I've decided to discuss another popular fantasy video game that I really really like:
The Elder Scrolls V. More well known as:
Skyrim
Unlike The World of Warcraft, which is a multiplayer game, Skyrim is a game you play on your own and it's focused on roleplaying. So it's just you immersing yourself in this fantasy world.
Comparatively, this fantasy world also feels (and looks) a lot more organic and natural than the cartoony style of Azeroth (The name of the primary planet in WoW). It's very much inspired by Norse Mythology and Norse/viking culture, and I think from a cultural and historical perspective it's really neat to see the kinds of things Norse people might get up to if they lived in a world of magic and didn't go out raiding.
Just just like with World of Warcraft, you get to choose a race. Unlike WoW, though, you get to choose your allegiances and who and what you fight for. You also get to choose which types of skills your character develops, instead of just choosing a class (eg. a Warrior, Mage, Rogue etc.)
This means is a great deal of diversity in gameplay as opposed to the traditional combat-based gameplay. You can play as a villain, if you want to (cringe), you can combine the styles of the traditional fantasy game classes and be a mage AND a warrior, AND a Rogue et all. I've even heard of people who go through the game roleplaying as a Bard, and never actually fight at all!
There is a fantastic story to the game involving a really satisfying, complex, and thought provoking political conflict, and dragons. But I also really love that the game is built with enough detail that you can progress along this storyline at whatever pace you choose. Sometimes it gives the game a kind of relaxing quality that is quite pleasant, but even more important to me it gives the game believably. It is really easy to kinda just suspend disbelief and be in this story, and this world.
In that respect, I think it succeeds a lot better at conveying a sense of fantasy than World of Warcraft does.
The character I play as in the game is a Breton (because they're supposed to have a slight advantage over other races in magic use, and I like magic users.) Her name is "Prisoner" (Because I didn't realize the game was prompting me to name the character when I was customizing her, and that's just the default name for characters, apparently.) I kinda worked it into my backstory for her though, so it's OK ;)
In gameplay I found I enjoy it best when I use a combination of Mage and Warrior skills. I also find that I really don't like playing a morally ambiguous or vile character, even though the game gives you ample opportunity to do so (with no real repercussions, I might add) I am kind of curious about some of the questlines and stories available to you if you go down that path, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I find the game is full and satisfying enough without having to play as a dark or sinister type character...although I did like it when I became a vampire, that was pretty cool!
I don't play very often anymore, but that's not because I've run out of things to do or because I've run it into the ground. Actually I usually go to sleep with the game soundtrack playing in the background...I guess I want that kind of magic to be a part of my real life.
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:)
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