The (4) main TES releases have varied a bit on their content and style and I'm curious. Do you prefer high fantasy (grand artist treatment) over more traditional (medieval) apsects?

Grand Artist Treatment.

Medieval.

High fantasy, like Morrowind. Too many RPGs use medieval-esque settings and I'm rather tired of them.

High fantasy, with a cartoonish art style. If that's what you're asking.

High Fantasy. Not over the top like Final Fantasy, but close to that.

Edit: A poll would be nice

Medieval is done mainly to bring combat down to ranges that a game engine can handle. The alternative is to place the entire action inside small spaces so that you can't fire guns and rockets and disrupter beams for half a mile or more, which is more literally confining.

So given that you've selected "sword and sorcery" as the better alternative that lets you play outdoors, it's question of a historical or fictional base for the story. Beth have tried to do both at once by writing a pseudo-history of their own that they try to conform to, but inevitably they draw influences from real history, and even if they hadn't, everyone else will compare their stories to regular history and mythology.

I like the current approach of trying to have a well-defined, self-consistent history that has enough fantasy to have magic in it, but sets rules to constrain that. I want magic for the "escape from reality" aspect that means I have to think about the game's rules, not just remember my history lessons, and it makes the game-builders' job easier if they don't have to match "facts" that don't apply.

So I'd vote High Fantasy, but write your own History and stick to it. Keep the timeline moving forward, so you don't get objections to the recorded history in one game conflicting with the events in another - prequels can never account for mods changing the game anyway, and I don't like games I can't mod.

Alternate reality rather than historical. I'd also prefer historical influences to be more varied like MW rather than predominantly from one period . That makes mine a vote for high/epic fantasy although I'd prefer the magic and other fantasical elements more restrained than is usual for the genre.

I like historical accuracy with an artistic flair. In other words, no anachronisms or things that are wildly impractical.

I'd like to see persian, babylonian, greek, roman, egyptian, mesoamerican, indian, etc styles. Ancient civilizations' architecture, weapons, clothing, armor, hair style, pottery, etc. They were very colorful and decorative, but also practical and functional.

Generally, I prefer "historical" games, but if I'm playing something that's not a true historical wargame, I'd rather see some sort of "unique" fantasy or sci-fi, like TES or FO. Typical "medieval" style fantasy games are none of the above, both historically ridiculous and unimaginative at the same time, and I find them unappealing.

D&D is not "unique" anymore, has several inherent "stupidities" built into it from the beginning, and has gradually turned into a bad stereotype of "high fantasy", so TES is about the only decent alternative I've found to date. I definitely don't want to play yet another boring "generic high fantasy" game.

I really really think the TES series is closer to the classical era than the medieval era, which is why people see discrepencies.

I'm talking about politics, religion everything. It's really close to ancient times and I want it to stay that way. Oblivion was the closest TES game I've seen to medieval, probably because we're entering a new era.

I bet TES V will be similar to late antiquity, which is the time before the dark ages, when christianity rose and the roman empire fell. So, I bet we'll start to see the deterioration of the Imperial Empire and a few smaller empires will start to rise under brand new religions.

A culture will start to become more conservative.

And just a side note, to support my "high fantasy"= classical era:

The ancient greeks knew about a strange, mysterious people, who spoke a mysterious language and lived far away. They lived much longer than other people and were also much taller and more beautiful. Also, they had a more profound connection to the gods and they were unmatched in their skill of the bow and hunting.

They also knew all sorts of ancient magical secrets.

These people were called, by the ignorant greeks, the Ethiopians.

Ethiopians = Elves

Or in Tamriel, Altmer. I think the Dunmer are a lot like the Semites, among other ancient cultures. Don't know enough about the Bosmer to ponder it.

If you want a decent coherant fantasy setting you could try http://www.glorantha.com/index.php?page_id=612 although there are no CRPGs set there, just PnP games and 1 rather elderly but superb TBS game http://www.a-sharp.com/kodp/


edit; corrected 2nd link

What he said.

High fantasy, such as in the Shivering Isles, is what I prefer.

i enjoy alien landscapes. however i dont want unrealistic looking alien landscapes.........morrowind was awesoms cause it was completely out of the norm, but still very believable. i hate cartoony overly colorful graphics cause i dont want to play a japanese anime game. the only game that kind of art style worked in was borderlands cause the whole game was a parody of itself.

i also prefer darker settings with more grit to them, another reason that morrowind was way better in atmosphere, SI is about as close as you get to that in oblivion.

and if ever a company comes out with a decent open world first person rpg that is based in the DnD universe or even better the middle earth universe, then i will be the happiest little school girl in the world.........or at least ill sound like one when i scream and giggle.

@alasaigae or whatever..............what you dont like the basketball sized warhammers, kittens and lizards..........welcome to my world.

Agree.

Though I don't really have a preference as to how gritty a game is. I just want it to be consistent, like Team Fortress for example. It has cartoony graphics that make players easier to see which adds to the competitiveness of the rounds and also makes characters more expressive which is a necessity given the fast paced gameplay. The straight-forward, light hearted humor fits very well with this too.

On the other hand, there's games like Armed Assault that are trying as hard as possible to be realistic, and, when the situation calls for it, gritty.

Essentially, if they make a cartoony ESV, then it better be funny.

As to the OP, they could keep a medieval (as in, realistic, or at least believable) base for gameplay mechanics and the social aspects of the game world, but use high fantasy for the actual setting, like architecture, landscape and peoples physical features.

I tend to agree with you. LOTR (movie) was about right mix for me. Should give a feeling thats familiar with some extraordinary elements. Morrowind just seemed a little over the top (IMO). Everything was weird, everywhere. Not bashing beloved MW. Just felt toooo alien.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/09/most-alien-looking-place-on-earth.html

Going to Vvardenfell felt just like going to some other distant country on planet Earth. Well, with the addition of other humanoids, magic, and deities.

I, for one, and sick and tired of glum medieval stone castles and tree-hugging elves and beer-swilling stumpy dwarfs. Real life is more varied and interesting than prosaic stone forts and rolling English countryside.

http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=dallol+ethiopia&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

historical. why? because "high fantasy" is traditionally associated with a very limited number of real world referenced cliches which are by now anything but fantastical. history, on the other hand, encompasses everything that has ever been, and thats a whole lot of really interesting material. Assassin's creed is sooo much more interesting visually than Oblivion was, despite being set in a real place. Traditional high fantasy prefers a faux medieval setting, ignoring hundreds of societies from the medieval era, not to mention all the other years of history.

ultimately, i want something which is a combination of real world elements and completely new things for TESV. world building par excellence, a world which feels as real as our own but distinct from everything else on the market. lumping that in with "high fantasy" the likes of the forgotten realms, or, hell lord of the rings (which technically gets a free pass since it was the first) feels wrong.

High fantasy like Morrowind or Shivering Isles. Shivering Isles had the spirit of Morrowind unlike Oblivion.

High fantasy, definitely. That's why I play TES. I don't want them to get carried away for TES V, but I'm happy with what they've done so far. :shrug: Oblivion was less "high fantasy" than Morrowind and SI, but it was still okay.

My question is, why can't we have both? Surely, it's not too much to ask that a world both reflect reality in the areas that it takes from it, while at the same time being highly imaginative where it deviates from it, and even demonstrates how magic and such might impact realistic dillemas such as political disagreements, disease, the need for food, and such?

Though if one must be emphasized over the other, I would prefer fantasy or historical aspects, because that's what I like fantasy for, it allows writers to tell us stories that can't happen in real life. If I want real world history, I can read a history book, or if I want a video game based on real world history, I can play one of he various video games that take place in historical settings. When I read, watch or play fantasy, I want to see magic, and fantastical creatures and places, and all that, if I didn't, I wouldn't be playing fantasy. Not that this means fantasy can't, or even shouldn't, have aspects of reality in it, even the best and most creative works of fantasy ultimately take something from reality, on one hand, it's hard for writers to concieve a world that doesn't in any way resemble the real one, and on the other, it's much easier for audiences to connect to the writer's world if it has aspects of reality in it. No, I fully expect, and want, to see aspects of reality in the Elder Scrolls, I just prefer my fantasy to focus on the fantasy aspects, or how the fantasy aspects interact with real world aspects, rather than on the real world aspects again.

Although when I say fantasy aspects, I don't just mean you're typical pseudo-Medieval European fantasy full of elves and dragons and what not, as that is in no way creative, to me, fantasy, as a genre, is probably the one that leaves most room for creativity, as it allows writers to create their own worlds that don't need to be in any way connected to real life, you can decide for yourself what nations exist in your world, what races exist, how they relate to each other, how magic exists in your world, and so on. Yet all too often, this potential for creativity is undermined by writers' insistence on relying on a limited number of concepts and plot devices that have been reused so many times that any wonder they might inspire is completely lost unless writers can pull off something really unique with them. At this point, seeing an elf in a fantasy story seems almost as mundane as meeting a human in real life would be. But that's not the genre's fault, it's the writers' fault for being either lazy, or having no imagination. What I want from the Elder Scrolls is something more along the lines of Morrowind, where Bethesda clearly put a fair amount of effort into creating a world that was unique and different from what players were used to, as opposed to Oblivion, where we got another generic fantasy land. In short, what I want, above all else, is a world that has its own unique feel, and which, when exploring, will make me honestly feel like I'm exploring a place I've never seen before, rather than making me feel like I'm exploring the same generic old world by a different name.

To above post - I think you were right about the fantasy aspect of games. :thumbsup:

I like mideval, but how they did Morrowind was very interesting and well done.

I feel it should definitely be fantastical, but credible as well. TES has usually been good at mixing real-life historical and cultural influences into the game world in a way that's interesting. As far as fantasy inspiration goes, I'd love if they tapped more from, say, Conan and Elric than from Lord of the Rings. I felt that the older games (Arena and Daggerfall) had more of the pulpy sword-and-sorcery style which was popular in games back then. How would you guys like som more of that? I know I would.

Anyway, let's see a wholesome mix of both ancient and medieval world features, with heavy doses of inspired TES uniqueness.