I'm sure there was a thread that was about the popularity of fantasy versus science fiction but for the life of me I can't find it. Can someone with stronger search fu find that for me or if there wasn't one can this be the start? Why is fantasy more popular in seemingly everything than science fiction?

Quote from: Thanos;1011698I'm sure there was a thread that was about the popularity of fantasy versus science fiction but for the life of me I can't find it. Can someone with stronger search fu find that for me or if there wasn't one can this be the start? Why is fantasy more popular in seemingly everything than science fiction?

Actually I'd say its a 40/40/20 split between fantasy, SF, and modern/near future. Theres ALOT of SF games out there. Its REALLY popular. Instead what you see is a division of interests. Few games have ever successfully intigrated them. Shadowrun being the biggest success and merges all three.

Fantasy appeals more to the younger audience (spells, wizards, Dragons etc).

Scifi, in my experience, attracts the more nerdy/geeky type people, usually older males.  
It TENDS to  be more "serious business" and to be perfectly honest Scifi players TEND to be a bit intellectually snobbish to Fantasy RPGs and fans, which is a turn off, which again pushes people away from scifi towards other genres such as Fantasy.

I find in fantasy style RPGs that are run, they more open, friendly and diverse than Scifi games as a social group.

Don't get me wrong, I really like Scifi RPGs,  but I also like Fantasy RPGs (and other Genres).
I have noted when I run SWN, I sometimes get the "disapproving look" from players I have run stuff for who are really into Traveler when I use Psionics, Horror themes etc.
Quite funny really.. lol

Are you talking about books or games or what?

Obviously not the case in movies.

Personally, I often find fantasy to be more believable and relatable than science fiction.  Besides, fantasy resembles history, and I like history. Other than that, I have no idea.

I think there are several reasons Fantasy RPGs may attract more people but I can see the balance could shift. Here are the reasons I would consider:

***D&D is still the 400 lb gorilla in the room when it comes to RPG name recognition. When I went to start an RPG club at the library, it got translated as "D&D club" by the library manager and thus advertised as such
***Most children grow up with Fantasy from an early age, especially girls. My 3 and 5 year old girls will tell you everything you need to know about: Merida, Elsa, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Cinderella  ( all fantasy genre). They know R2D2 also, but really there is no contest if I ask them if they would rather play My Little Pony RPG or Star Wars.

*** Some people find "technology" boring and or have to stare at a computer all day. Technology is almost a pre-req for sci-fi.

**** Finally scope: it is a lot easier to wrap your head around a campaign world that might be no bigger than a kingdom. Try telling them they are exploring a galaxy...

Science Fiction is a subset of Fantasy, in a literary sense, and it's more technical aspects tend to attract a more specific type of fan. In gaming, the point that most gaming revolves around a single 400lb gorilla, as has been mentioned, does mean that even if a sci-fi game is successful, it's still going to only ever represent a fraction of the sales that D&D will get.

In fiction sf use to be the dominant form of fantastic genre fiction, that's why a lot of classic 40s and 50s fantasy was either science fantasy (Vance, Brackett) or fantasy with a thin sf frame (Three Hearts and Three Lions, The Blue Star). It was only in the 60s that fantasy started to pull out ahead of sf and today it is the bigger form with sf being more niche.

Filmwise though sf and science fantasy are more popular, the huge success of LOTR and Harry Potter obscure that a bit though.

One reason that I prefer fantasy and supernatural horror games to scifi games is because just about every scifi game I've played ends up getting bogged down by Players wanting to argue over the technology and scientific accuracy of the game.
Everyone just seems to go along with stuff better when it's 'magic'.

Tell them it isn't 'hard sf' (which is never really accurate either) before you start.

Quote from: Thanos;1011698I'm sure there was a thread that was about the popularity of fantasy versus science fiction but for the life of me I can't find it. Can someone with stronger search fu find that for me or if there wasn't one can this be the start? Why is fantasy more popular in seemingly everything than science fiction?

Bikini armor. And glowing nerd sticks. Sci-Fi simply means that spacesuits are needed, which is never trending.

Quote from: Simlasa;1011791One reason that I prefer fantasy and supernatural horror games to scifi games is because just about every scifi game I've played ends up getting bogged down by Players wanting to argue over the technology and scientific accuracy of the game.
Everyone just seems to go along with stuff better when it's 'magic'.

I tend to agree, as far as "hard science" games go. On the other hand, Shadowrun is like D&D, in that it's more "kitchen-sink," so less arguments over physics.

Science Fiction pretends to be more realistic. Often it isn't, given trimmings like FTL, aliens, galactic civilizations, artificial gravity, etc.

Fantasy is a more broadly encompasing genre. At the extreme Wuthering Heights could be considered a fantasy. We, still, grow up with fairy tales and fantasy stories. Science fiction usually waits until we start learning science.

But I think a lot of it is due to the Tolkien Mania of the late 60's and the popularity of D&D that followed. Those two forces together made fantasy mainstream, on the edges of mainstream perhaps, but still in the mainstream popular culture.

Quote from: Robyo;1011884I tend to agree, as far as "hard science" games go. On the other hand, Shadowrun is like D&D, in that it's more "kitchen-sink," so less arguments over physics.

Are you classifying Shadowrun as fantasy or sci fi?  To me it's urban fantasy in cyberpunk dress. Cyberpunk after the Movement having become more fantastic any way.  Compare Neuromancer to The Matrix.

Fantasy is escapist, in the best, worst, and all other senses of the term.  Sci/Fi can be, but often isn't.  And the more escapist Sci/Fi tends to be so because of fantastical elements blended in.  

As a starting point, their parameters provide different routes to explore a "what if" about humanity.  You can explore humanity any way you want in either, but it's easier and more accessible to use a particular one for many such explorations.  For example, I've seen the idea of "human nature is constant" done well in Sci/Fi, but not as often as in fantasy.