That's my proposal which I have set now for all those games now. As I said, just change anything you disagree with. Only if I have reviewed a game myself, it would be nice if you could post here first. As for most of the other games, I just took a guess.

Most of the games which had been in Fantasy before has been moved to Sword & Sorcery. For Misc. Fantasy, I was very liberal, i.e. when in doubt, I included the game.

The Lurking Horror: Misc.
The Pawn: Misc.
The Prophecy: Misc.
The Quest for the Holy Grail: M&M
Monkey Island: Misc.
Tony & Friends In Kellogg's Land: Misc.
Ultima (all): S&S
Uninvited: Misc.
Veil of Darkness: Misc.
Warlock: The Avenger: S&S
Warlords: S&S
Warlords (*): S&S
Warlords II: S&S
Wild Cup Soccer: Misc.
Wizardry: S&S
Wodan: M&M
Worms: Misc.
Zombies ate my Neighbors: Misc.

Anchorhead: Misc.
Labyrinth: Misc.
Lancelot: M&M
Lands of Lore: S&S
Legend: S&S
Legend of Kyrandia 1 - 3: Misc.
Little Big Adventure: Misc.
Little Blue Men: Misc.
Loom: Misc.
Magic Carpet: S&S
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim: S&S
Martian Dreams: Misc.
Master of Magic: S&S
Mega Lo Mania: M&M
Might & Magic (all): S&S
Monkey Island 2: Misc.
Moonstone: S&S
Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows: Misc.
Nevermore: Misc.
New Zealand Story: Misc.
Noctropolis: Misc.
Plok!: Misc.
Populous 1 + 2: M&M
Prisoner of Ice: Misc.
Pudgy: Misc.
Quest for Glory: S&S
Rampage: Misc.
Realms of the Haunting: Misc.
Rick Dangerous: Misc.
Savage Empire: Misc.
Secret of Mana 1+2: S&S
Shadow Caster: S&S
Shadow of the Comet: Misc.
Shadowgate: S&S
Shannara: S&S
Siege: S&S
Silverload: M&M
Simon the Sorcerer (both): Misc.
Sixth Sense Investigations: Misc.
Solstice: Misc.
Spellcasting (all three): Misc.
Spiderman: Misc.
Spirit of Excalibur: M&M
Stronghold: S&S
Super Mario Land: Misc.
Sword of Aragon: S&S
Sword of Destiny: Misc.
Bard's Tale: S&S
Telengard: S&S
Terraquake: S&S
The Addams Family: Misc.
The End of He-Man!: S&S
Giana Sisters: Misc.
The Guild of Thieves: Misc.
The Hobbit: S&S
The Horde: Misc.
The Hound of Shadow: Misc.
The Immortal: S&S
The Legacy: Misc.
Ragnarok: M&M

I'll have to take a look at my reviews. Realms of the Haunting for example would be Myths and mythology, as (as I found recently, explaining why the world looked so fleshed and as borrowed from somewhere) it's based on all those demonologist and spiritist theories that were popular in the late XIXs and early XXs (the same as using new age sillyness to create something like The Invibles).

Here is a list of games I put into these new themes. Feel free to change anything:

A Journey Into Xanth: Misc.
Aaargh!: M&M
Actraiser: M&M
Akalabeth: S&S
Albion: S&S
Alone in the Dark: Misc.
Alone in the Dark 3: Misc.
Ambush at Sorinor: S&S
Ancient Domains of Mystery: S&S
Ancients I: Death Watch: S&S
Ancients II: Approaching Evil: S&S
Anvil of Dawn: S&S
Archon: M&M
B.C. Kid: Misc.
Barbarian: S&S
Battle for Wesnoth: S&S
Black Thorne: Misc.
Blade Warrior: S&S
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon: Misc.
Castle Master: S&S
Curse of Enchantia: Misc.
Dark Legions: S&S
Dark Seed: Misc.
Dark Seed II: Misc.
Darklands: S&S
Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge: S&S
Daughter of Serpents: M&M
Death Gate: S&S
Deathbringer: S&S
Desperabis: S&S
Discworld: Misc.
DragonStrike: S&S
Druid: S&S
Druid 2: S&S
Dune: M&M
Dungeon Hack: S&S
Dungeon Master: S&S
Fantasy Empires: S&S
Fury Of The Furries: Misc.
Garrison: S&S
Gobliiins 1 - 3: Misc.
Grave Yardage: Misc.
Heimdall 2: M&M
Hero Quest: S&S
Hero Quest 2: Legacy of Sorasil: S&S
Hexx: S&S
Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures: Misc.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: Misc.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: M&M
Ishar III: S&S
James Pond 2: Misc.
King's Bounty: S&S
King's Quest: M&M
Kirby's Dreamland: Misc.
Kult: Misc.

:) Fantasy is everything that is no real and is from Human origin...

You could create this section: Other Fantasy, or Misc. Fantasy, or Adventure Fantasy for Mario Bros.

Misc. Fantasy is good.

Sounds good.

Alright! Maybe rename the current theme to 'Misc. Fantasy' so that the others are not redundant?

Creating a "Sword & Sorcery" and a "Myths and mythology" genres can be nice, but we would have to keep "fantasy" as a generic theme.

So what happens with this? Should I just implement the proposed change? Or is there any further reply, discussion or reconsideration from your side, Wandrell?

I'm fine with putting anything religious on 'Myths & Mythology'. 'Sword & Sorcery' seems fine as well. 'Dungeon Crawler' on the other hand goes quite a into genre territory, doesn't it? Isn't it a gameplay related term rather than one concerning what the game is about? Hmm... could be both, but still, then it's ambigous.

Second, how would games like Super Mario Land fit into this scheme?

Religion is just myths that people are still pretending aren't myths. The vast majority of stuff we currently categorize as myths was once proported to be the holiest of truths, it's only a matter of time before modern reigions wind up alongside greek mythology & mother goose.


Fuel for the discussion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-fantasyfiction.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/689765/fantasy

Maybe this would work:

Sword & Sorcery
Not only for the pulp stories like Conan (including the barbarians in skimpy clothes that it became in the films), but also Tolkien copycats, or games like Ultima.

Dungeon Crawler
Games in the style of Dungeon Master, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, eye of the Beholder... The thing is that some science fiction games are of this kind (and some Wizardry and the MSDos Might and Magic games are after all science fiction in underdeveloped worlds) so it can be too ambiguous. Any way, there are plenty of games that could fit (I count around 50 of them in my collection), so it may be useful.

Myths and mythology
Fantasy games closer to real myths, instead of the D&D version of myths. This means mystical fantasy (well, I can't think any better way to describe it), like Legend of Djel or Loom, which are much closer to the real world idea of magic (sciences that go beyond understanding, instead of guys shooting fireballs), and also would include Darklands or Spirit of Excalibur, game that take heavily from middle ages myths, and could add religious games (I personally don't see much difference from a religious story to fantasy that tries to have a poetic or mystical tone).

I think most religous types would object to "supernatural" & instantly label such things as demonic (not that I give a damn what religous types think). Also, I for one don't think of wizards & dragons when I hear "supernatural", I think of weird stuff set in modern times (things like ghosts, telepathy, etc).

It's your topic, so it's up to you to just come up with a definite and exhaustive suggestion in the end. Maybe that time has come? Just write up a structure proposal and see if anyone protests...

Just to show people there is something new I reply instead of editing.

A good bunch of the RPGs games, those like Dungeon Master o Wizardry, can share as theme "dungeon crawlers", "dungeon romp" or something similar. That way these also wouldn't need the fantasy label, because usually these games are fantasy.

Maybe we should make a Tolkienesque theme, to where games even like Ultima would be added.

But then we have games like Spirit of Excalibur, that are partially based on the Arthuric myths (mixing it a bit with the D&D fantasy variety). Or Darklands, which mixed history with historical myths (creating a great kind of fantasy). And also Albion, where you have science fiction, but most of the game is in an invented world where you have a culture based on the celts and an alien culture with what could be called renaissance civilization.

D&D series also, like Dragonlance, would fit on Tolkienesque. But what about these others?

Maybe it's time to repeat my suggestion of calling it 'supernatural' instead...

1) Far & away the most high fantasy that I read is dragonlance & forgotten realms related stuff, which ammounts to way more than tolkien ever wrote. More people are at least loosely familiar with tolkier, but few people have read more that the LotR trilogy.

2) I think mario land/world/universe would be considered "fantasy".

3) What's really hard is drawing a line between "fantasy" and just plain "fiction". If you write a book about some 12th century duke who never existed, but don't include any elements of magic, is it fiction or fantasy?


My biggest issue with the word "fantasy" is that when people hear it they usaully think of "childish fantasies", "daydreaming", etc.

So there are indeed a lot of games which are fantasy without the typical cliches. But how should we define Fantasy? Is Super Mario Land a fantasy game just because it takes place in a world filled with monsters and Mario can kill them with fireballs?
Which factors should be there to claim the title fantasy game?