general media Settings you're tired of in games/movies/shows/books/etc.?

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Are there any settings in fiction that you've just gotten tired of? Just name them here and explain why.

 

For me, I'm tired of the Zombie Apocalypse setting. I think over the last ten years we've really over-exposed to it to the point where zombies started to show up in things where they weren't really needed (Looking at you Red Dead Redemption).

[CMQuickfireTK 751]

I'm tired of the same old military-based shiz... GIVE ME THE ARENA SHOOTERS DAMMIT!

[caddyalan 2]

Average Town: there's nothing remarkable about it. It's neither exciting nor boring. I think you can use an average town if part of your story discusses *why* the town is so plain, or if your story reveals a surprising aspect of the setting.

[Katana 298]

A school.

 

Adult viewers feel like it makes it a juvenile thing. Younger viewers don't want to spend their out-of-school hours viewing people at school being bored. Honestly, I think a lot of shows about kids tend to be at an advantage by just pretending the weekdays never exist, disacknowledging school, etc.

[ReverseFaller 2,483]

Zombies. As awesome as Zombie shows/games/movies are, they're starting to become too common.

[mars 4,862]

A dystopian society with the story being told by a teenager- Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, the Uglies, and a crap ton of other novels. The theme is gettimg heavily worn down.

[Unikitty 1,212]

Zombies are indeed a top contender. Whilst I am a huge fan of the zombie theme, I believe it's been done to death. The theme is great, and generally easy to work with, but it's become so popular that every man and his dog uses it as a topic, and it's getting boring. Unless the idea is really good and does the genre justice, we don't need any more zombie content in the near future. None of that "lone survivor who always gets betrayed by everyone they meet, and has a dog who survives through impossible odds - except the one time it could have feasibly survived".

 

[Evilshy 5,090]

I'm tired of the same old military-based shiz... GIVE ME THE ARENA SHOOTERS DAMMIT!

This so hard.

By the way, Unreal Tournament 2004 is $10 on gog.com and is still fairly active online.

 

Anyway, what the movie industry could really use right now is a well done, book-accurate I am Legend.

It fits the zombie theme without them being mindless zombies. i.e. the world is overrun by ex-humans. They can fuck you up but have a glaring weakness(es) that can be exploited, allowing a smart lone human (or small group) to survive and slaughter hoards of them. They are also somewhat intelligent, so its more outthinking them than anything else.

And of course, the ending would be perfect to shake up the post-apocalyptic zombie genre.

[CMQuickfireTK 751]

This so hard.

By the way, Unreal Tournament 2004 is $10 on gog.com and is still fairly active online.

 

I already have it

 

I hope to see a successor of UT2k4 though... Unreal 3 was just... a dissapointment

[~*bacon princess*~ 278]

the - *a-hem* //deep breath.....

evil-villain-acts-good-around-all-others-except-you-and-when-you-try-to tell-your-friends-they-don't-believe-you-and-then-the-truth-is-finally-revealed-and-the-friends-are-sorry-for-not-believing-you setting (i'm looking at you, canterlot wedding).

Edited April 13, 2014 by galaxies

[Andaasonsan 3,205]

Medieval high fantasy with elves and dwarves and stuff. Fantasy as a genre means you could go completely crazy and come up with whatever weird and interesting world you want... but everyone just makes derivative Tolkien crap.

 

There are some exceptions, but still. This is especially bad with games both video and tabletop.

[LunarWave 106]

Medieval high fantasy with elves and dwarves and stuff. Fantasy as a genre means you could go completely crazy and come up with whatever weird and interesting world you want... but everyone just makes derivative Tolkien crap.

 

There are some exceptions, but still. This is especially bad with games both video and tabletop.

 

I second that. Only game doing it right is UnEpic (because it's self-aware and includes Yoda) 

Zombies... I never liked them, they stay far away from me and I stay far away from them. 

 

I dont really have an issue with there being too many things. 

however, there's an issue with not enough things of some settings. 

Proper cyberpunk is one of those settings. 

as for genres... strategies and cyberpunk adventures are what I really crave for right now. 

[Megas 27,742]

War-Torn *insert military shooter setting here*

Medieval Fantasy setting or distant futures for JRPGs, I'd love to see more JRPGs attempt more, well, modern-like worlds(kinda like FFVII/VIII, well excluding Esthar of course)

Zombie Apocalypse

[Sabrinie 392]

Definitely post-apocalyptic type shit. I was over it before I was even into it. It's just so over done and I just can't handle how much I hate it. 

[child of the night 271]

I think that guns are getting a bit overused, sure they are the basis of a lot of game fighting mechanics but then you look at games like mirrors edge where it is more fun without a gun than with one.

[BastementSparkle 20,328]

I think any setting can be done well. People just aren't being creative enough. Mix and match setting to find a combination never before seen. How about a post-apocalyptic game filled with vibrant colors and rolling hills? Set on an alien planet where they only have medieval technology, and no humans, just the native species. Maybe with a sort of 1950's style soundtrack?

 

 I would play that to death.

[Creamy Arty 6,252]

Years ago I grew tired of the brown desert wasteland and jungle settings in shooters. Seemed like there were a ton of them several years back that consisted of a mostly brown color palette or a jungle in South America or Africa. Seemed to happen around the time of Fallout 3, iirc, which would make sense considering its wasteland setting and immense popularity. Other games may have tried to find success in that as well, although Fallout 3's popularity had more components than just the environment.

[Adorkable 2,737]

Anyone else said vampires? I'm tired of vampires, I'm very tired of vampires. xD

[Evilshy 5,090]

I think any setting can be done well. People just aren't being creative enough. Mix and match setting to find a combination never before seen. How about a post-apocalyptic game filled with vibrant colors and rolling hills? Set on an alien planet where they only have medieval technology, and no humans, just the native species. Maybe with a sort of 1950's style soundtrack?

 

I would play that to death.

So... Star Ocean + Fallout?

 

Yeah, I'd play that. The problem with post-apocalyptic on a different world is that post-apocalyptic requires that you know what it was like before everything went to shit. And not just some cinematics in the intro, but detailed stuff. Part of the reason Fallout is so popular is the attention to detail. Stuff you'd totally expect to find on a post-apocalyptic earth.

[long gone 8,929]

• Zombies. Just send it back to the grave already, dammit. There are only so many zombie games that I can handle.

Military shooters. AKA movie wannabes. They're absolute jokes and insults to gaming, with forgettable, short campaigns, overdramatic writing, very linear, hand-hold-y gameplay and... ugh, just give us arena or more team-based games like TF2 already. Those are actually good.

Voxel games. Minecraft is cool and all, but how many clones do we need? Seriously.

[BastementSparkle 20,328]

So... Star Ocean + Fallout?

 

Yeah, I'd play that. The problem with post-apocalyptic on a different world is that post-apocalyptic requires that you know what it was like before everything went to shit. And not just some cinematics in the intro, but detailed stuff. Part of the reason Fallout is so popular is the attention to detail. Stuff you'd totally expect to find on a post-apocalyptic earth.

Which is one of the things that could make it interesting. Imagine if they tried as hard as fallout when it came to detail. Exploring this whole new alien civilization so similar yet so different at the same time. Architecture, literature, food, politics and such. They could get really creative with it all.

[Vinyl Scratch. 604]

A family with 2 kids a mum and a dad all living happily together and then the dad, usually played by adam sandler fucks up and looses his family and then has to do some crazy shit to win them back and learns something along the way

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Zombies: if I had a nickel for every time I hear someone talk about a zombie apocalypse I'd e really rich

Military: Same old thing of having to survive in the military for your family or something

Post apocalyptic society: does every popular novel nowadays have to have some post apocalyptic or messed up society (looking at you hunger games and Divergant)

The whole there is something out of the ordinary and no one believes you cliche: not really a setting but I still hate this cliche. It makes parts of the first part of the canterlot wedding hard for me to sit through.

Mideveal fantasy: what is it about this time period movie makers eat up?

The whole wimp who no one likes wanting to save the day from something: we get it you want us to feel sympathetic for the weak one now stop showing mean spirited scenes

The underdogs have to win against the jerk rival team in a sports setting: I don't know why but usually the rival team are arrogant jerks

[PE Brony 1,712]

Keystone Character: It's nice to be really important throughout the game, but in spite all the NPCs around you, everything rests on you. YOU ALONE make the difference. Without YOU the entire system fails. The NPCs are just fillers that don't even do a good job at absorbing bullets for you.

 

I love Halo, but the NPCs drive me insane in Halo and other games. They are often portrayed as total Bad-A's during cinematics, and then in-game, they are absolutely USELESS! The only amazing thing about them becomes their Invincibility. It's all fine and good to not let vital characters die, but AT LEAST make them helpful!

 

Now that would be a twist! What if a new game decided that instead of making you "Restart" a section until you get it right and not let something negative happen, they actually let the game continue onward based on the results of that event??

 

Actually, from the sound of it, Destiny is shaping up to do just this! Which makes me REALLY excited for it! Fable did OK with letting consequences affect how others reacted to your appearance, but no matter what, you ended up completing the same story one way or another.

 

Rainbow Six: Las Vegas 1 & 2 did a decent job at making your team actually be helpful, even more so when you gave them a direct order. Also, they let them die eventually, but still made you restart if they actually did.

 

My ultimate game:

 

 

Setting: Halo universe

Characters: following a squad of Spartan-II's

Time frame: pre-Reach

Tactics: Styled after Rainbow Six: Las Vegas &/or Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

Freedom and scope of gameplay: the upcoming Destiny / Skyrim (from what I've heard, never played it)

Effective NPC teammates: Rainbow Six: Las Vegas, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Dynamic plot: Destiny

Realistic battle effects: Battlefield = ALMOST completely destructible buildings. They still make some indestructible. TacLights = Blindess at close range. Lens glare. Concussive explosions.

 

 

I know, it's a lot to ask, but I think it would be TOTALLY worth it!

 

 

[Rhodeana 17]

Anything which, for example, starts off all well and good, then suddenly it's all bad and ONLY the player and his/her mighty powers can SAVE THE WORLD... and so on.

 

Makes me (unsurprisingly) facepalm, and move on. Though, there are of course some exceptions, as with many things.