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General: The No Elves Manifesto
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
With our brand new column here at MMORPG.com, we are reaching out to those of you who are sick and tired of the traditional high fantasy MMO. Judging by a recent study, that means we're talking to a lot of you. Check out "No Elves Allowed" to find out what exactly we're talking about here. Leave us a few of your own thoughts in the comments.
Been there. Done that. Bought the Blood Elf. Can we move on? I can see some of you surreptitiously picking up those pitchforks but I'm going to say it anyway: the genre is over saturated with gnomes. You cannot turn two steps without bumping into a scantily-dressed elf. Throw a stone and chances are you'll nail a passing princess. To abuse a time-worn trope, your personal mileage may vary on the subject matter but personally, I've had enough of fantasy. We have the technology. Let's use it.
Read more of Cassandra Khaw's No Elves Allowed: The No Elves Manifesto.
Comments
Although I'm not real sure what all the rambling was about in the last 3/4 of this article, I support the "No Elves" movement.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
I don't mind elves. What I do mind, however, are the constant WoW-clones and their linear/simplistic mindset.
Seriously. Battlegrounds? Redundant Raids? Linear Progression?
Mankind has landed on the moon. Do you mean to tell me that this is all we are capable of within the MMO realm?
I find this article "racist" ;D
I kid, I kid. I don't hate elves or fantasy, BUT I am ready for more diversity in my game choices. Hence why The Secret World looks nice and juicy and games like Prime and that post apocalyptic game that I can never remember the name of, Repatriation or whatever it's called.
i think you're talking about "The Repopulation"......
and about the topic, i think having the traditional races isnt bad, the problem is when they try to copy and copy the same background....
wood elves, dark elves, blood elves, high elves, night elves......
C'mon, elves can be more than just beautifull people who hugs trees or lives inside caves and enjoy the night........pff there's so many concepts....
TLDR... but I'm ready for a non-elf MMO to come along and blow my mind, or my socks off... whichever.
Sacrilege! The FSM doesn't need a space ship! How dare you!
I don't know what author was on when he wrote this, but I wouldn't say no to some of it.
i dont support it one bit since i am an elf and all you haters out there need to get with reallity and see. considering most nerds and gamers fall under the three demographics or races. your either a boring peace loving yet war starting human, a hyper nerd with ego issues aka elf, or your someone that like building stuf are short and enjoys mayhem thus gnome or dwarf.
Elves don't bother me, as long as certain names and variants of those names, are automatically rejected.
sure and get rid of fighters, mages. tanks, dps archers and the rest and play chess, sure why not.
I've been reading fantasy novels for over 35 years. I haven't gotten tired of it in that time, so the pittance of time represented by existence of MMOs is barely a blip, and hasn't done anything to damage my interest in the genre.
Of course, I like other types of games and fiction as well, but I think the little backlash against all things fantasy I've seen over the last couple of years is nothing more than mildly amusing.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
100% well said.
Elves don't bother me much...it's the portrayal of a certain type of elf that does. The daisy eating, tree hugging, leaf wearing, glitter skinned elves bother me. If an MMO had some cigar smoking, gun toting, jeans and workboots wearin, smudged up kind of elf, I don't think it'd bother me at all (dear MMO gods, please let some AAA dev pick up the Shadowrun license).
Elves, as a concept, are fine. It is the lack of variety in their depictions that are the problem. Culture, physiology, attunement to magic...these are the things that change very little between games/literature within the fantasy genre.
Think Poison Elves. Feral elves. Human-hating, blood-drinking savages standing at a towering 8 feet tall with the strength of ten men wielding weapons made out of the bodies of the last village they razed to the ground.
@methos12 She! Not he! And blame it on far too much coffee.
Also, in general, this would probably make far more sense if I had remembered to link to the corresponding games. That said, I totally recommend checking out Die2nite. It's a pretty nifty game: http://www.die2nite.com/
All sorts of YES.
I bet his first proper piece is about SWTOR, and that it is gushing and coincides with that launch.
.. actually, it's a toss-up between Fallen Earth and Shin Megami Tenshei Online
Excellent. If you can stay clear of SWTOR for at least 6 months I would be very grateful... just sick to the hind teeth of that game already.
If you find your own path, don't follow hype, and talk about the games that are usually pretty ignored I will have nothing but support for your column.
But I still like the odd elf...
Not bad article.
And while I agree with most. I also think that elves are not to bad. But oversaturation and copy cat buisness practices are what we are all tired off.
Look at elves in Witcher : Agressive militant terrorists, bent on suicide killing of any human they find.
Thats quite original. Why not...
Ha ha. I can totally get behind that. My main writing gig involves indie games so you can imagine how all that has shaped my tastes.
I also take suggestions!
Open call for people to suggest underappreciated titles that need to be prodded at.
So blue humanoids are better than elves and orcs?
Don't get me wrong. I could still stomach elves if they're presented properly. The elves I'm ranting about are the pretty ones you always see in MMOs. I can not name the last MMO that did not feature elves that were NOT willowly, inhumanly good-looking and ... yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
Remember, no elves means you will not kill elves in your favourite mmo, and thats very sad.