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The Word “Epic” is Overused
By Cameron Sorden | November 16, 2007
Random thought that occurred to me while posting news at TTH today: the word “epic” gets tossed around way too much by MMOG developers. Epic battles. Epic monsters. Epic weapons, armor, spells, item, potions, foozles, feezles, and fobbles. Every time someone is asked to talk about their new game or their next expansion or their latest update, you can pretty safely put any amount of money down that you’d care to wager on the fact that the word “epic” is going to pop out of their mouth at least once, if not multiple times.
The funny thing is I can’t remember the last time I did something in an MMOG that felt epic. Sure, raiding can be epic. But spending 200 hours learning boss encounters so I can feel epic when I kill them? Don’t have the time. PvP doesn’t feel epic. Grinding is certainly not epic. Some quests are better than others, but overall, not epic. Epic gear is not epic in anything but that it took epic amounts of time to get it and it looks kind of impressive.
Please stop pimping every feature of your game out as epic, everyone. It’s only epic if it’s really epic.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
These are the same people who decided that you couldn’t write a fantasy story in any less than three books and sometimes you needed ten.
The same people who make cars that deliver the ultimate driving experience, and then do it again the next year.
But the dictionary definition of “epic” is “more than ordinary”. And isn’t that how, more or less, it is used?
Epic armor is better than ordinary armor. Epic quests are harder than normal quests. Epic mobs are more of a challenge than regular mobs.
Sure, the word is weakened by overuse, but it isn’t particularly misused, except by publicists who seem to apply it to half the fantasy books on the market.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
If the dictionary’s definition of “epic” is simply “more than ordinary”, as you say, Tipa, then the dictionary is plainly mistaken (which isn’t so uncommon). That is not how the word is usually used, and it’s silly using any word in a way that must always be explained. Popularity is king in the definition of words, since accurate communication is the whole point.
The meanings of words are always shifting, but it’s annoying when sensationalist marketing is behind the shift.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:54 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs
December 7th, 2007 at 3:36 am
[…] Cameron Sorden recently opined that the word “epic” is overused. He doesn’t remember the last time he felt “epic” in an MMORPG, so he feels it’s false advertising. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really give any good suggestions on when to use it, and I don’t have a lot, either. […]
March 25th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[…] However… for the so-called “Epic Book III” I am sorely tempted to give a nod to Cameron that in this case, “epic” doesn’t quite apply. Book 3 was short, consisting of a […]
June 7th, 2008 at 6:45 am
A definition of epic:
“heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war. ”
Nowadays every game is ‘epic’, every movie is ‘epic’, people don’t realize the magnitude of the word ‘epic’, they just feel proud using it thinking it’s just another synonym for great…