Am kinda loving #blaugust this far and at some point I will have to blog about that. If you’re currently in need for more topics, check out the prompts on Anook and the blaugust AMA thread!
It’s handy to have a screenshot series going during events such as blaugust and while these don’t tend to spark discussion, I hope someone is enjoying them. The whole idea behind High Adventure is that I pick my favorite FFXIV screenshots from Heavensward and then tweak them to look like they came out of a picture book or children’s tale. I’ve mentioned on the blog before that I grew up with a lot of stories – fairytales, folklore, mythology, you name it. They were and are an important part of who I am and some defining choices I’ve made along the way.
If you live in my hood of central Europe, the Grimm’s Tales are every child’s standard source and early inspiration as far as the classics go. There are the cautionary adventures of Wilhelm Busch’s Max&Moritz and of course Hans Christian Andersen’s work – melancholic father of the Little Mermaid, the Ugly Duckling or the Snow Queen. When you read the original texts of his more popular tales, you realize how they are way more heart-breaking than their mainstream adaptions and there’s rarely a happy ending. Already as a young child, I was profoundly moved by the difficult emotions therein.
At some point I dove into a collection of greek myths and from age 12, latin and everything about Roman society (who have basically adopted Greek mythology) became part of my school curriculum. I went from Hercules to Thor and Siegfried with some Sindbad in the mix. Mythology is pretty gruesome stuff actually but nothing ever scared me more than this guy, so as far as I was concerned the eagle eating Prometheus’ liver, every day, was okay.
Considering this path and my big audiobook collection of illustrated international children’s tales by grandpa, it made perfect sense that I ended up reading D&D-based fantasy novels and Tolkien as a teenager. I remember my enchantment by Larry Elmore’s cover on the first edition of Dragon’s of Autumn Twilight, which I am keeping on my shelf to this day. I own illustrated versions of most of my favorite books and stories, if such a thing is available and I completely freak out if one of them is missing. There’s a story about a certain nervous breakdown that shall remain untold.
I will continue this topic next time around to talk about some of my favorite book illustrators, new and old. My third screenshot from FFXIV was taken in Aziz’la and this time I went for a more ink&spatter feel –
Riding the skies.
Happy Friday everyone and keep that blaugust spirit up!
We really need a proper mythology-based MMORPG. I’d be completely happy with one set entirely within a version of the Greek Mythos. I’d even accept a Diablo/Titan Quest-like that focuses more on MMO-style gameplay and co-op dungeon running instead of worrying about a single player!
Just anything where I can chuck spears at minotaurs.
I would definitely play an MMORPG. There’s so much wealth there just waiting to be accessed by devs, so much free lore, places and characters. I wonder if they feel it’s too restricted by setting or culture though….not that you couldn’t take creative license. The Stormpeaks in WotLK were all about norse mythology – first time I ever finished a zone in WoW. <3
You can pierce minotaurs in Ryse.
There have been a couple of attempts at greco-roman mythology-based MMOs, haven’t there? I played one that was in the isometric 3d format. What was that called? Maybe it was Perpetual’s Gods and Heroes, eventually issued by Heatwave – that was around for a couple of years. There was something called Troy Online that I never saw but it sounds like a pvp romp with no real depth. Closed down now anyway.
I’d pass on a mythology-based MMO but I’d be all over a good fairy-tale one.
I checked wikipedia and there’s a few yeah, nothing I ever heard of though. And I would most definitely be on board for a fairytale MMO, imagine something with Fable’s aesthetic, yes please! <3