What Is This?

I was reading the DMR Books blog and this particular post from Brian Murphy. He said someone ought to talk about the relationship between sword and sorcery fiction and modern video games, and I thought "I play video games (at least some of them) and I'm reasonably knowledgeable about sword and sorcery. I'm kind of bored. I could probably do something like that." At least I could try. If it flames out, the worst that could happen is that someone else would have to do it. We would be stuck back where we were, with rare articles wondering whether The Legend of Zelda was influenced by Robert E. Howard.

So I was thinking that what I could do would be to occasionally pick fantasy video games and analyze them from the perspective of a S&S reader as to whether the games would count as part of the genre. When I say the genre, what I refer to is the traditional sense of it as a fusion of swashbuckling adventure and supernatural horror. Heroic or low fantasy in contrast to epic or high fantasy. Less about selfless quests to save the universe and more about sword-swingers who are trying to make ends meet while conducting their red-handed business. Magic and non-human creatures are rare and frightening.

               Source: Cap'n's Comics

Of course, there are many examples that have a certain amount of the genre's tropes but not all. It gets fuzzy. Instead of a purist approach, I would rather take a liberal one and examine questionable works. Dragon Age is an epic fantasy in most meaningful ways, but the creators did say they were trying to incorporate grittier, more Howardian elements. How did that work out for them? If nothing else, it'll save me from burning through everything there is to talk about too quickly.

Does this count? Eh? No?

We'll see how this goes.