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[Areku]

Yes indeed. Frankly, I'd really want to see more postapocalyptic grasslands and forests. The end of civilisation is not necessarily the end of the entire ecosystem.

[Vince_Lawrence]

PG became often popular due to time they are made and released, the first rpg games were actually fantasy so the family tree grows and goes on and on

[Dragonmaw]

Yes indeed. Frankly, I'd really want to see more postapocalyptic grasslands and forests. The end of civilisation is not necessarily the end of the entire ecosystem.

That's sort of the theme of Fallout. Despite a nuclear holocaust, the environment goes on. Just with... changes.

[st33d]

The lack of orcs and goblins in Spelunky inspired me to make my own indie game.

I just like the setting a bit too much really.

[Areku]

That's sort of the theme of Fallout. Despite a nuclear holocaust, the environment goes on. Just with... changes.

Not so much, IMO. Even though there are "native" wild creatures, such as the geckos and radscorpions, there is very little in the way of foliage and base ecosystem organisms. Indeed, many of the animals in the game are either scavengers or have "unwary travellers" as their main food source, and the main objective of Fallout 2 was finding a way to bring back fertility to a small part of the wasteland.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

what about crystalis? it seems to fit what you describe here: post-apocalyptic with an emphasis on the ecosystem and nature. it was inspired by the nausicaa anime

[Areku]

Oh wow, Crystalis is one heck of a game. Many thanks for the indication! 
And indeed, the theme is quite similar to what I had in mind, keeping the due proportions.

[EdgeOfProphecy]

There's a decent spattering of modern era and Scifi RPG's, and people have given reasons as to why the bulk are fantasy that I agree with.

One thing that interests me is how pervasive the supernatural is in RPG's.  Most of them seem to have magic, crazy ultra-technology, psychics, ghosts, time travel, spirits, digital spirits, digital psychic devil spirits wielding magic, etc.  The worlds brim with fantastical powers, usually wielded or harnessed by important characters.

I'm sure there are some totally mundane RPG's out there, but I can't think of many off the top of my head.  Mundane here doesn't mean Heavy Rain-esque "Drink that OJ and play with your kid" mundane, but just lacking obtusely supernatural elements.

[st33d]

The fantasy issue I think is mostly the fault of mages.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FighterMageThief

People like mages and they are much easier to represent in fantasy and science fantasy.

That's not to say that classes can't be done in a contemporary setting. But I think that people tend to fall back on tried and tested rather than come up with new types of specialist classes for RPGs.

[Fegon]

But I think that people tend to fall back on tried and tested rather than come up with new types of specialist classes for RPGs.

And even when they don´t they still kind of do. When playing MUD:s at the dawn of the internets, it was fairly common to start out as a commoner or civilian, and would then as soon as posible select your occupation, mage, thief or warrior, as it would usaly be better to specialize then to be good at nothing.
I think it is kind of hard to get away from, the link you posted(nice read btw) even listed pokemon.
I think in the end fantasy worlds are a good way to create your own scenario while the player stilll needs little information to get it. The worlds in the Final Fantasy game are realy twisted but as a player you kind of accept it as, okej, the system works like this.

Also even though the mage warrior thief system sounds kinda boring i tend to like games that has a clear class/job system better. Every character in FF12 was just the same while in 9 I had to choose: I want the good fighter to suck up damage but also i want the healer but then i cant have the good summoner = fun

[s0]

People like mages and they are much easier to represent in fantasy and science fantasy.

That's not to say that classes can't be done in a contemporary setting. But I think that people tend to fall back on tried and tested rather than come up with new types of specialist classes for RPGs.

there should be more rpgs without magic or some equivalent of it. the only major magicless rpg series is fallout.