"Standard Science Fiction"

[Soviet Heavy]

You know the type of Science Fiction I'm talking about. Earth becomes overcrowded, sparking the space colonization, first contact with Aliens, and soon becoming part of the galactic community. Colonials, species prejudice, humans are bastards, superior alien species, all that stuff.

Why is this so common? I mean, tons of shows, movies, games and novels all use this setup.

Why don't we have more Star Wars styled universes? Places that are their own universe, and not focused on how we left Earth. Just a universe where humans live without any connection to real life.

Its the same problem in Fantasy, with the Standard Fantasy Setting trope addressed by Yahtzee in his Dragon Age review. Everything comes from the same source, but at the end of the day, all those different names and histories can all be attributed to a progenitor work, in the case of fantasy, it is everyone ripping off Tolkien.

Fantasy, Science, and Speculative Fiction are about the unreal. Once you strip away reality, you are left with infinite possibilities, but everyone seems to content to appropriate stuff that has come before.

Of course some copies do better than others, but the majority of stuff is a dull retread of the same story you've read a couple dozen times already.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Why don't we have more Star Wars styled universes? Places that are their own universe, and not focused on how we left Earth. Just a universe where humans live without any connection to real life.

You'd like what I'm writing in my spare time then <.<

Anyway, people seem to take the easy route. Work with what people know, make it weird and fantastic and bam, publication. The weirdest and for me most interesting Sci Fi is usually the stuff I pick up at thrift stores. Oh well.

[sub]Buying from the bookstore gets annoying when there are 400 halo, Star Wars and Star Trek novels in the same small section... >.<[/sub]

 

[LobsterFeng]

I think it's because people like to watch, read, and play the same sort of trials and triumphs us regular folk go through, except in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I think it's because people like to watch, read, and play the same sort of trials and triumphs us regular folk go through, except in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

That I don't have a problem with. Plots are usually okay, but the setting is so generic.

 

[StrixMaxima]

It is a matter of principle and proximity. Much easier to write about things that do not require extensive description as good literature. But there are plenty of good writings about non-human sci-fi. You just have to dig a little deeper.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Let me ask you something, OP... are you an artist? And I mean of any sort. Do you write stories, screenplays... paint paintings or draw pictures? Do you do anything in a creative vein?

If you are an artist of some sort, then let me ask another question. Do you ever draw your inspiration from sources outside yourself? Because if you don't, then you may very well be the new God of the art world, ready to bestow upon us your work of such tremendous originality that all criticisms will be swept aside as there will be nothing even mildly similar with which to contrast it for critique.

If you're like the rest of us, and you draw your inspiration from outside sources, including the world in general, your life, other people, or even the work of other artists, then you may already know the answer to your question.

The reason that there are so many stories that are so similar is because artists have a huge wealth of existing information from which to draw inspiration in these and other genres. They take the parts they like, and add something unique of their own. In the case of those less talented in a relative sense (i.e. the vast majority) they tend to take a lot, usually from multiple sources, combine it, and thrown a small something of their own. Artists of greater creative caliber (who are much rarer) are able to add a lot more of their own original elements. They are capable of creating the truly unique and compelling stories that it seems that you're craving for (or else, why would you be here ranting about this).

Thing is, since they're rare, you have to swim the vast sea of mediocrity to find the little hidden pearls.

 

[Hollock]

I think that while there is probably a standard sci fi, that standard is always slowly changing. Remember, there was a time where flash gordon, jetsons, and adam strange were the standard (40s-late 50s), then it was all about alien invaders and radiation, and all sorts of giant versions of normal animals (50s-60s), then it was star trek, then wars, then trek again, and now it's sorta split with one version where we stay on earth and no aliens, but things are futuristic things and like robots and sometimes sometimes aliens, like blade runner, not that there were aliens in blade runner, I'm just covering my base(or we start colonizing planets where there isn't intelligent life, like firefly, bebop, or trigun (i know)) or we have what you describe.
We're doing allright, and while those are standards, we still innovate, and we still throwback to the classics sometimes.
It's called evolution, or innovation, or dorgilspolt.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Well there's the Ratchet and Clank series, that is set in completely different galaxies.

But yeah I think it is just easier to use that setting, like how it is easier to write a fantasy story about fair skinned elves proficient with bows, brute orcs, average humans and dragons flying around everywhere. However, at the end of the day, everyone takes inspiration from somewhere, and it is difficult to create something that is 100% unique and excellent.

That, and many sci-fi fans just want to create a story and imagine that they're some super soldier fighting for the good of humanity in the far reaches of space with lasers and spaceships. Many people wish this was true and next best thing is turning it into a story.