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Magic and a Fantasy Game
Zyke
Member Posts: 335
Just a quick poll, how many people believe a good fantasy mmorpg MUST have magic to be good?
Comments
Just to be as vague as the poll results (yeah, I was one of the "could go either way" votes) I think it depends on what you mean by both magic and fantasy.
If you mean whether you have to be able to cast magic missile and fireball for a fantasy game to be good, then I think the answer's no, but there has to be an element to the game that is fantastical (is that a real word? I tend to make stuff up when I start pontificating...)
Of course, at this point you can have a whole argument over how to catagorise. For example, if you took out the magic element of EQ, then you'd just have a bunch of humans and non-humans running around, and if the non-humans have just evolved and have nothing to do with magic or gods - could you then describe it as sci-fi? Or is it still fantasy because its setting is "ye olde worlde" and they don't have guns? In which case would a game set in a realistic recreation 16th century London count as fantasy?
I guess fantasy (whether it's a game, a book or a film) has to have a hook or element to it above and beyond what we believe exists in the real world, and that element has to have an explanation that is primarily spiritual/supernatural, but it doesn't neccessarily have to be plain ol' spellslinging. I'd describe something as sci-fi in the exact same way, except the explanation has to be primarily scientific/technological.
There, I'll shut up now. Promise.
I do believe it is necessary, because this is a fantasy setting, I mean a fantasy MMORPG is fantasy because things that seem so impossible to do can be done (I guess the same applies to science-fiction, but they are a bit more realistic). So in a sense, Magic becomes necessary, because it is above unreality, it is inconceivable for it to actually exist, hence, belongs in a fantasy themed MMORPG. Perhaps I went to extreme on the topic, but oh well. Also, without Magic, Fantasy based MMORPG's would be hard :P.
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