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Why does fantasy dominate RPGs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7092927" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>We'll get stuck in genera definitions but in general fantasy vastly outstrips Sci-Fi as a portion of the market, especially since the mid-90's. In my opinion, Sci-Fi is an increasingly dead genera with very few authors writing in it. About the only portion of the genera that is healthy is dystopian young adult fiction, but quite arguably the science plays very little role in the stories and the stories tend to be more character driven (love triangles) than idea driven. Mostly, it seems an excuse for creating 'star crossed lovers' given that a modern setting makes such a thing largely implausible.</p><p></p><p>Probably the last and biggest splash I've seen in actual honest science fiction recently is 'The Martian'.</p><p></p><p>Where people tend to get confused IMO is when they associate fantasy merely with superficial trappings like 'set in the past' and science fiction with 'set in the future'. Those are very poor guides to what is fantasy or science fiction - even when the story in question, such as 'Star Wars', calls out a big hint like starting its story with, "A long, long time ago..." </p><p></p><p>'Star Wars' has filled the genera with a lot of Science Fantasy, where the science serves only to give a new perhaps more plausible setting for the magic. Fantasy in turn has expanded very heavily into Modern Fantasy, where the magic occurs in the present day - whether Superhero stories or Urban Fantasy or various forms of Modern Horror from vampires to zombies. Technology exists in these settings, but its secondary to esoteric super-science that is functionally magic like Iron Man's armor or 'The Walking Dead' or things that are outright magic like Thor and mutant superpowers, and most notably it's not science fiction themes that are chiefly being explored. If you are seeing lots of themes that are some variation of 'good vs. evil', chances are you are in a fantasy regardless of the settings superficial trappings. </p><p></p><p>Of course, there are genera benders. Rod Sterling's 'Twilight Zone' series is a very good example of a show that would go back and forth between science fiction and fantasy themes depending on the week's story, and 'Star Trek' likewise would go back and forth between fantasy and science fiction from episode to episode. 'Battlestar Galactica' in both its original and reboot, start out with some science fiction themed episodes and eventually become more and more full blown science fantasy complete with gods, magic, angels, devils, and an epic struggle between good and evil. Although it hews more to believable science than some others, 'Babylon 5' is much the same sort of story. Much of Robert Silverburg's work is 'soft science fiction' that blurs the line between science fiction and fantasy, and Gene Wolfe blurs the line so much and plays so many mind games with the reader it becomes almost impossible to decide whether it's fantasy or science fiction (I'd lean to calling it fantasy personally, albeit a fantasy heavily informed by science).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7092927, member: 4937"] We'll get stuck in genera definitions but in general fantasy vastly outstrips Sci-Fi as a portion of the market, especially since the mid-90's. In my opinion, Sci-Fi is an increasingly dead genera with very few authors writing in it. About the only portion of the genera that is healthy is dystopian young adult fiction, but quite arguably the science plays very little role in the stories and the stories tend to be more character driven (love triangles) than idea driven. Mostly, it seems an excuse for creating 'star crossed lovers' given that a modern setting makes such a thing largely implausible. Probably the last and biggest splash I've seen in actual honest science fiction recently is 'The Martian'. Where people tend to get confused IMO is when they associate fantasy merely with superficial trappings like 'set in the past' and science fiction with 'set in the future'. Those are very poor guides to what is fantasy or science fiction - even when the story in question, such as 'Star Wars', calls out a big hint like starting its story with, "A long, long time ago..." 'Star Wars' has filled the genera with a lot of Science Fantasy, where the science serves only to give a new perhaps more plausible setting for the magic. Fantasy in turn has expanded very heavily into Modern Fantasy, where the magic occurs in the present day - whether Superhero stories or Urban Fantasy or various forms of Modern Horror from vampires to zombies. Technology exists in these settings, but its secondary to esoteric super-science that is functionally magic like Iron Man's armor or 'The Walking Dead' or things that are outright magic like Thor and mutant superpowers, and most notably it's not science fiction themes that are chiefly being explored. If you are seeing lots of themes that are some variation of 'good vs. evil', chances are you are in a fantasy regardless of the settings superficial trappings. Of course, there are genera benders. Rod Sterling's 'Twilight Zone' series is a very good example of a show that would go back and forth between science fiction and fantasy themes depending on the week's story, and 'Star Trek' likewise would go back and forth between fantasy and science fiction from episode to episode. 'Battlestar Galactica' in both its original and reboot, start out with some science fiction themed episodes and eventually become more and more full blown science fantasy complete with gods, magic, angels, devils, and an epic struggle between good and evil. Although it hews more to believable science than some others, 'Babylon 5' is much the same sort of story. Much of Robert Silverburg's work is 'soft science fiction' that blurs the line between science fiction and fantasy, and Gene Wolfe blurs the line so much and plays so many mind games with the reader it becomes almost impossible to decide whether it's fantasy or science fiction (I'd lean to calling it fantasy personally, albeit a fantasy heavily informed by science). [/QUOTE]
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