Which setting do you prefer in games?

[Kowe]

Love all of them, more or less. Just depends on the quality of writing and world-building. If it isn't a good, established IP.

Thing about the darker settings is that they do not necessarily have to be bleak, hopeless stories. In those settings, a game's writing can still have the hero's journey incorporated. Being a light in the dark, shining even brighter with the increased adversity.
Granted, certain settings lend themselves more towards unpleasant themes and stories. Lovecraftian is predominantly horror and has the goal to instill (existential) dread. Can't think of anything but Alone in the Dark with a more positive ending in that genre.

[J1M]

To me, the aesthetics are more important. I like colorful artbook fantasy settings. Doesn't matter if it's medieval like Warcraft, or looks like medieval Japan like in Utawarerumono, or looks like the 19th century/steampunk like Trails, or looks like futuristic sci fi like Xeno. As long as it looks really amazing. I also prefer a heroic tone, where the heroes are actually good and actually trying to make things better.

I was going to say something similar. My favorite settings are fundamentally bright, even if dark things happen sometimes. As cool as those settings may be in some ways, I can't tolerate the way Chaos' ultimate victory is a certainty in Warhammer 40,000, nor the way """God""" is spiteful and uncaring in World of Darkness.

I think most people want bright settings and they're made grimdark only because spiritually Jewish artists are allergic to good and beauty.
(Warhammer 40k is the exception that proves the rule because the idea that "all sides are evil" mostly hinges on measuring the Imperium of Man with the stick of liberal values)

Conversely when noblebright settings are made, they align with a warped and flaccid idea of good that makes the whole thing feel childish, sometimes on purpose.
People then settle for g(r)ay morality as the least bad option (and then it's fake anyway).

I'm fine with dark stories, but I prefer the environments to be bright and clean even if there's a cut-throat political environment under the surface. Well-known example: Warcraft + Defias Brotherhood origins.

[Brugmans]

Granted, certain settings lend themselves more towards unpleasant themes and stories. Lovecraftian is predominantly horror and has the goal to instill (existential) dread. Can't think of anything but Alone in the Dark with a more positive ending in that genre.

Shadow of the Comet is supposed to have a happy ending, but I was too dumb to finish it and see for myself.
Anchorhead is another one, if I recall correctly.

[rusty_shackleford]

Steampunk is a stupid setting. The one good so-called "steam punk" game is just Victorian fantasy.

I've been watching some Tim Cain videos and I've never once seen him refer to is as 'steampunk'. e.g., "Fantasy game with an industrial revolution", and refers to the setting as 'Victorian'.
I don't even think he considers the game to be steampunk, unless someone else has a quote otherwise?

[KnightoftheWind]

There is a criminal lack of good High Fantasy games. Fable is ded, and there has yet to be a SINGLE good adaptation of Arthurian legend in gayming.

[Faceless_Sentinel]

Steampunk is a stupid setting. The one good so-called "steam punk" game is just Victorian fantasy.

I've been watching some Tim Cain videos and I've never once seen him refer to is as 'steampunk'. e.g., "Fantasy game with an industrial revolution", and refers to the setting as 'Victorian'.
I don't even think he considers the game to be steampunk, unless someone else has a quote otherwise?

Victorian style is only part of aesthetics, you need steam powered technology too.

[traxtan]

I don't see contemporary on that list.

[logincrash]

I don't see contemporary on that list.

[ThulsaDoomer]

I echo that most of these are fine for me, as long as they are competently written and made. Which, given modern prospects, means the odds of that happening are pretty ******* low.

What I really want to see is fantasy games based on old sword and sorcery. The original Conan remains one of my favourites. Timeless even. The older I get the more I come to understand Robert's philosophical clash with civilisation. While I don't share his deep fascination with the barbaric, I appreciate what he saw. Honesty, boldness, honour, etc. Embracing what you are, and not pretending to be something you never were. Given the current media climate, this won't happen, as masculinity is currently condemned and censored.

Actually, that's the case with dark fantasy as well. As others laid out, it has become this incestual genre of jerking off to moral ambiguity better known as grey. Written by people with no convictions or discipline, so how can they even understand what hard choices are? There's not even good lessons to be gleaned either. The beauty of the genre is the struggle of virtue and hope to survive in a world on the verge of losing it. An eternal clash of good and evil, blurred and harder to decipher, nonetheless still good and evil. They forget that part. There is no "but the villain is actually good". The fall is the tragedy, and the justice or redemption is the death. Current game writers will commit mental gymnastics to write around this, like that recent game South of Midnight. No one faces consequences for their evil acts, there is always an excuse or shift of blame.

[logincrash]

Embracing what you are, and not pretending to be something you never were.

I like that one city that turned you into what you saw yourself as and the tomboy that Conan left that city with was very surprised that he didn't change at all. Always found that a great way to display Conan's character.

[TKVNC]

Fantasy with historical basis / elements is kino.

I prefer dark fantasy / low fantasy because I find high fantasy often becomes a case of progressively more powerful opponents, until you're fighting a god.

That said, @Kowe and @ThulsaDoomer are both right. Dark / low fantasy is at its best when you're fighting against a cruel world, but still you're still very much 'good'.

Shades of grey is lame.

It also makes the juxtaposition of dark / gritty world, and base / refuge more comfy. Like Path of Exile hideouts.

[J1M]

Someone should post that Grim Bright chart.

[Tangerine]

Someone should post that Grim Bright chart.

This one?

grimbright.png

[Acrux]

It's weird and unnecessary IMNSHO

[mercerxiv]

Definitely grim dark, high fantasy, low fantasy, folklore, myths and legends, sci-fi, historically accurate or inspired, lovecraftian (tbh the only horror subtype that has potential to be genuinely scary), cyberpunk. Those would be my favorites. That said none of them are safe from "modern audiences" and awful writing.

Good grim dark IMHO is the type where good is struggling against overpowering evil, not as much the "mowally ambwiwious" type - this I more often dislike and find rather trite.
High fantasy is just a lot of fun cause you get to let lose with crazy power scale (i.e. mages that can wipe entire nations), but it's got its own fun in it.
Folklore/myths/legends is great cause our cultural heritage is, in fact, the best. And why go with often lesser stories that were "inspired" by those myths and legends if you can go for the source?
Cyberpunk - it's more of a "doomwatching" thing - a likely sad future ahead of us but at least with some cool tech and ****. I, for one, wouldn't mind if, say, Jeff Bezos ordered a hit on Bill Gates, who later got taken out by Zukerborg.
Historically accurate is great cause that's about the only way you can relive some of the greater periods in human history and have a break from the modern day politics (although I wouldn't count on that). I just don't see modern day catboys storming the beaches of Normandy or crossing the Rubicon.
Sci-fi I prefer the more optimistic kind, with emphasis on a new era of exploration and human flourishing and colonization in space. What's not to find exciting about going around the galaxy on a ship, finding ancient ruins, treasure, getting into gunfights with pirates/outlaws, and maybe even trading some zippos for precious metals with some locals?

[spookyheart]

denpa type stuff honestly since i played nso long while back and sci fi fantasy like ar tonelico or xenoblade