I'm as tired of the fantasy elf stereotype as the next guy, but we have to keep in mind that a creature which is radically different will not be accepted as an elf; it must be called something else. No, just because it has pointy ears does not make it an elf. A good start would be to find out from which historical mythos the current stereotype developed, then pick a different culture and go from there.

Originally posted by Ozivois

Elves are way better than any of the races that recent MMO's have been introducing. I will take an elf over a teddy bear, animal-faced creature or anime cat-lady every time.

 

 

... fair enough. I think we need to rename this column to "NO MORE GODDAMN CLICHES"

Originally posted by casskhaw

Originally posted by Ozivois

Elves are way better than any of the races that recent MMO's have been introducing. I will take an elf over a teddy bear, animal-faced creature or anime cat-lady every time.

 

 

... fair enough. I think we need to rename this column to "NO MORE GODDAMN CLICHES"

Agreed.

1) No Elves

2) No Klingons

3) No Jedi's

4) No Cylons

5) Not  2 Vs 2 or 3 Vs 3

  Do something different, develop an MMO with new lore. Don't bow down to players and publishers and release a game that does not have a game guide on release day.  Keep all the testing inhouse or locked down, that was a release is a release, not a yawner, because everyone already knows about the game.

I personally would like to see space based, but really it does not matter, as long as there is a world(s) to explore, cities and nations to build.  The last thing is make the game about the journey, not the destination.

No, I'm not tired of high fantasy, elves, dwarves or whatever mmo race.

What I'm tired of is of people focusing the game's theme instead of how it plays. Who cares if it's fantasy, space or wild west? We need a good new sandbox game or something innovative to shake this stagnant genre.

I could care less if I'm playing Legolas or the Terminator, just give me a good mmorpg.

You know, vulcans/spock are elves in space.  We need more elves and dragons in mmorpgs.

Originally posted by WhiteLantern

Originally posted by idgarad

Give me 8 million and I'll give you a Dune MMO.

Would that be the ultimate sandbox?

 

lol

---

Originally posted by plescure
Feckin Elves!! coming over here!! taking our jobs!! stealing our women!! 

---

JARRROBBSS!

I once played a lute and sang about the stars. JORARRBBS!

hmmm dragons...

they are good when they are done sparsely... but ya know... we got such a huge dose of them in skyrim that... ;D i think we got enough of them for a few years.

wizards - with this one ill disagree. most games that had 'wizard' character actually had spontanous casting sorcerer of some kind. going back to the dnd version of wizard we would have the inteligent versatile trickster.  i thought diablo 3 will have it, but the return of chainlightning, blizzard and meteor trio i guess im a little bit disappointed. what im saying is that wizard can be done in many ways, but devs choose the most straightfoward three element path which is simply boring.

elves... hmm... yea.. i guess i wasnt much of a fan of elves. in dnd video games, lotr movies and games, countless fantasy games... i didnt quite like elves.

the trio of tree lovers, dark skinned evil ones and arrogant mages... it got a little boring.

in all my gaming career the only elves that i liked were dunmer in morrowind - they simply didnt look fake, eldar from wh40k could be considered as space elves.. they were pretty cool.

orcs... i loved orcs in warcraft 3, not as much in world of warcraft. the asian versions from lets say lineage 2... well they looked, sounded and felt simply awful. from lotr side... i guess i liked them more when i only knew about them from the books lol. wh40k orc design was awful (liked pretty much every other race in that universe). hmmm... i like beast races in most games (khajiits ftw), but orcs are simply boring to me.

:)

...in space no one can hear an Elf fart...

:)

Why does everybody think that fantasy = Elves, dwarves, gnomes, humans,etc. ?

ASHERONS CALL series....

This FANTASY didnt have any of those races but human.  They had their own fantasy made up and based around  a Powerful Mage named Asheron. 

this was a GREAT fantasy that broke the mold from Tolkenish styled fantasy.

Pray they come out with an AC3.. because AC2 was an ubelievable game but Microsoft and Turbine shot themself in the foot releasing it when it wasnt ready.

shadowbane had pretty good elves. the typical elves were almost evil in nature, the former tyrants of the world, overthrown by their human slaves rebellion, and the "dark elves" were blood red skinned desert dwelling, dragon worshipping martial artists. 

mainstream elves dont really seem to be anything, all implication, no backbone.  "We are the elves! long lived and magical! wowie"

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by Blasphim

Your forgetting Greyhawk my friend, the first "setting" for DnD.

Edit:  I will agree however, that many seem to take from what FR has built, but one could even make the connection that FR took from Tolkien in many of it's storylines and world events and stereotypes.

Yeah, never liked that setting much, but the reason I didn't mention it is because at least some people here know of DL and FR, and maybe even Ravenloft. Greyhawk, Spelljammers and Fallen sun are setting that you me, and maybe someone else have heard about.

And of course did FR took a lot from Tolkien and made it cheesier. But Greenwood and Grubb do know how to make good stories and possibilities. Few other worlds and no MMO world have really been close to that.

 

Damn I haven't thought about dark sun (was it called fallen in the eu?), ravenloft, or spelljammer in a long damn while.  I agree that FR is one of if not the best setting for D&D, Greenwood fell into the stereotypes early on as well, but admitidly, it's difficult not to.  Elminster is the big glaring one that pops fresh into my head.  But again, it's difficult not to when you have to design something that will have a sense of familiarity to attract the masses. 

Like Cass said earlier, it's the cliches that are starting to bother the hell outta me when it comes to the fantasy setting.  We (or at least I) have seen them redone so many times it's starting to bug.  How many young blacksmiths can grow to be billy bad ass, how many orphaned children can grow into gods of the arcane, how many elves can look down their noses at the rest of the world, how many dwarves can slam a tankard of ale and skull split the dragon at the same time?

Maybe I haven't read enough of the Sci-fi genre to become so jaded, maybe it's because the stereotypes are not as overused as often, in either case, it just doesn't seem to be as stale as the fantasy setting.  There is one fantasy series that I keep re-reading, mainly for the laughs, and that's the Myth series by Robert Asprin.  As old as they are ( I dunno if he's even still writing them, or hell even still alive...I should check that out), they are not your typical fantasy tales.

Anyhow, again Cass I agree, lets do away with the cliches (wish I knew how to do the lil accent thing aboves the "e").

Edit: fixed a couple fat finger errors

lol at the posts here, the whole idea is old school. WHY? Guild Wars doesn't have Elves in there, beside the mmorpg style is getting way outdated with our modern world, I mean WTH, swords and bow and magic? we need something that looks far away from fantasy, something original with Epic new pvp system and pve system.

I am sayin this cuz iam tired of playing MMO games that has the same storyplot which are:

( lvl up, quests, lvl up, quests, grind, grind,grind...OH MY EYES )

if these companies kept creating garbage like these MMORPG games we sure we will end up with dead minds who got no imagination and not fantasy imagination.

and one more thing for a new idea for a new brand MMO:

create a game where you can use only skills to create armor, weapons and other skills to do your job, and delete the gear system and grind system by replacing scrolls skills to create a new skils, plus make full of gore becuase it gets boring after killing mobs without seeing guts flying in the air.

that just my idea about a fun MMO, peace to all or not?

If You hate elves, then Fallen Earth maybe is for you....

Over two years ago when they came out with FE one of their slogans was:

"If you are tired of elves and dwarves, welcome to the real men's world."

and

"There is no elves in Fallen Earth. If you see any, kill 'em!"

:)

Originally posted by willvas

Why does everybody think that fantasy = Elves, dwarves, gnomes, humans,etc. ?

 

ASHERONS CALL series....

This FANTASY didnt have any of those races but human.  They had their own fantasy made up and based around  a Powerful Mage named Asheron. 

 

this was a GREAT fantasy that broke the mold from Tolkenish styled fantasy.

Pray they come out with an AC3.. because AC2 was an ubelievable game but Microsoft and Turbine shot themself in the foot releasing it when it wasnt ready.

 

 

It still had dragons and humans so they broke for half with tolkien:)

Tumerok and Lugians where awesome btw. AC2 Forever!

AC was all human player races and they did it very well. AC2 was a solid MMO as well, the two none human player races had depth. But we won't see something like AC2 again. We used to have crafting festival days in AC2 because to do the best crafting the forges needed to be fueled up. Advertised via forums we would meet up and go as teams to kill mobs and collect resources from them. With 40 people doing this two trips taking a total of about 20 mins was needed. The crafting fare was then announced as open, even lowbie crafters who could not hunt for resources would come along, players would come knowing anything could be made.

Yes back then you could ask for and get 40 players to turn up just to get the crafting economy going. Now days you would struggle to get those numbers without the involvement of very large guilds and the rewards of uber loot. But new MMO's are sooo great...yeah right.

The problem with Elves IMO is the Tolkien variety that seems less mysterious / magical but more organic and hippie'esque.

I would be a fan of a more Hmm.. Brother's Grimm take on fairie-folk.  I'd prefer Elves be something darker, unorganized, chaotic in nature, with no cities in the real world.  Something more supernatural, alien in intellect, not belonging to a standard biology, and excessively uncommon.   By extension they should not be playable characters, but forces in a game with whom you may interact but have no context for understanding their thinking, goals, or true nature.  In other words, they should be a dark, frightening mystery, in the margins of the human psyche instead of something mundane subject to public examination.