Every game is see (not complaining i like them all lol) is very inaccurate with runes and elements. For example a element does not belong on a rune (Fire Rune, Water Rune) and a rune is not a recall device or a teleporter! lol. I just don''t get how these things can get so mixed up. Elements: These consist of Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Wood, and Soul. Runes: These consisted of about 24 different characters which are used in magical practises. That are inscribed onto wood of different trees to give different spiritual abilities. These things cannot go together because historically they are nothing even close to each other. Just saying if you are going to make a mmorpg with any of these things stray away from combining them. Make them both seperate. In other words make them Historically Correct!

any game that uses elements and runes is set in a fantasy world (or at least a fantasy version of the real world), and therefore doesn''t have to be historically correct. as long as it makes sense in the game world, and the player can understand it, why not use runes with the elements? historically speaking, there is no magic anyways...

This is a bit like arguing that Lord of The Rings is inaccurate because the elves are too tall.

EDIT: besides, "historically speaking", I'm pretty sure you're still wrong.

[edited by - Sandman on May 7, 2004 12:41:12 PM]

It''s really up to the designers to create the world, if their world has runes belonging to an element, and it fits in the gameplay then there really isnt anything wrong with it.

Yeah... so, there are only actually four elements historically (five if you include Aristole''s Ether), which would be the first four in your list. Not really sure where you get wood and soul... Second, there were a lot of ancient (and some modern) cultures that used rune based languages including the ancient Celts (25 ogham characters), the egyptians and even modern chinese with thousands on thousands of characters. Basically, your information seems to be quite wrong Now, as to the point of your point, and as the moderator so wisely stated, they''re used in fantasy games and they are convienient tools for the game. If we were to use the elements and runes as nothing more than their historical meanings, our fantasy games would consist of foreign and often complex languages and a mis-informed system of science

1. Whatever games decide to use is just their decision. Unless they claim it is "historical" or something like that, you may like it or not like it but you have no real ground to correct them.

2. What is considered as "elements" depends on religious and cultural background.

3. Runes have nothing inhenrently to do with magic. They were nothing more than a script. Their magic reputation mainly seems to come from the time when christianity lived side by side with native druidic (and similar) religions. Druids continued to use runes while the mainstream slowly adapted latin letters.

Fidelity to a specific historical tradition or religion is almost impossible, because it''s very, very difficult to find a metaphysics that concludes that the greatest good for man is to slaugher goblins and orcs. So my advice is to get that big stick out of your butt and enjoy the fiction that surrounds you.

That isnt what i am saying. It can still be fantasy and the stuff can be blown out of proportion but make it right.
And yes with a bit of research you will find that wood and soul were also counted as elements.

But if you use the Elements (Used by Alchemists) and runes used by vikings and warriors of that era) You could create many great games that make even more logical sense.

Like i said i am not complaining about the other games lol i even pay fees to play them. But it seems like people really don''t understand what these things really are, and are getting the wrong impressions about everything.

Well, in the context of a game, I think you''re missing what they actually are. In a setting where magic exists, there''s not reason that a rune can''t be an etching bearing magical properties (the rune itself describing the nature of the property, perhaps?). Also, if magic exists and is based on the manipulation of elements (no matter how you define an element), there''s no reason that such effects could not be combined, and described, by magic bearing runes.

What you''re proposing isn''t more ''logical'', nor more ''historical'' (as stated many different ways above, you''ll be hard pressed to find a consistant ''history'' unless you''re basing a game specifically on a certain culture''s history). What you''re proposing is a game world based on a different set of rules and not in any way ''more logical'' than the worlds that already exist. ''Logic'' is based on the environment in which it exists, as such there''s no solid way to define the logic of a magic-enduced environment with what makes sense in our world without magic.

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Original post by The_Punisher
But it seems like people really don''t understand what these things really are, and are getting the wrong impressions about everything.

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How can people fail to understand "what these things really are" when it all depends on your point of view? Switch culture or era and you get a completely different outlook which is no more or less correct.