Every WoW player has their favourite location - mine happens to be Stranglethorn Vale.
Having said that, it's not to do with quests or content - no this is more to do with the setting. I love how everything is rendered and the jungle/tropical environment. Everything looks like it was ripped out of a travel guide to Hawaii and filled with appropriate monsters (Raptors and tribes of Ogres and Trolls).
I've seen many RPGs may draw inspiration from medieval England so to see a different setting is quite pleasing. So it certainly is a different, and welcome change, to see a setting that is more a tropical island. Killing monsters in a place resembling one of the many islands in the Pacific? Sounds different but I'm in!
In fact why isn't the tropical setting used more often as a setting in RPGs? As mentioned above the whole medieval-England motif has been run into the ground so to see something completely different would make for a welcome change. The tropical island shows a lot of potential with a setting made of jungles, beaches and rocky mountains. And there is the potential of having villages made of simple buildings and filled with people speaking in Jamaican/Polynesian. And the monsters could present a opportunity for some exotic creatures rather than the usual Orcs/goblins fare (and maybe a headhunter tribe while we're at it). Indeed, the only other RPG I can think of that made use of the tropical island setting would be Final Fantasy X with Besaid Island - And admittedly, the further I got from that place the less interesting the other locales in the game became.
Ultimately though both Stranglethorn Vale and Besaid Island represent small portions of their respective games. Yet complete games have been built around smaller ideas. So, is there anyone willing to make an RPG around a tropical island setting?
I'd play it!
Tropical jungles For the WIN!!! Tropical island like settings are one of the reasons I got into Tomb Raider (that combined with the accompanying ruined temples, lost cities and ancient treasures of a forgotten time.) But all these things are also present in Stranglethorn Vale, which is why its also my fave place in Azeroth.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I may not be a video game designer, but I certainly plan for most of my stories with Aefion Bloodclaw to be set against a backdrop of tropical jungle, ruined temples and lost cities, with dinosaurs - things that are certainly not often found in your typical sword & sorcery, tolkienesque type of adventure.
Tropical jungle (along with ruined temples, lost cities, dinosaurs and treasure) are some of the reasons I got into Tomb Raider. So since Stanglethorn Vale has these things it's also my favourite location in the World of Warcraft.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, the tropical jungle settings are going to be some of the main ones for my stories involving Aefion Bloodclaw. This is something I hope will add a fresh slant to fantasy, since you don't get much of the exotic location stuff in the Tolkienesque genre.