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High Fantasy - Is it REALLY overused?
GPrestige
Member UncommonPosts: 523
I hear a lot of people say that high fantasy MMOs are overused and its time for something else. Well, is that really the case? The first point I have is the fact that in order for so many companies to decide to make so many High Fantasy MMOs, there must be a market for it. Obviously, there is. The second point, is that after WoW, there REALLY aren't any other successful high fantasy "casual" MMOs.
I mean, there are games like Final Fantasy XI, Lineage/Aion, etc. which are pretty much all grindfests. I've played FFXI for many years and am sick of it now, anyways. There are games like Lord of the Rings Online, but that is middle fantasy (middle earth heh) However, other than WoW, what IS there that is actually a good high fantasy MMO? I can not think of any. I want a game like Vanguard, only successful. I want something OTHER than WoW to flourish. Don't think this is a WoW rant post, by all means it isn't. I love WoW, but just have played it for so long.
What is wrong with these so called "WoW clones"? Hell, I loved WoW, and I want to play a game like WoW but with a completely different world/style to it. Is that so hard to ask? It could be the cloniest clone to ever clone a clone, but as long as it was done right and with the perfect amount of polish, I'd play it in a heartbeat. Don't tell me you wouldn't. Also, don't throw Alganon in my face, that game is trash from the get-go. When I say clone I don't mean they literally copy everything right down to the thumbnail art, I mean they use the same game mechanics. They worked, didn't they?
Anyways, I can definitely see this post getting a ton of flames thrown at it... but I have to get my opinion out there. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes there were some other amazing high fantasy MMOs out there to widen the selection, so don't you dare say there are enough out there.
For clarification sake:
- Guild Wars doesn't count as it is F2P and not really MMO as it is Online RPG
- Actual F2P games don't count in this case, as its not what I'm talking about
- Referring to casual-friendly games, nothing like Lineage, Aion, FFXI
- Not counting low or middle fantasy, this is strictly high fantasy
If I am unaware of a certain High fantasy game that is any good (by good I mean successful and not bad like WAR) then by all means post it here, I'd be more than happy to know about it.
-Computer specs no one cares about: check.
-MMOs played no one cares about: check.
-Xfire stats no one cares about: check.
-Signature no one cares about: check.
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-Narcissism: check.
Comments
Hmm, let us see: Historical MMOs: 0. High fantasy MMOs: zillions.
Even MMOs that should be low fantasy like AoC are high fantasy in many ways.
So, yes. High fantasy is way overused compared to other kinds of MMOs.
There is 2 superhero MMOs, a few pirate ones and all other genres except maybe space Sci-fi only holds a few games. High fantasy have at least 90% of all made MMOs.
Besides, the other games isn't really Wow clones, they are as similar to Wow as Wow is to EQ. The old EQ mechanics isn't bad but the same thing goes with that as with high fantasy, the percentages of games like that is just too high.
Most MMo devs have very little imagination and that is the problem here. There isn't anything wrong with high fantasy but it isn't a so much better genre than the rest that it deserves almost every MMO.
High Fantasy is used to designate your classic Tolkien, "Lord of the Rings" style fantasy. The term "High" refers to the fact that the story centers around high and mighty powers and world shaking events (Destroy the ulitmate artifact, or the whole world is doomed).
Low Fantasy is gritty down to earth type stuff where the story is about relatively normal characters trying to eek out a living in a magical world.
These are terms from literature and do not translate well into the gaming genre, since most fantasy MMO's have elements of both types in them. The whole medieval fantasy genre often gets labled as "Sword and Sorcery."
Tolkien is also called "Quest fantasy" where much of the story is centered on an epic quest. Low fantasy can be Quest fantasies too. Quest fantasy is the most common form of fantasy in MMO's.
The vast majority of Quest fantasy stories feature parties or fellowships of adventurers/comrades who must accomplish goals in order to save the world, one adventure at a time... each one being bigger than the last, leading up to the dramatic final showdown with the big, bad boss.
What most fantasy MMOs are really based off of, is not so much literature, but pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons, which of course, borrowed heavily from Tolkien, Vance, and Moorcock. It is here that the idea of party roles (Tank, heals, DPs, etc) are born, the idea of gear progression, XP for killing monsters, RNG, raiding labyrinths, and so on come from.
Are these electronic D&D clones dime a dozen? You betcha! It has been this way since PC games have been popular. MMOs are no different.
Interestingly, the biggest offenders of cranking out repitive cliched medieval styled fantasy faire are the asian MMO companies. Western designers have produced their share, but look at all the F2P ones around and you will see what I mean.
MMOs are also plagued by the "Fantasy curse." In Hollywood, this 1980's moniker refers to the fact that 99% of all fantasy movies suck and they bomb hardcore; thus what normally gets made are low budget crapfests that furthers this bias. Computer games have faired a little better, but when you look at all the titles made over the last 30 years, the ratio is still like 85% suck.
MMOs bucked the "curse" at first with UO and EQ, but since then the curse has caught up and dominated, though LotRO stands out as a jewel in mediocrity.
WoW was, at first, more of a Low Fantasy setting with some tech that has increasingly become more High Fantasy centered (Wrath of the Lich King) which actually goes a long way to explain the great divide between those fans who favor the old lore versus the new.
Anyways, yes OP, High Fantasy is overused, but that isn't the real problem: The actual problem is that the current IPs and settings/worlds/stories being released are unimaginative, cliched, unispired borefests that cannot hold an intelligent player's interest for more than 10 minutes. In this case, it don't matter if it is High, Low or Quest Fantasy, Sci-fi, modern or Super Heroes--> Crap is crap.
Thats a pretty cheap stance to start a discussion about MMOs
are F2P MMOs? yes,they are
do they provide the same entertainment value to their players? yes, they do
F2P MMOs cannot be ruled out of any equation just because you (like me) dislike them wholeheartly. They DO exist, they coexist in the same market we are talking about, and they are legion.
So basically yes, High Fantasy is overused because most out of the dozens of P2P games are high fantasy, and nearly all out of the hundreds of F2P games are high fantasy.
overused is overused
Well if high fantasy isn't overused I don't know what is.