About this Dark! Gritty! and Mature! thing…

Who doesnt love a good decapitation. Blade of Darkness is still one of my favorite games. It would be lame without the gore!

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
Who doesnt love a good decapitation. Blade of Darkness is still one of my favorite games. It would be lame without the gore!

My personal fave was decapitating someone, then picking up their skull and beating the next enemy to death with it …

Never did finish BoD, that game was damn HARD!

Originally Posted by JDR13
Never did finish BoD, that game was damn HARD!

Well worth it - still looks pretty decent, and is just one of my fave games.

Originally Posted by Jaz
I do! I do!
Life is dark and gritty enough for me as it is.
I thought the dark and grity games were a fine novelty when they first came out en masse. But what do I yewrn to play nowadays when game tend t be dark and gritty by default?
Light, clean, Disney-ish and colorful games. The story/plot may be dark, but I'm glad if visuals are candy.
I'm a sucker for Kingdom Hearts .

Hmmmm…. haven't posted here in ages…
and actually mainly because of this.

I don't like dark! gritty! Mature! at all. Real life is dark and gritty enough, and I have to be mature there all the time. So in my games I want bright! Colorful! Oh, and a helping of Whimsicle! and Cute! too please, with Sprinkles! on top

I haven't played the Witcher, or Fallout 3, and from what I've read about these games I doubt I ever will. Instead I've moved more and more towards consoles, where Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Harvest Moon seem to cater a lot more to my taste.

I hope Western RPGs will move on soon from this latest fad, and go back to some nice old fashioned High Fantasy, where heroes are noble and bad guys are Ebul, and you get to rescue the puppy and the maiden in the end Until then, it seems that the DS and the Wii (and the PS2) will be taking up my gaming time.

Nice to read I'm not the only one who doesn't like this dark and gritty trend, Jaz!

Originally Posted by Sorcha Ravenlock
I don't like dark! gritty! Mature! at all. Real life is dark and gritty enough, and I have to be mature there all the time. So in my games I want bright! Colorful! Oh, and a helping of Whimsicle! and Cute! too please, with Sprinkles! on top

……..Women

Yaaaaaaay!




Oh, King's Bounty is bright! and colorful! and all that, maybe that's another reason why it's so good? Personally, I'm with Mike, "I like a mix of stuff, mix of styles, and so on."

Originally Posted by Sorcha Ravenlock
Hmmmm…. haven't posted here in ages…
and actually mainly because of this.

I don't like dark! gritty! Mature! at all. Real life is dark and gritty enough, and I have to be mature there all the time. So in my games I want bright! Colorful! Oh, and a helping of Whimsicle! and Cute! too please, with Sprinkles! on top

I haven't played the Witcher, or Fallout 3, and from what I've read about these games I doubt I ever will. Instead I've moved more and more towards consoles, where Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Harvest Moon seem to cater a lot more to my taste.

I hope Western RPGs will move on soon from this latest fad, and go back to some nice old fashioned High Fantasy, where heroes are noble and bad guys are Ebul, and you get to rescue the puppy and the maiden in the end Until then, it seems that the DS and the Wii (and the PS2) will be taking up my gaming time.

Try Drakensang, the world is mostly light lots of greens and blues instead of the usual brown and grey.

Nice to read I'm not the only one who doesn't like this dark and gritty trend, Jaz!

No you're not alone, I'm totally with you there. I prefer my green fields and blue skies in my RPGs.

Some day, somebody is going to think outside the box and make a light, gritty, nearly-mature game….

Originally Posted by Zloth
Some day, somebody is going to think outside the box and make a light, gritty, nearly-mature game….

…. the same day Duke Nukem Forever is released.

I like the dark and gritty thing. Like Thoth, Ive plumbed the depths of the internet and seen some truly horrible things that have no doubt changed me. In my opinion, once you see someone die horribly, nothing ever done on any video game can ever truly shock you. But it has given me a shell against the more extremely violent side of things when it comes to games maybe. Not desensitization, more knowing reality from not when you see it, and fantasy just cant carry the emotional impact. But at least they try, maybe one day theyll dig deep (or sink low, lol) enough to truly impact me in some way.

There's something to be said for cartoony and bright, but we have to listen to endless people bellyaching about how anything that isnt dark thematically and stylistically is ripping off the warcraft universe. Just aint worth it.

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
I like the dark and gritty thing. Like Thoth, Ive plumbed the depths of the internet and seen some truly horrible things that have no doubt changed me. In my opinion, once you see someone die horribly, nothing ever done on any video game can ever truly shock you. But it has given me a shell against the more extremely violent side of things when it comes to games maybe. Not desensitization, more knowing reality from not when you see it, and fantasy just cant carry the emotional impact. But at least they try, maybe one day theyll dig deep (or sink low, lol) enough to truly impact me in some way.

There's something to be said for cartoony and bright, but we have to listen to endless people bellyaching about how anything that isnt dark thematically and stylistically is ripping off the warcraft universe. Just aint worth it.

how about a trade-off? A game that starts with the world all nice and green and fluffy, where you start saving your neighbor's cat, and as the game progresses and the evil overlord gains more control (whom you will eventually fight since you're obviously the 'chosen one'), the world turns darker and grittier. I've seen this a lot in console RPGs, I guess it's because they focus so much on story.

oh yeah, id totally be down for that

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
How about some kind of middle-ground, you know like something akin to reality?

This is exactly what's being discussed about TDE currently:

First, the TDE setting was rather … well, I'll try it with "fairy-tale like".

Then came the G7, with Borbarad, and the greatest war so far, culminating in the Third Demon-Battle.

This led to the development of the Black Lands, or Black Realms, which provided a horror-themed setting.

They were promised to be gone at one point, and everyone assumed this would be only very few years. Because this horror-themed setting was untypical for TDE.

That was 10 years ago.

With the Year Of The Fire a few years ago, things became worse, even darker. Something almost as great at the war of Borbarad actually happened, driving Aventuria even more into the darkness.

This is the "age of grey-ness", so to say.

This is how the "followers" of the original setting see it.

And of course they want the original "fairy-tale like" setting back.

But meanwhile a new generation of P&P players has arrived, and they do not know Aventuria any other way !

And of course they want the "grey" world to be kept !
And of course they are against the old "fairy-tale like" setting !

Now, what's happening now is that both factions collide, crash.

The "older faction" so to say feelings like being negledted, ignored, because there is nothing happening that turns the Aventuria TDE setting into its older state.

Because "grey-ness" is king, nowadays. EVERYTHING has to be so.

But I fear the most important part is this:

The newer generations know it no any other way ! A grey setting is "normal" to them !

So, we have a frustrated older generation which has the feeling that their beloved setting has actually be destroyed in favour to a more "dark & gritty" setting, a more "mature" setting.

And we have a younger generation for which "grey-ness" is quite normal.
For them, this is the way the world goes.

And, according to them, this should be reflected by games.


I call the "older generation" the Escapists. Because they want a settiung that is completely different from reality ! Because of what Escapism actually is.

The "younger generation" doesn't want that. They want games (and P&P) to actually reflect reality.

In the end, we have kind of a "clash of generations".

Originally Posted by wolfing
how about a trade-off? A game that starts with the world all nice and green and fluffy, where you start saving your neighbor's cat, and as the game progresses and the evil overlord gains more control (whom you will eventually fight since you're obviously the 'chosen one'), the world turns darker and grittier. I've seen this a lot in console RPGs, I guess it's because they focus so much on story.

Interestingly, no-one does the exact opposite.

Originally Posted by Sorcha Ravenlock
I don't like dark! gritty! Mature! at all. Real life is dark and gritty enough, and I have to be mature there all the time. So in my games I want bright! Colorful! Oh, and a helping of Whimsicle! and Cute! too please, with Sprinkles! on top

I think, this is the essence of Escapism.

I wonder how people might react when they're let's say 60, I wonder whether they'll still want that game settings have to be "dark & gritty", too ?

In a discussion about the current state of the TDE setting, someone said this:

Fantasy is dead, and cynism is the culprit.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
Who doesnt love a good decapitation.

Sounds like "who doesn't love a good meal ?" to me.

My first name is Lloyd, which comes from the Welsh word for grey. What with grey being "king" these days I'd assume that means I am. So… Where do I pick up my tax collections?

Seriously though, I like both dark & gritty and colorful & happy. Maybe it's the xbox in me talking but I slightly favor dark and gritty. I couldn't tell you why, I just do.

I hope I am still in context after not reading all the above posts, but since Fallout 3 was mentioned:

Being a "nice" guy, I actually tried to scare the bandits away by shooting the weapon out of their hand or, uhm, shooting off their arm. But they just kept coming! They might run away a bit at first only to grab the nearest weapon and hit me in the back, completely immune to their crippling injuries.

Considering the realism of the graphics, the blood and gore, this felt actually far more artificial and silly than in other games where such blind devotion to violence is expected of a hostile NPC.

One of the reasons I enjoyed Drakensang was that the majority of the game wasn't dark and gritty, though some of it was. We need balance. Why do we play games? Obviously the reasons are as varied as the games should be. Unfortunately, the games are no longer as varied as once they were!! The reasons haven't changed.