(04-15-2015, 06:51 PM)Faye Wrote:(04-15-2015, 06:33 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: Unfortunately, IRL does play into this, especially if you pay attention to OP's examples that allude to real life. This is the same kind of logic that would say you can't cosplay as a black Link or be a black samurai. This is the same kind of logic that supposes that medieval fantasy universes should have sexism in their worlds because it "makes more sense." OP may not be able to realize it, but when you are saying that certain races should be certain things because it would be too "extraordinary" it does imply something.
I don't think that's an accurate comparison at all. These aren't real people we're stopping from doing real things. This is a fake game where we choose our fake race and do fake things, especially when it comes to role-play. Why should a fantasy setting not have real world problems? If handled the right way, it can actually bring light to social issues rather than shoving them under the rug and pretending they don't exist.
Yes, it does imply something. It implies that there is racism in game. In game. In character. As is more or less a motto for RPers taking heed not to blur the lines, "IC problems are IC and should be dealt with IC."
I don't have a problem with racism or sexism in role-play. I feel like earlier posters brushed on this topic much better than I did. I am not referring to how IC characters perceive other characters. I am speaking entirely meta here. I wish I could word it better. To me, saying that people should only role-play what is considered "normal" for that race is troubling. How do you establish what is normal? You can't really, because even considering things like culture, people are just people. When you try to generalize and fit everyone in neat little boxes, it's a souring experience even in role-play. Not on an IC level but on a meta level. When I played WoW, the community I was in was very insistent on playing the races according to the stereotype. If you wanted to play a bloodthirsty tauren or a flower-picking orc you would get a lot of flak for that.
This isn't what you were trying to say but it is what I was trying to say in general to the thread.
TL;DR I agree with what many other people have said in this thread are: you are playing an individual, not a concept, or a race specifically, or a rank, or a class, or a back story but a person. In the end, I don't really feel like this should matter.
