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What Is It About the Fantasy Genre Anyway?
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<blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 4610061" data-attributes="member: 8158"><p>This thread seems to bear a great deal of overanalysis IMHO. At the risk of sounding immodest, I find the matter's pretty straightforward. </p><p></p><p>Let's start with re-examining the OP's most basic premise: fantasy <strong><em>isn't</em></strong> the dominant genre. <u>D&D</u> is the dominant <u>game</u>. There's a big distinction there. When you look at the runner-up games, those with sword-and-sorcery fantasy settings don't outnumber the rest. That's because most folks choose D&D when they want to play fantasy. </p><p></p><p>Now, with a new premise we have a new question: why is D&D the dominant game? One word: <span style="color: Red"><strong>loot</strong></span>. There's a reward system that dispenses tangible, quantifiable, and modular power-ups at regular intervals that you just don't have in other games. Even other fantasy setting games don't make a big deal out of loot; some of them actually take a disdainful look towards it. Rather, other games have you playing just for the less-palpable reward of experience points and, well..fun. </p><p></p><p>Next question: is the fantasy setting relevant to D&D's popularity? Well, it facilitates the dispensation of loot, since it's in this setting where wealth and power is largely decentralized and hidden away in ancient, forgotten caches. And those caches just happen to also contain monsters and hazards. And you get to kill the monsters and tackle the hazards without any authority telling you trespassing, theft, and mass homocide is wrong--or at least bears some degree of oversight and regulation. Come to think of it, maybe I should have said two words: loot + <em>freedom</em>. In this respect, D&D is very much the GTA of RPG's. </p><p></p><p>Fie upon all talk of subtle nuances. Kill things and take their stuff. What game is even trying to serve that up besides D&D? Thread over. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Felon, post: 4610061, member: 8158"] This thread seems to bear a great deal of overanalysis IMHO. At the risk of sounding immodest, I find the matter's pretty straightforward. Let's start with re-examining the OP's most basic premise: fantasy [B][I]isn't[/I][/B] the dominant genre. [U]D&D[/U] is the dominant [U]game[/U]. There's a big distinction there. When you look at the runner-up games, those with sword-and-sorcery fantasy settings don't outnumber the rest. That's because most folks choose D&D when they want to play fantasy. Now, with a new premise we have a new question: why is D&D the dominant game? One word: [COLOR="Red"][B]loot[/B][/COLOR]. There's a reward system that dispenses tangible, quantifiable, and modular power-ups at regular intervals that you just don't have in other games. Even other fantasy setting games don't make a big deal out of loot; some of them actually take a disdainful look towards it. Rather, other games have you playing just for the less-palpable reward of experience points and, well..fun. Next question: is the fantasy setting relevant to D&D's popularity? Well, it facilitates the dispensation of loot, since it's in this setting where wealth and power is largely decentralized and hidden away in ancient, forgotten caches. And those caches just happen to also contain monsters and hazards. And you get to kill the monsters and tackle the hazards without any authority telling you trespassing, theft, and mass homocide is wrong--or at least bears some degree of oversight and regulation. Come to think of it, maybe I should have said two words: loot + [I]freedom[/I]. In this respect, D&D is very much the GTA of RPG's. Fie upon all talk of subtle nuances. Kill things and take their stuff. What game is even trying to serve that up besides D&D? Thread over. :) [/QUOTE]
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