This seems ill-informed and pretentious.Ryan Hughes said:One of my pet peeves in gaming is the trend towards what is often called 'dark' fantasy, meaning a fantasy setting with a strong visceral feel and often including or tackling subjects like sexuality, gore, murder, and even sometimes rape. I will admit, it is difficult to explain what turns me off about dark fantasy, so I hope we can explore the subject here a bit more.
I did not like Dragon Age: Origins --though that puts me in the minority here-- so my response to my friends when they told me about how bad they felt Dragon Age 2 was ran something like: "Well, considering how bad DA:O was, what did you expect?" Among the multitude of things I disliked about Origins was a scene at the beginning of the game, if you started with the Human Noble, like i did. You are asked to clear some rather large rats out of a pantry, and after, your character is splattered with enough blood to just be simply laughable. I turned the blood-effect off afterwards, but my misgivings about the game remained. Essentially, the game seemed to contain what it thought was 'dark' story elements in a way that would make it seem more mature to the player. This, as opposed to a more organic approach to its story and contents.
I have thought about getting the Witcher games on Steam and giving them a try, though I fear they may have much the same attitude as Dragon Age to their own content. Basically, if you add content in that is designed to shock or awe the player just for the that sake, then you have a long way to grow as an artist.
I suppose dark fantasy's main idea is to embrace 'realism,' but one interesting point is that the more qualified and educated a person is concerning Medieval culture, society, and literature, the less inclined they are to write "dark" fantasy. Tolkien was a professor of Medieval studies and literature and even fluently read and translated Medieval texts. Montey Python -Jerry Jones in particular- is tremendously well-versed in the subject. Jones even co-wrote a book detailing and offering theories on the death of Geoffry Chaucer. George R.R. Martin, on the other hand, has his degree in Journalism. So, much like modern military shooters, we see a trend towards "realism" from people that know very little about the reality of their subject.
I for one am weary of the way that fantasy -once a vibrant genre- is being treated lately in games and other mediums like literature. But, what are your thoughts?
Firstly, if you think that shock has no place in art, then you have a long way to go as a consumer of art. True, there is such a thing as pointless shock tactics that serve no purpose (marylin manson's whole shtick), but plenty of art pushes the viewer's level of acceptability to make a point.
Second, you make a claim about behavior that you have no way of verifying and seems to serve no other purpose than telling us "By the way, I'm SO SMART you guys, I know about the REAL stuff!". Tolkien was NOT a fantasy author. He was a linguist and historian who invented a world that contained the languages he invented. He also wrote a fantasy series that is FILLED with "dark fantasy" paraphernalia, and if you read the books more carefully, you might remember that. The REASON the journey of the fellowship is so heroic is that it HAS NO CHANCE OF SUCCESS. Creatures who only wish to maim and devour all life are flooding the land, evil wizards and knights roam the country on mounts of the greatest power, unfathomable horrors wait just below the surface of the world, a dark god is reforming his seat of power and prepares to declare war on -and enslave- the entire world, we see a creature who is the spawn of a monster who ate some of the goodness out of the world, the party is torn about by ambition and resentment, two world leaders nearly ruin everything because they despair at the enemy they face, and its a quest to destroy an artifact that rots your soul with its very presence! Yeah, really upbeat, man.
Next up, "Terry" Jones of "Monty" Python has made a lot of work, and almost none of it is relevant to your case. His fiction is almost wholly for children anyway.
Now, let's tackle your actual objections. You are not objecting to the darkness of the fantasy, you are objecting to the "low" fantasy elements. Extreme violence, pointless sex, that sort of stuff, is "low fantasy", a genre we like to pretend died out when Gor and Conan fell out of fashion. And it's perfectly fine to not like that. But the problem with high fantasy (like eragon) is that it lacks substance for many people. As an example, I'll use the Inheritance Cycle. The first books are extremely light and sanitized (save one mention of rape thrown in by a teenager trying to be OMG SO GROWN UP) and the deaths and consequences of the events of the novel are kept far out of frame. Then, in the last two books, suddenly there is more danger and visceral action. It keeps us, the reader, grounded in the fact that people, regardless of intent or personal caliber, are prone to the same failings as the rest of us, and can be vulnerable. This allows the stakes to be felt more clearly than "There is an evil king and he is bad, so we will slay him and good will triumph over evil!"
Now, to be clear, I don't have a PROBLEM with high fantasy, and I have read stupidly huge amounts of it. But some people want the WORLD involved, and not just the hero.
Now, I still haven't read Martin's work, so it might be a giant pile of shit, but you can't attack an author's ability based on their degrees. Especially since journalism is (supposedly) about detail and critical thinking, and the man is writing a series about politics.
Oh, and the people that hated Dragon Age 2 were pissed because it WASN'T like the first game.
So, to sum up, you don't understand the difference between dark and low fantasy, fail to realize that different genres exist for different groups with different tastes, and throw up examples to try to sound learned on the topic but instead serve only to expose your lack of experience.
If you want to be "weary" of fantasy, try doing what I did and reading enough of it that it becomes difficult to find quality or original thought in the genre, because that's a damn good reason to be weary of something.
Meanwhile, I'm going to track down a copy of the last Wheel Of Time book so i can finally be done with that series