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What fantasy has become
I'm a child of the 90's. When I grew up, "cool" had about seventy
synonyms, all of which sound horrifically dated now. Bill Clinton's cat
had his own video game. Duke Nukem was the biggest name in first person
shooters. Buffy was starting. It was a golden age.
Most of my memories in gaming, though, come from the early 2000's. Games like Morrowind, Heroes of Might and Magic, Disciples and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn pretty much defined my childhood. I played the last of those games on a clunky old Pentium 2 computer in a spider-filled basement in a medieval village in Switzerland, hoping that the feral cat sitting next to me wouldn't attack me when Minsc's pet hamster squeaked. My love for these WRPG's continues to this day, partially out of nostalgia, and partially because of the atmosphere those sorts of games could create.
These old games haven't aged well. They're graphically challenged messes with sluggish, counterintuitive controls, hideously mismanaged inventory systems and combat systems, and they often had voice actors that were... lacking. Nevertheless, I adored these games for two reasons: they knew how to tell a story, and they created a sense of wonder and adventure that I haven't seen since.
Those of us who come from TV Tropes know one thing: tropes are not bad. Tropes are common because they're the nails and screws in the toolbox of creation, and just because a trope might be overused doesn't mean it shouldn't be used. With the right direction, something that might be stereotypical and trite can be a glorious celebration of the plot devices that helped shape our culture.
Recently, though, that idea has fallen out of favor. Despite dwarves being stereotyped as short, burly miners who are gruff and sarcastic, every game I've played that has been accused of possessing "stereotypical" dwarves has attempted to switch things around by making something original about them. Similarly, elves in fantasy games are invariably different from Tolkien's model, yet they're accused of being stereotypical as well.
This brings me to my big point: I've never played a truly stereotypical fantasy game. Furthermore, the closest to those stereotypes the games I've played have gotten, the more I've enjoyed them. I loved the way Baldur's Gate poked fun at elves being tree-hugging hippies, and the practically laughable way dwarves were handled in HoMM. When I talked to a dwarf character, I knew exactly what I was getting. When I bought a unit called "Elf," I knew immediately that I was getting a squishy archer unit with resistance to magic. These cliched, cardboard characters spoke directly to me, without trying to shock me with something new. Even though I appreciated the occasional self-aware plot twists such games would throw at me, the stereotypical "evil mage" is still exciting and compelling today. These classic tropes kept the game brightly lit in the gamer's mind, even if the light cast was a mocking and self-referential one.
Not so in today's fantasy games. I played through Dragon Age: Origins multiple times, and I found it depressing how the bright, clear morality of earlier BioWare titles was abandoned in favor of a muddy greyscale morality spectrum that simply wasn't compelling, and how the tropes of Tolkien and Howard were either disregarded or subverted. You might argue that the noblebright atmosphere of games like Baldur's Gate wasn't realistic - and, hell, you'd be right. It's immature to expect that people will behave heroically when given the power and freedom adventure provides. But we don't play fantasy games to be realistic, mature adults who are hardened against an uncaring world. We play fantasy games to rediscover our inner, childlike sense of wonder and excitement and adventure. We play them to momentarily free ourselves of adult life, and enjoy stories that are inspired by the tales we loved as children. We play fantasy games because we love those classic, overused tropes, and want to dust them off so we can enjoy them one more time.
I don't want to play another "original" fantasy game that desperately tries to be dark and edgy to escape Tolkien's titanic shadow. I want to rediscover the sense of wonder I first got when I stepped off of a boat in Seyda Neen and saw the shadow of Red Mountain. I want to feel the same feeling I got when listening to Haer'Dalis and Jaheira exchanging quips, or the glee I felt when I listened to one of Jan Jansen's interminable stories. I want to feel like a Knight of the Round Table again, like I did when I first saw Castle in HoMM3. I want to rediscover that first sense of joy I felt when I killed my first goblin, or cleared out a house filled with rats in Balmora.
Rediscovering that sense of wonder is the reason why we turn to fantasy in the first place. It's the reason why George Lucas made Star Wars, or why he and Steven Spielberg teamed up to create Indiana Jones. It's why a Wisconsin nerd named Gary Gygax wrote Chainmail and created a medium of entertainment. When we try to subvert or avert the traditions passed down from these giants, we cheapen their legacy, and we lose sight of ourselves. When BioWare tried to go the dark and edgy route with Dragon Age II, it blew up in their faces. When George Lucas turned the Star Wars prequels into an irritatingly complex insight into the interrelations of politics and economics, it was similarly crappy.
So I mourn the loss of fantasy. Tales like A Song of Ice and Fire may thrill me, and the Witcher may make me think, but they're not what I signed up for. I read, played and watched fantasy to be a child again, and instead I was slapped in the face with a brown and grey cock.
Most of my memories in gaming, though, come from the early 2000's. Games like Morrowind, Heroes of Might and Magic, Disciples and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn pretty much defined my childhood. I played the last of those games on a clunky old Pentium 2 computer in a spider-filled basement in a medieval village in Switzerland, hoping that the feral cat sitting next to me wouldn't attack me when Minsc's pet hamster squeaked. My love for these WRPG's continues to this day, partially out of nostalgia, and partially because of the atmosphere those sorts of games could create.
These old games haven't aged well. They're graphically challenged messes with sluggish, counterintuitive controls, hideously mismanaged inventory systems and combat systems, and they often had voice actors that were... lacking. Nevertheless, I adored these games for two reasons: they knew how to tell a story, and they created a sense of wonder and adventure that I haven't seen since.
Those of us who come from TV Tropes know one thing: tropes are not bad. Tropes are common because they're the nails and screws in the toolbox of creation, and just because a trope might be overused doesn't mean it shouldn't be used. With the right direction, something that might be stereotypical and trite can be a glorious celebration of the plot devices that helped shape our culture.
Recently, though, that idea has fallen out of favor. Despite dwarves being stereotyped as short, burly miners who are gruff and sarcastic, every game I've played that has been accused of possessing "stereotypical" dwarves has attempted to switch things around by making something original about them. Similarly, elves in fantasy games are invariably different from Tolkien's model, yet they're accused of being stereotypical as well.
This brings me to my big point: I've never played a truly stereotypical fantasy game. Furthermore, the closest to those stereotypes the games I've played have gotten, the more I've enjoyed them. I loved the way Baldur's Gate poked fun at elves being tree-hugging hippies, and the practically laughable way dwarves were handled in HoMM. When I talked to a dwarf character, I knew exactly what I was getting. When I bought a unit called "Elf," I knew immediately that I was getting a squishy archer unit with resistance to magic. These cliched, cardboard characters spoke directly to me, without trying to shock me with something new. Even though I appreciated the occasional self-aware plot twists such games would throw at me, the stereotypical "evil mage" is still exciting and compelling today. These classic tropes kept the game brightly lit in the gamer's mind, even if the light cast was a mocking and self-referential one.
Not so in today's fantasy games. I played through Dragon Age: Origins multiple times, and I found it depressing how the bright, clear morality of earlier BioWare titles was abandoned in favor of a muddy greyscale morality spectrum that simply wasn't compelling, and how the tropes of Tolkien and Howard were either disregarded or subverted. You might argue that the noblebright atmosphere of games like Baldur's Gate wasn't realistic - and, hell, you'd be right. It's immature to expect that people will behave heroically when given the power and freedom adventure provides. But we don't play fantasy games to be realistic, mature adults who are hardened against an uncaring world. We play fantasy games to rediscover our inner, childlike sense of wonder and excitement and adventure. We play them to momentarily free ourselves of adult life, and enjoy stories that are inspired by the tales we loved as children. We play fantasy games because we love those classic, overused tropes, and want to dust them off so we can enjoy them one more time.
I don't want to play another "original" fantasy game that desperately tries to be dark and edgy to escape Tolkien's titanic shadow. I want to rediscover the sense of wonder I first got when I stepped off of a boat in Seyda Neen and saw the shadow of Red Mountain. I want to feel the same feeling I got when listening to Haer'Dalis and Jaheira exchanging quips, or the glee I felt when I listened to one of Jan Jansen's interminable stories. I want to feel like a Knight of the Round Table again, like I did when I first saw Castle in HoMM3. I want to rediscover that first sense of joy I felt when I killed my first goblin, or cleared out a house filled with rats in Balmora.
Rediscovering that sense of wonder is the reason why we turn to fantasy in the first place. It's the reason why George Lucas made Star Wars, or why he and Steven Spielberg teamed up to create Indiana Jones. It's why a Wisconsin nerd named Gary Gygax wrote Chainmail and created a medium of entertainment. When we try to subvert or avert the traditions passed down from these giants, we cheapen their legacy, and we lose sight of ourselves. When BioWare tried to go the dark and edgy route with Dragon Age II, it blew up in their faces. When George Lucas turned the Star Wars prequels into an irritatingly complex insight into the interrelations of politics and economics, it was similarly crappy.
So I mourn the loss of fantasy. Tales like A Song of Ice and Fire may thrill me, and the Witcher may make me think, but they're not what I signed up for. I read, played and watched fantasy to be a child again, and instead I was slapped in the face with a brown and grey cock.
Comments
Deconstructions abound, [sarcasmmode]because those are still completely original[/sarcasmmode], and it seems like works sacrifice quality for the sake of "uniqueness."
Star Wars only came about in the Carter years, also known as the
Dark Ages"crisis of confidence" years!Star Trek came during the Vietnam crisis, the first American loss of a war in living memory!
People should be clamoring for optimistic, classic adventure! Especially when coming out of the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression!
>knew how to tell a story
lol
Is your complaint that fantasy isn't stereotypical enough?
That's why every AAA budget game these days has at least one moment where you get the chance to look out at a grand vista or battle or construct; it's not just because it looks pretty, it's because it also makes you feel small and intrusive, like a child walking outside for the first time.All grand spectacle is is the practice of making you feel that same magical, childlike urge to go out and explore.
That's the essence of fantasy. The feeling of being in a world where anything is possible, A childlike sense of wonder. I feel like we've lost that.
You must have had some childhood fantasies.
Fantasy lends itself very well to a lot of different types of story, different moralities, different anything. I think it's probably one of the most flexible genres.
Plus, if you don't like the less wonderous fantasy works, you could always not read/watch/play them...
/rambling
EDIT: Vorpy, you missed out. Mark Hamill gives the best performance I've ever heard, and the writing and score are both fantastic. It's what I use to judge every subsequent animated series I've seen.
the problem with that is Mark Hamill cannot be in every animated series that comes out, so generally there is no way to mimick the performance of Batman on every single other show unless he voices everybody.
@Hatter: Yeah, I can understand that. I do think there is a shortage of that kind of game right now.
I just don't agree with where you said "I really see no other point of setting a game in a fantasy world of
magic and dragons if you aren't trying to rediscover the magic you felt
as a child when you saw something you couldn't understand, but loved
anyway" and "That's the essence of fantasy. The feeling of being in a world where anything is possible, A childlike sense of wonder."
There is everything if you look.
No, no, and fuck no are you kidding?
I realize now that when you've said "fantasy" you meant "make-believe." "Fantasy" tends to evoke images of that one aisle at the book store whereas "make-believe" is more encompassing, you should've been more clear.
Make-believe overall has not suffered very much. Except in America where its become more corporate, and in some cases more fan-controlled and thus retarded, or else more "accessible" and politically correct and thus, retarded. It's a good thing America isn't the only country on Earth (no matter how much it likes to pretend it is).
...And I still have the Eighties.