Most open-world games are just Westerns without cowboys
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See how none of these examples I said anything about the plot being a factor defining the genre of the game.\r\n
Date: 2023-12-10
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Comments and reviews: 29
-Radien
Considering I love the Western setting in video games AND board games, and my favorite sci-fi genre is even the space Western, I feel. a little called out here.
These are some great things to keep in mind, though. Deconstruction seems to be the most popular thing to do with Westerns these days, but some deconstructions are more self-aware than others. In particular, the removal of Native Americans (and Native American stand-ins) is especially common.
On a side note, I guess Avatar is a Western, too.
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Considering I love the Western setting in video games AND board games, and my favorite sci-fi genre is even the space Western, I feel. a little called out here.
These are some great things to keep in mind, though. Deconstruction seems to be the most popular thing to do with Westerns these days, but some deconstructions are more self-aware than others. In particular, the removal of Native Americans (and Native American stand-ins) is especially common.
On a side note, I guess Avatar is a Western, too.
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-Dolthra
I'd argue Fallout 4 actually changes which one of these it fits into based on which faction you side with. Minutemen and the Institute are ranch stories with the player defending what they see as their homeland from invaders, the Railroad is a revenge story with the player helping the synths seek revenge on the people that made them, and the Brotherhood is a classic cavalry story with the brotherhood taking over the commonwealth and saying they know best even though no one asked them to.
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I'd argue Fallout 4 actually changes which one of these it fits into based on which faction you side with. Minutemen and the Institute are ranch stories with the player defending what they see as their homeland from invaders, the Railroad is a revenge story with the player helping the synths seek revenge on the people that made them, and the Brotherhood is a classic cavalry story with the brotherhood taking over the commonwealth and saying they know best even though no one asked them to.
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-jameskidd4221
This doesn't quite work as most of the story archetypes can be found in media of some sort before westerns were more or less a thing, and so whats really being said is that most games are retellings of semispecific story types rather than various westerns
Also the ranch story and empire story are the same story, just from oppossing sides. In the empire story you're the invader, in the ranch story you're protecting your land from invaders
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This doesn't quite work as most of the story archetypes can be found in media of some sort before westerns were more or less a thing, and so whats really being said is that most games are retellings of semispecific story types rather than various westerns
Also the ranch story and empire story are the same story, just from oppossing sides. In the empire story you're the invader, in the ranch story you're protecting your land from invaders
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-shayneoneill1506
A lot of sci-fi fits this mould too. Star Wars (The original trilogy, and to some extent the latest trilogy, god knows what was happening with the prequels) definately, Cowboy Bebop and Firefly quite explicitely so. Star Trek was envisioned as -wagon train to the stars- and certainly the first series, and elements of the later ones too. Infact arguably its the central inspiration behind a lot of space opera.
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A lot of sci-fi fits this mould too. Star Wars (The original trilogy, and to some extent the latest trilogy, god knows what was happening with the prequels) definately, Cowboy Bebop and Firefly quite explicitely so. Star Trek was envisioned as -wagon train to the stars- and certainly the first series, and elements of the later ones too. Infact arguably its the central inspiration behind a lot of space opera.
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-nerdletter3773
I'd actually say there are MANY ranch stories in open-world games, but it really depends on what you would consider an open-world game. I consider sandbox games to be a sort of subgenre of open-world games because you can go anywhere and do anything, and an essential part of sandbox games is finding or building a base and defending it and basically lasting as long as you can while you do your own thing.
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I'd actually say there are MANY ranch stories in open-world games, but it really depends on what you would consider an open-world game. I consider sandbox games to be a sort of subgenre of open-world games because you can go anywhere and do anything, and an essential part of sandbox games is finding or building a base and defending it and basically lasting as long as you can while you do your own thing.
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-Ghiaman1334
Those plots may be used in westerns, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything that uses them is a Western. A 'revenge' plotline is just a typical 'defeating the monster' plotline in chaps. It just so happens that in these cases you know the monster personally. The exploration you talk about and the journey you go on could make all these games typical 'Hero's Journey' narratives.
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Those plots may be used in westerns, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything that uses them is a Western. A 'revenge' plotline is just a typical 'defeating the monster' plotline in chaps. It just so happens that in these cases you know the monster personally. The exploration you talk about and the journey you go on could make all these games typical 'Hero's Journey' narratives.
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polygon
I think the most unsettling open world games when you think about it for more than two seconds are the Shadow of Mordor games, where you litteraly break the mind of orcs in order to create an army of mindless slaves who you pit against each other in bloody duels to entertain yourself or to strengthen them. But it's okay because they are orcs and therefore inherently evil!
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I think the most unsettling open world games when you think about it for more than two seconds are the Shadow of Mordor games, where you litteraly break the mind of orcs in order to create an army of mindless slaves who you pit against each other in bloody duels to entertain yourself or to strengthen them. But it's okay because they are orcs and therefore inherently evil!
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polygon
An interesting argument but I don't see how those genres can't be applied to most forms of media. A western isn't defined by it's plot but the setting. Would you say that Moby dick is a western because it has a revenge plot? Then author you mentioned said that western fall into those seven plots, not that those seven plots fall into the western genre.
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An interesting argument but I don't see how those genres can't be applied to most forms of media. A western isn't defined by it's plot but the setting. Would you say that Moby dick is a western because it has a revenge plot? Then author you mentioned said that western fall into those seven plots, not that those seven plots fall into the western genre.
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-senorclown9882
Mechanics in games aren't the plot, though? Which basically eliminates fo4. I don't know if you could count the Union Pacific Story, and just because a game follows a plot indirectly that a western writer said westerns followed, doesn't make everything that follows it a western, because then -Everything would be a western-
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Mechanics in games aren't the plot, though? Which basically eliminates fo4. I don't know if you could count the Union Pacific Story, and just because a game follows a plot indirectly that a western writer said westerns followed, doesn't make everything that follows it a western, because then -Everything would be a western-
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-IzThatit
Sandbox Adventure games and Western RPG's have storylines based on western story tropes.
And by -Western- I don't mean -Cowboys & Engines. - I mean most great western authors such as Tolkien. A lot of storytelling in the west follow the same themes and structures the same way eastern stories are similar.
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Sandbox Adventure games and Western RPG's have storylines based on western story tropes.
And by -Western- I don't mean -Cowboys & Engines. - I mean most great western authors such as Tolkien. A lot of storytelling in the west follow the same themes and structures the same way eastern stories are similar.
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polygon
this could lay the foundation for what we will see next. look at the evolution of cinema, what came after westerns? when cultural tone changed other things crept in and new genera were born.
if the sand box is the video game silver screen, we may see development along similar lines.
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this could lay the foundation for what we will see next. look at the evolution of cinema, what came after westerns? when cultural tone changed other things crept in and new genera were born.
if the sand box is the video game silver screen, we may see development along similar lines.
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polygon
Omfg yall really came for colonialism in a way I didn't expect. go for it tho. I love westerns (who doesn't) but the racism and violence against native people is inescapable and really disgusting, even in most western stuff today.
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Omfg yall really came for colonialism in a way I didn't expect. go for it tho. I love westerns (who doesn't) but the racism and violence against native people is inescapable and really disgusting, even in most western stuff today.
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-contactxain
all open-world games are just westerns without cowboys, but so are most other genre's. Western serials were usually just varients of the hero's journey, and you are almost always a hero on a journey in games.
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all open-world games are just westerns without cowboys, but so are most other genre's. Western serials were usually just varients of the hero's journey, and you are almost always a hero on a journey in games.
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polygon
Aren't these just open world games that happen to have these storylines? There are plenty of other games that aren't open world but still have these storylines? Is this video just a red dead cash grab? I think so.
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Aren't these just open world games that happen to have these storylines? There are plenty of other games that aren't open world but still have these storylines? Is this video just a red dead cash grab? I think so.
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-TheRealSpeedWolf
They are not western stories you're just describing The Human Condition. you can literally pick any historical setting in human history to describe what you imply prior to western stories and after it.
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They are not western stories you're just describing The Human Condition. you can literally pick any historical setting in human history to describe what you imply prior to western stories and after it.
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-railbaron1
Sadky a true _Union Pacific_ story (or at least the way I want to play it) doesn't work as an open world game it has to be something like Railroad Tycoon or a Space Opera set just after mankind cracking FTL.
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Sadky a true _Union Pacific_ story (or at least the way I want to play it) doesn't work as an open world game it has to be something like Railroad Tycoon or a Space Opera set just after mankind cracking FTL.
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-framedkraken7403
And westerns are just the classical greeks tragedies and medieval -drama- with cowboys. Because everyone knows that Agamemnon and Heracles were cowboys but with god related stuff instead of guns.
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And westerns are just the classical greeks tragedies and medieval -drama- with cowboys. Because everyone knows that Agamemnon and Heracles were cowboys but with god related stuff instead of guns.
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-Thrashman138
I came to watch this video expecting a Vice-level of shoehorned ideas into a ridiculous premise, but what I got instead was a reasonable theory argued with fun ideas. Upvoted.
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I came to watch this video expecting a Vice-level of shoehorned ideas into a ridiculous premise, but what I got instead was a reasonable theory argued with fun ideas. Upvoted.
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-sash9249
Most stories are Western stories (or derived from. Probably why it's my favourite genre, because I often tend to find those stories in everything I watch lol. A+ to that lady.
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Most stories are Western stories (or derived from. Probably why it's my favourite genre, because I often tend to find those stories in everything I watch lol. A+ to that lady.
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polygon
When a guy who's written that many westerns says that there are only seven plots in westerns I start to think me must not have had much fun writing them after the first seven.
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When a guy who's written that many westerns says that there are only seven plots in westerns I start to think me must not have had much fun writing them after the first seven.
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-denisherlock3023
This is pretty much an oversimplification. saying like 'yeah they're all just basically western'. you think the stories about outlaws only exists in western genre?
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This is pretty much an oversimplification. saying like 'yeah they're all just basically western'. you think the stories about outlaws only exists in western genre?
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-shinluis
Diminishing the amazingly intricate and well thought-out sci-fi tale of Horizon into -goes around killing people but sometimes protecting people- hurts me in the soul.
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Diminishing the amazingly intricate and well thought-out sci-fi tale of Horizon into -goes around killing people but sometimes protecting people- hurts me in the soul.
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-_TheAntagonist_
That 1: 35 clip isn't from Once Upon a Time in the West, its from The Wild Bunch. Every time I catch a cold I watch cowboy movies. Ya'll cant fool me.
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That 1: 35 clip isn't from Once Upon a Time in the West, its from The Wild Bunch. Every time I catch a cold I watch cowboy movies. Ya'll cant fool me.
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-sorrycharlie5
Great video! Love this new turn of videos post McElroy's. It gets into why I love and play video games. Well done polygon! ( And Simone, love ya gal)
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Great video! Love this new turn of videos post McElroy's. It gets into why I love and play video games. Well done polygon! ( And Simone, love ya gal)
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-matc6918
Shocker. Polygon discovers most stories have similar themes and tropes, but are written in different ways. Did they actually read a book for once?
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Shocker. Polygon discovers most stories have similar themes and tropes, but are written in different ways. Did they actually read a book for once?
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polygon
New Vegas is a revenge story that turns into a marshal/empire-ish story that turns into a cavalry story that turns into a ranch story.
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New Vegas is a revenge story that turns into a marshal/empire-ish story that turns into a cavalry story that turns into a ranch story.
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polygon
I would play the shit out of a game about the Union Pacific Railroad building. Hell On Wheels piqued my interest in that genre.
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I would play the shit out of a game about the Union Pacific Railroad building. Hell On Wheels piqued my interest in that genre.
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-CobaltIngot
-Adding cowboys to your open world game is the dark souls of open world games- all game review companies after this video
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-Adding cowboys to your open world game is the dark souls of open world games- all game review companies after this video
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-Maijorsam
Love the voice over girl, she sounds so monotone at some points and she's just like
-to make it the absolute shit. -
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Love the voice over girl, she sounds so monotone at some points and she's just like
-to make it the absolute shit. -
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