281: Fresh Frontiers

[Blue_vision]

I like the sound of all these ideas. It's unfortunate that there's such an oversaturation of similar settings in video games these days.

Some settings I'd suggest:

Africa, in post-colonial times. You could play as UN peacekeepers going through every African conflict, including those that the UN didn't have any peacekeepers in. It may be able to play out as a generic FPS, but I think the setting gives for interesting gameplay (you're a peacekeeper rather than a straight on soldier,) as well as an opportunity to tell a powerful message.

15th century China. An Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia-like game could work well (actually, Assassin's Creed may very well visit ancient China depending how long it goes on for.) Or just a real video game version of Journey to the West. A medieval Chinese RPG might actually interest me too. It doesn't seem to be a setting that's used too often, which is a shame.

Eastern European mythology would be cool too. Or just anything other than English, Japanese, and Greek Mythology. Ancient Egyptian or Sumerian God of War? Eastern European mythology Elder Scrolls? Tibetian/Himalayan mythology, Indian mythology, Native American mythology, Sub-Saharan African mythology. South East Asian or Indian medieval civilizations would be fun to explore too.
I especially like the idea of a Mesoamerican setting. That would go reeally well with a GoW-like hack n' slash.


I shall be awaiting the future of games to see what kind of new settings we'll be seeing for sure. It's so fun to think about though

 

[zombi2989]

Cool article, personally I've always wanted a game that explored Mayan or Aztec cities at their heights.

 

[The Random One]

Oh for fuck's sake. São Paulo. SÃO FUCKING PAULO. I know that it's a chore to find where exactly the squiggly thing on top of the A is in your racist keyboard, but only Sao Paulo would be all right. Do you need to maim the city's name so hard you end up in a comune in Northern Italy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Paolo] instead?

That said, what exactly does this article bring to the table? Oh sweet game ideas. Guess what, I got plenty of those. All of us do. As a recent Extra Credits said, ideas are a dime a dozen. Hell, I got over a dozen, give me a dime. Turning those ideas into something workable is where all the work lies in.

Coming up with settings isn't as easy as you make it sound like. The thing with settings like the World War II, Magical Medieval Europe Except Not, Grim Future Dystopia and Brave Future Utopia is that they have something - let's call it 'traction'. As you said, they get people's attention because they already know what to expect. Releasing a single game with a new setting won't obliviate all the other ones. There wasn't a flurry of 10th century Middle Eastern conspiracy games after the first Assassin's Creed was released. Or of underwater metaphors for extreme liberal philosophies after Bioshock. These settings didn't stick, because they didn't have traction. They're good for a new experience but you don't want to keep coming back to them. That guy from DnD with Pornstars wrote an excellent article on it on his blog, (in fact I tried to use his term for it but couldn't remember what it was), trying to ask the question of why some DnD monsters have traction and why some don't - why people who have never played DnD are way more likely to know what a Beholder is than what a Xorn is. Why a Beholder has more traction than a Xorn. Middle Eastern fantasy is is a Xorn. It's cool the first time you meet one, but unless you live the game you don't keep bumping into them. (Plus it's not that rare - Magic: The Gathering was first released with a very loose Magical Medieval Europe Except Not setting, but their very first 'new set' of cards was in Magical Medieval Middle East And It Actually Has Characters From Arabian Nights What The Hell. Then again it went on to have settings as World Made Entirely Of Metal and World That Is A Single Medieval City Where Do They Grow Food You Ask The Answer Is Magic? so it might not count.)

There's also the fact that setting jump in an out of flavour. I'm still in shock at that comment on one of the new Deus Ex game that people just didn't know what cyberpunk was any more. Apparently as its promises of a wi-fi connected world slowly become true the theme as fiction lost its appeal. And your suggestion for a 19th century London setting - well, come back in about ten years, after marketers and execs have had their way with the current steampunk craze, and you'll be begging them to stop with the fucking 19th century London setting already.

All in all, you didn't make a good case. I've seen amateur blog posts with more content. Sure, each of those settings has plenty of meat in it, but so many underused settings do, and so few stick. So few have that precious traction. Why sixteenth century Aztecs and not alternate history highly developed Mayans? Why Arab fantasy and not Nordic fantasy? Why near future emergent third world cities and not far future post-Earth-exodus now empty former first world metropoles? Why 19th century England and not 19th century British colonies in Africa?

Make the game, then we'll talk.

 

[swimon]

There were some cool ideas in there that I hadn't thought about myself (especially the Aztec one) but I do have to note that the sci-fi example isn't so much inspired by Deus Ex as it is a description of Deus Ex. Really I like that setting but it isn't all that novel.

 

[Salty Weasel]

Yeah, pretty much all of those suggestion i'd play. Sure I may prefer games revolving around norse mythology (Not that theres any good games using that setting around.).

Have you heard of the game Rune? It's old but its good.

OT: I really wish that we could get some games with settings like those described in the article. That 18th century British game sounds so fun.

 

[L-J-F]

A lot of ideas would have to be watered down a lot before they could be done however. The good thing about space marines, pseudo-medieval England and that other one is that they don't require fiddling and they won't offend anyone.

 

[AwesomeNinjaPowers]

Damn I wanna play em all now XD How soon before we expect some brave soul out in game developer land to give a a try I wonder?

 

[Sikachu]

What the hell is this trash doing being published? Oh, you played Assassin's Creed? You thought putting games in different historical settings and integrating plot and gameplay might be a good idea? Welcome to 2007. What the hell do I as a reader get from these shallow pitches anyway? The whole article reads like the editorial staff picked a random forum member and gave them 10 minutes to come up with as many game 'concepts' as they could. No investment of thought, no development of how integration of story and game might be achieved. In short, nothing in this article hasn't been covered much more interestingly in the forums or even in bus journey conversations between school kids who like games. The Escapist's long decline seems finally to have hit rock bottom. Who the hell is editing this thing?!

Edit:
Want proof? Look at the myriad posts in threads suggesting where Assassin's Creed could go next.

 

[Saladin Ahmed]

Thanks for the (mostly) supportive comments, folks. Replying as I gear up for Thanksgiving madness with the wife's family, so please forgive this brief/consolidated response.

A few folks complained that this is basically a list of 'wouldn't this be sweet' games. Well...yeah, guilty as charged. I'm a writer and English instructor, not a developer. I hang out with a lot of other SF/F novelists and sometimes the projects they're working on sound like they'd make...well, *sweet games* -- and ditto with some of the old books I teach. Sue me.

Anyway, more positively, there are lots of great further suggestions for new settings & the type of games they'd inspire in the comments, which was my hope in writing this. Some notes on these:

- A couple of people mentioned a subsaharan African setting. I can't recommend highly enough Charles Saunders' IMARO, a Conan-esque novel set in a mythical quasi-Africa. It's awesome.

- Medieval Slavic or Chinese settings would rule. The one game with Slavic myths at its center which comes to mind is Quest for Glory III, but that was many years ago... The Witcher had some tinges to it. Jade Empire was great, but I wouldn't mind seeing a next-gen Romance of the Three Kingdoms-ish game with a bit more action folded in. For novelistic inspiration I'd go to Ekaterina Sedia on the one hand and Guy Gavriel Kay's latest on the other...

- @ warreEBB (#8): 'Philosopher Action Stars' games would be great fun. My pick would be Elizabethan England with pseudo-wizard John Dee, secret agent/playwright Christoper Marlowe, etc. Sort of like the 1603 comics sans superheroes. Or maybe a gonzo-inventions-laden Ben Franklin game. This sort of thing is easier to do in fiction b/c the demands of involving game play/mechanics aren't there. Stories like Walter Jon Williams "The Last Ride of German Freddie" (Nietchze in the gunfightin' old west!) or the various Tesla-inspired stories that have cropped up in recent years are rip-roaring but might be hard to translate to video games with mass appeal. I'd play the shit out of such games, though -- SOMEONE HOMEBREW THIS IDEA, PLS!!!

PS - @ The Random One (#23): Yeah, I know the city's name. Jeez. Word's autocorrect miscorrected me. A typo got through in an article. I'm sure that's the first time that's ever happened in the entire history of publishing and the internet. No doubt the collapse of society is next. Next stop: cannibalism!

 

[CitySquirrel]

Love the article! I have always thought it would be great to play mystery game about faeries, in a similar vein to Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. That having been said, I am more concerned with characters and stories than locations or themes.

 

[Susan Arendt]

PS - @ The Random One (#23): Yeah, I know the city's name. Jeez. Word's autocorrect miscorrected me. A typo got through in an article. I'm sure that's the first time that's ever happened in the entire history of publishing and the internet. No doubt the collapse of society is next. Next stop: cannibalism!

Indeed. Overreact much?

In any event, the typo, which was clearly not a typo but rather an intentional slight against an entire city, has been corrected.

 

[awesomebillfromdawsonville]

A first person adventure from the perspective of a Tree Frog. I'd play that shit all day long.

 

[Saladin Ahmed]

A first person adventure from the perspective of a Tree Frog. I'd play that shit all day long.

Don't be preposterous. A video game w/a frog protagonist would never sell. Nor would anyone thirty years later remember it...

 

[SextusMaximus]

I love these ideas and completely agree with your points. My two favourite concepts being the Aztec warrior concept and the final - cyber punk concept. However, I'm not sure how well they'd fair in a video game. While I can see how they'd work, it would take an extremely competent designer (e.g. BioWare) to design these... not your run of the mill Activision sub-company.

PS - @ The Random One (#23): Yeah, I know the city's name. Jeez. Word's autocorrect miscorrected me. A typo got through in an article. I'm sure that's the first time that's ever happened in the entire history of publishing and the internet. No doubt the collapse of society is next. Next stop: cannibalism!

Indeed. Overreact much?

In any event, the typo, which was clearly not a typo but rather an intentional slight against an entire city, has been corrected.

I don't agree, the original post was far more of an overreaction than this ever could have been. I would also suggest not to make assumptions about the writer; because that's just going to lead him to more "overreactions" -- the thing you were trying to prevent him from doing in the first place.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Really, I would be SO DOWN with a Thief-like game set in a world borrowing from Arabian mythos and folklore. I get tired of seeing castles and keeps all the time; how about some domed roofs and colorful archways?

Saladin has been repeatedly giving us the message that there are untold numbers of stories we know nothing about (and I happen to agree with him). Maybe I'm just getting desperate to get away from the broadsword-and-castle/gruff-space-marine/modern-war-playground trifecta we seem to be stuck with lately, but injecting anything new into the formula is likely to meet with my approval.

 

[setvak]

One of my favorite things about Eternal Darkness was the use of unusual (to videogames, that is) settings to provide the backdrop to each of the game's sections. If you haven't played the game or aren't too familiar with it, you play as twelve different characters, each occupying its own unique time period; with the exception of the protagonist Alexandra, you only play as these other characters for one section (or "chapter").

You play as a Roman centurion in ancient Persia, a Cambodian slave girl in an ancient temple, a monk in a French cathedral during the Spanish Inquisition (who'd have expected that?) as well as an English field reporter in the same place during WWI, to name a few. While each setting and time period aren't exactly explored in-depth, I found this aspect of the game really intriguing.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

A gangs of new york-esque GTA game might just be one the best ideas for a game i've heard in a very long time!

As for my own ideas, i just would like to see the Egyptian mythos fully explored, as to my knowledge its really only been glanced over in other games as an "Egypt level" in a few Diablo clones. I mean, i can only think of a few city building games when it comes to a game that was fully devoted to the Egypt theme. There is just so much that can be done with it, but if there is an adventure/rpg set in Egypt, please tell me!

 

[maninahat]

Something Indian would be awesome. The Sikhs have their own martial art and a whole ton of interesting, unique weapons. Something involving the colourful, diverse settings of India and its myths and legends would be cool.

Something North African would be awesome as well. You play as a free roaming Bedouin across the expansive deserts. It would be like Fallout. Depending on the time period, the tech could be fairly schizophrenic, what with old weapons like Jezzails and schimitars mixed with the new guns from foreign Imperialists/traders. That would allow for a diverse play style.

 

[Devin Parker]

PS - @ The Random One (#23): Yeah, I know the city's name. Jeez. Word's autocorrect miscorrected me. A typo got through in an article. I'm sure that's the first time that's ever happened in the entire history of publishing and the internet. No doubt the collapse of society is next. Next stop: cannibalism!

Indeed. Overreact much?

In any event, the typo, which was clearly not a typo but rather an intentional slight against an entire city, has been corrected.

Not just an intentional slight against an entire city, but also a RACIST slight against, um, the Brazilian race.

Oh, and, I would be totally in favor of any of the games Saladin mentioned. I am a sucker for historical fiction/historical fantasy.