New settings' fatigue

[Vlajdermen]

I feel a severe "new setting" fatigue.
I am too tired to get into another bunch of brand new titles, reading another walls of texts of lore etc. I was happy with Baldur's Gate 3 because I know Forgotten Realms, I am okay with Mass Effect because I am familiar with Mass Effect universe, I can manage Warhammer lore, same goes for VtN, but when game industry spawns a whole new bunch of new RPGs with new settings I simply don't like to get into it.
For example, a usual situation when "founding father of [insert genre]" is going to make their own game - like Exodus by Karpyshin, or Heretic Prophet by Druckman etc.

It's unintuitive settings that are the problem. I'm no lorefag, but I can get into a game where the basic gist of the setting is readily apparent. Underrail, for example. ''The surface has become unliveable so humans have escaped underground.'' The details are there, but they're built around a simple base.

Now look at Deadfire. ''So the gods Wxyp'p'ptotle and the Gungabongo were angered when the Peanieus colonial forces encroached upon the archipelago of Blt'ktpltl and their leader, Herr Werner von Whogivesafucken established the capital Negersburg on the sacred isle of Wxyp'p'ptotle's fifth bastard son, Jiggaboote. He went crying to his stepmom who awakened the six gorillion sea monsters who have been asleep for the thousand aeons since they were slain by the mythic hero Ao'aiae, whose reincarnation may or may not still be wandering the seas between the Pee Trench and the Poo Peninsula. So anyway back to the Peaneius colonials, they come from the distant continent of Panterovac, and are ruled by a council of Pontifex Anthropomorphius who ordained that...''

 

[Atlantico]

Settings are delicate things, but ultimately settings are a canvas for the storyteller. A different storyteller can tell a very different story in the same setting. BG1 doesn't look or feel anything like BG3

A storyteller can also change personally, age or change style. The original Star Wars looks and feels nothing like Attack of the Clones. Same setting, same author. The Lord of the Rings movies and the Rangz of Powah TV series are ostensibly in the same setting.

When starting a new game in a new setting, my fatigue depends on how aware the author is of the newness of the setting. I had to start Fallout five times over many years before I got over the setting fatigue for that game. It didn't matter that I loved the setting once I got to know it, but it is like getting a new girlfriend. You have to put a lot of investment into a new relationship while not knowing whether it is going to last long-term.

So even if I know the setting, a new storyteller can change it so much that I don't really recognize it anymore and it becomes as fatiguing and more annoying than a new setting and I find myself more often than not quite reluctant to give new settings a chance because I know that inevitably in a few years time, someone else will just change it to suit his own whims and the [current year trend] instead of making a new setting.

 

[Faarbaute]

I feel a severe "new setting" fatigue.
I am too tired to get into another bunch of brand new titles, reading another walls of texts of lore etc. I was happy with Baldur's Gate 3 because I know Forgotten Realms, I am okay with Mass Effect because I am familiar with Mass Effect universe, I can manage Warhammer lore, same goes for VtN, but when game industry spawns a whole new bunch of new RPGs with new settings I simply don't like to get into it.
For example, a usual situation when "founding father of [insert genre]" is going to make their own game - like Exodus by Karpyshin, or Heretic Prophet by Druckman etc.

This is what getting old looks like in the modern world. You're an old man. You want to have already arrived. But so does Karpyshin.

No honeymoon period, no tentative first steps, no journey. You're too tired for that now, you've already done your time. You want to hit the ground running as if you were already at the tail end of a long established relationship. Sux man.

 

[goregasm]

I understand OPs view. Sometimes I prefer games that offer little upfront or do more nuanced or "mystery" world building, like in the vibe of Kenshi or even underrail.

Don't get me wrong I still enjoy verbose slop like Pillars 1, but if the "less is more" approach, if it is done well it can often times be more engaging for me on an interest level rather than yet another codex or hyperlink in game that says some shit like "followers of Diophat-the 3rd ranked hellspawn of the underworld- his followers like to bugger dogs, he can be summoned by a western wind of chaos. His followers must believe that all life is fleeting. The third empire banned his worship during the troubles 1000 years ago"

 

[Skinwalker]

Now look at Deadfire. ''So the gods Wxyp'p'ptotle and the Gungabongo were angered when the Peanieus colonial forces encroached upon the archipelago of Blt'ktpltl and their leader, Herr Werner von Whogivesafucken established the capital Negersburg on the sacred isle of Wxyp'p'ptotle's fifth bastard son, Jiggaboote. He went crying to his stepmom who awakened the six gorillion sea monsters who have been asleep for the thousand aeons since they were slain by the mythic hero Ao'aiae, whose reincarnation may or may not still be wandering the seas between the Pee Trench and the Poo Peninsula. So anyway back to the Peaneius colonials, they come from the distant continent of Panterovac, and are ruled by a council of Pontifex Anthropomorphius who ordained that...''

First of all, you're basically describing the plot of Marathon: Infinity, and second, Soyer wishes he could be a quarter as creative as that.

 

[Machocruz]

A lot of fantasy and sci-fi do nothing for me these days, when it's gobbledygook about shit that has nothing to do with what people care about, are driven by; plenty of "world building" and "lore", but little humanity. It's why I like SnS/barbarian/savage lands types of fantasy the best, the characters are driven by understandable passions, life and the world go about in a sensible, somewhat familiar way. Still plenty of escapism, but the writer isn't up their own ass with overly exotic, kitchen sink nonsense that reminds me of the convoluted, random shit kids come up with because they have no taste, or grasp of consistency or how anything works.

 

[Losus4]

Agree with you OP, but not just settings in terms of lore, but actual UI control and small things like how responsive menu clicks are compared to games which are super snappy, or whether or not logo screens or cutscenes are skippable. Small things like unskippable company logos or excessive "are you sure you want to change this option" popups that don't allow use of keyboard to select I tend to quit playing before I've even began. Biggest red flag for any new game is how much I have to click a mouse. The more mouse clicks involved which other games allow keyboard control of, the more I lose interest. If Witcher 3 allowed me to skip the story update screens every time I loaded the fucking save.... I probably would've kept playing it. I'm too old and life is too short to sit waiting for animations to finish that the developers could've let you skip.

In contrast, I've modded other games to be ultra snappy, instant reponsiveness of all UI, menus, options, game mechanics etc... I'm so used to this level of snappiness that I just can't get into other games which are more sluggish in these areas.

 

[deuxhero]

A lot of fantasy and sci-fi do nothing for me these days, when it's gobbledygook about shit that has nothing to do with what people care about, are driven by; plenty of "world building" and "lore", but little humanity. It's why I like SnS/barbarian/savage lands types of fantasy the best, the characters are driven by understandable passions, life and the world go about in a sensible, somewhat familiar way. Still plenty of escapism, but the writer isn't up their own ass with overly exotic, kitchen sink nonsense that reminds me of the convoluted, random shit kids come up with because they have no taste, or grasp of consistency or how anything works.

I'm finishing up Saga of the Forgotten Warrior right now. The author has mentioned he's quite aware few of his readers care about the existence of things like fractional reserve banking system in this world, so it's all background stuff unless it facilitates more plotting and killing. Of course, since Lok is defined on its rigid caste system and social inflexibility it wouldn't make for a good RPG setting.

 

[S.torch]

Nothing new being made is believable or interesting. When oldschool devs were being imaginative it resulted in Morrowind, Arcanum or Planescape. When new devs make something... well you know how it ends: PoE, Forspoken etc. Cringe, boring or both. Instead of acid creativity of Kirkbride you have lulrandom of schizophrenic stuff.

I think there's a difference to be made between the setting and how the setting is told. Morrowind and Planescape are wall of text galore, in the case of Morrowind characters are literal walking Wikipedia articles, but people don't seem to care because the text and the setting is actually good and interesting. Likewise you can make a good setting without much text or exposition, like Dark Souls. Pillars of Eternity has a poorly made setting that explains itself through massive walls of text. And if you picked that exact same setting and passed it through cryptic descriptions like in Dark Souls it won't turn good magically.

 

[Haba]

You just don't really need that much of lore for a minimalist RPG adventure. But everyone keeps trying for that big big epic ARPGGEY.

 

[Zlaja]

It's perfectly fine to have new settings, it's just most are badly and over written

When I think of over written, one of the first games that pops to mind is Kingdoms Of Amalur. Holy shit did that game had crap ton of lore. Every bloody generic NPC has like half a dozen numerous lengthy (and fully voiced, lol) takes on every little thing in the setting. It just goes on and on....and on. And then you play the game and it's a pretty simplistic action-rpg...lol.

 

[NecroLord]

I feel a severe "new setting" fatigue.
I am too tired to get into another bunch of brand new titles, reading another walls of texts of lore etc. I was happy with Baldur's Gate 3 because I know Forgotten Realms, I am okay with Mass Effect because I am familiar with Mass Effect universe, I can manage Warhammer lore, same goes for VtN, but when game industry spawns a whole new bunch of new RPGs with new settings I simply don't like to get into it.
For example, a usual situation when "founding father of [insert genre]" is going to make their own game - like Exodus by Karpyshin, or Heretic Prophet by Druckman etc.

It's unintuitive settings that are the problem. I'm no lorefag, but I can get into a game where the basic gist of the setting is readily apparent. Underrail, for example. ''The surface has become unliveable so humans have escaped underground.'' The details are there, but they're built around a simple base.

Now look at Deadfire. ''So the gods Wxyp'p'ptotle and the Gungabongo were angered when the Peanieus colonial forces encroached upon the archipelago of Blt'ktpltl and their leader, Herr Werner von Whogivesafucken established the capital Negersburg on the sacred isle of Wxyp'p'ptotle's fifth bastard son, Jiggaboote. He went crying to his stepmom who awakened the six gorillion sea monsters who have been asleep for the thousand aeons since they were slain by the mythic hero Ao'aiae, whose reincarnation may or may not still be wandering the seas between the Pee Trench and the Poo Peninsula. So anyway back to the Peaneius colonials, they come from the distant continent of Panterovac, and are ruled by a council of Pontifex Anthropomorphius who ordained that...''

Hey, this still sounds more creative than more than half of what comes out today...

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I have medieval fantasy fatigue. The supermajority of crpgs are interchangeable medieval fantasy games. There’s not much in other genres. Even then they usually copy medieval fantasy tropes. Not to mention that sturgeon’s law is in full effect.

There have been tons of cool settings written in the past. Ttrpgs are a good source of these because a ttrpg rulebook doubles as a setting bible. Biopunk, conspiracy technothriller, Arthur and his knights in 4000 AD, the Sidhe holding a seat in the House of Lords, etc.

Rather than adapting unique settings to stand apart, video game devs keep imitating each other and writing everything as blandly as possible. It makes everything feel homogeneous and interchangeable.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

It is not the Forgotten Realms setting that is so generic, but the way it was used by game devs i.e. the safest and the most unoriginal way possible.

The Forgotten Realms doesn't even rise to the level of a generic pseudo-medieval fantasy setting but is instead merely contemporary America/Canada in Renaissance Faire drag. TSR made efforts to add both depth and breadth to this poor base, but in the post-TSR era it reverted to Ed Greenwood's original vision, just updated chronologically. By contrast:

• Greyhawk is Gary Gygax's actual generic fantasy setting
• D&D's Known World / Mystara setting is pulp fantasy in the fashion of Hyboria, with countries borrowing from real world cultures and history
• Dragonlance is the Tolkienesque setting, started with an epic series of 12-linked adventure modules and also launched TSR's D&D/AD&D fiction
• Kara-Tur is a setting for the Oriental Adventures rules, based on Japan and China rather than late-medieval/Renaissance Europe
• Spelljammer is AD&D in SPACE, with bizarre physics and a gonzo approach
• Ravenloft is AD&D as gothic horror, inspired by the classic adventure module
• Dark Sun is a fantasy version of a science-fiction post-apocalyptic setting
• Al-Qadim is the Middle East version of Oriental Adventures / Kara-Tur
• Planescape is an attempt to have AD&D's Outer Planes cosmology serve as a setting in itself
• Birthright would be a pulp setting except that it's based around the PCs being rulers from the start (with superpowers, to boot)

 

[S.torch]

The supermajority of crpgs are interchangeable medieval fantasy games.

I would say there's a fair share of non-medieval games coming out or announced. There's plenty of cyberpunk or wanna be steampunk, the problem is the handling is often lacklustre to said the least. Even Owlcat last games was set in Warhammer's setting instead of Pathfinder.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

It is not the Forgotten Realms setting that is so generic, but the way it was used by game devs i.e. the safest and the most unoriginal way possible.

The Forgotten Realms doesn't even rise to the level of a generic pseudo-medieval fantasy setting but is instead merely contemporary America/Canada in Renaissance Faire drag. TSR made efforts to add both depth and breadth to this poor base, but in the post-TSR era it reverted to Ed Greenwood's original vision, just updated chronologically. By contrast:

• Greyhawk is Gary Gygax's actual generic fantasy setting
• D&D's Known World / Mystara setting is pulp fantasy in the fashion of Hyboria, with countries borrowing from real world cultures and history
• Dragonlance is the Tolkienesque setting, started with an epic series of 12-linked adventure modules and also launched TSR's D&D/AD&D fiction
• Kara-Tur is a setting for the Oriental Adventures rules, based on Japan and China rather than late-medieval/Renaissance Europe
• Spelljammer is AD&D in SPACE, with bizarre physics and a gonzo approach
• Ravenloft is AD&D as gothic horror, inspired by the classic adventure module
• Dark Sun is a fantasy version of a science-fiction post-apocalyptic setting
• Al-Qadim is the Middle East version of Oriental Adventures / Kara-Tur
• Planescape is an attempt to have AD&D's Outer Planes cosmology serve as a setting in itself
• Birthright would be a pulp setting except that it's based around the PCs being rulers from the start (with superpowers, to boot)

TSR also expanded into scifi and other genres with games like Amazing Engine, Alternity and d20 Modern.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

TSR also expanded into scifi and other genres with games like Amazing Engine, Alternity and d20 Modern.

TSR published:

• Metamorphosis Alpha in 1976, which seems to be the first science-fiction RPG
• Empire of the Petal Sun in 1975 which is sort of a SF/fantasy hybrid
• Boot Hill, a Western RPG, in 1975
• Gamma World, a post-apocalyptic RPG, in 1978
• Top Secret, an espionage RPG, in 1980
• Star Frontiers, a SF competitor to Traveler, in 1982
• Gangbusters, a 1920s crime/police RPG, in 1982
• Marvel Superheroes licensed RPG in 1984
• Licensed Indiana Jones, Conan, and Buck Rogers RPGs in 1984, 1985, and 1990
• The Amazing Engine, intended as a competitor to GURPS, in 1993, with 8 supplemental rulebooks/settings

 

[JarlFrank]

I have same old copypasta setting fatigue.

If it's something actually new, and the lore is presented in an organic way rather than throwing loads of exposition at you in dialog, I'm all for it.
But if the "new" setting turns out to be yet another high fantasy with elves and dwarves and warring kingdoms and yada yada blah blah blah I'm not even gonna read all that text, just skim it. Unless it's actually exotic and interesting and has the right kinds of details, but how often does that happen? lol

Examples for same old in a new dress:
Pillars of Eternity. They promised a "new and fresh" fantasy setting but ultimately it's D&D in different makeup. You get overloaded with exposition dumps about stuff you don't care about, like souls and gods and blah blah, lots of shit you heard in similar ways before. There's vampires but they're called fampyrs (lol)! There's kobolds but they're called xaurips or something! Wow, totally new and original, I'm looking forward to learning all these setting details... not.
Dragon Age. Same thing as in Pillars. There's orcs, but they're called darkspawn! There's different pseudo-medieval kingdoms whose cultures are just straight copies of real world ones - like Orlais being basically France. Wow, never been done before! It's all very familiar, but with new names slapped on, so you basically have to re-learn fantasy worldbuilding ideas you already know from elsewhere. Boring.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Yeah, it's not the game's fault, it uses an established pen and paper setting... which is basically a ripoff of the Forgotten Realms, which I know from playing the Baldur's Gate games. Except everything is named differently, so I have to re-learn who all the different gods are and what all the different countries are and so on and so forth. I just click through most of the exposition in this game without reading it. It's all just renamed Forgotten Realms copypasta.

Meanwhile I have no problem diving deep into the lore of Morrowind, and especially its expansion in Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel, because that's exotic and cool and actually pays attention to intricate worldbuilding. Different faiths, tribes, houses, guilds, and their relations to each other are all elaborated on. Everything is a little weird and exotic - actually fantastic rather than mundane! - so it's a lot more interesting than yet another copypasta pseudo-medieval setting. Giant mushrooms shaped into houses by magic, homes built from the carcasses of giant crabs, huge striding fleas that are used as taxis, etc. Lots of cool shit. And you can actually see most of the things that are talked about. And the world makes sense: there are farms and mines that contain little of interest to the player, but their existence gives weight to the world. You can see where people get their food from! It's not just a theme park world where every location only exists to serve the player's needs. It also helps that the faction relations all feel believable, there's actual thought put into giving them proper motivations and giving people proper cultural backgrounds. Vanilla Morrowind was good at this, but Tamriel Rebuilt takes it even further and it's awesome.

I also had no problem getting into Baldur's Gate 2 when I was a teen, and whenever I replay it, I notice how elegant its worldbuilding is. It's set in the Forgotten Realms, but it rarely dumps huge loads of info on you, at least not without reason. Whenever you get a loredump, it pertains to things you're actually doing. If someone tells you about pocket planes, you can bet your ass you're gonna see a pocket plane soon. Most of the lore you learn is about the city of Amn and its surroundings. It's all stuff you're directly interacting with. Compare that to Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder: Kingmaker or even Dragon Age: Origins where you're constantly bombarded with an avalanche of information about locations you'll never visit, just because some character you meet came from there. Lore dumps are okay if they actually tell you about the places you visit and see with your own eyes, but if it's some faraway country I'll never see, I just don't give a fuck.

Planescape Torment was cool too, because it's an interesting setting and you're confronted more with personal stories, philosophical questions, and metaphysical truths. All of which is more exciting than yet another loredump about Lord Bumfuck of Nowhere whose barony has good trade relations with the Elves of Greenwood who provide his army with excellent ivory bows because they're good fletchers, or some shit. Oh, so there's a rule of three, saying all things tend to come in threes, and you actually notice this pattern in the things you encounter? Cool! And belief can make things come true - and you see this happen in a few side quests? Great! This stuff is interesting because you actually get to interact with it, and it may even make you think a little.

Arcanum was great at worldbuilding too. It didn't waste a lot of words on infodumping. There's a bunch of books you can read and a few NPCs will give you history lessons if you ask them, but the devs knew that players are likely familiar with elves and dwarves and magic so they don't have to give you 100 pages of lore on them. Instead you learn about the important things like dwarven philosophy (very cool) or the jewish gnomish world conspiracy (sinister) or how the steam engine changed society (the actually interesting part of the lore because that's what sets Arcanum apart from other fantasy settings). Most dialog is concise and to the point. You're never infodumped in this game, but allowed to explore its world at your own pace.

I enjoy Dark Souls and FromSoftware games in general, too. They have lots of deep lore and their settings are fairly generic dark fantasy, but the way the story is presented is refreshingly minimalist. Yes, it has become a meme at this point how cryptic Dark Souls storytelling is. The description of a unique item mentions some obscure historical fact and when you kill a boss he mutters something that references a name you've read in that item description... this is honestly better than getting 1000 words of loredump thrown in your face. You can engage with the story if you want, and have to actively dig for tidbits (which is good, it's a GAME, you're supposed to ACTIVELY interact with it), or can mostly ignore the story and just enjoy the gameplay without being constantly interrupted by text dumps or cutscenes.

The real problem of new RPG settings is that
a) they're not that new, they're just the same old high fantasy copypasta you've seen 500 times before
b) they keep dropping walls of text on you to tell you all their deep lore
Both together makes for an extremely dull and tedious experience.

If the settings were actually new and fresh, they would be refreshing instead of fatiguing.

 

[Skinwalker]

Just watched a video where Yatzhee whines about "soulslike fatigue". Turns out, if you consoom a whole bunch of samey stuff, it gets tiresome. Shocking.

There used to be a time when your average medieval-esque fantasy game was all about your own knock-off Fellowship of the Ring defeating a knock-off Sauron. Then that got horribly old. Then the souls games arose, with their mythic and sparse exposition of a setting, and no real specific evil villain to hate, just a bunch of husks that need to be put out of their misery. Then everyone started aping that, and now this is old hat and everything is muh shades of gray and muh vague incomprehensible lore.

Why not change up the formula and go back to something like Planescape? You visit a whole bunch of realms, some hellish, some heavenly, some simply weird, on a quest of self-discovery. There are villains, but not really any dark underlords seeking to destroy all life in the universe or something like that. More like, "if you don't stop this archdemon that's been manipulating you, the heavenly city of Kun Lun that you're visiting will be destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, do you allow this to happen through incompetence/uncaring, or go out of your way to help them out of the kindness of your heart? Either way, you will learn a piece of your true self... but not the same piece, necessarily. Now, onto the next part of your quest."

I'd play that in a heart-beat.

 

[Just Locus]

The main reason I don't experience the same fatigue as OP is because

1. Too busy of a schedule, unfortunately. I don't have the free time to get "engrossed" in worlds as much as I should.

2. There are many times when I'm just not feeling RPGs. I'm not in the mood for an "ULTRA EXPANSIVE VIDYA GAME WITH 1,000 HOURS WORTH OF CONTENT." Sometimes, I want to boot up something simple, enjoyable, and not mentally draining.

3. The reason I love games like Quake 1 (& boomer shooters in general despite their numerous flaws) is that they don't waste dozens of hours trying to get you "immersed" into their worlds, they fully understand that you're only playing their games to kill things and that's exactly what the experience is built for.

 

[Cryomancer]

The problem is not the "new settings", is the endless amount of infodump for reskinned generic settings.

 

[scytheavatar]

Just watched a video where Yatzhee whines about "soulslike fatigue". Turns out, if you consoom a whole bunch of samey stuff, it gets tiresome. Shocking.

There used to be a time when your average medieval-esque fantasy game was all about your own knock-off Fellowship of the Ring defeating a knock-off Sauron. Then that got horribly old. Then the souls games arose, with their mythic and sparse exposition of a setting, and no real specific evil villain to hate, just a bunch of husks that need to be put out of their misery. Then everyone started aping that, and now this is old hat and everything is muh shades of gray and muh vague incomprehensible lore.

Why not change up the formula and go back to something like Planescape? You visit a whole bunch of realms, some hellish, some heavenly, some simply weird, on a quest of self-discovery. There are villains, but not really any dark underlords seeking to destroy all life in the universe or something like that. More like, "if you don't stop this archdemon that's been manipulating you, the heavenly city of Kun Lun that you're visiting will be destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, do you allow this to happen through incompetence/uncaring, or go out of your way to help them out of the kindness of your heart? Either way, you will learn a piece of your true self... but not the same piece, necessarily. Now, onto the next part of your quest."

I'd play that in a heart-beat.

Bunch of realms = bunch more scope and difficult to fresh out each realm more. Would be super challenging both to make such a game and also to market it.

 

[Kabas]

For the life of me, i love my "generic" medieval fantasy with dwarfs, elves, dragons, vampires and whatnot. Can't lie.

If writers can't engross you into their setting from the moment some old english dude starts yammering about kingdoms and shit then this is a skill issue on their part. If writers really can't do that then they should indeed stop dumping your head with gigabytes of lore about nonexisting world nobody cares about.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

TSR also expanded into scifi and other genres with games like Amazing Engine, Alternity and d20 Modern.

TSR published:

• Metamorphosis Alpha in 1976, which seems to be the first science-fiction RPG
• Empire of the Petal Sun in 1975 which is sort of a SF/fantasy hybrid
• Boot Hill, a Western RPG, in 1975
• Gamma World, a post-apocalyptic RPG, in 1978
• Top Secret, an espionage RPG, in 1980
• Star Frontiers, a SF competitor to Traveler, in 1982
• Gangbusters, a 1920s crime/police RPG, in 1982
• Marvel Superheroes licensed RPG in 1984
• Licensed Indiana Jones, Conan, and Buck Rogers RPGs in 1984, 1985, and 1990
• The Amazing Engine, intended as a competitor to GURPS, in 1993, with 8 supplemental rulebooks/settings

They also did Alternity in 1998, which introduced a few new settings.

Star*Drive is a space opera setting.

Dark•Matter is a paranormal conspiracy technothriller setting.

Tangents deals with multiverse travel.

With d20 Modern there were a bunch of mini-settings published in the books and Dungeon magazine, with genres ranging from 1970s racing to planetary romance to psionic espionage to mech warfare and beyond. WotC was clearly trying to make a universal rpg for post-industrial genres to contrast with D&D.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

It's just derivatives meeting bad writing. Many also make the error of telling instead of showing. Alaloth: Champion of the Four Kingdoms suffers from this greatly. They have a large very Tolkien world with massive codex. Histories and details for everything. The problem is that all of it is in a codex or idle NPC lore exposition, rather than a quest, plot, or interaction that shows the player the world.

Players should learn about your world through doing things in it. Not from reading.