Let me say this once, Dungeons and Dragons and the BEST and WORST thing that could ever have happened to Fantasy and Gaming. What is it about what is termed, "Mainstream" and what is considered the minority? Sure, we'll welcome High Fantasy in the form of LOTR (One of the largest grossing series of ALL TIME) and yet we'll only make Child Fantasy from that point forward. I digress, DnD did wonders for Fantasy Gaming and RPGs in general. Without the tabletop DnD there would be no Everquest or World of Warcraft but a pleathora of FPSs that all look the same.
What are the downfalls? The incessant need for Fantasy Gaming to concentrate on the mundane and the irrelvant, i.e. the uber-shiny-powerful-magic sword. A writing in writer's digest once said, "Fantasy is the reexamination of human emotion." Instead we are driven by some materialistic need to, "Keep up with the Joneszes" I hate Everquest. If I wanted to play a single player game, i'd bust out my old nintendo. Sure, I get what's so appealing about it but isn't killing the same big monsters over and over, boring? I want dynamics! I want EPIC Fantasy!
Why are games like World of Warcraft so succesful out of the bat? Why are movies like LOTR, "Mainstream," in every sense of the word? BECAUSE FANTASY IS MAINSTREAM! People mistake some child RTP story as fantasy. When you ask the average person what's fantasy, They'll say a child with a magic sword. But Fantasy was more than that to Tolkein. Fantasy is more than that to G.R.R. Martin. Fantasy is more than that to Anne M. It's allowing yourself to meet that new creature born of pure evil. It's enveloping your world with that Fantasic World of Commerce melded with Nature. It's that king, sitting on the thorne, debating the inconsistancies int he world about him.
What's Fantasy? It's Shadowbane. It's Darkfall. Most of all, It's emotion.
-Longbow
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