Joystiq - Thematic Consistency in RPGs

Joystiq has an editorial about rpgs and thematic consistency. Rowan Kaiser compares the settings in the old rpgs with those of modern rpgs - from Wizardry to Dragon Age. A quote on how it used to be:

Wizardry's setting was not exceptional in those days. For example, the Might & Magic series was a pastiche of different fantasy and science fiction tropes, all jammed together without rhyme or reason. It's still around, in the Heroes Of Might & Magic strategy spinoffs, where fairies, bears, and dwarves all live together in the same towns. Even Ultima, in the early stages of the genre, included totally random Star Wars-like space combat sections, mandatory for completing the first two games. Across the Pacific, Japanese games like Final Fantasy included airships and aliens alongside its fantasy tropes. I miss this wildness sometimes. Modern RPGs are built around thematic consistency. They're set in worlds that attempt to make sense. To take Dragon Age: Origins as an example: it has a recognizable, historical political system. The characters generally understand the state of the world, and are motivated to deal with that. These are not bad things. As a critic who deals with narrative, creating worlds without inconsistencies appeals to me. My problem is that this has become the default mode for role-playing games. I like the thematically consistent, intense stories of a Dragon Age, yes, but I also miss the goofy weirdness of a Wizardry.

More information.

Hear hear! It seems everything these days has become a homogenous soup of mediocrity. Very few developers are straying from the traditional game archetypes, whether that be medieval or otherwise. I think it has a lot to do with the learning curve of a person to try something different as opposed to what they're used to. And parameters from studio execs.

Nevertheless, if this site's latest poll (Obsidian crowd-sourced game setting, etc) is anything to be believed, many people miss the quirky RPG settings of yesteryear.

This guy doesn't pay attention to the story in those older games since (at least in Ultima and Might and Magic) there were reasons for the sci-fi elements and without them it wouldn't make sense so they weren't thematically inconsistent. Unless you think anything that doesn't fall strictly into the generic fantasy or sci-fi genres is thematically inconsistent.

PS. Being thematically inconsistent is creating a theme and then randomly adding things that break the theme without reason.