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| Thread: Why do wolves get such a bad rap in H6? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · «PREV / NEXT» |
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MattII
Legendary Hero
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posted October 12, 2011 06:52 AM |
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Quote:
I never understand the Wolf, Tiger or Boar fetish some people seem to have. I just don't get why people want ordinary mammals as COOL CREATURES in a Heroes game.
Because people get tired of seeing the same dreary fantasy creatures all the time, mean every other fantasy story in the world (and more than a few besides) uses dragons of one sort or another, elves are depressively regular, as are unicorns, angels, the undead, etc.
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Aosaw
Promising
Famous Hero
Author of Nonreal Fiction
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posted October 12, 2011 06:57 AM |
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Don't be absurd. Coconuts would fit in just fine.
(After all, they could be carried. A swallow does fly south for the winter; yet these are not strangers to our land...)
I think the decision to use the Wolf Duchy may have been more deliberate than you're giving them credit for. Wolves are predators, typically preying on the weak and sick. The Griffin Duchy is a "weak" family, with children springing off in all directions, their leader apparently loving it up with all the ladies, and from the Wolf's perspective they're ripe for the plucking.
It's a fairly antagonistic view of the animal, but remember that the duchy chose the animal, not the other way around. And if your serfs are all worried about wolves stealing their sheep...well, you do the math. There's a reason wolves are classical villains, just as foxes are classical tricksters.
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kodial79
Promising
Supreme Hero
How'd Phi's Lov't
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posted October 12, 2011 07:52 AM |
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Who gives a crap about Twilight? I would love to see werewolves in HoMM.
What makes the Werewolf more trope than the Vampire or the Minotaur or whoever else? I'd love to see a Werewolf in a HoMM game and it's really baffling me as to why none have been featured yet.
What? We can't have one because of the bad Werewolf movies? Well, think of how many bad Vampire movies have we seen so far! Werewolves are one of the most classic folklore creatures in the world over. Ofcourse they're gonna get bad movies.
Even King's Bounty had Werewolves. Elven Werewolves! And in the World of Darkness pen and paper games, they did the elf-thing better than the elves did! Those were some seriously awesome werewolves.
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Aosaw
Promising
Famous Hero
Author of Nonreal Fiction
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posted October 12, 2011 08:26 AM |
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The thing about vampires is that, for all the really bad (and I mean really, really bad) films and novels that have been created about them, there have been a lot of actually decent portrayals over the years.
Name one werewolf movie that wasn't basically "Guy gets bitten by a wild animal, and then during the full moon he goes and kills a bunch of people until somebody with a silver shotgun shoots him"?
Teen Wolf doesn't count.
Now, that might just be my personal bias. But unless they can successfully introduce werewolves without making them look like every other werewolf trope that there's ever been, I won't buy them.
To be honest, I kind of feel the same way about vampires. I avoid recruiting them if I can, because they're uninteresting as anything but the main villain.
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kodial79
Promising
Supreme Hero
How'd Phi's Lov't
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posted October 12, 2011 08:33 AM |
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But in H6 they're not even villains! They're the valiant knights of the Spider Goddess. They're nothing like any vampires you have seen before.
And I don't like them because of that... Anyway!
They could get a WoD-approach for the werewolves. As bestial hunters, top of the food chain but also mystical keepers of harmony, protecting the matterial world over the spiritual one.
That would fit in, since Heroes is more of a fight of Order vs. Chaos than Good vs. Evil. And they could be placed on the order side.
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted October 12, 2011 08:38 AM |
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Edited by Avirosb at 08:38, 12 Oct 2011.
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I don't agree with this.
A werewolf is a cursed (by gypsies and whatnot) badguy, simple as that.
I don't want them to be all harmony, harmony oh love. Just my POV.
"Growr!"
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Aosaw
Promising
Famous Hero
Author of Nonreal Fiction
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posted October 12, 2011 08:39 AM |
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Vampires drink human blood.
Your point? 
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kodial79
Promising
Supreme Hero
How'd Phi's Lov't
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posted October 12, 2011 08:42 AM |
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Naw! They way I imagine them (Actually the way they were in WoD) is like this:
-I am a Werewolf! I am a Badass! So either you respect the harmony or I'm tracking you down and turn you and all of your friends into mincemeat.
Yeah kinda like that. 
They were no poets, just sophisticated brutes.
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted October 12, 2011 08:44 AM |
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Quote:
They were no poets, just sophisticated brutes.
Ahh... So kinda like the H6 orcs? 
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kodial79
Promising
Supreme Hero
How'd Phi's Lov't
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posted October 12, 2011 08:57 AM |
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Quote:
Quote:
They were no poets, just sophisticated brutes.
Ahh... So kinda like the H6 orcs?
Nah, the Orcs just have a thing against Demons and they wanna be left alone to live in freedom.
The werewolves in that game, are lore keepers of ancient history before the times man and they try to understand the will of the spirits and keep them in check, both spirits and humans.
You could liken them to the Orc Shamans, but I believe they're more intellectual than them. But just as brutal as any barbarian.
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Breefolk
Tavern Dweller
Butt-kickeress
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posted October 12, 2011 09:31 AM |
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Quote:
Name one werewolf movie that wasn't basically "Guy gets bitten by a wild animal, and then during the full moon he goes and kills a bunch of people until somebody with a silver shotgun shoots him"?
I don't particularly care about werewolves much, but I would chime in that An American Werewolf In London is considered by many to be a horror classic. The plot itself might not deviate much from the standard model, but it does, in fact, deviate from it in a meaningful way.
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VokialBG
Honorable
Legendary Hero
First in line
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posted October 12, 2011 09:51 AM |
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They just copy Tolkien (where wolfs are evil)
And A Song of ice and fire (where is kind of wolf dushy and they time wolfs and etc.)
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LRN
Adventuring Hero
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posted October 12, 2011 09:54 AM |
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Edited by LRN at 10:05, 12 Oct 2011.
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Quote:
Werewolf would be a cool unit in a chaotic faction, a la H4 Asylum.
They would certainly fit in-I'd be all for it. Had the dungeon remained above ground like H2, I'd put them there.
As creatures of nature? Possible but in a harsh, more bestial Sylvan faction. In an elven Sylvan they might stick out too much.
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Dave_Jame
Promising
Legendary Hero
I'm Faceless, not Brainless.
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posted October 12, 2011 10:03 AM |
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If the Dungeon would not be in a Black and purple coulering I would see Werewolfs as nice addition to them in H. VI
And speaking of W-W
We can do a nice warewolf in MaM soo why not in HoMaM (MaM:H)
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted October 12, 2011 10:13 AM |
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Werewolf origin: So a wizard got drunk one night...
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Breefolk
Tavern Dweller
Butt-kickeress
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posted October 12, 2011 10:29 AM |
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Quote:
And A Song of ice and fire (where is kind of wolf dushy and they time wolfs and etc.)
Funny you mention ASoIaF. That's one of the rare occasions in which wolves are considered to be the more noble creatures, though in a series as far to the cynical side of the scale as that it might be hard to tell the difference out of context.
Quote:
Werewolf origin: So a wizard got drunk one night...
He didn't happen to have anything to do with the Dewitchery Diamond, did he?
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted October 12, 2011 05:30 PM |
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Edited by Raelag84 at 17:40, 12 Oct 2011.
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Quote:
Wolves are harmless?
Here in North America the might very well be. In the 20th century all the deadly attacks by wolves involved rabies and that hardly reflects badly on wolves; any animal is dangerous when it has rabies. Even in Europe the amount of wolf attacks have been decreasing even as the wolf population increases.
In fact according to National Geographic having wolves around pushes Mountain lions back up into the mountains thereby decreasing the amount of Mountain Lion attacks on humans.
As for the hunting thing...In America hunting is a nice hobby, but we could never make it a major part of our diet we have factory farms for that.
If there was ever an animal that doesn't deserve the rep it has it is the wolf, if ever there was an animal that needed its rep changed to live it is the wolf. Spiders have a bad rep too, but there's a difference. Humans will never be rid of spiders, while wolves are just coming out of the brink of extinction.
(Edit added "the brink of"
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Aosaw
Promising
Famous Hero
Author of Nonreal Fiction
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posted October 12, 2011 07:51 PM |
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I'm sorry, but you're operating under the false assumption that the Heroes universe takes place in 20th century North America.
Which it doesn't.
In feudal europe, wolves were a concern because they liked to kill your sheep, and one shepherd wandering alone in the forest was in danger of being killed by a pack of wolves.
Maybe if wolves were in danger of being extinct on Ashan, then you'd have a case.
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MattII
Legendary Hero
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posted October 13, 2011 06:46 AM |
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In feudal europe, wolves were a concern because they liked to kill your sheep, and one shepherd wandering alone in the forest was in danger of being killed by a pack of wolves.
Which would only apply if Ashan were being particularly faithful to medieval Europe, but it's not, so you can't apply the same rules. Try reading T. Pratchett's Discworld (particularly The Fifth Elephant) for how to write a decent "werewolves in society" story.
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted October 14, 2011 12:49 AM |
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Quote:
I'm sorry, but you're operating under the false assumption that the Heroes universe takes place in 20th century North America.
Which it doesn't.
In feudal Europe, wolves were a concern because they liked to kill your sheep, and one shepherd wandering alone in the forest was in danger of being killed by a pack of wolves.
Maybe if wolves were in danger of being extinct on Ashan, then you'd have a case.
Heroes 6 doesn't take place in Europe ether. The truth is even back in the days of feudal Europe wolves were not the man eaters of the Heroes Universe (lets face it they are man eaters in the Heroes universe not sheep eaters). Humans, shepherds included, were much more likely to die of disease or other humans.
Wolves can be a threat to humans, no doubt, but our emotions exaggerate this threat and that is reflected in games like Heroes 6. I figured by now since we have so much more knowledge of wolves than we did in the dark ages that we would have gotten over our fear of wolves.
I will be frank. Depicting wolves as man eaters strikes me as primitive, something you would expect dark age peasants to do, not educated game designers.
Actually to be fair to dark age peasants I don't know exactly when wolves were first demonized or who first demonized them. I know to the Romans the wolf was a symbol of their nation's founding so it is not like our fear of wolves goes back to the beginning of time.
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