Is it Time to Say Goodbye to Sword and Sorcery Fantasy Video games? | One Good Roll
Whether or not you’re roleplaying Dungeons & Dragons, or taking a jaunt round a Tolkien-inspired on-line world, it’s abundantly clear that the overwhelming majority of MMO’s appear to dive closely into the mythological and literary sword and sorcery ocean that has amassed over a number of a long time. As a lot as I personally am a fan of fantasy settings, I really feel like recently builders have develop into complacent with the sword and sorcery mixture. I feel it’s time we department out into new horizons, as a result of actually, I don’t know what number of extra elf archers I can take.
The affect of fantasy tabletop video games, novels, and movies has rocked the gaming world to its core. Over the previous a number of a long time, we’ve come to seek out some actually distinctive fantasy settings, like Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda, alongside some worlds constructed after a few of our favourite novels, like Center-Earth in Lord of the Rings On-line. These worlds have been constructed and have grown over a long time, and a few of them have matured into expansive universes of their very own, like The Elder Scrolls sequence. In every of those iterations, we’re given a well-recognized backdrop to some distinctive tales, however over the previous a number of years, it seems like fantasy video games have began to get somewhat stale. The concepts and premise simply don’t hit the identical approach. We particularly see this in instances the place smaller builders try to interrupt by means of into the style, or international builders try to repeat the normal World of Warcraft MMO method.
Can We Do Higher Than Fantasy?
The place is the inspiration? There have been a handful of video games prior to now the place I actually seemed onerous on the lore, characters and world and thought, “They’ve actually put collectively one thing distinctive.” Say what you’ll about Wildstar however that recreation actually pushed the boundaries of a science-fantasy setting in ways in which we nary have seen in an MMORPG since. The group at Carbine Studios actually embraced the concept a web based world may very well be actually unusual, with expansive lore that doesn’t dip itself right into a mediocre by-product of one other world, simply repacked, rebranded, and resold. After all, as we glance again on Wildstar’s closure greater than 4 years in the past, it’s obvious that nice concepts and new mental properties, even when executed effectively, received’t at all times succeed.
The lengthy line of curious MMO’s which have taken the street much less traveled haven’t precisely faired too effectively. We do have some IP’s which have stood the take a look at of time, resembling Star Wars: The Outdated Republic, DC Universe On-line, EVE On-line, and Star Trek On-line that strike out into MMO worlds with much less of a fantasy really feel, however there’s nonetheless a overwhelming majority of video games, each launched and in-development that need a renaissance replay. Certain, there are a number of beacons of hope on the market that depict settings aside from fantasy as being profitable long run. I simply don’t know what number of orcs and elves we actually want earlier than we’re prepared for a universe that’s going to transcend what we’re used to, and construct one thing that’s refreshing in each side of its world and lore.
Zombie apocalypses, dystopian cyberpunk futures, alien invasions, or hell, give me an previous western recreation, there are many options that builders have been diving into on the subject of motion and survival video games. I’d like to see extra MMO’s push these boundaries somewhat bit. I don’t consider that we’re going to see the fantasy style disappear. If something, I consider we’ll simply proceed to see it develop till the lords of know-how unify us with the digital singularity and we’re all battling over a +2 codpiece of conceitedness, however till that day comes, I’d wish to see builders broaden their creativeness of what our on-line worlds could be. Within the very least, if they will’t do this, can we please get one thing extra distinctive than an elf archer in a crop prime?
Are you additionally bored with seeing MMORPG fantasy video games, or do you favor fantasy and wish to see extra of them? Are there any recreation settings you’d wish to see builders deal with? When you’ve got the energy, be part of us within the feedback and inform us your opinion.
