Does anyone else get bored with the same RPG backdrop?

[Thaius]

You're basically saying you're tired of the fantasy genre.

I would agree, it's a bit overused, but I'd take either fantasy or sci-fi over modern-day, especially for an RPG where you have such freedom to explore.

If you're tired of this, I'd recommend checking out some Final Fantasy, if you haven't already: I know you said they're not your style, but they tell some of the best stories I've ever been told, and you get used to the gameplay. Games like Final Fantasy VI, VII, X and XII take place in a world that still has all the fantasy elements in place, but there's an important and integrated technological aspect as well that really changes things up from the formula you're talking about. Not to mention each one has a different way that magic works, so even the base elements are changed a bit: the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII was an amazing way to explain and customize magic in the game.

 

[Rhythm]

I think a lot has to do with people's choice of offensive weaponary in games. If you are into swords and magic then 'high/dark fantasy' is good for you and if you're a fan of guns and energy shields then a 'sci-fi' setting might be best suited for your needs.

As much as I would like to see some game break out of that mold and try something radicaly different I'm not sure if it would work. I guess it's easyish to have magic and technology mixed together (such as the FF series) but on the other hand I couldn't see a bunch of super soldiers with high tech guns strolling through a forrest or ransacking a dungeon.

I personally am a fan of both types and am eagerly awaiting my copy of dragons age as we speak! I just hope it there waiting in my post box when I come back from giving blood today.


Edit: Fail typing :/

 

[Arcadia2000]

well... if it wasnt placed in a fantasy enviroment, you would end up with "THE SIMS 3"

seriously think about it

I'm not callin you out or anything, but not really. Star Wars has (had?) a great tabletop RPG, and someone should seriously EVE that stuff. Also, Shadowrun (tabletop)(what little I got to play of it, *sniffle*) is a sci-fi/futuristic/fantasy game done right. Someone should WoW that up, too. It's completely doable if you got the right writers behind it.

I'd be all kinds of behind a Starcraft MMO except they don't have the variety for it. It's just Zerg, Humans, and Protoss. Yeah there's several factions of each but it'd be rough getting that interaction dynamic to really sync. I just don't see it happening. What's that other futuristic one... Star... something... Star Ocean? idk, if someone knows what I'm talking about, speak up.

still... if looked closed enough the "classes" and "races" are exchangeable

take away ALL the fantasy and magic (tecnology) or wathever, you end up with some kind of "the sims 3" or better put a "GTA" kind of game

the OP was complaining about the classes and races repeating themselves, tell me one that doesnt reflect something out of a tolkien book (just an example, not saying tolkien is the chief of fantasy or anything)

as a great writer haves said "every story that is worthy of being told haves already being told, we are just adjusting the details to acomodate the current generations"

and funnily enough, all those stories??? they have all being told at least once by Shakespear, he used the same setting twice in some of them.

its the same in gameplay mechanics, just change name, and abilities, magic for tec, they all come from the same basis

I get what you're saying there. But we can say that about all kinds of games today. FPS are pretty generic, too. I mean, if you take away the aliens or nazis or zombies and the futuristic gadgetry, aren't they all just counterstrike or somesuch? I don't think there's any shame in working with a winning strategy so long as you add something to the established lore that's your very own.

Mmm, I think the OP was more on the setting than races, although the two do go hand-in-hand. I mean, you can have medieval fantasy without elves or dragons or even wizards, but you need to have something. I agree that it's overdone, but it's not hopeless as a good setting, and the RPG isn't dependent on it as a good genre. It's just popular because it's easy.

Someone else above said something to the effect of: pretty much everyone knows it, and has a knowledge base that makes it easy to form a player-to-game bond. Even in games that don't come out and call them elves and wizards and dwarves and dragons; we have a concept core that makes it easy to relate to the idea of what's being presented. If it's got pointy ears and is pretty and lives in a forest, it might be called a "gellian" but everyone is gonna know it as "elf."

I don't think you can really criticize the gaming industry by calling on Shakespeare and saying "well he did it all already." That's a criticism of all the literary arts. Movies, books, and storytelling games. You could just as easily say that no one has written anything new in terms of movies or books because Shakespeare did it already. If that's really the case, then we wouldn't have the variety of literature that we do because everyone would be reading Shakespeare. Much as I respect The Bard, he's not singlehandedly responsible for every possible literary device in modern literature.

You also can't really bash a genre for being itself. I mean, it's unfair to a romantic comedy to criticize it for not having guns and a wicked chase scene or zombies. You can't really say that RPGs suck because they're all the same. Wasn't it Yahtzee who said something to the effect of: left stick for movement, right stick for camera, it works, don't screw it up? That's kind of what it's all about. Do quest, gain level, train, fight for good/evil - if it's boring, go do something else. Play frisbee, or cards, shoot zombies, or nazis. (That wasn't directed at you but at a basic attitude.)

And this is kinda nitpicky, but really classes and races are exchangeable as a whole across genres but not to themselves. Being an elf is not the same thing as being a blacksmith - even Munchkin knows that. I hope that's what you were trying to say, because it didn't read that way to me.

WoW isn't Tolkien and Assassin's Creed or Bioshock isn't GTA and CoD isn't Halo. Do I think that the RPG industry needs to branch out a little bit? Yeah. But the argument you make isn't really relevant to the topic. Your argument seems more like, "Why bother - it's all the same game anyway" while the topic is more like "We like the game, but we need different settings."

 

[DuplicateValue]

I bet you're the type of person who complains when action movies are unrealistic.

No, RPG's need to keep the magical middle-ages setting going.
The point of a ROLE PLAYING game is to ROLE PLAY. If I wanted to wander around a modern city setting buying new accessories, I can do it in real life.
There is no way for me to cast magical spells or slay monsters in real life, so that's where the games come in handy.

Besides there's something so........enchanting about the medieval setting, don't you think?

 

[HentMas]

snip

well... i wasnt trying to bash or anything, and i used the "shakespear" example as the "way of telling storyes" a simil of sorts

and well, what i meant to say is that its really hard to break the set of classes because well, what else is there? and i never intended to sound like it was a wrong thing to do because its not, its just "what we have"

what i meant to say is "we have the stablished rules, lets find a way to make them new" even if those rules were set a thoudsand years ago i am sure there should be a way of enhancing those same rules to make them fresh and new and fun

the closest i have seing to this is Fallout 3, where they tryed to set the RPG rules in a FPS setting, wich kind of worked, but it needs job still, i am sure there are other examples but for now thats the only one i remember

so ok, mages, fighers, rogues, barabarians, etc... those are the clases we al know and they exist in every RPG out there, the thing is, how to make them work in a world where they can still be themselves and still bring something different to the genre?<- i have no idea

those where the thoughts i wanted to share

 

[Magnatek]

I don't get bored with it. Then again, my RPG-playing ways span from prehistoric settings to futuristic settings. In other words, I'm an all-era RPG player.

I think a lot has to do with people's choice of offensive weaponary in games. If you are into swords and magic then 'high/dark fantasy' is good for you and if you're a fan of guns and energy shields then a 'sci-fi' setting might be best suited for your needs.

As much as I would like to see some game break out of that mold and try something radicaly different I'm not sure if it would work. I guess it's easyish to have magic and technology mixed together (such as the FF series) but on the other hand I couldn't see a bunch of super soldiers with high tech guns strolling through a forrest or ransacking a dungeon.


Edit: Fail typing :/

I would go further, but you described what I was going to say. However, a difference between our opinions would be that I would like to see that last example you put there.

 

[sgtshock]

I'm not completely sick of high fantasy, but I do wish I'd see less of it. If you have to do a game set in the Middle Ages, why not set it in the real Middle Ages? Sure, you'd have limitations (no magic, story limitations), but it'd be a lot more interesting knowing what you're playing actually happened, instead of being just another writer's thought-up world. Or better yet, have a 'what-if' scenario, if the people of the Medieval age discovered real magic. Imagine casting a fireball at a horde of Mongols, or a French army, instead of more generic orcs.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I like it if it's written well. Good characters, well thought out gameplay elements. All very important. They can make up for a lot of cliche.