Originality in fantasy is fucking dead. Elves and dwarves and humans and wizards and castles and swords n' shit, every fucking time. Always based on some fantasy version of medieval Europe, using the same tired Tolkien fantasy races and concepts.
Fallout used to be a good escape from that, but of course Bethesda ruined it.
Pic related is the first time in a long time someone's made honest-to-god original fantasy - as in, completely made up shit that can be whatever they want. Wild West theme, food-based magic, snake-based alchemy, literal Ancient Aliens, Mexican Necromancy, interdimensional cow demons, meat mining.
We need more of this kind of whacky shit. Original shit. New shit. Interesting shit.
I can't even be assed to buy TW3 simply because I'm bored out of my skull by that fucking over-used setting.
Aaron Peterson
Ok
Camden Parker
channel that boredom and frustration into making a good and creative fantasy game
Ethan Price
Mass appeal dongus. The generic fantasy setting is good and even as people get tired of it more young folks are introduced to it so it will stay for a while. Bloody Witcher, Game of Thrones low fantasy gritty "realistic" "mature" settings are popular now till they're not.
Matthew Smith
>Not wanting dwarves all the time >Not appreciating Tolkien as the master and genius of everything >Not enjoying the fantasy atmosphere
Why, OP, your life must be absolutely sad.
Landon Lee
>Tolkien is great >so let's drive everything he made into the ground with our shitty hack job rip-offs How about Tolkien remain Tolkien, and everyone else use their brains and invent something else?
Isaiah Mitchell
Plenty of people made their own stuff, more than you could ever read in your entire life time. Clearly they haven't caught on. Then again, Tolkien didn't catch on till a long time after his death.
Tyler Parker
It's not really Tolkien as much as D&D. Also, devs work with what they're familiar with and what can sell.
Carter Johnson
they use what works anything new seems like something we already know but altered slightly
Camden Morales
Yeah, because shit tends to work out so well when devs deviate, right?
Michael Cook
that failed for reasons other than deviating from tolkien, user
John King
like what? Deviating from AAA game design?
Caleb Edwards
The game Tides based itself off of, Planescape Torment, is actually a good game, user.
Logan Morales
That's not the point, user. Point is it didn't sell while standard fantasy does sell. Investors don't really care why it failed.
Henry Edwards
It's hard to be original, It's harder to be original and good. West of Loathing guys have years of experience with Kingdom of Loathing so they know what works and what doesn't when going off the beaten path, at least with their target audience.
Henry Green
Crowdfunded games, user. InXile is continuing with Wasteland 3 even after 2 didn't sell millions. In fact, crowdfunded games not taking risks is the real problem like Obsidian with Pillars of Eternity.
Justin Cruz
>what are JRPGs?
Elijah Hughes
>tolkien you mean D&D. that's the primary source that video games are based on. tolkienism in video game tropes only extends as far as the forgotten realms being a chinese counterfeit of middle earth
Tyler Sanchez
JRPGs are equally as bad and are often just crazy kitchen sinks without any identity of their own.
Daniel Garcia
>implying jrpgs aren't the biggest offenders of this
Nathan Murphy
The simple answer is its hard. What concepts can you come up with that feel fresh and make sense? How do you know what new concepts will appeal to a wide audience? Try to hard to deviate from the norm and your game will just come off as nonsensical, with only the nichest of audiences. West of Loathing is a unique example, as the creator had years of experience in game and world creation. While I loved Kingdom of Loathing growing up, even I have to admit it used a lot of established tropes, even if only through mockery.
Justin Allen
I think Arcanum took the tolkien formula and actually made something unique out of it user
Jeremiah Jackson
>I can't even be assed to buy TW3 Don't bother man. It's so incredibly mediocre you will fall asleep.
Wyatt Hall
>crazy kitchen sinks without any identity of their own That's basically what OP is asking for.
Thomas Jones
Reminder that Tolkien just ripped off and adapted Nordic myths.
Adrian Taylor
...
Angel Foster
Because Tolkien is wedded to european mythology in its various forms?
Seriously, if you're playing some northwest european style fantasy game, its going to be as tolkien as it gets because they all share similar stories because culture.
And the reason why tolkien is used the most is because the modern day RPG is based on D&D, which itself was created by a classical wargamer.
I mean, you got shit like elderscrolls, specifically morrowind and daggerfall where shit gets pretty crazy and out there, you can call it tolkien all you want, but mushroom wizard towers, giant enemy crabshell cities, and giant bug busses were pretty neat.
Of course OP is probably just a massive weeb and wondering why there isn't more weeb style fantasy, which is based on japanese style god and spirit mythos's
Justin Wright
It sells. The west in general is unable to appreciate something different, so the developers usually play safe. If you want originality, play japanese games. They are leagues better anyway.
