Fantasy as a genre has been going strong this year, especially in video games. Skyrim came out as a huge hit, Kingdom of Amalur has become a quiet success, Dungeon Defenders is sweeping the Indy titles, and others have brought players back to the realms of mages with funny hats, heroes with big swords, elf maidens in need of a new tailor, and fantasy staples like orcs, goblins, and dragons. Anyone care to guess what other elements might be involved in games like these? Trolls, demons, archwizards, shadowy assassins, dwarves, giant animals, swords, shields, bows, castles, scheming advisers, kings, princesses, magic items, wildly impractical armor, bandit caves, pirates, skeleton warriors, lost civilizations, wolves, inter-dimensional monstrosities, dungeons, catacombs, pretty forests, and on and on and on.
Why is fantasy so predictable?
We all love Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings. It was a great series with an engaging world. Why is it everyone has to rip that off? Maybe that is a bit of a stretch, but you have to admit that a lot of fantasy has a similar feel to it. We keep a lot of the same elements in that genre. Heck, I know I do that same. I was recently looking back on a project I had started and realized just how cliche it felt. We stick to the same elements because we're familiar with them and they're safe. Elves, dwarves, and orcs don't need a lot of detail work because all of us already have a pretty good idea what they are like.
I'm getting sick of the same thing over and over. There is only so often you can read about the human boy teaming with the elf girl and the clumsy wizard as they save the world from the evil overlord. Or play as the silent barbarian/one-man-army who is the only one in the entire world that can change the fate of the world. As much as different authors try to spice it up, typically they all have a relatively similar plot. These work fine, but it means that we become complacent, and soon resentful, of the worlds we've put ourselves in. For me, when I could substitute one fantasy world for another, my interest just starts to fade.
The sad thing about this is that it is all just a sign of laziness. Let's look at science fiction quickly. BioWare has released games in both of these genres, Dragon Age (fantasy) and Mass Effect (Sci-Fi). In Dragon Age we have humans, elves, dwarves, and an orc knock off. In Mass Effect we have humans, turians, krogans, asari, drell, elcor, hanar, keepers, salarians, volus, geth, yahg, vorcha, reapers, quarian... the list goes on. All of these races are unique and well defined. Each one has its history and issues. And this is all within the bounds of science (sort of). Why is in worlds were magic can seemingly defy logic we get stuck with the same races and characters, while in a world ruled but what could possibly exist is so much richer? The mage can summon fire from heaven but he can't have tentacles for arms and raptor legs?
We need a revival in this genre. It is one of my favorites, but my passion for it is waning. The lack of real innovation is crippling this genre. Bethesda did some work with this in their Elder Scrolls series, adding Argonians (lizard people) and Kahjit (cat people) but even those are pretty mundane. How can a genre titled "fantasy," which is supposed to be all that we can imagine and more, be stuck in the same repeating ideas. There should be unlimited opportunities in this genre. Magic could be used to explain countless types of characters, races, and abilities. Terry Pratchett's series Discworld has an amazingly rich world that is unique and engaging, with more than just your standard characters. Yet he seems like the only one (that I have come across) who pushes these traditionally accepted boundaries. We need to drop the notion that fantasy is limited to elves and dwarves, and reach out for those hidden worlds that could change fantasy for the better.
Seriously though, I'm sick of the female heroes wearing the equivalent of on tin can's worth of armor.
Just something to chew on.
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