sense that if you deviate too much from what's expected, people aren't going to say it's part of whatever genre (certainly, nobody would call something a fantasy if everything in it is totally mundane)? So if you want a work to be within a particular genre, you do have to do at least some things...
Not that that's particularly restrictive, really, or that it's necessarily desirable to force your work into a particular genre anyway, but... yeah...
Well, let's use an example. A recent one, even. No Country For Old Men is, for all intents and purposes, a western, right? I mean, this is an story about three people in Texas fighting for some lost money, a la Good, Bad and the Ugly. But the thing is, it is set in 1980, the characters don't behave like cowboys, except for maybe Anton Chigurh, and he's more of a Terminator-person-thing than, you know, a cowboy and our main character's intentions are not exactly lawful either (Then again, the whole thing about Spaghetti Westerns was to avoid that, but I digress)
The thing is, you can't just break away from every single expected feature of a genre if you want a work to belong or be recognized by the public as part of that genre. But you don't have to follow each and every single one of them, either
I'm going to go ahead, be arrogant and give some ideas for standard class concepts for the above game (or game concept, at least) knowing that they won't be in there and the developers probably won't use anything of the sort.
Classes are essentially presets for real-time combat with one selectable perk from a small list. I'll give an example of one perk per class, three classes.
The knight is exactly what you'd expect -- a close combat powerhouse that can take damage and deal more. Plate armour, two-handed weapons. His perk might be called "Chivalry" or whatever. The effect in my head relies on the game concept having a lock-on; when the knight locks on to an enemy PC, he and that enemy PC are immune to all damage or effects that don't originate from one of the two until one dies. Essentially, a duel mechanic.
The wizard is actually a decent combatant, boasting good defensive abilities because of his ability to foresee the future (and therefore block incoming blows and dodge arrows). His perk is "Scrying", which puts him in the top down RTS view. In this view, he can see anything on the map with perfect clarity, and where his view is at the time is revealed to the commander player. The wizard doesn't have any offensive spells.
The witch hunter is offensively strong, but can't take much damage before going down. Also, he essentially rocks the Solomon Kane look. His perk is "Holy Relic", which nullifies the abilities of any enemy wizard within X distance.
There is so much one could do with this idea. Wasted, wasted, wasted.
I guess what I do is take actions and behaviors that people usually think of as sheep-like or idiotic and try to intellectualize them.
I just point out what is wrong with the way people think and then engage in even more wrongdoings. Because I can, mostly
So I'm seeing fantasy gaming as a lost cause at this point in the industry.
Whereas in literature and even comics there seems to be an attempt (if not always a success) at expansion, creativity, and twisting the genre outside of the tie-in stuff, gaming companies seem deathly afraid to do anything that isn't robbing the grave a certain J.R.R. Tolkien.
Alex mentioned a desire for fantasy that's primarily human interest against human interest: books like Game of Thrones, Spice & Wolf, Guards of Haven, and The Night Angel Trilogy actually fulfill that. But in games it's always about heroes of destiny saving the world from some prophecy or whatever. The closest I can think of a recent game that defied this is actually Dragon Age 2, except it's trying to build up to the usual fantasy nonsense and the story itself is rather messily told.
Really, with the current story I'm writing I'm just doing what I want and hope it's interesting enough to make its own mark.
Calling it a lost cause seems excessive. Trends change.
But yeah, it'll probably be awhile
That's why I said 'at this point'
Ah, okay, fair enough.
I give TES a pass since it's adapted from a D&D setting. The entire rest of the genre has no excuse.
There are plenty of non-Elder-Scrolls games that are also adapted from a D&D setting, y'know...
But are they recent?
in other news: Alex, is this you
^^ Neverwinter Nights 2 is relatively recent (2006, had expansions released up until 2009), for one. Though I honestly can't think of any others.
True. I'll give it a pass too.
Still, that's two games out of...a lot... having excuses for being generic.
Juan: That's not Alex.
Alex is chivalrykeep. I'm following him and he's the one who asked me about Batman Vs. Darth Vader.
I'm pretty sure Juan knows it's not Alex, what with Alex not playing Magic.
I think more fantasy games need to be something other than RPGs, honestly.