Does anybody else get unreasonably annoyed at the vast majority of rpg games that are feudal societys on a surface level but are actually capitalist societys under a thin vineer. I was trying to play pillars of eternity but became incredibly annoyed at the frist quest of the game revolving around a mill which is in a lord's domain but is privately owned and operated and which the townsfolk sell their grain to in exchange for currency (to later buy back with the same currency). I had to put the game down right there.

I think a lot of the time it's an outgrowth from developers feeling the need to have a commonly circulated currency. Although the answer in my opinion isn't to faithfully recreate feudalism but to create a unique social formation for the conditions of the world, I've always loved the eberron campaign setting for that reason.

  • UlyssesT
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    edit-2
    18 days ago

    deleted by creator

    • steve5487 [none/use name]
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      3 years ago

      the 2010 three kingdoms series is way better for that it's an adaption of a book actually written under feudalism. It's in chinese but there are subtitles and it's free on the internet

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNHnX4xsplo&list=PL33A390995E9A7F00

      it's also pretty well made as it's a classical piece of culture, like the Chinese equivalent of a Shakespeare play

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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      3 years ago

      the pretenses of “fantasy realism” were bogus

      How could an oxymoron do this?

      the system was glaringly capitalistic and the fighting over the Iron Throne was more or less a corporate hierarchy struggle rather than the intricate network of allegiances and vassalhood that feudalism entails

      I don't know about that. Some of the best moments of the series involved characters struggling with the feudal webs and snarls formed in prior generations. Everything from the Baratheon Succession to the Red Wedding to the Daeneryus slave-coup to the Revolt at the Wall involved characters exploiting (or falling victim to) allegiances and dogmas they'd failed to grapple with prior. Most of Arya's arc involved traveling through the gritty underbelly of the feudal system and witnessing what keeps it rolling along. It's no coincidence that her foil is The Hound, a shameless flak for the predominant ruling family, who routinely pulls her aside and delivers hard truths.

      Past that, I'd argue that modern day corporationism has far more in common with the feudal system than we like to give it credit. Especially as the volume of real capital consolidates under fewer and fewer hands, while smaller businesses become subservient to larger ones... the comparison between GoT and Modern Day Capitalism only gets tighter the farther away we move from Martins last book release.