So, is Guild Wars 2 fantasy or sci-fi? Myself and my friends

The humans on Tyria are actual aliens. Leaning towards sci-fi.

>>49613302
The problem is you're assuming the two are mutually exclusive.

>>49613409
So, would it be a fantasy or sci-fi game? Or would you say it's both? If both, would this be a new genre?

>>49613302
Science-fantasy

>>49613444
Hmm, never heard of this. Just looked it up: answers everything

>>49613436
>If both, would this be a new genre
>new genre
motherfucker, star wars is the fourth highest grossing movie franchise of all time, not counting the eu or the merchandising. science-fantasy is pretty effectively established as a genre

>>49613302
Fantasy with sci-fi elements

But the fact that you feel the need to draw these arbitrary distinctions and then argue about them means you're probably autistic, since there are no strict categories when it comes to genre. It's sort of a blurry scale, more than anything.

I'd say with anything with magi-tech certainly is in the grey yet a good way to see what side it falls is the themeing of the BBEG.

For instance in GW2 yes there is lasers. But the message of almost every chapter of the living story is that magic (exceptionally elder dragon influenced) can and will decimate any resistance. Worth noting is that many magi-tech settings take this stance when science is explained as no different to magic.

Therefore it's fantasy with a strong sci-fi aesthetic.

>>49613302
GW2 is sci-fantasy with steampunk elements

GW1 was fantasy with sci-fi elements

>>49613302
It's the same genre as Might and Magic, John Carter of Mars, The Yog-Sothothery and, yes, He-Man

The separation of sci-fi and fantasy is in most cases unnecessary and distracting.

>>49613302
It's fantasy that throws in sci-fi shit because it's cool, without considering how it would actually impact the world.

The original distinction is world vs object. A fantasy setting is characterized because the world is the main mystery or the thing driving the story is the world (the culture, societies, shit), example: Game of Thrones, there is magic, there is conflict but what mater is what is going on in the world. Meanwhile scifi is characterized by the objects in the world, many times explained by pseudo science, the world is just a place affected by the objects or that allow the objects to do their things, example: star trek, there is a lot of discovery but everything is thanks to the spaceship allowing that to happen.

But these are classic definition that aren't useful for today content.

Now Guild Wars is just whatever you want, literally is intentionally made so it can get steam punk, scifi and fantasy nerds. But the shit is fantasy by classical definition.

>>49614260
But plenty of Sci-fi focuses on the world and societies with the objects and technology playing a passive or background role. Star Trek is usually that. Yes, they need a starship to get from planet to planet, but replace with planets with islands and the starship with a boat and you won't say it's a sci-fi story because of the objects.

>>49614373
As I said, these definitions are for the classic era of cinema/books. Its like the classical definition of the monster as a character who represent nature, it doesn't want to be a monster but is unnable to change his nature and is doomed by a fate he already know (ex: frankestein or dracula); on today cinema and literature the definition of the monster is completely different than what it was for the classic era.

I do think both the object and world dichotomy is false in which at the end we both care about those two things regardless if its scifi or fantasy, but I didn't made those definitions (I don't remember the authors but its probably in wikipedia if you wanna check).

Anyway, I do think in the case of GW2 its basically a jack of all trades things, has something for everyone but its master of none.

>>49614507
It's not an issue. It's just the first time I'd heard those specific definitions, and I didn't agree that Star Trek is object driven.

>>49613302
Sci-fi is hypothetically adding something to the real world and building a setting around how that would change things, like "what if we developed FTL travel in 1990?"
GW2 has technological elements, but no sci-fi elements.

>>49613302
all tech in GW2 is either steampunk shizotech or crystalpunk magitech. so it's still fantasy, nothing "sci-" in it all.