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[Chutney]

Your character walks into the room, and glances around, having been told the items your NPC friend seeks will be here. He notices the Sacred Goblet of Julianos on top of the wardrobe. Despite this, he spends half an hour searching the entire room, as though some outside force were controlling him and did not notice the goblet. Frustrated, he stands perfectly still - frozen in time - for about 5 minutes, when a thought comes to his head, but not "his" thought, it came from somewhere else... "Thank you, Gamefaqs!"

If only Bendu Olo, the Dunmer Battlemage, was able to communicate to this mysterious "outside force" guiding him.

[Virtz]

the quest pointers are completely in-character knowledge that they are displaying for the player, because maybe the player doesn't have as good of a memory as the character, and it's an RPG.
Seriously, every single quest has the NPC pointing out on the map where to go, or giving you precise enough details where the character would be like "oh, okay it's gonna be northeast of my location *quest pointer is displayed to the not so canny player*"
of course, this is immersion breaking because it's an UI element.

But they don't tell you. They don't tell you anything. I even recall a modding effort by some Codexer to add directions and remove the quest compass. I'm not sure if he ever finished it.

And you just know they added the quest compass because idiots some people couldn't find Caius Cossades in Balmora despite obvious directions.

[darkedone02]

I wish they'd put back in the fucking spear skill. Spears are so underrepresented in fantasy, it's not even funny anymore.

They haven't been forgotten in Mount & Blade (Warband at least), that's for sure.

Mount and Blade However is just an alternative warring state fantasy, however that he is talking about is how Spears appear less in fantasy games like Oblivion (obviously), Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, and other games. Some games do have spears but there is hardly any skills that support them.

[Blargityblarg]

I sometimes wonder if there's an undead version of PeTA whose main job is to stop people from beating dead horses.

[Frumple]

Iirc, it's generally because spears aren't a "hero's" weapon -- they, and most polearms, are the weapon of the peasantry and the 'craven' in (at least western) heroic fiction, not the knight, lord, or 'chosen one'. It's not terribly surprising the trend has infected the gaming world to a large extent, considering.

It's a pretty easy thing to see. Just go make a general survey of main characters in fantasy or medieval-based fiction, and see how many of them use polearms. You can expect to see at least three-fold that number using other weapons -- even the axe and blunt weapon are going to see more usage. The sword, of course, is the ultimate phallic symbol hero's weapon, and will have a majority's control over the numbers.

S'kinda' sad, really. I know if I was some schmuck tossed into the middle of a world changing conflict, I'd really like a long stick with something sharp on the end, for better poking idiots with short pointy things from a safe distance.

[Darvi]

Some games do have spears but there is hardly any skills that support them.

Vit Spear Knights
Just my 2 cents.

What I dislike the most in Oblivion is the "searching for your roots" side quest. I mean, searching every nook and cranny in cyrodil just to find every damn nirnroot? Eff you!

[Chutney]

Iirc, it's generally because spears aren't a "hero's" weapon -- they, and most polearms, are the weapon of the peasantry and the 'craven' in (at least western) heroic fiction, not the knight, lord, or 'chosen one'. It's not terribly surprising the trend has infected the gaming world to a large extent, considering.

Greece. Knight's Lances. Odin. Cucuchlain. Lance of Longinus.
Spears are hella up in our Western Mythologies as weapons of gods and heroes. It's the gaming world that's infecting itself with the notion of spears not being heroic weapons, I think

[Frumple]

Kinda' missed point Or at least spoke around it.

There are famous and hero-used spears in western fiction and mythology, yes. There's just considerably fewer ones than big name swords.

Even that, though, isn't the big thing -- the big thing is that if you go and browse through the fantasy section of any of the major bookstores (caveat: in the US.), better than half the major critters in them will be toting swords, specifically. Certainly a majority of protagonists in western fantasy fiction overall are sword users specifically. Then you've got axes and various blunt things, followed by funky crap and then the poor, maligned polearm.

I guess it's not terribly surprising. The 'awesome' fight scenes would be considerably less so (according to th'average fantasy book consumer, I suppose) if the fight went something along the lines of "Evil McFooigan charged at the hero, who wisely put a hole in them from several feet away with a sharpened stick."

[Chutney]

I'm seeing it as a quality over quantity thing here. Gods and the really big names used spears, and every would-be dragon-slayer ever uses a sword.
I guess I just figured it to leave a more lasting impression that the coolest dudes are wielding the spears, and everyone else has a sword, but psychology doesn't work like that does it...

[The Merchant Of Menace]

Spears aren't all that useful in single combat though. Assuming the other guy isn't using one too.

[Shadowlord]

Of course, if you have a lance and a horse, you can just run down any enemies who happen to be on foot. Repeatedly. Unless they have spears.

[Il Palazzo]

I guess it's not terribly surprising. The 'awesome' fight scenes would be considerably less so (according to th'average fantasy book consumer, I suppose) if the fight went something along the lines of "Evil McFooigan charged at the hero, who wisely put a hole in them from several feet away with a sharpened stick."

Heh, but they can be awesome if done right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2qKOmJdObY (yes, they do switch to swords eventually; wait for Czech dubbing for extra hilarity)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdKiPOkh0K8 (Moribito loves spearfights)

[Carrion]

Most all the DnD CRPGs I've played have spears, uniques and all.  I know because I use them.

In other news, did anyone else notice that derailed train (of subject, thought, etc.) that we passed a page ago?

[darkedone02]

I hope in Skyrim, they added the spears back and add in some powerful spears in the game as well, make it be famous like the swords and axes.

[Carrion]

Beautiful recovery...