High Fantasy: Why always so generic?

[laclongquan]

The dragon red kimono lady and the water element pics look nice. Saved!

But I cant help but feeling these pictures designed with Jade Empire in mind, most of them.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

that can probably be attributed to the fact that though technically high fantasy-ish, the different setting is obvious and therefore I usually save more pictures qualifying for this genre that aren't from the usual medieval europe analog setting

more stuff:

http://i.imgur.com/0cMhW.jpg
http://imgur.com/Q4E1o.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cYInN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EcYyZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MdUfG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lp93Z.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1pOHp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OXvWu.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Mo7EL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Nd0se.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DfqI4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UYPkT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/33HOv.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SEJSC.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IvlhZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9NmAi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9NmAi.jpg
http://imgur.com/qShrG
http://i.imgur.com/IiqMU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6n4Fh.jpg

sfw, second image has elemental/demon breasts

 

[CappenVarra]

Fishing for DraQ-points, I see Also, your dedication for including easter eggs is to be commended

 

[DraQ]

I'm just waiting for sgc_meltdown to explain the relevance of the pic he posted.

nothing sinister implied there
you mentioned derp dragons son, you can't get more derp than a wolfbirdrabbit dragon

Believe me, you can.

Here, for example:

http://i.imgur.com/UYPkT.jpg

Besides, derpier doesn't preclude derp and Elmore's dragons (well, Elmore's everything), although conventional, are thoroughly derp.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'm just waiting for sgc_meltdown to explain the relevance of the pic he posted.

nothing sinister implied there
you mentioned derp dragons son, you can't get more derp than a wolfbirdrabbit dragon

Well, lionbirds are a staple of fantasy and nobody complains about them.

Does that mean rabbits are the secret derp ingredient?

edit: jesus FUCK, googling for "dragon gryphon" gives me a ton of furry porn

 

[DraQ]

edit: jesus FUCK, googling for "dragon gryphon" gives me a ton of furry porn

Wait, *you* were genuinely surprised?

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Believe me, you can.

Here, for example:

http://i.imgur.com/OUee0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/K42ON.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9tr7k.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/hpsSR.png
http://i.imgur.com/1JThO.jpg

fixed

 

[Clockwork Knight]

edit: jesus FUCK, googling for "dragon gryphon" gives me a ton of furry porn

Wait, *you* were genuinely surprised?

I guess there was still a certain naive part of me that thought only "dragon dick" and the like would give me scaly pics, and "dragon gryphon" would show me awesome chimeras.


Nevermind, that part is dead now. In knowing the teachings of the internet, I have become stronger.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Does that mean rabbits are the secret derp ingredient?

some combinations work better than others

 

[GarfunkeL]

Hahaha, clever ploy meltdown, clever!

Some of them really reminded me of the old version of Faeries and Elven Court and whathaveyou - where they are totally alien creatures who find amusement in tormenting humans.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I guess there was still a certain naive part of me that thought only "dragon dick" and the like would give me scaly pics, and "dragon gryphon" would show me awesome chimeras.

trust me never put the names of two different creatures that fur/scalefags might have ever thought of sleeping with together in a search engine unless you like surprises

Some of them really reminded me of the old version of Faeries and Elven Court and whathaveyou - where they are totally alien creatures who find amusement in tormenting humans.

I think that one of the first unseen casualties in commercial rpg race/character design are alien otherworldly qualities and social cultures or just 'impressions' for the lack of a better word, with stuff like 'oh they just like trees/mining/making things/fighting' taking their place so as to allow players to identify/roleplay with them better.

Enough with elves that you see and immediately think 'man he's hot', I want laughing elves that a player sees for the first time and he thinks 'oh shit it's THOSE THINGS I have to hide' and as he's getting a headache and blurry vision from their approaching presence one of them trails off mid-laughter, narrows their eyes and starts sniffing the air

 

[GarfunkeL]

and then you get tiny darts in your eyes while they gut you open and use your entrails as appetizers.

 

[Fryjar]

To get back on topic a bit:
There is at least one noteable exception which really had a unique art style that made the setting more memorable although it was in itself rather a standard high fantasy world: Disciples 2.
But not only the art was great also the voice acting and music was memorable, thus creating great atmosphere. It also gets bonus points for being the only game so far that had an interesting depiction of elves (and dwarfs for that matter).
Sadly a good deal of that was lost in III but even this is more interesting than what you normally see artistically.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I'd love it if someone could rip the portraits and stuff from the first two disciple games, especially the first. I also remember hearing the demon race leaders speak extremely well done (pseudo?)latin occasionally for 1, but in 2 they went only with english I think.

unfortunately for the world map and pretty much every other aspect of the games they went with a generic look.

 

[Melcar]

Some quality art there, Bros .

 

[Mangoose]

Why is the most popular fantasy subgenre generic? This is a redundant question.

 

[DraQ]

edit: jesus FUCK, googling for "dragon gryphon" gives me a ton of furry porn

Wait, *you* were genuinely surprised?

I guess there was still a certain naive part of me that thought only "dragon dick" and the like would give me scaly pics, and "dragon gryphon" would show me awesome chimeras.


Nevermind, that part is dead now. In knowing the teachings of the internet, I have become stronger.

 

[visions]

They look kinda cool in all their wtf-ness.

Yeah.

 

[Surf Solar]

One of the reasons I don't like most of the fantasy settings is the ridicolous timespan some of the settings span their history in. I just read some ingame books in IWD (and while googling, read some of BGII too) and some of the stuff there is mind boggling. They want to tell me that some races/civilisations/kingdoms etc. endured for a couple of thousands of years in relative peace, but never actually develop in terms of culture, technology etc? They simply vanish/get invaded/move to other territories, so that the next everlasting (tm) kingdom can be built in this land, ofcourse with the same or a very similar way to live (pseudo-medieval, or some "high developed" ancient magic culture which gets raped sooner or later by the same orc hordes or whatever).

I simply find it hard to believe that technology doesn't develop over such huge spans of time.

 

[sea]

Simply put, any genre and setting can be done well. It's all about the quality of execution. A lot of mainstream players recently jumped on the Fallout and Mass Effect franchises when they realised you could have an RPG that wasn't just swords and sorcery, but I feel that the change in setting ultimately didn't help the RPG much. Yes, it's nice to have variety, that much is true, but a badly-realised setting and world is still a badly-realised setting and world no matter how different it is. I'd take a well-done high fantasy over a poorly thought out sci-fi or post-nuclear game any day of the week. Sadly, though, developers seem to have largely given up on making those sorts of games, assuming that fantasy = boring simply because they can't do it without resorting to all those terrible cliches that everyone's tired of. Someone needs to tell them a genre isn't defined by its cliches.

 

[Ringhausen]

I simply find it hard to believe that technology doesn't develop over such huge spans of time.

Egypt was pretty much the same for thousands of years I think.

 

[Mangoose]

From an ex-Obsidian dev on SomethingAwful:

In my experience, gamers, like most people, are not good consumers of media. We/they draw from a very narrow and shallow trough of bad genre fiction and action movies. There are redeeming things about bad genre fiction and action movies. In the case of action movies, a LOT of redeeming things. But when it's all we consume, we have no palate. It's like eating Taco Bell every day.

But that's not the reason I get cranky.

The reason I get cranky is because most designers draw from that same trough. The whole thing becomes a circle jerk around a pile of Tor Fantasy and DVD copies of Broken Arrow. Things are changing, and this forum is actually a pretty well rounded group. For evidence of that, check the DA2 thread- people here seems to really dislike it for being dumb*, among other things, while reviewers mostly really like it (most reviewers are dumber than most designers).

 

[Excommunicator]

http://i.imgur.com/hpsSR.png
http://i.imgur.com/9tr7k.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1JThO.jpg

I can't describe the feelings I get from looking at these

 

[Destroid]

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

What is Aron Searle doing in that picture?