blue is a color that makes people calmer, and when wearing blue, it makes you look more trustworthy. Twilight Falls is a (comparatively) calm level in this game, and the atmosphere is very relaxed. even the few battles in this level aren't that bad. going back to the trustworthy thing, all the blue implies a non-threatening environment.

red is a color that grabs people's attention quickly, and in certain contexts suggests aggression. red increases blood pressure. the Burned Lands are full of red, and are probably imo the hardest level in the game. (i'd say "series", but you know, every single level in TEN?) there are also a lot of fast-paced battles with fast-moving enemies.

brown represents solidarity and maturity and kind of a sophisticated feel, i guess. that makes sense with Warfang, a city seeming to be built with that attitude in mind. it's also gold, which has obvious implications.

green represents balance, growth, and calmness, which also fits the mood of the Valley of Avalar. same with the blue sky, that color is fitting, too.

the argument could be made here that the colors are influencing most of the moods in the game, but the thing is, they generally only seem to appear *where the story is already portraying that mood* anyway. all of the levels i mentioned already portrayed the moods i described. the colors just seem to enhance them. i wonder if that has anything to do with the "intense" reaction to the game.

that doesn't solve everything (if it solves anything) but it's a point.

edit: apparently there are parts of human brains that are similar to those in reptiles (read: dragons). these include the thalamus which receives sensory signals; and the basal ganglia, which play a part in eye movements, and motivation - literally impulses that cause our motivation to do things. these play a significant part in playing video games. i'm not sure if there's anything to get from that, but i guess it's worth pointing out.

so what we have so far is a game themed around dragons, with tons of nature and open spaces, enhanced by colors matching the appropriate moods, with common brain functions between the dragon characters and the human players. this all leads to a rather significant and dragon-themed experience, but the *big* question is, why did it have the varied reactions that it did? it didn't have one universal reaction despite the psychology, people felt different things toward it. for some this game was life-changing. others hardly felt anything toward it. there are a few people on here who just flat-out hate it. and that is where things are going to get complicated, because that's when things get too individual to reasonably study. i could throw out ideas about that, but like with my last long post, i think i'm going to stop here.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

i know. i'm not saying that it's a positive trait of the game, i'm just explaining how i perceive its psychological effects. actually while i'm here i could point out that all Spyro games pretty much build on the theme of accessing abilities and areas you couldn't before, DOTD just takes it to trans-dimensional extremes.

Gotcha, that is a good point.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

i don't remember saying that. those pictures are beautiful btw, especially the first one. you can definitely have the same feeling in the real world. well almost, individual environments will have different impacts on you but overall you're right here. that's why i walk around this general area and like to go out to the woods, so that i *can* experience that.

Sorry, for some reason I felt like I'd seen you say something along those lines. Looking back, I should've known you felt this way based on some of the pictures you've posted on deviantArt.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

if you're interested, i wouldn't be very surprised to see something similar to Artisans in a place like Ireland or Scotland. Estonia looks kind of classic Spyro, too. i personally have never found anywhere like the Valley of Avalar, but i'll bet it exists somewhere. this is pretty close, but i don't know where it is.

Scotland and Ireland are very beautiful countries, and I would like to visit them at some point for this reason. The link seems to be broken on my end btw, it just loads a list of wallpapers instead of one particular one.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

well technically if you're religious (which you and i personally are) there is an evil being out there, just not Malefor. but you're right, there's beautiful stuff out there besides. this world isn't all bad. and i think he meant human society more than earth in general. though admittedly earth can be cruel outside of society too. i wouldn't call, calling society "boring and cruel" an exaggeration.

That's very true. I sort of find myself seeing the evil we believe in to exist in any world where people (or dragons/cheetahs/moles/etc. in this case) are capable of being tempted into evil, if not in name. so I guess what I should've said there is Malefor is existing as a danger on top of that. For example, the Dark Side of the Force is essentially Satan and his temptations within the Star Wars universe, or in a less direct example, in the legend of spyro games, any being can do evil, so the evil that they are capable of is equal to what we know as the devil, and sin. As for the ways earth can be cruel besides society, I assume you mean things like disease and natural disasters?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. If it seems like I'm being in any way offensive or disagreeable, I apologize. I am not as good at these sorts of discussions as I'd like to be.

Yeah, when I said this world is cruel I only meant society, although nature can be pretty cold to I suppose, while still being VERY beautiful...

I don't see my calling this society cruel and horrible to be an exaggeration even in the slightest, but thats just the way I see it.

If I were a dragon I personally don't think I would find that sort of life to be cruel at all. Unless I lived in  another corrupt society, then perhaps I would....
Although I see the point your making... I guess that would be pretty boring/uninteresting if I was a dragon. lol xP Of course, if I were to become a dragon for whatever reason then I think I would love it.

(Also, you didn't seem offensive at all, your just adding your own views on things which is fine, like I was/am doing.  I'm not very good at it either, as I'm not the best at wording things all the time...xP  )
(Hoping I addressed all the questions/comments/whatever that were directed towards me. But knowing me I probably missed something...I'll have to double-check. xP    )

i know. i'm not saying that it's a positive trait of the game, i'm just explaining how i perceive its psychological effects. actually while i'm here i could point out that all Spyro games pretty much build on the theme of accessing abilities and areas you couldn't before, DOTD just takes it to trans-dimensional extremes.

Gotcha, that is a good point.

Sorry, for some reason I felt like I'd seen you say something along those lines. Looking back, I should've known you felt this way based on some of the pictures you've posted on deviantArt.

Scotland and Ireland are very beautiful countries, and I would like to visit them at some point for this reason. The link seems to be broken on my end btw, it just loads a list of wallpapers instead of one particular one.

That's very true. I sort of find myself seeing the evil we believe in to exist in any world where people (or dragons/cheetahs/moles/etc. in this case) are capable of being tempted into evil, if not in name. so I guess what I should've said there is Malefor is existing as a danger on top of that. For example, the Dark Side of the Force is essentially Satan and his temptations within the Star Wars universe, or in a less direct example, in the legend of spyro games, any being can do evil, so the evil that they are capable of is equal to what we know as the devil, and sin. As for the ways earth can be cruel besides society, I assume you mean things like disease and natural disasters?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. If it seems like I'm being in any way offensive or disagreeable, I apologize. I am not as good at these sorts of discussions as I'd like to be.

(pointing out the game limiting where you can go)

i know. i'm not saying that it's a positive trait of the game, i'm just explaining how i perceive its psychological effects. actually while i'm here i could point out that all Spyro games pretty much build on the theme of accessing abilities and areas you couldn't before, DOTD just takes it to . . . extremes.

i don't remember saying that. those pictures are beautiful btw, especially the first one. you can definitely have the same feeling in the real world. well almost, individual environments will have different impacts on you but overall you're right here. that's why i walk around this general area and like to go out to the woods, so that i *can* experience that.

if you're interested, i wouldn't be very surprised to see something similar to Artisans in a place like Ireland or Scotland. Estonia looks kind of classic Spyro, too. i personally have never found anywhere like the Valley of Avalar, but i'll bet it exists somewhere. this is pretty close, but i don't know where it is.

well technically if you're religious (which you and i personally are) there is an evil being out there, just not Malefor. but you're right, there's beautiful stuff out there besides. this world isn't all bad. and i think he meant human society more than earth in general. though admittedly earth can be cruel outside of society too. i wouldn't call, calling society "boring and cruel" an exaggeration.

I see your point about seeing something but not being able to reach it heightening your adventurous sense, and I agree, but I feel that should only be the case when that thing is far away, outside the game boundaries. If it's directly in front of you, there should be no reason you wouldn't be allowed to go to it, especially in a game that lets you fly.

Exactly this. There were so many things like that stupid little platform that ruined any sense of immersion I probably would have gotten from the game if they would have just left the free flight completely free. Before I played the game, I thought when people complained about the free flight being limited, they meant that they were disappointed that they couldn't fly as high as they wanted and end up in space or something. Now I actually get what they mean and completely agree that it ruins the experience a bit. 

And yeah, much like this game is relatively unknown, you can find beautiful things in the real world if you look hard enough. Sometimes you don't even have to look hard at all, depending on where you live. I agree that life can be repetitive at times, but completely boring and cruel is going a bit too far I think.

I see nothing wrong with wanting to escape your everyday life for a while to play a video game just as long as you don't lose your sense of reality like the obsessed, in-love-with-Cynder fans do.

I see your point about seeing something but not being able to reach it heightening your adventurous sense, and I agree, but I feel that should only be the case when that thing is far away, outside the game boundaries. If it's directly in front of you, there should be no reason you wouldn't be allowed to go to it, especially in a game that lets you fly.

I also can't quite agree with thinking that the same feeling of exploration cannot be found in the real world. It might be different where you live, but where I'm at it's not hard to leave city boundaries and find something like this

That's not even 15 minutes from where I live. Plus man-made things can be beautiful too, like this park that I was just at yesterday to check out a farmer's market.

That sorta leads into the part I agree with you the most however, I definitely see why it would be immersive when it isn't that much unlike our world, I could probably find somewhere in our world that resembles the valley of Avalar (tLoS version, not Spyro 2 version), but I don't think I ever really could, say the Artisan's homeworld.

To address cowpowa, I completely disagree that the world we live in is "uninteresting, boring, and cruel." Some of it is, yes, but if you go out and look for beautiful things about the world and about people, you will find plenty of it. Plus our world doesn't have a giant purple dragon named Malefor who wants to destroy the entire planet for no particularly good reason. Also, if as a human you wish you could escape this life and live one as a dragon, that's because being a human is all you know. If you think about it, if you had been born a dragon, that would be all you know and you'd probably find that life uninteresting and cruel as well. Insteading of wanting another life, look for what's good about the one you have and look for things you can do with it.

Hm, maybe I can weigh in on this a bit.

I can understand where you could see it that way, but the large areas did the opposite for me. They give you such large areas to play with, but restrict you at every point possible. When we left the cheetah village for example, we flew around the field for a while, just running into things that we couldn't do. Levers that have no purpose yet, caves that are closed off, an area behind a waterfall that you're forced arbitrarily to climb up rather than fly. Stuff like that didn't make me want to explore at all; it was just telling me: go to the next objective. Which is fine...but we had no idea where to go next. If there was a map or maybe an un-intrusive objective arrow to follow, I wouldn't have any gripes with that.

I would have also loved to have been able to fly around an area freely without having to worry about whether the game was going to make me just suddenly lose all height for no apparent reason. They could still have had "ceilings" (think speedway mechanics from PS1), just not multiple ones that force you to do platforming which should be completely unnecessary if you can fly.

I was trying to enjoy the game, but those were the main things that kept me from enjoying it. Rather than feeling the freedom that you should get when you fly in these expansive areas, it just felt restrictive and frustrating. I also can't understand being immersed in the game when you have to deal with these battles at every turn, but that's probably just because I don't enjoy the nature of the combat in tLoS games either.

The areas were pretty though (minus the insane amount of bloom lighting). That is what I'll look forward to next time we play.

i've been wondering if the restrictions had something to do with the effect as well, seeing potentially explorable areas but not fully accessing some of them. you also can't (most of the time) fly over Twilight Falls, you can only *see* how expansive it is. i managed to get out of that wind thing at the waterfall once or twice, but usually you can't. it *does* leave you wanting more room to explore, which indirectly seems to add to my (and others' ?) adventurous attitude rather than detracting from it. i don't know for sure of course, i know about psychology but i'm not an expert.

the battles definitely took away from it though, especially in the Valley of Avalar. whenever i play that level i make a specific point of getting rid of all of the enemies before exploring around (and i happen to recall that the tree between the cheetah village and the cave doesn't have enemies *at first* but does when you get rid of the other ones and come back around.)

The whole point of Frodo's character was that there was nothing special about him at all. He wasn't chosen - he just volunteered to take the thing. Not sure about the prophecy thing; it's been a while since I've read the books, but there wasn't one that I can remember, at least. And I'm not sure if I would count Big Bad as a fantasy cliche, but that could be just me.

I'd actually never thought of the word "Tolkenian" being incorrect to describe modern fantasy cliches before reading KingLambda's post, so this is new to me, too, lol.

I think what he meant was that Aragorn was prophesied to be the King, but he wasn't yet.

I can understand where you could see it that way, but the large areas did the opposite for me. They give you such large areas to play with, but restrict you at every point possible. When we left the cheetah village for example, we flew around the field for a while, just running into things that we couldn't do. Levers that have no purpose yet, caves that are closed off, an area behind a waterfall that you're forced arbitrarily to climb up rather than fly. Stuff like that didn't make me want to explore at all; it was just telling me: go to the next objective. Which is fine...but we had no idea where to go next. If there was a map or maybe an un-intrusive objective arrow to follow, I wouldn't have any gripes with that.

I would have also loved to have been able to fly around an area freely without having to worry about whether the game was going to make me just suddenly lose all height for no apparent reason. They could still have had "ceilings" (think speedway mechanics from PS1), just not multiple ones that force you to do platforming which should be completely unnecessary if you can fly.

I was trying to enjoy the game, but those were the main things that kept me from enjoying it. Rather than feeling the freedom that you should get when you fly in these expansive areas, it just felt restrictive and frustrating. I also can't understand being immersed in the game when you have to deal with these battles at every turn, but that's probably just because I don't enjoy the nature of the combat in tLoS games either.

The areas were pretty though (minus the insane amount of bloom lighting). That is what I'll look forward to next time we play.

As for Rurik's questions, I can continue from Stormy's response and fill in the gaps.

This, plus he by himself wasn't the true hero. Had Sam not been with him he would have succumbed to the ring and taken it straight to Sauron.

Sorry for quoting you It wasn't really a prophecy so much as the fact that he had the royal bloodline. Again it was something he chose and volunteered for. He could just as easily have kept being a ranger, had some sons, and let them bring about the "Return of the King".

Big bad, yeah, but more of what I meant by final boss is the idea that the entire purpose of the hero's quest is to eventually battle and defeat this character. Bilbo was only a thief, and all he had to do to Smaug was find a way to steal a very important gem from him. Bard, a side character, is the one who actually ended up killing Smaug, and if I remember correctly Bilbo wasn't even there to witness it happen. Sauron on the other hand, is only ever battled face to face long before the events of LotR. None of the Fellowship ever so much as see him. The purpose of their journey is to destroy the ring before he gets his hands on it again, because allowing that to happen would let him return to his full power. Also, the death of Smaug and the defeat of Sauron don't even mark the end of their respective stories even by a long shot. (The LotR films kinda ruin this part of it by cutting out the stuff that happens after Sauron's defeat despite the fact that it's very important to the story)

On this point I agree with you.

So I was watching Stormy and Paranoia play this game and there was something bothering me the entire time. How are there people who have become so obsessed with this game? I'm not using obsessed as an over exaggeration here, as in people who love the game and want a new one to come out. I disagree with these people too, but that's a topic for another time. Who I'm talking about are the people who's lives are changed by it, cannot think about anything else, find Spyro and Cynder's story to be the greatest love story ever told, wish they lived in the world of the game rather than the real world, I could go on. I'm not trying to say anything about the quality of the game here, rather the fact that its story was not anything that hasn't been done before, and the similar stories did not have the obsessive, cult-like following this game does/did. It honestly just felt like a generic video game with a generic story to me. Is there something I'm missing about it?

i would like to begin my reply by reinforcing what you said, that there *is* a distinction between people who just enjoy this game [and its series] and ones who respond obsessively to it.

not being exposed to much media will definitely play a part as Stormy said, it'd seem much less remarkable after a time of playing/seeing other stuff, assuming you're receptive to all of it of course (which is less likely than you think, there are a lot of people only attuned to certain things). it was usually pretty easy on here to see which people were receptive to (read: "obsessive about") the game upon playing it and which ones just *liked* it. i *liked* the Harry Potter book series, but it didn't resonate with me in any way, it was just entertainment, and it was like that with some people on here with DOTD. some people took it further though, and i find myself identifying quite well with them. these are usually the people with like 50,000 drawings of their dragon OC on deviantART with like a hundred autobiographical fanfics. vivid imaginations, those people have. they're greatly inspired by *something*.

i've been toying with the idea of exploring the elements of each Spyro game in-depth, and one i've definitely noticed for DOTD is a sense of grandeur, the sheer openness of the game. in the second level, you go through a tunnel and come out to this beautiful night sky above you and an expansive forest below. the next level is a large, open meadow with flowing streams. the next levels take place in a gigantic city with a huge (albeit inaccessible) battlefield stretching out to the horizon, while off to another side you can see valleys from miles away where there's no fighting at all - think of what a wide area that encompasses. and the Dam and the Destroyer have that too, and... well, the Floating Islands speak for themselves, and even the battle with Malefor does this.

you also have to consider the exploration elements going on here: it's one thing to see this openness, but on several occasions you get to *explore* it, immerse yourself in it, wander through it, and it's in so many places, too. it's not *just* a forest underneath an amazing sky, or just a meadow, it's a city, and a huge dam, and islands floating in the air. it's the mix of grandeur and exploration that really draw these types (read: my type) in.

but what i'm also thinking here is, that the reaction they/we had wasn't entirely manufactured. meaning, it wasn't *just* the entertainment of playing a cool video game with cool graphics, it genuinely resonated with certain people in some way. as if it were our instinctive reaction to be drawn to such grandeur and exploration, *independent* of escapism or boredom. and it's these specific settings that resonated with them/us: you didn't explore any big factories or farmlands or swamps or deserts, it was grassy valleys and forests, rocky areas and open air... also take careful note that it's surreal, without being *magical*.

let me make this post a little more unnecessarily long than it already is: Spyro 1 was "magical". it had wizards and portals, decorative halls and funnily-shaped castles. Spyro: DOTD mostly lacked "magic" - it had a more down-to-earth view of "fantasy" (like much of TLOS compared to the originals) without making it dry - it preserved the surreality, it just made it more realistic in our terms. but as i was saying before, it was the specific things at play here that resonated with people, travel *through* these specific areas, these specific atmospheres, the specific mood set in it. i would venture a guess that it was coincidence, but they all do add up to a general idea that just "makes sense" within a certain framework, a good word being "freedom" as you said. i can easily understand the desire to live in the game world - it seems absolutely majestic to explore, to experience, much more than the mundane towns and streetlights and everyday goings-on of Earth. to which, again, it seems some of us are not attuned. i personally quench that thirst with nature, particularly the one forest at the edge of town. it's right next to a river, and there are these paths and a couple clearings... it's just nice. i also like to "explore" around here in general, even in towns. others seem to indulge in fantasy, typically self-written. either way, it seems to have caused a spark in some people in some way, perhaps of something we forgot was inside us all along. when i was younger, i spent my time in class looking out the window, but then i was taught to pay attention to class, which mentally/spiritually hindered me greatly. upon seeing the screenshots of Twilight Falls, and playing the Valley of Avalar, and also discovering a lot of nature-themed music around that time, i just couldn't ignore the feeling this freedom gave me, even if it was only in a digital (obviously third-person) medium. a feeling quite odd to me, having lived such a sheltered life. but that freedom seems to be something to which we, the DOTD nuts, are attuned, and, as evidenced by our continued fascination with it, goes beyond the boundaries of the game.

the whole free-flight thing was cool, too, and definitely helped build the mood i mentioned earlier.

i've been implying a few things in this post. i wonder how speculative i can get here before i tip off the cliff of sanity. i don't want to look nuts, and i don't want to put words into anybody's mouths, so i think i'll stop here.

edit: in the very very slight off-chance someone actually does understand what i implied here, i should point out that i reject it now. PM for more information.

I'd actually never thought of the word "Tolkenian" being incorrect to describe modern fantasy cliches before reading KingLambda's post, so this is new to me, too, lol.

But wasn't Frodo a chosen one in the movies to throw the ring into the fire? And there was something I think about hte Ranger King with a prophacy. But dont quote me on those. And wouldn't Sauron count as the big bad and Smaug for Hobbit?

If I'm wrong I'm wrong but either way I will amend my statement:

This game has the same, generic fantasy tropes everyone goes nuts about that appears in 95% of every fantasy storyline. There is no variation. The only reasonably cool thing was when Malefor sprouted off about purple dragons being the end of the world but that was just a throwaway line

Had a few bright moments and ideas but was lost to the cliche tolkin *bleep* that everyone goes nuts about these days. (SEriously, I do not get the appeal ofLotR/Hobbit. At all. I know they basically made fantasy but it's come tot he point where it's cliche itself.)

To be honest this is another thing that I was expecting to see but just did not. I'm not seeing any resemblence to Tolkien, (to be honest, I don't see what about the fantasy cliche is seen within Tolkien's work in the first place). In LotR and The Hobbit there's no romantic tension (Spyro & Cynder), no chosen one (Spyro), no prophecy (The Purple Dragon or whatever), no final boss (Malefor), no comic relief character (Sparx), magic is minimal, battles tend to be narrated through rather quickly so more time can be spent on the lore and the characters, yet all these things are what make something labelled as a cliche fantasy.