I play a lot of Role-Playing Games on my consoles. I enjoy them and have enjo0yed them for years. But there's one trend that deeply annoys me.
Namely, I'm getting very tired of the pseudo-Tolken pseudo-European D&D ripoff fantasy worlds. Our "Go Farther" for today is about how I'd like to see this trend broken.
I'm sure many companies realize that this stuff sells – and indeed, I am mildly sympathetic to that. However with increasing availability of game media, with DLC, with World of Warcraft dominating fantasy, and with some less-than-pseudo-Tolkein games coming in from Asia – isn't it time companies Go Farther and start doing fantasy that doesn't look like a 25-year old D&D game?
There's a huge amount of rich ideas to draw on from all over the world, and when you extrapolate there's even more. Forget the pseudo-Victorian Steampunk – give me a culutre of steampunk Eskimos who conquer the North pole. I'm tired of neo-D&D magic – give me butt-kicking monks who manipuate their internal energies.
For that matter if you're going to mine Tolkein and Euro-Nordic culture for ideas, why not go farther with that at least? Explore planetary magic ideas ala some of the astrologer-magi of pre-Renaissance and Renaissance times. Toss in Alchemy, Rune magic, whatever you can find that isn't leftover from the trends of the last few decades.
Yes there are some games that do this or explore the various other possibilities, but they're only a small part of the market.
Taking a chance may seem scary, but at this rate the standard-Euro-fantasy-D&D type game borders on being a joke – everyone does it. I think a well done game, doing things differently, would shake up the market and get a big audience.
Go on game companies, go farther.
I want my steampunk Eskimos.
– Steven Savage