Why do a huge portion of WRPGs take place in a medieval fantasy setting?

[tzimize]

Where else would they take place? Medieval times kicked ass. Sci-fi is ok...but meh...and current times are just AWFULLY dull gaming material.

What I'd REALLY like to see though is an RPG/action-rpg/adventure/SOMETHING set in stone-age times. Imagine hunting sabertooth-tigers, mammoths....warring with other tribes...the extreme wildness of nature...fuck. Why havent anyone made a stone-age game?

 

[trollnystan]

You know what I would like? A WRPG set in steampunk Victorian(esque) times. That would be frickin' awesome.

EDIT: Ninja'd! Blast you!

EDIT2: Also, I obviously paid the prize[footnote]Heavy risk-- sorry.[/footnote] for only skimming the OP's post. Shame on me. Shaaaaaaaame.

 

[Arkynomicon]

I think that the Japanese game Demon's Souls did a much better WRPG setting then any other game I played in the last 10 years. Mostly because they nailed the atmosphere they where going for. They didn't make the game with profit in mind but rather wanted to make a game they had been longing for. The fact that it became a success exceeded their expectations.

Western developers seems to be all about the character customization, giving you a to do list, relying on typical fantasy tropes about being the hero that saves the day and a crap-load of side-quests rather then keeping the focus on the main plot. So we often end up with a product that is developed to be a safe bet and conventional. This is not always a bad thing but it often feels like we get a recycled product from our side of the world.

What the genera needs is developers being ready to take risks before it becomes a more stagnated genera then it already is. It won't always pay off but when it does it will be worth the sacrifice.

 

[King toad]

I'll give double if it's cel shaded and includes really good action that isn't turn based in any way!

There's an option to choose between Real time and turn based, but real time is really, really badly done. Having a new Steampunk WRPG, that doesn't have the horrible combat problems of Arcanum, but retains everything utterly fantastic about it would be the equivalent of porn.

 

[Fayathon]

I'm sure you'll be glad to hear there IS a WRPG that takes place in steampunk Victorian England.

It's called Arcanum. Pretty old game, like 2000 or 2001, and the combat engine's not great, but the setting, story, and characters are all incredibly well-done. I'd say it's almost as good as Baldur's Gate 2.

Relevant to my interests, thanks.

I mean we could have a WRPG take place in Steampunk Victorian England

Shut up and take my money, all of it!

I'll give double if it's cel shaded and includes really good action that isn't turn based in any way!

Also, where the hell is the pi button for Captcha?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi

First paragraph, first character, I'd have copypasta'd it but the forums are kinda anal about alt code characters, it makes me sad, being a smartass isn't near as much fun if I have to link something rather than just post it.

 

[dyre]

I'll give double if it's cel shaded and includes really good action that isn't turn based in any way!

There's an option to choose between Real time and turn based, but real time is really, really badly done. Having a new Steampunk WRPG, that doesn't have the horrible combat problems of Arcanum, but retains everything utterly fantastic about it would be the equivalent of porn.

It's really closer to fast forward than "real time"

 

[Morgan Howe]

because rpgs are by nature fantasy games, and where go most western ideals of fantasy come from?
Narnia, Eragon, Harry Potter
Wizards, Castle, Dragons, Swords and Shields
Japan draws from their Shinto mythology, we draw from our mid-evil legends
you wouldn't want to play a game where your weapons choices are either a stick, or a rock would you?

 

[l3o2828]

I don't mind they are all basically the same as long as they stop making all its stories dark as coal.
'I SWARE IM TIRED OF STUPID RACIST DRAMA AND SWEARING IN EVERY BLOODY SECOND WITCHER; DO SOMETHING ELSE PLOX?' is my true opinion.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Sword-and-sorcery in a quasi-Medieval world is a setting firmly entrenched in our minds. It establishes a comfort zone, a base from which to extrapolate. Everyone recognizes dragons and elves. When players see a preview with dragons and elves, they say, "I played a game with dragons and elves once! It was awesome! Maybe I'll play this one too." At least, that's what developers are hoping for.

Also, removing all modern technology is a reliable, understandable way to sharply limit the player's capabilities. Enemies with knives or fiery breath would be less frightening if you could snipe them with modern rifles. Getting a message to the next town in time to prepare for an enemy attack would not be a problem if you could simply telephone them. Solving a riddle is no problem when you can look up the answer on your Internet phone. RPGs are almost required to take place in low-technology settings. Doing so takes away easy solutions, making room for more heroic derring-do and a greater sense of peril.

Creating a game with an entirely new base is much more difficult, not to mention less likely to sell, if the new setting deviates far enough from the norm. This is why a game like Arcanum stands out. All it did was throw steampunk into sword-and-sorcery (which Final Fantasy has been doing since 8-bit). Both genres are established, yet at the time it was so rare to see them together it made gamers look again and go, "Huh? Guns and spells together in one game? It are not make sense!"

Even games that use different settings tend to stick with something fairly established. Fallout 3: post-apocalypse is an old idea. Mass Effect: the "our future in space" setting has been around ever since we figured out the sky is not, in fact, an encapsulating crystal dome placed by the gods.

Edit: dammit, somebody already mentioned Arcanum.

 

[Jason Danger Keyes]

I think it's because of the reliance on ancient melee weapons, and fantasy elements like magic spells, and how they make so much more sense in a leveling up system. As great as Fallout 3 was, it was always extremely jarring to shoot a regular bandit in the face upwards of 6 times without him dying or even flinching, up until level 8 or 10 when I could max out the gun stat and actually do decent damage. In real life, if you're shot point blank in the face with a pistol it doesn't matter how talented the person shooting you is, you're going to fucking die.

However, a talented swordsman is going to hit you harder than the novice. A talented archer is going to have a better pull on the string and hit harder. A talented mage is going to be able to make those fireballs more potent. Leveling up makes sense with these types of weapons, and these types of weapons make sense in a fantasy setting (as opposed to FF7 pitting a dude with a sword against a group of tanks)

That being said, I would like some variation on the medieval setting; it doesn't always have to be medieval pseudo-England. How about feudal Japan? Egypt? Scandinavia? All of these cultures had extremely rich mythology to draw on, so why have they been ignored?

Can you imagine how sweet a full-out Viking fantasy rpg would be? You'd start out small, killing trolls, but then work your way up to riding with Valkyries and killing frost giants with a battle axe in Asgard.

 

[Laser Priest]

Because people like it. It sells well and it's not hard to do.

 

[Amondren]

Fallout is a WRPG and a damn good one at that its also pretty famous.

 

[OliverTwist72]

Fallout 3, Mass Effect, KotOR, Jade Empire, Red Dead Redemption, just off the top of my head. Are there games set in medieval setting? Yes. Are there just as many or more games that don't? Yes. Also most RPGs nowadays that have a gun automatically get shoe-horned into "Generic FPS shooter" game when I think a lot of these have some RPG tendancies to them.

A lot of it is the RPG genre that expanded out of the D&D universe, which is definately of medieval days of yore. I think as the genre grows you'll see more branching out.

 

[Shymer]

Tolkien's work continues to be hugely influential nearly ninety years after The Hobbit and LOTR. The most successful RPGs drew heavily on Tolkien (and pre-Tolkien heroic fantasy mythology - Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Mabinogion, and the like).

Interestingly, 'old' fantasy epics like those listed above were updated with medieval trappings during the "Romantic" revival in the 12th/13th centuries. The Romantic movement peaked around the end of the 13th century - waning particularly after the Rennaisance, but interest in it was revived by Alfred, Lord Tennyson et al in 19th century.

The Romantic movement established Arthurian-type fantasy (with supernatural and adventurous elements) dressed in plate armour - chivalry and courtly love - firmly in the imagination and aspirations of a generation of Victorians, just as the British Empire reached the peak of its expansion around the world (around the time of the first publication of LOTR).

Heroic fantasy has been a staple of literary endeavour since things were first written down in any format by any human. It has long been recognised that the story of the heroic journey (see Joseph Campbell "Hero with a Thousand Faces") is one that crosses cultures and time - tapping into deep and shared human experience. Perhaps that confluence of Romantic fiction with cultural expansion and the ability for it to transcend cultural boundaries led to its current and enduring popularity.

So - the genre is popular with broad appeal and it is comfortable and familiar to people - both designers and customers across the world. It would thus represent a lower investment risk than an untested genre, or worse a setting which has been tried before and failed.

 

[G-Force]

I don't mind they are all basically the same as long as they stop making all its stories dark as coal.
'I SWARE IM TIRED OF STUPID RACIST DRAMA AND SWEARING IN EVERY BLOODY SECOND WITCHER; DO SOMETHING ELSE PLOX?' is my true opinion.

This was another thing I noticed with WRPGs, it was how serious everything is. While there are moments of genuine comic relief for the most part everything is rather grim. There are a few JRPGs that carry themselves out goofy manner (such as the Mario series) or at least keep a rather upbeat cheery pace (P4). Outside of A Bard's Tale I'm can't think of another WRPG to do this.

 

[DustyDrB]

A lot of it is a matter of inspiration, from each other and from other works (Tolkien, etc). A lot of it has to do with marketing, where the setting has an already established fan base.

I'm actually pretty tired of the medieval fantasy setting. A lot of these settings have really become too familiar and fail to draw me in. One of the best parts of Mass Effect is simply experiencing the universe for the first time, and learning about all the different species and their histories. I love the unfamiliarity that comes with such a new kind of setting, because it makes me want to learn about them. When I see the typical medieval fantasy with elves, dwarves, orcs and whatnot, I come in feeling I already know enough about them. I'm not motivated to learn. I'm not as into their culture.

So yes, I would like to see different settings for RPGs. To name a few: Pirate (this alone has made Risen 2: Dark Waters an instant buy for me), Spy (with more emphasis on actual espionage and intel-gathering than Alpha Protocol had), Norse, and Western.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Can you imagine how sweet a full-out Viking fantasy rpg would be? You'd start out small, killing trolls, but then work your way up to riding with Valkyries and killing frost giants in Asgard.

It's a comment on how badass the Vikings were that trolls -- gnarled, hulking seven-foot brutes with dispositions nastier than their halitosis -- are about the smallest thing you could start with.

Also, your idea for stealing from someone else's mythology for a change kicks ass.

 

[Karloff]

I agree with most of the above, and would add that the devs probably realize that using unfamiliar tropes increases the narrative burden. They'd have to explain why the world is the way it is, what the races or nations are (and all the detail that goes with it), design a visual style from the ground up, possibly redesign the magic and combat systems to fit the new narrative, and on and on . . . and they'd be doing all of that for an audience which, by and large, doesn't take risks with their entertainment. They like the familiarity of the swords-and-sorcery bit, with its larger than life 'save the kingdom from the rampaging mwurgletwerp, oh and would you mind terribly fufilling this prophecy too' plotlines. Never mind that in the process of describing the new world they could kill the fun with cutscenes and explanatory dialogue. That's a huge risk to take with a AAA budget; it's not surprising there aren't many takers.