Ok, I'll tell the grammar nazi in me to cool down a little now...
Nah, if anything we need to crack down even
harder on filthy degenerates who violate the hallowed rules of grammar!
I'm probably younger than you as my first TES game was Oblivion, although I always liked the worldbuilding they've done for that universe with the hundreds of books and extra lore they integrated into the game world even as early as Daggerfall from what I've seen. (did you know that Kirkbride's metaphysics are partly
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btw?)
Kirkbride was tripping balls the entire time he was writing TES lore, guy's a mad genius really (there's a great deal of Gnosticism in his TES writing as well). It's a tragedy Besthesda forced him to quit by pushing their mass-market appeal bullshit, and through corporate meddling into his creative process. Guy was always too good for them. My favorite bit is how he snuck all manner of sex and smut into the in-game books, but disguised it all with clever euphemisms.
You should give
Morrowind a spin if you enjoyed
Oblivion. The former is a lot more open-ended, and has crunchier mechanical systems... and a
lot more freedom in how you can build your character! Get some of the high-rated mods
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, you can do away with most of the annoying clunky UI and blurry graphics... and most of the bugs have been patched out over the years. Well worth the effort, Morrowind's atmosphere and sense of immersion is breathtaking, even today!
One of my biggest issues with classical fantasy like Tolkien is that the world can feel static at times, with empires that last for eternity, races not having many ethnic or national divisions amongst themselves and so on and so forth, lending the story-telling a somewhat childish immaturity...
Sure, but
LotR is more a mythology than pulp fantasy. Tolkien even said as much - he felt the English lacked a founding mythos, so he tried to write one for them. That's exactly why it feels a bit naive - there's little place for cynicism or grey morality in foundational myths. Joseph Campbell wrote about this when he discussed his
Hero's Journey - I don't remember the exact quote, but he makes the point that myths from different cultures all gravitate toward the same outcome, and they're all a bit unrefined at their core because they're built from the perennial theme of selfless heroism. Which itself is an idea that transcends individual civilizations, but comes off as 'campy' and 'silly' to our modern, jaded sensitibilites.
I very much enjoyed Tolkien, but I still prefer more pulpy fantasy like
John Carter of Mars and
Conan the Barbarian. The
Elder Scrolls series as well, due to all the things you listed (pantheons, wars, factions, noble houses... and a good deal of shroom-inspired mythology featuring cleverly disguised sex scenes of gods impregnating celestial objects, each other, and the very nature of reality!
).
I have my own ideas at the moment, which would give me more freedom with world-building if I do wind up teaming up with some people to make a femdom game, but you're probably right that it's viable to do WoD IP knock-offs as parodies and I'd definitely love playing such a game myself!
Making any game is hard, but it's doable if you have good organizational skills and some free time. If you wanna do a vamp-themed VN, all you need is 1 writer (like yourself), 1 DAZ artist to assemble/render the scenes, and 1 scripter who knows their way around RenPy. Challenging, but far from impossible.
