Grimwell gives one reason fantasy pwns sci-fi, we go "Huh?"
by Kyle Horner 
Feb 5th 2008 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, MMO industry, News items
Watch your head, you don't want it hit by return fire in the ever-present MMO blogosphere discussion of fantasy vs sci-fi. The most recent discussion started up with Massively's own Michael Zenke and his "Five Reasons Sci-Fi Pwns Fantasy" which prompted the return fire in question from Grimwell. Both of the posts are certainly worth reading, especially if you have any kind of lingering interest in the subject matter. As far as we can see, there's truth to be had on both sides of the fence. However, we do have one point of contention to make with Grimwelll's argument. He states that the reason fantasy "pwns" sci-fi is that it's accessible, which is a constant argument on the matter. While we think he may have a point in that less people are inherently familiar with sci-fi, we very much disagree with his assessment that you need to be a math nerd to enjoy good sci-fi -- his example in this case being Star Trek and its now-infamous technobabble.
We would like to point out that many of us here at Massively enjoy sci-fi quite a bit and few-to-none of us are anything close to math nerds. There's a lot more variety to the sci-fi genre than what Grimwell seems to take into account here with Star Wars and Star Trek. Examples are Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Dune, Doctor Who, Firefly/Serenity and many others from books and videogames alike.
He continues on this approach, saying you have to be properly educated to suspend your disbelief in any sort of sci-fi. This doesn't ring very true to us considering that many children have been taken in by shows with characters like Captain Kirk or Flash Gordon over the years. If sci-fi required you to be a math nerd or a college-grad then why in the hell do so many people watch these shows? People are constantly enjoying shows like Heroes, Lost or The 4400 when they're so obviously not fantasy, but sci-fi.
We think that It is the quality and content of television shows, movies, books or videogames that make them compelling, rather than whether or not it's fantasy or sci-fi.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Grimwell said on 4:13PM 2-05-2008
Bah! Mock me openly will you?
Flash Gordon is an excellent example of Sci-Fi that is more fantasy than science. :)
In other news:
My tongue = firmly in cheek.
I agree with your refutation. Not all Science Fiction requires an advanced degree in thermonuclear dynamics; but as a credit to my point Fantasy is more accessible and is reaffirmed constantly for children in the Western culture. People can grab onto a fantasy story much faster than they can hard science fiction.
There is a reason for that.... Science fiction is a pleasure that few of us really get a taste for prior to our teen years. It does not have the same benefit of a host of 'Fairy Tales' that have been perpetuated by Disney and beyond to ramrod into our children's psyche. So fantasy wins, on the larger scale (though science fiction can and will break out from time to time, thankfully!)
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onetrueping said on 4:51PM 2-05-2008
I'll just have to force 'em to watch "Titan AE" and the like, then.
Max said on 5:49PM 2-05-2008
His point is rendered totally ridiculous when you do a simple count of movies and TV shows dedicated to each genre. Sci-fi can hold down a prime time spot every once in a while: no Fantasy show ever could.
TV is an industry that lacks any semblance of ambition. They strive only to be accessible and easy to eat. It's a great barometer of what 80% of the red states want for dinner.
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