Should every fantasy RPG be based on (good) books?

[Baby Tea]

I would say no way to the OP. Mostly because I'm sick of samey high fantasy games. I love high fantasy games, old and new alike, but when I can pretty much already guess what places will be like (Oh, this is the 'snow village of people who live in snow'), or what type of story there is (Revenge? Love lost? Apocalyptic weapon/spell/artifact/stuffed bunny in the hands of some evil dude/gal?), or whatever...I get bored. We need originality, and we won't get it by hacking up literary classics (Or crap-ics! See what I did there?).

Now, it seems like you've restricted writing to 'back story' in order to set the scene for the game. Perhaps we should first make sure that our writing is good in general (I.E. original). Because really, what good is a deep back story if the 'present time' is just another 'parents died' story coupled with a messianic protagonist who is the only one who can stop the evil dude/gal that wields the evil stuffed bunny of doom? Shucks, never played THAT before.

Yawn.

 

[Sethran]

The Elder Scrolls' lore goes far beyond Oblivion >_>

It's just like the Warhammer universe: You don't get all the lore of Warhammer just by playing Dawn of War, or Warhammer Online, you have to go to sources outside the game to find them. Not liking the game's story because you couldn't find out where the Elder Scrolls originated from in one game is like not liking a sandwich because you don't know from which vineyard the grapes for your jelly came from.

Also, it wasn't an 'invasion from hell'. The Oblivion plane isn't hell, it's a parallel world split into dozens of different realms each belonging to a specific entity known as a Daedra Lord. Each realm has it's own worshipers, it's own policies, and it's own enemies. It's not 'Hell'.

 

[Irmekroache]

The Elder Scrolls' lore goes far beyond Oblivion >_>

It's just like the Warhammer universe: You don't get all the lore of Warhammer just by playing Dawn of War, or Warhammer Online, you have to go to sources outside the game to find them. Not liking the game's story because you couldn't find out where the Elder Scrolls originated from in one game is like not liking a sandwich because you don't know from which vineyard the grapes for your jelly came from.

Also, it wasn't an 'invasion from hell'. The Oblivion plane isn't hell, it's a parallel world split into dozens of different realms each belonging to a specific entity known as a Daedra Lord. Each realm has it's own worshipers, it's own policies, and it's own enemies. It's not 'Hell'.

Then bethesda sure screwed up on that one. Because hell is exactly what they tried to suggest when creating the environments for the Oblivion plane. I'm also quite sure you didn't find that information in-game, and read it somewhere on the internet.

If a developer wants to write back story to a game they shouldn't make you dig for it, it should be there, part of the gameplay and present everywhere. In Morrowind, you could have talked to NPCs to get exactly the information you need, and if you ask the right person, they would have told you exactly what you were looking for. In oblivion lore is only present in book stores.

And to Baby Tea. Here's the deal; a good fantasy book usually isn't going to be good if its going to be another one of those cliched titles. It's good because it's original and creates a believable world and because of an engaging plot. It also doesn't have to be a classic, because actually I think most games these days are based on Hollywood scripts rather than literary classics.

 

[dukethepcdr]

Good writing is good writing regardless of where it comes from. There are lots of talented writers out there. If only games spent less on graphics and technology and more on getting talented writers (and then letting them be involved enough in the process of weaving their story into the game), you'd see more games with good plots and scripts. If that talent comes from previously written books, the writers of movies and/or a writer who makes up the stuff from scratch just for the game, it makes no difference.

 

[flatearth]

One example of a good RPG based on a book is Hard to be god. The story was great, maybe because the original Russian novel was also great. Only problem with that game was that it has bugs, quite a few of them. Made it through without much annoyance, and I'm glad I did. In that game the based-on-book thing worked like a charm.

Good writer will write good text no matter where they write it, bad one will screw up anything. Just by hiring good writers you could improve a lot in RPGs. It wouldn't make them perfect, because a good writer can not compensate for a bad idea for a back story from the developers.

 

[Arkfeller]

In oblivion lore is only present in book stores.

And some random pickups in treasure chests. I recall some AI conversation about Ayleids. That is definitely lore, albeit a small bit of it.