Lol, oh ok. Yeah it makes you do a double take.

What about the Oblivion orcish one, where each boob has a scary face and a doorknocker attached?

It's not a door knocker, the face has a septum piercing.

Or rather a Septim piercing. Hurr.

Also "knocker". Hurrrr!

etc.

That was a cool and well thought out post! Thanks for sharing your thoughts

I am kind of in the middle. While I appreciate historical accurateness, I don't feel it's a necessity.

As you mentioned in a later post, the intent is more important to me. When I first logged on to World of Warcraft, the structurally unsound buildings that dotted the Night Elf starting area eventually got to me and I did not revisit that MMORPG until a year or two later. At that point, I just "accepted" that they were doing for "cartoony" and I was to look past that formerly sore point for me

I kind of giggle when I see armor that would crush the wearer's head if they lifted their arms or swords that are so off-balance, no one could wield them effectively. I have found, however, that if I can remind myself "Fantasy!", I can sometimes stomach the outlandish designs. It really depends on how the developers create their whole world, though. If it is "Earth Similar", then my standards adjust to that. If it is "Totally OUR world.", then I fond myself more accepting. Steel may not even be a material on those kinds of worlds. Maybe some other material has been found if Iron and Coal are not present.

All in all, a great thought-provoking post! Thanks

One of my gals went through over 200 hours of Fallout 3 wearing sixy Nightwear, eight-ball earrings and necklace, a nose ring, Merc Charmer Boots, a sawed-off shotgun strapped to one ankle and a combat Knife strapped to the other. It was the most unrealistic outfit one could imagine, and I absolutely adored it.

I love skimpy armor. My characters wear things that, these days, I would never wear in real life. I think it's a form of wish fulfillment. I can no longer get away with wearing revealing clothing at my age. So my characters wear it for me.

I also have no in interest in realistic weapons. I don't like it when weapons (or armor) look like earth weapons or armor. A fantasy world should give us fantasy. In my opinion, real-life weapon and armor design in a fantasy game indicates a failure of imagination.

I didn't even think of that when i posted it.

I cheered up considerably playing Fallout 4 when I found the bowler hat and tuxedo.

I seem to remember Brian Aldiss producing a list of fantasy weapons which included a double-barreled snotgun.

It is out there somewhere!

I understand where you're coming from and agree, to a point. How about "Functional", if not realistic? The shoulder armor (http://www.epictoon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/wow-tier-13-armor-hunter-paladin-priest-rogue.jpg) in World of Warcraft is so huge that "functionality" is questionable and has people wondering

I'm a bit torn. I'd love to live vicariously, but I'm too pedantic about the fact that I'm 48 and not exactly slim. Then again, living vicariously through computer games actually allowed me to find myself: if only it would also allow me to find weight loss.

I'm also quite pedantic about weapons. I sometimes wonder if I secretly enjoy being pedantic. Maybe that's why I do programming for a living.

Bloody C, it's so annoying and I hate it. Bastard that it is. Hate.

On a similar note, I wish "studded leather armor" would stop being a thing.

I would actually like to see some rpg's made that are 100% historically accurate to absolutely insane levels - dress, social and political mores including racism and sixism, even using the language of the time ie Old English, Middle German, dialects etc. With optional subtitles of course. It would be incredibly interesting, as the saying goes, the past is a foreign country.

But I wouldn't want this to apply to fantasy games, sheer escapism and living vicariously is too much fun to live without.

It's called Kingdom Come: Deliverance
https://youtu.be/CgTqvtXZBMw

https://youtu.be/dBDzczSqEk4

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on that, on and off. Do we know if they're going to be be using the language of old Bohemia though?

I doubt it. But I don't really know either.

I'm with you here, Shelly. I don't care about functional, realistic or historically accurate. I want to look cool. Is that sword twice as big as my Dwarf? Sure is but he looks badass using it! Wish fulfillment plays a big part of it, isn't that what a fantasy game is suppose to do anyway?

It depends on the setting, really. Personally, I vastly prefer realistic and accurate weapons and armours and whatnot in my fantasy, it makes it more immersive and believable. I find that to be better for escaping the real world, because daft, over-the-top stuff everywhere reminds me that I'm just in a game or a movie or whatever. If everything around me looks believable, it makes the world feel believable.

But I do enjoy the occasional 'out there' fantasy for some fun, and it can be great fun. But I don't really get as invested or immersed as I do with realistic fantasy settings.