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Cliches, stereotypes, and other nonsensical/overplayed game conventions...
Sorenson
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
...and the developers who actually try to defy them.
While reading the Dwarf Fortress thread early this morning I came across a particular sequence of posts regarding the universal unlikability of a particular group that's common fare in many games, and that got me thinking about such things in general - those universal characteristics applied to one entity or concept or another that, for whatever reason or another, goes all but completily unchallenged never mind that oftentimes there isn't an actually valid reason why these characteristics can be made universal, to the point of which they reach the thread's titular status'.
So, uh, basically I want to talk about them, and I'll start off with the one that got this thread started in the first place:
What's the deal with elves?[/Seinfeld]
Most of us are already pretty familier with these guys, be it from D&D or Tolkien's works or the countless-and-one games that include them and are usually ripping off Tolkien in the process: quick fellows if not exactly sturdy, usually going along with bows and the like, long-living, artsy, look absolutly fabulous, magical in some way, oftentimes have a really annoying connection with nature that reaches the level of nature-wanking. You know, the guys you generally wind up hating.
So why is it that they pretty much always have to be this way? I know that their real-world mythos generally had them as being these deitic nature entities and the like, but is there a reason that this has to be stuck to so faithfully, or at least with the current brand of elves depicted in the game's current time period? Why can't we see an elf civilization that actually decides to eschew the nature-wankery you see so often and actually try to embrace technology and the like instead of treating it like some kind of blight upon the face of the earth? Why do they have to be a bunch of arrogent and aloof pricks that think that just because they've got a hundred years or so up on other folks that they're this sagely, all-wise and all-knowing bunch that know the true nature of things, knowledge that the other youthful and childish races simply have no hope of understanding due to their shorter lifespans instead of, say, understanding that arrogent bullshit like that is why so much shit gets stirred up in the first place? Why can't we see an elf civilization that's noted not for its artistic works and all of the other flowery stuff they're conceptually known for but instead for their scientific advancements or industrial power or military strength?
So who actually decided to break the mold regarding the fey folk? When has a developer decided to buck the trend and put a completily different twist on their elven civilization? In what games are elves not magnets of loathing and contempt by the player but instead are actually likable?
While reading the Dwarf Fortress thread early this morning I came across a particular sequence of posts regarding the universal unlikability of a particular group that's common fare in many games, and that got me thinking about such things in general - those universal characteristics applied to one entity or concept or another that, for whatever reason or another, goes all but completily unchallenged never mind that oftentimes there isn't an actually valid reason why these characteristics can be made universal, to the point of which they reach the thread's titular status'.
So, uh, basically I want to talk about them, and I'll start off with the one that got this thread started in the first place:
What's the deal with elves?[/Seinfeld]
Most of us are already pretty familier with these guys, be it from D&D or Tolkien's works or the countless-and-one games that include them and are usually ripping off Tolkien in the process: quick fellows if not exactly sturdy, usually going along with bows and the like, long-living, artsy, look absolutly fabulous, magical in some way, oftentimes have a really annoying connection with nature that reaches the level of nature-wanking. You know, the guys you generally wind up hating.
So why is it that they pretty much always have to be this way? I know that their real-world mythos generally had them as being these deitic nature entities and the like, but is there a reason that this has to be stuck to so faithfully, or at least with the current brand of elves depicted in the game's current time period? Why can't we see an elf civilization that actually decides to eschew the nature-wankery you see so often and actually try to embrace technology and the like instead of treating it like some kind of blight upon the face of the earth? Why do they have to be a bunch of arrogent and aloof pricks that think that just because they've got a hundred years or so up on other folks that they're this sagely, all-wise and all-knowing bunch that know the true nature of things, knowledge that the other youthful and childish races simply have no hope of understanding due to their shorter lifespans instead of, say, understanding that arrogent bullshit like that is why so much shit gets stirred up in the first place? Why can't we see an elf civilization that's noted not for its artistic works and all of the other flowery stuff they're conceptually known for but instead for their scientific advancements or industrial power or military strength?
So who actually decided to break the mold regarding the fey folk? When has a developer decided to buck the trend and put a completily different twist on their elven civilization? In what games are elves not magnets of loathing and contempt by the player but instead are actually likable?
Sorenson on
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Ok Sorenson, I'm gonna put scientific techno-elves in my game
And in real world mythology elves weren't nature loving either. They were little guys who ran around in the bushes singing songs. Sometimes they even ate children. Those guys sound cooler than Legolas.
That'd actually be a pretty bitchin' DF civ mod, really. Would it be possible to code them so that they're nearly-always/always at war with their infinately-more-annoying bretheren?
And if we're bringing up TES, I just recalled one: the Ayelid or whatever they are from Oblivion were supposedly a bunch of right militant motherfuckers - then again, they were right militant supremecist motherfuckers, so they go right back to their traditional rut of douchebaggery.
I would be amazed if such a game didn't have the noble savage stereotype out of the wazoo.
Egh. There's another fantasy cliche I hate. Fucking barbarians. This is why A Song of Ice and Fire is my favorite fantasy world. It's not stupid.
Those things are just downright scary.
Guess it's kinda like how all dwarves are chubby, all orcs are ugly, and all fairies are kind and friendly beings.
Check out Changeling: The Lost and get back to me on that.
I think I figured out why Hershey's kisses are not sold in Japan.
Dark Link
Dark Samus
Cosmic Mario
Shadow the Hedgehog
Tomb Raider Underworld Doppleganger
I'm sure we could all name countless others.
Pokemon Safari - Sneasel, Pawniard, ????
One thing I always thought was interesting was how for the longest time in gaming, the go-to method for fighting your enemies was a) shooting or b) jumping on them.
I have programmed on occasion and I understand that it is easier to just move the picture of the man up and then down again than to actually animate him doing something complicated to hit the enemy. It's a good simple representation of a ruleset, with obvious and clear states: if you touch an enemy anywhere, you die, but if you jump first and hit them from above, they die. Additionally, it's a nice way to tell what is going on with very little detail.
It's just bizarre to step back and picture all the years of gaming, including some current games, where that is what constitutes violence. Of all the things we do to hurt each other, from punching and kicking to wrestling moves to golf clubs to gatling guns, video games decided to use the least common method of hurting someone. I guess it is sort of a wrestling move, I can picture a realistic Mario leaping chest first onto a turtle and grappling him into submission.
I remember some of my earliest games where I couldn't jump on the enemy's head. No, that hurts you. What? How is that possible? Suddenly I'm terrified to play Kid Icarus, because what if my arrows aren't enough? I have no backup plan!
Another strange effect resulting from this was the butt stomp. Lots of games adopted it over the years, and it did make the head jumps easier and more visceral. But again, really? How am I falling faster all of a sudden, and why do my nethers make just as good a tool of destruction as my shoes?
These things evolve for ease of programming, and disappear for the same reason. Suddenly in 3D it became much harder to land directly on top of an enemy, so Crash Bandicoot did a spinning kick and Mario started punching. Mario can punch? Blew my mind back in the day.
It's just an oddity that goes with the territory.
Yeah, they're 'deep elves' and they magically disappeared for no reason.
Well Morrowind goes into that second part in at least one sidequest and it's actually a bit interesting, but I don't want to bother to look it up or spoil it.
Yeah, most of you probably know this, so I'll just pass on by the derisive snorts.
I mean, seriously. Home city, and 95% of thier civilization? Torched. Scourged. Eaten and shattered.
Magical addiction coursing through thier veins. Some legitimate species-wide motivation. A kickass sort of arrogance that actually works, AND is hatefully poncy at the same time.
First response from their leader to fix this? Invade outer space! Outer space is always an enemy! And the hero in that story... loses. I was really genuinly thrown to realize that Kael'thas was a /bad guy/ in the end. Illidan you sort of saw coming, but man.
So, yeah.
I guess I can't really go into detail without randomly spoiling games.
But ya, I hate elves. Warcraft managed to do them right but even then they started out being extremely generic.
Yeah, but they can sommersault.
Did someone say Trias/Kreia/Atris?
Though, um.
Dom.
No, it didn't.
They were originally the Alliance's crappy mirror to motherfucking TROLLS. Talk about lame.
And then they went downhill from there!
Anyways, I love Tolkien, but his Elves aren't really that different from Men. I don't really know what differentiates his work(other than it being not being written by a hack), but I like his elves, and I hate them everywhere else.
Yes. I love that the main enemy in Valkyria Chronicles is a beautiful, golden-haired man-emperor reminiscent of Alexander.
On this subject why do anime bad guys have to have the platinum grey hair. Why?. Valkyria still has this, sadly.
Yeah, but they can sommersault.
Yeah, but Blood Elves can...sidemersault?
Vossler in FFXII is a classic case of this, but I thought it was done really well.