I've kinda noticed recently that any game, especially RPG's that are set in the northern region of a world always have viking influence. the earliest game ive seen do this was warcraft 3: the frozen throne. is this everyone cashing in on blizzards idea or did someone do it before them?
whats with the viking influence
- Thread starter Neocavo
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were there any other prominent civilizations in the northern region during the dark ages? i hardly doubt it...
The only other real options for a real world analogue would be either Russians or Inuit. Because most of these games have a european feel to them that means the inuit are out and the medieval Russians were actually an offshoot of the various viking civilizations soooo yeah. That leaves us with Norsemen all the way.
That.thespyisdead said:
And apart from that, what other identifiable fighters were there in Europe at that time? You pretty much got knights and vikings. Maybe bandits, but those are usually the ones you beat up.
And I imagine they're easy to write around. If you play as a viking, it doesn't matter if you run around killing things, 'cause that's what everyone expects a viking to do.
Cultures in the north during the Dark Ages and Medieval times have been defined by the Viking influence because the Vikings and their predecessors (Think the Geats from Beowulf) were the big civilization from that area. This information is more speculation and theorizing than actual data, though.
Also...
Many games tend to reference cultures that were in or around an area with a similar climate or landscape. It gives one something to base the culture of the fictional counterpart off of. The Nords in The Elder Scrolls are a bit of an example of this: They're the Elder Scrolls universe counterpart of the Viking/Norse people. Since the vikings are commonly associated with the northern climates of the world, they're the obvious choice to use as a jumping-off point for a fantasy counterpart culture set in the icy north.
To be honest, I was expecting a thread about music for some strange reason.
Also...
Many games tend to reference cultures that were in or around an area with a similar climate or landscape. It gives one something to base the culture of the fictional counterpart off of. The Nords in The Elder Scrolls are a bit of an example of this: They're the Elder Scrolls universe counterpart of the Viking/Norse people. Since the vikings are commonly associated with the northern climates of the world, they're the obvious choice to use as a jumping-off point for a fantasy counterpart culture set in the icy north.
To be honest, I was expecting a thread about music for some strange reason.
Umm, Warcraft 3 didn't do that like, at all. In WC3 our first exposure to the North gave us the Nerubians and Frost Trolls, the Nerubians especially as far from Vikings as you can get, what with them being giant spider people that lived in pyramids. Though there were some Bandit styled mobs, there weren't any viking type enemies as far as I remember.Neocavo said:
Now, I think you might be confusing things with Wrath of the Lich King, the third expansion to World of Warcraft, in which we were indeed introduced to the Vrykul, who were indeed heavily based upon Norse and Viking myth and culture.
But as others have mentioned...it's kind of ingrained in our minds. When we think areas to the north and the people that might live there, many people who know even a little bit about the Vikings and the Norse naturally think of these thick bearded bloody axe crazy fighters that like to kill and pillage and drink and sing. It's not that the games are ripping off each other, but that they're drawing from the same source.
If there Dragons, there will be Vikings, another reason is vikings have the glory of being bad asses in the cold, so there is that too.
Mongols, Novgorodians (though related to vikings through Rurikids), Inuit. Not as well known, but they certainly adapted to harsh, cold conditions in their respective lands.thespyisdead said:
What would you put there instead of Vikings? Stealth-camel riding lizardmen? Historically they were displaced by the same societies found in central Europe, so its either generic medieval types in winter or Vikings.
Warcraft 3 came out ages ago, so recent games like Skyrim would hardly be copying it.Neocavo said:
And it's just a culture, other games have copied ninja's and central european medieval themes.
Yes and the fact that Thor was a Viking god as well as a marvel character based on said god so it couldn't really be in any other style other than vikingHardkorSB said: