Would you like to see real armor in RPGs?

[Murk]

hardly, to me its always been the craft games (and i guess warhammer but its origins are, like you said, in tabletop miniature games and i was thinking video games more so) - it just happens that damn near all jrpgs, regardless of how different in art style, are all more homogenized graphically than western rpgs are - so the blanket statement applies there far more readily

 

[ushdugery]

Personally I would like you all to get your filthy realism away from my fantasy. Ooooh a moderately attractive drunk woman who works at a call centre and studies philosophy you're the girl of my dreams lets have clumsy drunken sex and awkwardly mumble and make small talk with mildly embarassed and hungover looks on our faces over average and mildly burnt pancakes in the morning oh yeah. Fuck realism it's overrated and not what I play computer games for I want to rape puny enemies with my giant phallic sword and wear stupid big shoulderpads with giant spikes on them while a scantily clad young maiden clings to me so I can guard her from the demonic hordes before later skewering her in a whirlwind of passion. So umm yeah fuck reality.

 

[Murk]

well good sir, you have convinced me to retract my previous statements and persuaded me to see things your way

touche!

 

[spacemoose]

Ooooh a moderately attractive drunk woman who works at a call centre and studies philosophy you're the girl of my dreams lets have clumsy drunken sex and awkwardly mumble and make small talk with mildly embarassed and hungover looks on our faces over average and mildly burnt pancakes in the morning oh yeah.

there I cleared up all the fluff for you.

noice

 

[Darth Roxor]

Some games, based on their setting and art style, require cartoony fantasy armor (like warcraft, warhammer, or every single jrpg evah)

Warhammer =/= Warhammer 40k
also Warhammer =/= Table-top Warhammer.

Normal Warhammer is absolutely NOT supposed to look cartoony, quite the opposite actually.

 

[Destroid]

Tabletop warhammer is cartoony for the same reason that stage makeup is cartoony - so you can make out details from a longer distance than is normally possible.

 

[DraQ]

@topic:
Fuck, yeah!

Or maybe not as much 'real', as 'realistic' meaning that all the exotic styles and materials are in as long as the armour itself is logically constructed and functional (it may even be made out of crystallized semen of the gods and susceptible only to hypervelocity sabot slugs made of pure neutronium, if lore calls for it).

Also 'fuck, yeah' to realistic combat.

Though, generally, massively humongous shoulder pads rank quite low on my 'fantasy armour annoyances' list - the prevalence of chainmail bikinis makes sure of it.

 

[Korgan]

The Last Days mod for M&B has realistic armour. It fucking rocks.

 

[DraQ]

Also, I'm all for all the layers of padding and whatnot.

 

[Shoelip]

Personally I would like you all to get your filthy realism away from my fantasy. Ooooh a moderately attractive drunk woman who works at a call centre and studies philosophy you're the girl of my dreams lets have clumsy drunken sex and awkwardly mumble and make small talk with mildly embarassed and hungover looks on our faces over average and mildly burnt pancakes in the morning oh yeah. Fuck realism it's overrated and not what I play computer games for I want to rape puny enemies with my giant phallic sword and wear stupid big shoulderpads with giant spikes on them while a scantily clad young maiden clings to me so I can guard her from the demonic hordes before later skewering her in a whirlwind of passion. So umm yeah fuck reality.

Hm... shame there are no games like that.

 

[Texas Red]

Personally I would like you all to get your filthy realism away from my fantasy. Ooooh a moderately attractive drunk woman who works at a call centre and studies philosophy you're the girl of my dreams lets have clumsy drunken sex and awkwardly mumble and make small talk with mildly embarassed and hungover looks on our faces over average and mildly burnt pancakes in the morning oh yeah. Fuck realism it's overrated and not what I play computer games for I want to rape puny enemies with my giant phallic sword and wear stupid big shoulderpads with giant spikes on them while a scantily clad young maiden clings to me so I can guard her from the demonic hordes before later skewering her in a whirlwind of passion. So umm yeah fuck reality.

This is not about realism and fantasy. Real armor is simply aesthetically more pleasing.

 

[Kz3r0]

In Arcanum there are some quite realistic armours, even in Diablo there are some.
Generally speacking I find cartoonish style unimaginative, and boring.

 

[Mareus]

I voted yes but I would like to have both games which offer completely unrealistic armors and games which offer completely realistic armors. Just for diversity sake. Without some unrealistic armors, flashy magic and girls which wear completely unpractical armors it would just be... I don't know... somehow less fantasy if you know what I mean.

 

[Kz3r0]

u mean like

At the time there were war armour and fancy armour for parades and tournaments, look at italian reinassance for something really outrageous.

 

[Jasede]

I don't care about realism because it's a fucking game.

I'm glad I don't have to piss and shit in games because of "realism". For the same reason I don't care how the armors look. Ideally there's no graphic for them at all anyway, just some text that says "Enchanted Field Plate +2".

 

[mondblut]

I love lesbian chicks in chainmail bikinis, but god, those giant pauldrons are beyond fucking retarded. They make one's head look smaller than a pimple.

I guess that's why they got so popular among the masses. Makes it easier to identify with the character.

 

[Ogg]

What we want is Horse Armor!!!!

Seriously, I believe that those shoulder pads may be derived from this kind of armor which were designed for joust and horse combat. But most of these full plate armors get ridiculous on infantrymen. Chainmail and leather armors are the only way to look realistic in a game with no horse combat.

 

[Darth Roxor]

What we want is Horse Armor!!!!

I don't know if you're sarcastic with that statement, but horse armour existed in the past.

 

[Mareus]

If you really want realism then you could also say that you don't want maces in the game at the same time as those heavy plate armors. If you read through the weapon history a bit you would notice that heavy armors were made useless once maces and flails appeard, because they could easily break through heavy armor. Fantasy can only take so much. Unrealistic features have always been a part of fiction and without them it would just be a documentary. But like I said, we need both just for the sake of diversity.

 

[Ogg]

What we want is Horse Armor!!!!

I don't know if you're sarcastic with that statement, but horse armour existed in the past.

No, I'm just trying to follow indigenous traditions like Beth bashing.

I know that horse armour isn't complete bullshit, but they only appeared on really rare occurrences. A full plate armour was very expensive (and still is) and only affordable to the wealthiest lords in medieval times. Thus horse armour wasn't a priority. Most of the time it only consisted in padded armour (like caparisons for picadors' horses) on the front and on the flanks. Chamfron (or horse helmet) and crinets (neck armour) were merely decorative.

 

[Serious_Business]

If I want to play a game where my character looks boring and gay then I will play some non-fantasy, historical RPG or something.

Except that we have none of those, so you can have all the fantasy you want. Seriously where are those gay and boring looking characters in some non-fantasy historical RPG, I'd like to know

 

[Solohk]

I'd like to see armor that is at least grounded in reality. I don't mind armor that has all sort of engravings and looks more on the ceremonial side as long as it at least looks a little functional.

Also, for the record, I just want to state that I really don't like giant shoulder pads. Ugh.


Edit:
I wouldn't mind seeing stuff like the templar armor that was posted.

I always liked the look of realistic medieval armor far more than what you see in video games. I especially like the design for the Templar Knight suit.
http://www.totalwar.org.pl/gallery/Knig ... %20-03.jpg

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Personally I would like you all to get your filthy realism away from my fantasy. Ooooh a moderately attractive drunk woman who works at a call centre and studies philosophy you're the girl of my dreams lets have clumsy drunken sex and awkwardly mumble and make small talk with mildly embarassed and hungover looks on our faces over average and mildly burnt pancakes in the morning oh yeah. Fuck realism it's overrated and not what I play computer games for I want to rape puny enemies with my giant phallic sword and wear stupid big shoulderpads with giant spikes on them while a scantily clad young maiden clings to me so I can guard her from the demonic hordes before later skewering her in a whirlwind of passion. So umm yeah fuck reality.

The fact that most fantasy is so samey, so designed to be easily approachable and cartoonish just makes me think more of reality, of corporations, market economy, real world and all that really boring and bleak stuff I want to escape when playing games. It's not about realism (and certainly not only about the look of armour which is essentially only graphics), it's about diversity, which we can't have because formulaic games are so much easier and safer to make (or because the board of directors said so).

 

[Kz3r0]

If you really want realism then you could also say that you don't want maces in the game at the same time as those heavy plate armors. If you read through the weapon history a bit you would notice that heavy armors were made useless once maces and flails appeard, because they could easily break through heavy armor.

This isn't true armoured cavalry and infantry lasts trough mace and crossbows, they encountered their demise against firearms, notably with the death of Giovanni dalle bande nere(John of the black bands) subsequently to a falconet hit.

Fantasy can only take so much. Unrealistic features have always been a part of fiction and without them it would just be a documentary. But like I said, we need both just for the sake of diversity.

For now we have most of the fantasy ones and almost none of historical ones.

 

[made]

Where do you get all those WH40K pics from, kc?