Genre Wars: Fantasy and Sci-Fi
Posted on Jun 22, 2011 in History
Since I'm really awful at keeping these posts regular, I may start writing shorter posts. I'll probably start talking more about programming (since I find it easier to write about), but I'll try not to stick to one topic for too long.
So let's talk about genres. News and general excitement from E3 has started discussions about some notable games in both the fantasy and sci-fi genres: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fable: The Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Dust 514, Halo 4, and too many others to mention here. These kind of games allow me to springboard into some discussion about the two genres, similarities, and differences.
Let's start with the fantasy genre. Some of the most obvious western games that come to mind in this genre include Fable, Morrowind, Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, and so on. All these games (and a whole lot of other western-made fantasy games) fall victim to the popular 'tropes' of the fantasy genre - to be specific, Medieval European Fantasy (and yes, I do love that TV Tropes exists to help me with this point).
This was popularised, of course, by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series, as well as Dungeons & Dragons. And while it's perfectly reasonable to have a number of games in this setting, I find it all kinds of irritating that pretty much every RPG developed in the west has the same setting. One of the most annoying things for me is that sword fighting in games is rather dodgy - we currently don't have the technology or input devices to allow for any kind of interesting sword-fight gameplay (although some clever folks are trying as hard as they can to make this a reality).
Some games like the Elder Scrolls series make this even worse by introducing a first-person mechanic into the game. While I'm reasonably sure that you can play most of these games in a third-person view, sword fighting (and magic casting) in first person just doesn't work. Just ask Red Steel about dodgy FPS swordplay (though I hear that it has improved somewhat in the sequel).
So the question I find myself asking myself is: why do these games continue to be churned by almost every western RPG developer? I think a major part of the answer to this involves the generic tropes of the fantasy genre - which is popularised by many successful games of the genre such as World of Warcraft, Diablo II, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and so on.
But fantasy is much more than just "Medieval European Fantasy", despite the high concentration of it in the industry. Let me break it down to the most basic definition (the Wikipedia page for it is also very interesting): Fantasy involves things that couldn't possibly happen in real life. Notice that this definition does not force the reader down any particular path. You could write a story about magic, Greek mythology, fairies, telepathic mind control, time travel, and so on.
Anyway, enough about fantasy. Let's look at what is usually considered the polar opposite of the genre: Science fiction. Sci-fi is the genre that almost every non-fantasy western RPG (and most other types of games too) fits into. Mass Effect, Eve Online, Halo, Half-Life, and many others fit into the sci-fi genre.
Let's break down the genre into the basic form: Science fiction involves things that could happen given sufficient time and technology. And where fantasy has it's tropes, sci-fi has plenty, too. Alien encounters, robots, space travel, laser guns, telepathic mind control, time travel...
Wait a minute. I'm seeing some overlap here. Is time travel considered fantasy or science fiction? What about mind control? Both of these can be inserted into either of the genres, as long as they are explained correctly to suit the theme of the game. And this is the point I actually want to make: the two genres are not opposites, and, in fact, are often used in conjunction. Chrono Trigger gets a mention: it features time travel, futuristic worlds, robots, magic, swords, guns, and a whole bunch of other genre-bridging tropes that make it both a fantasy game and a sci-fi game.
The Final Fantasy series tend to do it a bit as well - the world of Final Fantasy XIII is split into two sections: a relatively modern, sci-fi-ish world with lasers and guns and floating cities, and a second, far more primal world, filled with monsters and magic. The two worlds are not completely separate, and the sci-fi and fantasy elements of the game are very much intertwined.
What makes a game a member of a certain genre is not the plot elements, the characters, the tropes, or even the genre name in the actual game title. What does make a game a certain genre is how all those elements are used in the game.
For another example, look at the Mass Effect series. A number of the characters ("biotics") can do things that would fit quite well in a fantasy game: a telepathic push to an opponent, a mind-controlled shield that prevents damage, teleporting, invisibility, and so on. But Mass Effect is not a fantasy series - it explains these abilities as a result of a brain-enhancing "biotic mod", magic of technology rather than magic of the fantasy kind.
The other day I finished Beyond Good & Evil (for the second time; highly recommended title for anyone who enjoys action/adventure games), and after some discussion with some mates, we started wondering what genre the game belonged in. I would classify it as sci-fi, because there's a big focus on alien invasions, spaceships, hovercrafts, and so on. At the same time, though, the world and technology isn't all that advanced (besides the aforementioned spaceships and the like) - so it's more of an alternate reality thing.
But you also get some fantasy elements: for example, talking pigs, cows, rhinos, and so on. But who's to say that this is fantasy? Could genetic engineering produce talking humanoid pigs? Or could it simply be an alien species who evolved that way? The way a game's setting is shown to the player is what defines the genre, not just the game's physical assets.
In my opinion, the style of Beyond Good & Evil is fantastic, and I wish there were more sci-fi games where the setting isn't simply the "Standard Sci Fi Setting". Along the same lines, it would be great to see more fantasy games that ventured outside the "Medieval European Fantasy". And, of course, it would be great to see more games including elements from both genres, and developers not being afraid to do something different!
