thales

If we're only talking single-player RPGs, then it doesn't matter to me what the genre is.

If we're talking MMORPGs, then I'll have to put in my vote for high fantasy. I came to this conclusion recently while playing City of Heroes. I found that I got increasingly bored fighting the same creatures in my ever-present quest for experience. I determined the reason I was so bored was the fact that City of Heroes, unlike the high fantasy games, had no extra stuff that justified side-quests.

For example, in Asheron's Call, there were many times when I found myself conducting exahustive searches for particular creatures in order to hope they dropped a certain pelt or shard or whatever, so I could in turn transform those into some nifty piece of armor or weapon. City of Heroes provided me with no such side quests. Just a never-ending quest for experience. Boooooring.