» Tue Nov 23, 2010 7:25 am I don't want them stripped, I want them integrated. By historical, I want them to be historical in Tamriel's terms, and they should make sense in Tamriel's terms. Not that there isn't a lot of wiggle room, but I don't want to see a land dreugh in a high mountain pass.
There's no stopping.
I'm not saying that TES isn't fantasy, I'm saying don't lean on it like a crutch. Harry Potter (movies, never read the books) do a good job of making the fantasy seem fantastic because they don't treat it like commonplace. It works pretty well, and that's the effect I would rather see. A working, reasonable world with the fantasy elements appropriately inserted. I don't want "fantasy" to be the excuse for some dev to put whatever crap runs through his head on paper, I want it to work in the world. I don't want to see skeleton warriors in places where necromancers wouldn't have put them. I want to see town government buildings, coopers, farmers, and so on. The fantasy thing to do is to give you an armorer, a general store, a magic shop, and call it good for town shops. I'm saying the fantasy in this sense is bad because it often represents a lack of effort, it's just "here's some stuff!" without grounding.
There's no stopping.
I'm not saying that TES isn't fantasy, I'm saying don't lean on it like a crutch. Harry Potter (movies, never read the books) do a good job of making the fantasy seem fantastic because they don't treat it like commonplace. It works pretty well, and that's the effect I would rather see. A working, reasonable world with the fantasy elements appropriately inserted. I don't want "fantasy" to be the excuse for some dev to put whatever crap runs through his head on paper, I want it to work in the world. I don't want to see skeleton warriors in places where necromancers wouldn't have put them. I want to see town government buildings, coopers, farmers, and so on. The fantasy thing to do is to give you an armorer, a general store, a magic shop, and call it good for town shops. I'm saying the fantasy in this sense is bad because it often represents a lack of effort, it's just "here's some stuff!" without grounding.
So basically, you want a good fantasy, and not a crap one. Hurm, I'm reasonably sure everyone here would agree. Like I said, the kind of thing you're describing sounds just like my run-down of bad fantasy.
EDIT: as for the race thing, in TES they don't do that. There are lots of disagreeing groups in each race. Just look at the Ahlanders, House Dunmer, Outland Dunmer, Tribunal devotees, etc.
