(08-02-2015, 03:14 AM)Graeham Wrote: I wonder how much of this has to do with role-players being prone to escapism? There's no easy way to state this without being controversial but if there's one thing I've realised during my time playing numerous MMO's it's that a lot of the players who flock to them - particularly within the role-playing community - use role-play as a means of escapism.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing though it can and does sometimes go too far - especially when there's implications that someone is 'racist' or 'bad' in the real world because they happen to play a character who isn't politically correct.
We also live in a society that is currently going through a phase where if somebody doesn't like something then they can (and often do) kick and scream about being 'triggered' or 'offended' by it to the point where things end up getting censored and/or changed to avoid bad PR and to appease vocal individuals delicate sensibilities.
I'm not saying that this is what is going on within this thread but it's interesting to discuss and may explain why, in turn, people aren't all that keen on the idea of such themes being ignored, mitigated or shunned altogether.
If someone is 'triggered' by mature themes then it may be for the best that they avoid investing in stuff like The Witcher, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. They're also quite clearly labelled as having 'mature themes' (at least here in England) and the same can be said of FFXIV as far as I can tell.
Otherwise, where do we draw the line? If you cut 'racism' out of The Witcher, Game of Thrones or FFXIV then entire sub-plots and important characters would need to be completely rewritten. It serves only to limit creativity and in turn lead to stories becoming very bland.
Again, nobody is obligated to do anything they don't wish to do - and from what I can tell the OP isn't trying to demand that anybody does anything they don't want to do. Correct me if I'm wrong, here, but he seems to simply want to incite and interesting debate about a particular aspect of Eorzean society that isn't well represented within role-play.
Oh, I absolutely do use roleplay as a form of escapism. That's not to say that I don't also do it for fun and it's not a 100% conscious decision anyway. I will shamelessly admit, though, that I do happily get escapism from roleplaying. Though, it's really a lot more complex than not wanting to deal with certain themes. RP-wise, I am actually pretty open about what or who I RP with. It's my outlook on the RP and settings that change, especially since lore is mostly interpretative and not as objective as folks think it is.
I would not use FFXIV as a comparison though, to things like Game of Thrones and The Witcher. FFXIV is pretty clean, like Guild Wars 2 level of clean. Mind you, I haven't beaten HW content yet, but the story hasn't seemed as dark as folks have been claiming it to be?
I love gritty stuff like Game of Thrones though because it does not attempt to excuse or glorify these themes. It outright villainizes them.
If a fantasy introduces racist/sexist elements and then sweeps them under the rug where they don't hold much importance to the story or world, other than to just exist--that is when I get disgruntled.Â
I definitely understand the call to arms for more people to RP as racists. I understand the want to have RP match more closely to the lore. I was actually going to respond to your post in the previous thread about mixed fantasy races.
It's just...for me personally...the game lore does a pretty poor job of giving good reasons to be a IC racist. (See my previous post in this thread for a fantasy world that does quite well in excelling at this--Warcraft)
Now with a wiki! Flickering Ember's wiki
