Fantasy games need to stop stealing from LOTR

[Vern5]

Enough is enough. Why are most (if not all) fantasy games constantly borrowing inspiration from the Lord of the Rings? Hell, even Dungeons and Dragons is tainted by that book's ridiculous fame. Now, this isn't a rant against the Lord of the Rings. I read it. Took a lot of effort but I dragged myself through that book and, after ignoring the copious amounts of needless description, I found a good story with a well-developed world for countless nerds to escape to.

But are we all just doomed to be trapped in this Tolkien-esque world when it comes to fantasy games? I thought the point of making something fantastical was to explore new, undiscovered regions of reality, to plumb the depths of what the world could be. Instead, all fantasy games are just floundering in this miasma of Tolkien Lore.

Maybe this is why FPSs are so popular (or at least so populous) these days. It's sort of easy to innovate new ways of making shooting people fun. But the poor gaming Titan that was fantasy RPGs is drowning in a stagnant pool of Tolkien.

We need something new. Something fresh. Something of pure fantasy.

 

[Antari]

I completely agree with you on this. I would love to see more creativity given to the realm that alot of these "fantasy" games take place in. If I see another dragon I'm going to puke!

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I was just playing Baldur's Gate, and looking at the character portraits during CC, and thinking the same fucking thing.

While also thinking: "Why do all the elves have to look so fucking stupid?".

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

Maybe you should expand on what fantasy games you are playing, there are plenty non generic fantasy games out there unless your on console only then your pretty much screwed.

 

[Worgen]

go play the witcher, its pretty untolken, really anything from the eastern bloc is pretty untolken since most of their fantasy comes from other sources, same thing with fantasy japanese stuff or korean stuff

 

[Camarilla]

To be fair, complaining that anything related to D&D is too much like LotR is a bit pointless, seeing as D&D has always been 'Lord of the Rings: The RPG' in all but name.

Anyway, surely any game that isn't based on real life is 'fantasy'. The style you're referring to as being Tolkien based is high fantasy, which is one genre. Cyberpunk, steampunk, post-apocalyptic etc. are all 'fantasy' that don't feature Elves, Orcs and dragons.

 

[Jordi]

I wouldn't really say that everybody is (just) stealing from Tolkien. For instance, I don't really associate dragons with Tolkien at all (I can only remember 1, and it isn't even in LotR). But yeah, it would be nice to see something else than Middle Ages + Magic + some unoriginal humanlike races.

Some obvious "mystical" settings where magic and monsters wouldn't feel completely out of place (at least to me) are Egypt, Rome and Greece. And it would also be interesting to see more present-day fantasy (or other time periods that haven't been completely overdone).

 

[ImprovizoR]

go play the witcher, its pretty untolken, really anything from the eastern bloc is pretty untolken since most of their fantasy comes from other sources, same thing with fantasy japanese stuff or korean stuff

Yes, The Witcher is rather unique. Creatures, magic. It's not 100% original, but nothing is today. But it definitely doesn't steal from Tolkien.

 

[manythings]

Tolkien needed to stop stealing from... well the past and all those stories way back in the mists that had all those things Tolkien never invented because he was just doing exactly what fantasy are doing now.

 

[Vern5]

I wouldn't really say that everybody is (just) stealing from Tolkien. For instance, I don't really associate dragons with Tolkien at all (I can only remember 1, and it isn't even in LotR). But yeah, it would be nice to see something else than Middle Ages + Magic + some unoriginal humanlike races.

Some obvious "mystical" settings where magic and monsters wouldn't feel completely out of place (at least to me) are Egypt, Rome and Greece. And it would also be interesting to see more present-day fantasy (or other time periods that haven't been completely overdone).

See this ^ . This is exactly what Western developers need to be looking at in terms of new intellectual properties to exploit.

The most recent AAA developed fantasy games are all drawing from the same European well.

And why is it always Elves, Dwarves and Men? Even in the Witcher they are all present and are mostly in line with Tolkien-eque descriptions, barring a few creative liberties.

We need more games that not only have Elves and dwarves but other fantastical races that are equal to or more prominent than the original Tolkien races. And that's just for starters.

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

I wouldn't really say that everybody is (just) stealing from Tolkien. For instance, I don't really associate dragons with Tolkien at all (I can only remember 1, and it isn't even in LotR). But yeah, it would be nice to see something else than Middle Ages + Magic + some unoriginal humanlike races.

Some obvious "mystical" settings where magic and monsters wouldn't feel completely out of place (at least to me) are Egypt, Rome and Greece. And it would also be interesting to see more present-day fantasy (or other time periods that haven't been completely overdone).

See this ^ . This is exactly what Western developers need to be looking at in terms of new intellectual properties to exploit.

The most recent AAA developed fantasy games are all drawing from the same European well.

And why is it always Elves, Dwarves and Men? Even in the Witcher they are all present and are mostly in line with Tolkien-eque descriptions, barring a few creative liberties.

We need more games that not only have Elves and dwarves but other fantastical races that are equal to or more prominent than the original Tolkien races. And that's just for starters.

You say we need more of those games but they already exist and have for some time.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Tolkien needed to stop stealing from... well the past and all those stories way back in the mists that had all those things Tolkien never invented because he was just doing exactly what fantasy are doing now.

This... Tolkien had no original ideas as far as creatures/settings etc. are concerned, he just made them popular, bringing 'high fantasy' to the literary fore, as it were. And because of the level of praise that's gone LotR's way, everyone's leeching the genre for all its worth. Thing is, though, there haven't been that many 'original' fantasy games out recently (well, not ones that I've shown any interest in mind you, so that's just my butt talking). But, Witcher/Prince of Persia/Fable (denies existence of)/God of War aren't really LotR-esque I wouldn't have thought.

It's the same in the fantasy novel industry, every fantasy book published during the 90's was set in Middle Earth with a different colour scheme and characters just had their traits re-shuffled. Thankfully, we're seeing a bit more steampunk (hate that term) that's going to be the next on the chopping board.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

whenever someone tries to do that, the game ends up sucking

see: Most JRPGs

plus, it sucks that critics complain about unoriginality then when someone completely pulls a whole lore and history out of their asses that's completely original they get hated on for "making no sense"

Mass Effect is about the closest we can see to something that can break free of that.

 

[Slycne]

Hell, even Dungeons and Dragons is tainted by that book's ridiculous fame.

To be fair, complaining that anything related to D&D is too much like LotR is a bit pointless, seeing as D&D has always been 'Lord of the Rings: The RPG' in all but name.

If you take the time to actually look at that claim you'll find it less sound than you believe it to be. Out of the mouth of the creator -

A careful examination of the games will quickly reveal that the major influences are Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, A. Merritt, and H.P. Lovecraft.[footnote]Gary Gygax, "On the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games"[/footnote]

 

[Gabanuka]

I think we need to stop doing medieval fantasy and move on to steampunk...

Anyone know any good steampunk games? Kinda getting into it.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Yeah, the problem with that is Tolkein (however the hell you spell his name) Literally much wrote the book on fantasy that everyone grew up with and studies. Maybe if we had some new authors to write new fantasy in the same category as what Tolkein wrote, we'd have more interesting stuff.

Besides, its not like Tolkein was terribly original. I'd still like to see C.S.Lewis take over and become the new base to structure fantasy off of.

At this point though, its pretty much how any space opera is either like Star Wars or Star Trek, how any shooter is like CoD or Halo (yes, even battlefield), and how any RTS is like chess. If its popular, its easier to copy and paste without success then it is to actually TRY to do something different.

See WoW knock offs.

 

[Cpt Corallis]

Surely part of the appeal of european/Tolkien mythology in gaming is that everyone can instantly identify the key components. It just saves Game designers and script writers having to come up with exposition as to why their elves are marginally different and allows players to just get straight into the actual crux of the story.

 

[barbzilla]

Well in reality not every fantasy is based on Tolkienien lore. High Fantasy is based on this though, if you trace back just about any high fantasy book you will see it. However even Tolkien stole from others. A good bit of LOTR's humanity/creatures were taken from Shakespearean fantasy. It is the nature of the beast unfortunately.