Sci-fi or Fantasy?

[V]

I am curious.

Let's say you are about to be sucked into another world for good, there is no coming back. (The idea that high fantasy and high sci-fi can mix isn't an issue here, it's one or the other). Which world would you rather spend the rest of your life in?

A world of high fantasy with the likes of supernatural beings, gods, demons, dragons, giants, magic, floaty islands, etc.

Or a world of science fiction, maybe with cyborgs, advanced space travel, genetic enhancements, giant robots, etc.

Which would you choose and why? What makes one better than the other to you?

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Oh my GOD I wouldn't want to have to choose... XD I guess I'd go with fantasy. Dragons FTW!

 

[Tony_Redgrave]

Fantasy easilyXD
I'll probably post a more serious response as to why later.

 

[Sieghart]

Fantasy.

 

[darkslayer13]

If I had to choose I would pick Fantasy because in a Sci-fi world there are far fewer opportunities to stab people and shooting people doesn't seem quite as fun. Also elf women are all very good looking while alien women vary in attractiveness. ( I'm sure everyone can tell I would not be a hero)

 

[lorddemolatron]

I could not answer for favour one of genres as I like them both and I ended in mixing them in my works.

 

[ZeroLove]

I'm a Fantasy guy, though I do like them tight bodysuits in Sci-fi games. ;P
I prefer swords, magic, elves and demons over aliens, laserguns and spacetravelling.

 

[Laurence Barnes]

i have designed a game wich is a mix of fantasy and sci-fi so really hard to choose however i seem to be siding more with sci-fi im the kind of guy who loves machines......and....."robots" :/ which i rather call machines

 

[Dark Drakan]

Id probably pick Fantasy as I like the whole up close and personal combat (swords, daggers and arrows etc) but I also enjoy Sci-Fi with the over the top weaponry and unique enemies and races.

 

[Angel]

I am curious.

Let's say you are about to be sucked into another world for good, there is no coming back. (The idea that high fantasy and high sci-fi can mix isn't an issue here, it's one or the other). Which world would you rather spend the rest of your life in?

A world of high fantasy with the likes of supernatural beings, gods, demons, dragons, giants, magic, floaty islands, etc.

Or a world of science fiction, maybe with cyborgs, advanced space travel, genetic enhancements, giant robots, etc.

Which would you choose and why? What makes one better than the other to you?

I picked fantasy - I'm not really sure if there is a definite reason why I love the genre so much. It just seems so free - there are no limitations, anything can happen and if nothing else, I've always loved the clothing from the medieval period (which is what tends to be the style for most fantasy books/films/games). The idea you can be ploughing a field one minute and then hurrying off to slay a dragon or find a pixie to take you to a mystical land or whatever is fantastic. Somewhere that has infinite possibilities and inspires the imagination...it just appeals so much to my style of thinking.

Sci-fi, whilst I enjoy it to an extent, is more of a turn-off to me because it seems to be very...academic, perhaps? Maybe it's because most of the authors I have read within that genre have been one stop short of genius in their creative ideas but science, maths, logic, metal, lasers...it's just not my cup of tea. I'd rather wield a magic staff, live in the countryside and wear a cloak than sit in my spaceship and blast aliens with my phasers set to fabulous or whatever.

 

[lorddemolatron]

Well, i will tell this. On fantasy I enjoyed particular genre of it called Dark Fantasy- i call this genre as It is more setted in modern time than Fantasy medievalish setting. In that you have magic and other fantasy thing, but protagonists are vampires, demons, and other dark creatures.

The second that I fave and is SF genre was : The cyberpunk genre emerged in the early 1980s; combining cybernetics and punk,[53] the term was coined by author Bruce Bethke for his 1980 short story "Cyberpunk".[54] The time frame is usually near-future and the settings are often dystopian in nature and characterized by misery. Common themes in cyberpunk include advances in information technology and especially the Internet, visually abstracted as cyberspace, artificial intelligence and prosthetics and post-democratic societal control where corporations have more influence than governments. Nihilism, post-modernism, and film noirtechniques are common elements, and the protagonists may be disaffected or reluctant anti-heroes. Noteworthy authors in this genre are William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, and Pat Cadigan. James O'Ehley has called the 1982 film Blade Runner a definitive example of the cyberpunk visual style

And this makes me like both genres, but I have only liked its subgenres more.

 

[Meg]

I was gonna pick Sci-fi until you said "genetic enhancements." No. Just no.

 

[V]

I pick fantasy.

The laws of physics are too tyrannical. Or maybe I just need a change from them

 

[darkslayer13]

I was gonna pick Sci-fi until you said "genetic enhancements." No. Just no.

You would avoid an entire universe just because something like that exists in it? If that is the case you should probably try to find a portal to a Fantasy world because real life genetic enhancement of humans will probably exist within your lifetime.

 

[Vergil'sBitch]

As much as i like Fantasy (vampire, demons etc) I've gotta choose Sci-fi. My first love will always be Star Trek (although i am finding Sci-fi a challenge to write).

 

[Meg]

You would avoid an entire universe just because something like that exists in it? If that is the case you should probably try to find a portal to a Fantasy world because real life genetic enhancement of humans will probably exist within your lifetime.

I'd rather be an activist that fights for what she believes than take the coward's way out and run.

EDIT: I also didn't put that much thought into my answer seeing as it's a hypothetical question about something that could never happen.

 

[Angel]

As much as i like Fantasy (vampire, demons etc) I've gotta choose Sci-fi. My first love will always be Star Trek (although i am finding Sci-fi a challenge to write).

I find sci-fi hard to write too; I lack the knowledge and understanding of that sort of things to be able to create anything credible. My mind is not logical or academic enough to think of anything to fit that genre and there seems to be so many unwritten rules that all sci-fi writers adopt as standard which I just know I'd miss out or get wrong.

That and there are not enough wizards in sci-fi

 

[Vergil'sBitch]

I find sci-fi hard to write too; I lack the knowledge and understanding of that sort of things to be able to create anything credible. My mind is not logical or academic enough to think of anything to fit that genre and there seems to be so many unwritten rules that all sci-fi writers adopt as standard which I just know I'd miss out or get wrong.

That and there are not enough wizards in sci-fi

I've figured that I've watched enough Star Trek to write a story about it... but I end up with major writers block and no ideas.

 

[Laurence Barnes]

well really the place i have thought of and created for a game im going to make is sci-fi but beings of fantasy live their too the technology has reached the level where anything is possible even to create what is thought to be created by chance this as i call the alphaverse i created not only brings sci-fi and fantasy together but it is many universes connected to one center universe and each leads to as we see as a film or game or anime (unfortuantley this cant be in the game for copyright reasons) so this is basically everything we know connected together our universe even has its own name "the aboro universe" (ab-ore-row) so if it was an option my alphaverse would be to choose as any place is within reach through a wormhole that could lead to your favourite anime/manga or film or game and can even lead you to places in different stages in time like prehistoric times or futuristic times with incredible technology and even see all the creatures you have seen and many more also in the alphaverse to help it be a peaceful exsistence there is an empire not like the evil empires you see but a sort of democracy where the peoples intrests are decided by the emperor there is also a single armada (beside from planetary security) to keep peace also to figure out comunication problems with another alien race they created what is known as the "universal language" and it is still not a crime to speak your own language just as long as you have the universal language as a secondary language or at least you know someone who does.......i just felt like posting this

 

[V]

You would avoid an entire universe just because something like that exists in it? If that is the case you should probably try to find a portal to a Fantasy world because real life genetic enhancement of humans will probably exist within your lifetime.

They already do. Anyone who gets genetic screening for a disease is using genetic technology as help, gene therapy is being used to treat diseases like cystic fibrosis to enhance quality of life. Stem cell research as well.

People react with horror to genetic enhancement but we've been doing it for thousands of years. Look at toy breeds of dog, or apple trees or wheat. All of them have been changed from the original and shaped by us to suit our purposes, and nobody seems horrified by that because it was done with breeding rather than a cell needle. But it is exactly the same thing.