D-Class 198482 said:
Hear me out here.
The Elder Scrolls is set on an entirely different planet, right? That means the trolls, the dragons, the werewolves and the Vampire Lords...
They're all aliens.
In fact, quite a few fantasy games can be considered Sci-Fi. They are either in another universe, dimension, or another different planet.
Discuss.
I personally don't find this that far-fetched because the trolls look like something you'd see invading the Earth
Part is parcel with this is going to be how the narrative exposition grounds the scenes. How much fantasy is interjected into the work and how that interjection is expounded upon. The more a work trends towards fiction the more expository stuff will be presented to justify it's existence in the world your crafting or exploring. A lack of exposition tends towards either the metaphorical or fantastical... fates, gods, super beings, so on and so forth.
Sometimes there are hybrids, such as Mass Effect which "essentially" has "magic", that is loosely explained in the codex and some dialog. Thing is does Skyrim (as an example) go to any length to explain magic in it's world, or is it simply assumed to be a part of the world "as it is presented"?
That all comes back around full circle as genre, tone, theme, and how one handles the suspension of disbelief. Differences may be subtle such as Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun, which are both Cyberpunk genre, both are science fiction, but one is grounding itself on it's plausibility the other is leveraging it's implausibility, which gives it a little more leeway to move a scene or plot. Troll racism? Got'cha covered!
Shadowrun
I see it broken up like this...
low fantasy->high fantasy
Conan film->Dungeons and Dragons->Conan pulp->Final Fantasy/Korean pop
Skyrim falling between Conan aesthetically and Dungeons and Dragons narrative and mechanically; the aesthetic alone dictates much of what one "expects" to see in the world before one has really even engaged the material.
science fiction->science fantasy
firefly->Aliens->battle star->star trek->babylon 5->mass effect->star wars->a slew of anime->mass effect 3->Final Fantasy/Phantasy Star
Now reading your post, one could assert that we are all "aliens" to each other.
"She thought they said illegal aliens, and signed up".
The distinction here is that all of this stuff tends to fall into the "fiction" category with the sub-divisions acting as a "to what extent" will the world be grounded as a simulacrum to every day, day to day, living.
Aliens is a classic example of visual design grounding the events as being gritty and having a high fidelity of realism. While Prometheus on the other hand, is very clean; it visually driving at being more fantastical, a throw back to old 50's pulp.
Some pen and paper games such as "Rifts" plays with the idea of different fictional worlds colliding, and as such, this would be difficult to pin down, other than to simply describe it. Game wise it presents some troubling balancing issues. Although it is handled in much the same as it is in Shadowrun.
So why impose rules in the world?
Mostly for the boil the water, add potato flake, serve aspect of it. It helps when one is seeking some narrative coherence. Once a world is established the narrative tends to write itself. Works of fiction the setting and world tend to tell the audience a lot about what is happening.
In fantasy the world in many ways tends to be a backdrop or set piece. If the world is important it is usually in some really vague way, such as "save the world", or "the world is falling apart", the universe is headed for disaster, or some other such contrivance.
Looking at the fictional stuff, low fantasy and science fiction we see a use of sequels focused on characters. Characters tend to be a part of a much bigger story or world.
Once we begin to stray into fantasy land, we see an emphasis on the world as an (object) not really a part of it, tropes and memes tend to go from one iteration to the next but none of the characters.
As an example:
Skyrim, we add a mech.
Functionally it is no different than a giant or dragon. Visually it is a little out of place, so we dress it dwarven and park it in a ruins. It's relatively rare, we place notes and tons of steampunk and steam-magic do-dads all over the place. Presto... a mech in dungeons and dragons... call it a golem, and done.
The more "fantasy" we go, the less bother we take upon ourselves to explain why this thing is even here. The more you ground it the more "bother" it is to keep everything straight.
For the purposes of video games there is a lot of overlap due to the highly visual nature and derivative designs.
Now again with Elder Scrolls... trolls act like "trolls", dragons are dragons, werewolves involve ritual, and vampire lords blood stuff. They are alien in so much as they are denizens of the world, but not really alien in the sense that they evolved through process independently of everything else in the world.
Architecture may have dragons on buildings, or on shields, trolls may be a part of a local ecology, werewolves may be discussed in hushed voices at a tavern, vampires may be in positions of authority in secret.
Because they are a part of a "world at large" we can explore them and in so doing learn about the world.
Now in sci-fi, there is always this notion of "when on an alien world, I am the alien". That is going to be the difference here. Humans or whatever may be stereotyped by other alien cultures, they will have variances in culture and ecology which are "alien". It tells us more about "the universe at large", by exploring them.
In high fantasy... don't expect much if ANY explanation as to how anything works, or why it is there...
It really just comes down to audience participation and consistency. That is going to be managed in dialog, visual communication, and audio.
The quick and dirty litmus test, how much tedium did a creator go about getting what is on the screen to make sense in the composition. The more work they do, the less fantastical, although that doesn't mean they didn't hijack culture stuff "like vampires" and just toss it into the composition.
For the purposes of your assertion I think you make an interesting point, as a narrative tool, it is the same thing; it serves the same purpose.
To describe the local ecology or the universe ecology and give the audience information about the world at large.
How much they are described and how all the pieces fit together is the distinction between low and high fantasy, or fiction and fantasy.
I think the difference is going to be in how one handles the narrative as to how the "alien" or "critter" perceives the audience or characters in narrative.
Aliens on the whole tend to exhibit human like intelligence and the same prejudices in science fiction.
A "critter" in the local ecology maybe not so much. More like a force of nature, inexplicable, or wild life. Maybe it is just tossed in for flavor in the scene? If so, maybe it is fantasy?
The more "critters" have thoughts, express emotions, desires, the closer we likely get to overlapping the genres. Simply from having to actually explain why this thing can actually do this.
Translator microbes or a magic spell? Whichever way you go in your design, pretty much establishes that world if one plans to keep the audience interested.
Audiences get worn or even frustrated with big clumsy shifting in genre, tone, theme. 2c anyway.
