Interesting points. "In real life, I try to be open-minded about
unconventional-seeming beings. In games, it's a given that monsters are a
personification of evil, which makes them easier to kill.
I like to read urban fantasy books, which are quite popular now. I don't
want to stray off-topic, but yes, I definitely look for fantasy other than
medieval stuff.
Teresa
Sent using Alpine Messaging system in Mac OS x Terminal
On Sun, 15 Dec 2013, Ulysses Garcia wrote:
Through my readings, it was explained that a monster is simply any creature
who has turned evil and who was once not known as such. The reason why they
call it IA monster is because it has an evil side. Once it sees itself
referred to as one, it will literally believe in that.
But, let's take that a little bit further. Suppose we had a creature with
five arms, two fingers on each hand, tendrils, and four feet, had green slimy
skin, etc etc. Would you call that creature a monster? Nope. A human would
say that because it is not a look that we are accustomed to, but in their
world, it might be their definition of fine beauty.
So it's how you look at something that you feel is best for the situation.
also, why are fantasy time frames set only in medieval and futuristic time,
but not in renaissance, new age, or present time? Why does it have to be only
two? I once asked that about a MUD and their answer was because it would be
boring and predictable, yet the answer must be a little bit more detailed and
someone must have figured that out when they began fantasising.
On 12/15/2013 5:41 PM, dark wrote:
I disagree ulysses with your monster deffinition and with your idea that
including different in game monsters is just a way for us to dress
something up to vent our violent urges.
in the past it was necessary to kill wolves and other predators as a matter
of survival, heck there are still parts of britain where it is necessary
for farmers to kill foxes and badgers in order for their animals to
survive. That is part of that situation.
A wolf or a lion or a crocadile is not evil in and of themselves, they obey
their nature, unfortunately part of that conflicts with humans. The same
goes with zombies, malevlolent ghosts like poltergheists, and monstrous
beasts such as dinosaurs.
When we play a game we are interacting with a new situation and environment
and one we would not have in real life, be that controlling a bio dome on
the moon, playing poker and betting thousands of dollars, or indeed
traveling a zombi infested city. As such we participate in the nature of
that environment, and if it includes zombiess mosnters etc, that's part of
the world at that point and we're not going to survive in that world
without doing what must be done the same way a poker player wouldn't
survive without betting money, none are reflections of real world actions
or situation, they are just elements of the games reality and only have
relevence according to that reality.
there is also then the fact that most intelligent fantasy creatures such as
goblins, vampires, orcs, intelligent malign aliens like the Daleks, though
possessing human intelligence lack the choice to act other than in a
malicious way. Doctor who indeed goes into quite a lot of detail with this
with the Daleks, they are a race of aliens genetically bred and
deliberately created by a psychotic geaneus to hate anything and everything
that is not a Dalek.
In a simialr sense, Trolls, Orcs and the other dark creatures in lord of
the rings are direct adjuncts to the will of Sauron. They have no ability
to act independently of his will and Tolkien even states that they went off
and died without him, ---- in fact Tolkien is very careful to draw a
distinction between the various groups of men such as the Haradrim who were
persuaded to fight on Sauron's side, and the creatures such as orcs which
were directly motivated by Sauron.
So, with various intelligent fantasy races there is a good arguemnet that
they are just as much an environmental force as natural predators.
Finally, as regards games where you actually kill humans, again as I said
before intention is the difference. I wouldn't condone a game which
basically had you do mindless slaughter or harming of innocent people for
no reason, but games that simulate say a war agaisnt an oppressive enemy
or fighting against a criminal gang you are just again participating in
that environment, and since it is a simulated and entirely artificial it
doesn't have a baring on what you would do in reality.
This is a reason why in reality I am very anti war in the majority of
circumstances, when to protest against the War in Iraq etc, but am quite
content to play Gma tank commander. I don't hate! the enemy tanks in Gma
tank commander or considder that they are full of soldiers with lives and
desires and friends and families, ---- because frankly speaking they're
not! indeed, it'd be easy to imagine that all the tanks in the game were
just robots.
If however you really! asked me to blow up someone else with a tank, ----
well I would refuse, and I at least like to think unless it was that one in
a thousand occasion where there was! a good reason to kill someone, I'd
refuse even if my life was in danger though of course having not been in
the situation I've yet to find out if I have that kind of courage, --- and
I probably don't.
BEware the Grue!
dark.
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