When running around these worlds (best viewed while with female elf character and after removing armour in 3rd person... ;) ) we find that not only do they look amazing and give fantastic energy but whether they're fantasy worlds like the above or barren Nevada wastelands people are now able to create a universe that feels "alive". Games are finally now able to build a universe (cliché ridden or otherwise) which is able to absorb you in another world or time period just like classic literature used to be able to.
Thing is, for the most part some elements of literature seem to have lost this same thing. Despite being fictional worlds they have elements which bring the reality. Even something like Dracula took elements of the reality and slotted it subtly in to the fantasy world, fiction but plausible. The sequel supposedly written using Stokers own notes however constantly name drops people of the era going as far as to change the dateline of the original novel to make Van Helsing a suspect in the Ripper crimes (evidently the alusion is Dracula was Jack the Ripper). Still marginally better then the other vampire series written by Ms Meyer which unlike the books she rips off comes across as half arsed fantasy which doesn't come close to absorbing. At least the Rice novels have that plausibility, for all the absurdities about supernatural beings there's the chance they COULD be legit (spoilers - they're almost certainly not though...)
Thing is, it just feels like creativity can struggle at times, even the books and games I like feel it's all been done before (recommend the Merlin Codex, nice mix of Celtic/Greek/Finnish mythology) in the above examples of Oblivion and Dragon Age it's basically king dies, demon invasion to quell. Books just seem to have got scarce further with ideas and the number of shocking remakes of films seems to go hand in hand with this. Even the "best young writer aged 6-13" who won an award for "original and creative ideas" when asked where her inspiration came from replied "well I watched this film with Brad Pitt and thought that'd make a good book". David Camerons expression in the photo was priceless!
This leads me to my project, a while ago on the Nightwish forum (why do people STILL send me private messages despite leaving over a year ago?) I ran a community story, almost like a text adventure RPG. Essentially it was a genetic engineering Crichtonesque piece using Jurassic Park as a start point and then moving from there to show off the new creations he'd created. Sadly inspiration seemed to hit most of the other writers and I couldn't kill them all off and try and limp through to the end of the episode with just two or three others.
What if, however, it's started with the plan of small contributions and working together to build the universe? What if perhaps there was some form of platform where people were able to make fairly large, in depth pieces of writing with an easy way of sharing it? National Novel Writing Month kind of went horribly wrong for me but nothing to stop people from trying this on the side. Perhaps we'll take Kate's poetry book idea and get a nice purdy cover published (even if it's only amongst ourselves). Now what shall we find as a starting point? Counter cliché fantasy (why do dwarves all hide underground and poncy pointy ears (despite being hawt) ALWAYS live in harmony with nature?) perhaps? any ideas?
