My contention is that there are some types of fantasy you almost cannot do without drawing upon the conventional tropes because there's only so much completely new material you can introduce and still keep readers engaged. And I don't think there's enough widely accepted racial tropes out there without Tolkein. Monsters, sure, but not races.
Since Blizzard's come up, Warcraft in many ways has a phenomenal story. Imagine telling it without using orcs, trolls, elves, dwarfed, gnomes . . . I really don't believe it can be done with the same sort of buy-in from an audience. I think too much of it would be too strange.
Since Blizzard's come up, Warcraft in many ways has a phenomenal story. Imagine telling it without using orcs, trolls, elves, dwarfed, gnomes . . . I really don't believe it can be done with the same sort of buy-in from an audience. I think too much of it would be too strange.