Poll: That old question Fantasy or Sci fi

[verdant monkai]

Personally I prefer Fantasy because with Fantasy, you usually get to see more of the world the story is set in. Star Wars for example is guilty of this crime, all the planets have only one kind of environment(Tatooineesert Dagobah:Swamp Hoth:Tundra Naboo:huge grassy field), just looking at our own planet shows this is unrealistic, because we have a lot of different environments. With Fantasy you get to see all the diverse varied aspects of the world, not just one kind.

Sci fi is too brief for me when you explore a world you only see a city or a small area, of the planet. I usually do not get too see as much as I would have liked (I am the person who cant move on in an adventure game until they have searched every room in the area, I WANT TO SEE IT ALL).

Fighting in Sci fi is not as good for me, because there are generally GUNS. Guns take all the fun out of combat for me. With swords and stuff YOU CAN HAVE A FIGHT. With guns it is just point, aim, blam then dead. That is not really fighting it is just killing without the challenge or build up. (I am aware that characters in these things don't usually die from one shot, but the gun is too powerful and takes all the length out of fights)

I am to set the record straight a Sci fi lover, for example I love Mass Effect (except the ending) and I love WH40k. I just find I generally prefer fantasy, because of those three above reasons.
I have not added a "I like them both" option to the poll because I want you to choose one or the other, but you can dislike both them of course. Whatever your choice please give a reason why. And for those of you who delight in picking apart OP's arguments, that's fine but please contribute to the discussion as well.

 

[gazumped]

Fighting in Sci fi is not as good for me, because there are generally GUNS.

This is my main reason for liking fantasy over sci-fi, not necessarily 'cause swords are better but because MAGIC. Fireballs! People turning into bears and biting their enemies' heads off! Heck yeah!

And sure, in sci-fi you can have gadgets and stuff that are techno-mage-y, but they spoil it by having to make it realistic and plausable by giving it sciencey reasons for being able to work. With fantasy it's just I AM A BEING OF PURE AWESOMENESS HAVE SOME LIGHTENING BOLTS.

... Perhaps I am a simple soul who likes simple things...

 

[DoPo]

The poll does not specify fantasy or sci fi what, so I went with "sci fi". From your post it seems you're talking about games...in which case I would have probably chosen "fantasy".

I prefer sci fi over fantasy, because I've grew up reading it. My father and my uncle (form my mother's side) are both fans of sci fi, so I had ple-e-enty of books and materials to read. Fantasy I don't mind, but I find it a little bit on the bland side.

And that's reversed in games. Fantasy games usually have richer and more detailed setting (although a variation of Tolkien, it's still detailed) while sci fi, on the whole, would go for richer and more detailed lasers that go pew pew. Or equivalent.

 

[Eddie the head]

In the words of Yahtzee "Mass Effect features a race of all female bisexuals culturally obliged to bang anything that moves." So yeah Sci fi. On a more serious note I just grew up watching Star Trek and The twilight zone, and to me Sci Fi just seams more varied. I mean when you say Sci fi a few things come to mind The twilight zone, Star trek, Star Wars, as well as all of Isaac Asimov. In contrast when I hear fantasy I think Lord of the Rings, and bastard offspring. Don't get me wrong I like lord of the rings but it's too common.

 

[verdant monkai]

The poll does not specify fantasy or sci fi what, so I went with "sci fi". From your post it seems you're talking about games...in which case I would have probably chosen "fantasy".

I prefer sci fi over fantasy, because I've grew up reading it. My father and my uncle (form my mother's side) are both fans of sci fi, so I had ple-e-enty of books and materials to read. Fantasy I don't mind, but I find it a little bit on the bland side.

And that's reversed in games. Fantasy games usually have richer and more detailed setting (although a variation of Tolkien, it's still detailed) while sci fi, on the whole, would go for richer and more detailed lasers that go pew pew. Or equivalent.

I just meant generally like books/films/games. I did talk about Games a bit so I can see how that may be a tad uninformative. But this is in an off topic thread so come on.

NOTICE FOR ALL: This is about Sci fi and Fantasy in general not just Games.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Although I do enjoy most, my primary setting is sci-fi. I just generally prefer starships over armies, coilguns instead or bows, and powerfists (if applicable) over any normal swords.

 

[Nouw]

I enjoy both. While I may read, watch or play more sci-fi I still love Fantasy.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

Where's the option for liking them both? I'd be just as likely to pick up something by Tolkien as I would Arthur C Clarke.

At the moment I am going through a Sci-Fi kick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is an excellent read) so with the limited options available I'll choose that.

 

[verdant monkai]

Hasn't this thread been done?
Very recently?
Meh, I prefer sci fi. Just because any situation is improved with jet packs.

I think that was Tolkein or star wars. This is more general.
So no. It has not been done very recently.
Must everyone on this website constantly quote Yhatzee?

Where's the option for liking them both? I'd be just as likely to pick up something by Tolkien as I would Arthur C Clarke.

At the moment I am going through a Sci-Fi kick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is an excellent read) so with the limited options available I'll choose that.

Check my OP I give a reason why in there

 

[solemnwar]

Sci-fi is a subgenre of fantasy...
But I prefer "traditional" fantasy more so than sci-fi.

 

[Gabanuka]

Novels I prefer fantasy

Game I go for sci-fi or whateverpunk but I sometimes get the fantasy urge

Favourite game is still Oblivion though

 

[Vault101]

sci fi

I dont know...high fantsy feels so samey

and you could say exactally the same about sci fi..I think its jsut pure preferwence, it jsut does somthing for me the other doesnt...I feel more comfortable wirh a sci fi setting

 

[Thaluikhain]

Depends, the two are large genres.

In any case, Star Wars is often described as science fantasy, because there isn't any science in it. Sticking robots and stuff doesn't make you sci-fi, explaining how at least some of it works would have. Which they did with midichlorians in the prequel, and everyone hated it.

Now, I personally happen to like science fantasy, that's not an attack.

Personally, though, I happen to like hard sci fi, otherwise the author tends to make something magically appear to solve a problem. Hard sci-fi also tends to have better world-building.

Mind you, the distinction is pretty vague. If you have a fantasy world with wizards and elves and dwarfs and you aren't just ripping off Tolkien, really, but your geoloy and sociology and all makes sense, well, they are sciences as well.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

I like them both but I find fantasy easier to get into since you're not dealing with any techno-babble. It's always fun combining them together.

 

[WolfThomas]

I like my sci fi high concept and my fantasy low and gritty. I want to be challenged and questioned with the first. And I want knights who say "fuck" alot with the second.

 

[SckizoBoy]

snip

I was about half-way through that post thinking... dude, you're a WH40K player, you can totally have fights in sci-fi, what do you think's better at taking a Marine down, a bolt pistol or a Crozius?! =P Besides, in SW:KotOR, I don't think I fired a single shot at all...

OT: It really depends on the medium.

Games - I like both, because the approach is, for the most part, identical with skills, aspects of setting, and so long as the gameworld is rich with detail, the gamplay smooth and story engaging, I won't really care if it's sci-fi or fantasy.

Movies - Sci-fi, for the simple reason that fantasy characters with American accents just seems so wrong, if only because of the trope that fantasy characters all come from middle-England which is so deeply ingrained that I can't get out of it. But it's also that up until about 1940, the prestige dialect of the States was RP English and they have no tradition of mythology to call their own, hence the Anglo-European centrism of the (western) fantasy genre.

Books - Fantasy, this one's rather difficult, because it's primarily about the writing style. Sci-fi writing is often visceral, while fantasy is mostly intellectual. While there have been sci-fi books I've enjoyed, they just haven't got the incidence of enjoyment that fantasy does. And for all China Mieville is an awesome writer, I can't seem to have fun reading his books.

Composition - Sci-fi, mainly because I've invested so much of my life developing a futuristic universe and canon that any fantasy I try to write is inevitably influenced by this universe, and always to its detriment. *le sigh*

 

[3quency]

I like science fantasy.
Alien wizards shooting it out with tolkeinian orcs? Fuck. Yes.

 

[Master-Jedi]

Both, but I tend to lean to the Sci-fi side. I really am stating to get sick of the usual elves and Dwarves style of fantasy, though. I agree with Yahtzee's opinion on fantasy nowadays, we need more variety. Not that Sci-fi is a fountain of originality all of the time, but spaceships are way cooler than horses.

I wish that we could see more of a mix between the two. I've always liked Shadowrun because it incorporates both technology and magic into the same world. I would love to see more stuff that does stuff like that.