(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."
It's the comparison made by the OP actually. Which is why the comparison fits in this conversation.
"But my issue is this; if I wanted to play an authentic English Knight, I would play a fair-skinned Briton. If I wanted to play an authentic Samurai, I would play a Japanese gentleman. If I wanted to play an authentic Maasai chieftain, I would play a dark-skinned Kenyan. Similarly, if I wanted to play an authentic Ishgardian Dragoon, I would play an Elezen or Hyur. If I wanted to play an authentic Ala Mhigan, I would play a Highlander."
As I said earlier in the thread when this came up, people draw from real life. How many times has it been said "x fantasy race/place/etc is comparable to y real life example"?
Plenty.
Yes we can talk about the social implications of it all and how as roleplayers, aka people who like to use their IMAGINATION during PRETEND FUN TIMES regardless of the medium, should be open and at least willing to engage or attempt to be accepting to others. Instead, I'm pretty sure I've seen the phrase (or a variant thereof) along the lines of "I'll ignore them" or "I won't roleplay with them" in this thread more times than one can shake a proverbial stick at. Which I'm pretty sure amounts to exactly sweeping it under the rug.
Sure no one's stopping those people from cosplaying a black Link (no not Dark Link, just Link) or anything else. But a lot of them basically get the "I'll ignore them" equivalent as well because they aren't "doing it right" by the nature of being different/outside the norm. Which...is pretty much what this thread has turned into on more than one occasion.
It all ties together because (as I mentioned earlier) people draw from real life. It takes some conscious effort not to. I mean look at the comparisons here. More than one person has said that roleplay can bring along with it all the same -isms and fears and prejudices found in real life. It's most definitely a meta thing that each person has to deal with themselves.
I don't want this to turn into any sort of ethnic relations talk but I did want to at least attempt to explain it again. Apologies for the derail, of sorts.
Martiallais Heuloix - Duty. Honor. Faith.
Armand Tremaux - Justice, like lightning.
"We're all snowflakes in a great blizzard." - Virara 2017
Armand Tremaux - Justice, like lightning.
"We're all snowflakes in a great blizzard." - Virara 2017
