Originally posted by donpopuki What did Africans do? Oh I dunno there's a place called Egypt...pretty much invented civilization.
But back on topic most of the time I play elves in MMOs
Did you ever found Egyptian culture attractive ? YES all legends construction history is interesting intelligent . But their warriors equipment style design is a joke. Plus their culture root is a topic to debate because until modern days their culture lost their genetic foot print being influenced by a lot by Indo European races.
So as a result we have contradiction.
What to use Ancient Egyptians which some people think were genetic related to Ethiopian, Eritrean,Somali, and Nubian peoples. DARK skin tropical adaptation
OR
Present Egyptians influenced by Indo-European lighter skin.
It is a "hot topic" only if *you* decide to make it so.
Fantasy Worlds do not "have" to have Africans, Asians, Mongols, Caucasians, Persians, or Hispanics in them. EVERY last one of these are EARTH races, not necessarily present in a Fantasy World. This is getting ridiculous.
In some Fantasy Worlds, the developers account for humans being varied in "appearance." Others do not. Some even have variances in other races like Elves and Dwarves.
Tolkien had people of color in the south, Haradrim: "The appearance of the Haradrim is somewhat ambiguous, but The Two Towers gives relatively detailed descriptions of at least some of them. Frodo and Sam encounter Faramir and his Rangers of Ithilien just before the latter ambush a company of Haradrim. Frodo and Sam do not see much of the battle, since they are positioned somewhere else, but they hear the sounds of fighting, and a slain Harad warrior crashes at their feet. He is described as having brown skin, with black plaits of hair braided with gold. He wears a scarlet tunic, as do the other Haradrim, and a gold collar. He is armed with a scimitar and garbed with a corslet of brazen scales."
What people tend to forget is that a Fantasy World is NOT Earth. The "rules" may not apply.
On a side note, I never saw Will Smith's "Wild West" movie simply because James West was NOT a person of color and I found the attempt at PC-ness disgusting. I am just waiting for an Abraham Lincoln movie where he is depicted as a person of color. It will happen, just wait.
Why do people look at skin color anyway? I have created in many games a character with darker skin. Who cares? Oh right. People judging things (in this case Fantasy Worlds) on the color of skin, ie: Racism.
People care about skin color because, maybe, people want to make characters with similar skin tone as their own. Warhammer for example, didnt even allow you to make Black Humans.
Humans in fantasy genre is the closest race to the Humans of real world. But in many of these games there isnt a option for darker skin. Warhammer being example. same with Allod years ago when I played it.
African face features come in many different sizes and shapes, same with body. So many of them can work. But when skin tones are limited, thats a whole different ballgame.
Originally posted by General-Zod edit: White Jesus lol
You know, from the time I was a wee lad, "White Jesus" always bugged me. And I am a white guy! The worst are the depictions are of Jesus being white, blonde haired and blue-eyed.
I never realized he was a European traveling in Persia
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Originally posted by MMOExposed People care about skin color because, maybe, people want to make characters with similar skin tone as their own. Warhammer for example, didnt even allow you to make Black Humans.Humans in fantasy genre is the closest race to the Humans of real world. But in many of these games there isnt a option for darker skin. Warhammer being example. same with Allod years ago when I played it.African face features come in many different sizes and shapes, same with body. So many of them can work. But when skin tones are limited, thats a whole different ballgame.
I can understand this, as players desire to "connect" with their characters. Skin color in that case does matter. I yield to that
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Too many pages to read the replies, but @OP, I'd believe it's because the fantasy in question is written by white people, and as far as I know these dev teams are pretty much white too (untill recently?).
What personally annoys me is when people are bugged if black people is added to the lore later somehow, or if a fantasy movie for example does not follow exactly the holy sribes of the original sacred writings. These nerds act like someone made a history movie but took some liberties and tries to spread false propaganda among the viewers that is historically not correct. It's a fantasy movie, it's fine, as long as it follows the general direction of the story and fits into movie boundaries, it's fine.
Well, TESO should be released in few months, I guess it's shielded pretty well against this sillyness by the whole region of Red Guard? Red Guards, damn. Might roll one my self if I'm getting TESO.
Originally posted by TribeofOne how often do you see female mobs?
This was the only thing I found annoying in Borderlands 2. Are all the bandits gay men who does not tolerate females? Gearbox would propably say that the women are just busy cooking in the tents, where the men come out from when the shooting begun, not to mention they have to look after the children so there's just no time to get out pistols blazin', no time bro.
Not sure if it is even that big of a deal. Most MMOs have black skinned avatars you can create. The US population who plays MMOs, using the US statists only has 13% of the population black. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html That being said at least 80% are white and considering most MMOs that are made in the US are fit to the players.. its going to be white focused. Companies put skin tones in the game to let players play what they want but a vast majority are going to be white. It is just how it is and racism has nothing to do with it. Usually the people claiming racism are the biggest racists.
Why should the racial distribution in a fantasy game match that of some particular area in real life? The age distribution sure doesn't, nor does the species distribution.
So we don't get racially insensitive things like that panda pet in WoW, because a co-worker can say to another co-worker..."Ah, not good" and why.
A lot of ignorance in the world because people don't have to learn, but at the same time by not learning XYZ isn't a good thing, they propagate stereotypes, which trains another generation of bad things.
Games are a reflection of society, and society is a mix of many races. When tastefully done, we not only have a more realistic representation ingame, we can educate to regions that are so homogenous that XYZ isn't the devil, too. Which in the end, helps mankind itself (because the gaming community really, really needs the help. Just hearing these kids talk, it's like some klan meeting).
Originally posted by darkedone02 I guess the only reason why I don't see alot of blacks in most fantasy mmo's is due to a lack of history, background, or any type of innovation to put them into. Now when you think about it, there nothing that kinda hold the africans to be influenctually strong. For example, China is the biggest country and the most populated country, has a deep history of conflicts and changes, and still keep strict to their tradition. Europe is the most famous for lots of historical things that happen to most of the world, how america was form, how christainity gone though many crusades, inquisitions, witch trails, reforms, and more, and how quickly we leave a mark in history. Now after saying those example, can someone tell me what the african leave to make a grand mark in the world besides becoming universal-ish slaves back then? I'm not trying to be racist at all, but i don't see any historic influence in africa, it's like everyone is shining bright but africa has not. Most of Africa is stuck on the tribal era, most still believe in ancient beliefs or islam, or some orthodox christainity, but nothing really shines brightly to reflect upon, besides the biggest wildlife attractions and full of exotic animals, but nothing really reflects africa and the blacks, and I don't see much in the future to make that change.
What about Egypt?
Think the guy doesn't know much about history either, considering USA was in fact discovered by African sailors long before Columbus was out of nappies, and he'd probably never have gotten there without his 'african' navigator, but of course it helps to find something the first time if you've got someone along who has already been there
Its not that the Africans have never done anything 'historically' they have, it just depends on where you live and what version of history you choose to believe in.
Last i heard it was the Australian aboriginals were first to discover the Americas.
The argument over who actually discovered the americas first is another issue, but there is no doubt at all that the African's were well ahead of the Europeans in that particular 'race' though as that particular 'race' brought about genocide, slavery and subjugation of the natives, perhaps it really is best 'glossed' over, not that the African's were responsible for that European 'debacle'
We really need to bring this up? To discuss it? Maybe we can discuss all the worlds leaders next? How about religion? that always turns out well. You know why racism still exists? Because people (very prominent people in some cases) want it to exist so they remain relevant. This is a ridiculous topic and should be closed/deleted.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
We really need to bring this up? To discuss it? Maybe we can discuss all the worlds leaders next? How about religion? that always turns out well. You know why racism still exists? Because people (very prominent people in some cases) want it to exist so they remain relevant. This is a ridiculous topic and should be closed/deleted.
Originally posted by Kuinn Too many pages to read the replies, but @OP, I'd believe it's because the fantasy in question is written by white people, and as far as I know these dev teams are pretty much white too (untill recently?). What personally annoys me is when people are bugged if black people is added to the lore later somehow, or if a fantasy movie for example does not follow exactly the holy sribes of the original sacred writings. These nerds act like someone made a history movie but took some liberties and tries to spread false propaganda among the viewers that is historically not correct. It's a fantasy movie, it's fine, as long as it follows the general direction of the story and fits into movie boundaries, it's fine. Well, TESO should be released in few months, I guess it's shielded pretty well against this sillyness by the whole region of Red Guard? Red Guards, damn. Might roll one my self if I'm getting TESO.
Idris Elba as Heimdall comes to mind reading this. Heimdall is kind of a bad@ss, and Idris Elba plays a pretty good bad@ss. Heimdall being black is really weird, if you go with the idea that Asgardians are real. Given that they are an alien, fantasy race with super powers, it doesn't seem all that weird that one of them might have a different skin tone with slight different facial features from e.g., Thor. Of course, that's nothing compared to Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four being black in the upcoming FF movie. Apparently the Marvel Universe is going to collapse into some kind of black hole or something because his sister is being played by a white actress.
I can't decide if stuff like this is actual racism, since the arguments against things like this tend to get racist as hell, or if it's just the normal nerd behavior that can't deal with changes to continuity and retcons. Even though retcons and continuity changes have been happening since the beginning of entertainment. Just read a history of Egyptian gods or the gods of the Aztecs and Incas to see how they retcon entire histories of the universe as one city comes into power and their patron god gets carried along for the ride.
I guess my point is that people are pretty stupid. Are there black Vikings or were there ever black Vikings? No, probably not. Not very many, anyway. Does that mean there shouldn't be black, Viking inspired fantasy characters? No. That's stupid. There should be black, Viking inspired fantasy characters. Same argument for Asian, Viking inspired fantasy characters.
If people want NPCs that aren't just one dimensional, cardboard cutouts, including different real world racial characteristics is one way to do it. Instead of pulling from one culture, pull from several. Hell, make up a completely new culture and just mix people of different races in there at random. It's fantasy, where continuity and reality rarely, if ever consistently have any impact.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I have a tendency to forget I'm a different skin color until someone reminds me. I have a tendency to forget you are a different skin color until you remind me.
Originally posted by Jemcrystal I have a tendency to forget I'm a different skin color until someone reminds me. I have a tendency to forget you are a different skin color until you remind me.
So true! I use skin color as a descriptor (like hair color, eye color, height and weight), not a "category."
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Originally posted by TribeofOne how often do you see female mobs?
This was the only thing I found annoying in Borderlands 2. Are all the bandits gay men who does not tolerate females? Gearbox would propably say that the women are just busy cooking in the tents, where the men come out from when the shooting begun, not to mention they have to look after the children so there's just no time to get out pistols blazin', no time bro.
While this opens a whole other can of worms, depictions of violence against women often attract higher game ratings and sometimes prevent games from being released. Bit of reverse equality right there. Women are free to be heroes and role models as part of the push for gender equality, but not villains or cannon fodder.
Originally posted by darkedone02 I guess the only reason why I don't see alot of blacks in most fantasy mmo's is due to a lack of history, background, or any type of innovation to put them into. Now when you think about it, there nothing that kinda hold the africans to be influenctually strong. For example, China is the biggest country and the most populated country, has a deep history of conflicts and changes, and still keep strict to their tradition. Europe is the most famous for lots of historical things that happen to most of the world, how america was form, how christainity gone though many crusades, inquisitions, witch trails, reforms, and more, and how quickly we leave a mark in history. Now after saying those example, can someone tell me what the african leave to make a grand mark in the world besides becoming universal-ish slaves back then? I'm not trying to be racist at all, but i don't see any historic influence in africa, it's like everyone is shining bright but africa has not. Most of Africa is stuck on the tribal era, most still believe in ancient beliefs or islam, or some orthodox christainity, but nothing really shines brightly to reflect upon, besides the biggest wildlife attractions and full of exotic animals, but nothing really reflects africa and the blacks, and I don't see much in the future to make that change.
I pray somebody has the patience to help your ignorance. Can't say much else without infraction.
"As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*"
Originally posted by donpopuki What did Africans do? Oh I dunno there's a place called Egypt...pretty much invented civilization.
But back on topic most of the time I play elves in MMOs
Did you ever found Egyptian culture attractive ? YES all legends construction history is interesting intelligent . But their warriors equipment style design is a joke.
Their equipment design is a "Joke" as you put it because:
a. Their culture (when they were at their peak) predates iron age and horseback riding (saddles).
b. Egypt is hot. It is impractical to carry all armor and gear.
c. Egypt is basically a nation of river running through a desert. They don't have access to a lot of copper and tin (essential for bronze making).
Context buddy. You got to consider the context. Their gears are not "uncool" because they want to look that way, it is practicality that dictates otherwise.
If you look at ancient Punic culture (Cathage, North Africa), you will see that their gear's style do not significantly differ from the Tharacians or Greeks.
Also if you look at ancient China (where it is cold during winter months) you will see their armor style is a lot more protective and better looking, even during Bronze Age.
I can't decide if stuff like this is actual racism, since the arguments against things like this tend to get racist as hell, or if it's just the normal nerd behavior that can't deal with changes to continuity and retcons. Even though retcons and continuity changes have been happening since the beginning of entertainment. Just read a history of Egyptian gods or the gods of the Aztecs and Incas to see how they retcon entire histories of the universe as one city comes into power and their patron god gets carried along for the ride.
I think it is more because of the likelihood that people tends to write stories relevant to themselves or their own situation.
I mean, how many sci-fi novel out there do you see people writing about an Alien living in an alien civilization and has no mention of humanity in anyway? Very few - it is because it is hard and might even be quite relevant to relate to things that are entirely alien to us.
It is like watching Aliens if it was films in the perspective of an alien. What's the point? Wake up, eat, kill a few humans, sleep... there is no way that we can possibly understand and hard to try to understand their motives, even if we want to, because they have no relevance to us and our own situations.
Even when a novel is written about species/races other than ourselves it is always linked back to us or culturally and morally similar to our situations, in some way.
Ok I write my take, because the topic was very often on my mind in MMOs.
First off, I am a white dude, living in Germany, we have only very few Black people here. So, what do I know.
I usually create dark skinned avatars and my alter ego. Elikal, my persona, has always been a dark skinned guy. I dunno why. Maybe being a gay gamer, I initially wanted to create a char that visualizes difference. You know, contrary to belief, you can not SEE "the gay". Out of that grew a habit mostly to create more or less dark skinned characters. As such, I saw early off, making a dark skinned avatar in a MMO is the easiest way to make a unique looking char, because almost NOBODY makes that.
It raises a question in me, I really would be curious, asking you Black gamers: do you not play MMOs? Do Black people tend to play less MMos, or make white characters?? Sorry, I don't mean to offend, it is just a curiosity. ^^
As to their insertion into games: I am 50-50.
As gay gamer I understand the desire to have NPCs represent "your people", because it makes you feel invisible, sorta non-existent if what you are (black, gay, asian, whatevs) does NEVER exist in a virtual world. However, I understand in a MMO set in a fixed world like Tolkien I can see it may be different. In Tolkien "Black people" are Southerners in the service of Sauron. Still, I tend to think, not all of them are. So maybe some exiled Southerner fled to, say, Bree. But he'd have a hard time, so again, what do I know. Personally I would not mind. I always believed in individuality. Why should there not be a black person in Bree? Heck, there could be a Black Elf. (Not a dark elf, just a normal Elf simply black or dark skinned/toned) Why not? Tolkien was written long ago, in a different time.
I always thought we need dark skinned Elves who are not "evil dark elves".
Remember how Tuvok changed the image of Vulcans.
(the dark skinned city Elf ^^)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I don't remember the last time I've seen an asian, indian, or hispanic in a fantasy mmo either. So why not cut the BS focus on black versus white on this.
I think Tolkien was just a tad bit racist lol. I mean if black and indian colored people were with sauron in his books thats kind of like saying black and indian people are with satan...
And not just because of their skin color but because of their different faiths which Christians view as pagans. And lord of the rings has a lot of christian themes.
It raises a question in me, I really would be curious, asking you Black gamers: do you not play MMOs? Do Black people tend to play less MMos, or make white characters?? Sorry, I don't mean to offend, it is just a curiosity. ^^
I try to make them in my likeness but not 100%. Still darker skinned if possible though. Regardless of their race.
In all my time gaming I've met two other "black" gamers. Me being the only gay one makes me sort of a unicorn. I'm not represented anywhere.
My fellow darker skinned gamer buddies don't care and make whatever they find pretty. So usually females.
I never thought much about it, until this topic. For me it's the same as living and working in a predominantly white community and suddenly being reminded that I don't really fit in. It does happen every so often.
Humans, at their best, are a diverse and 'colorful' group.
Any time I have the opportunity I play a color in game (be it blue, green, red, black or anything but what I am...which is light-skinned.) And better yet, I prefer to play an exotic race...like a Ratonga in EQ2 or ORC in WOW.
People need to get 'over' inhibitions, stereotyping and prejudices based on differences in skin color. That thinking is antiquated. Any developer still hanging on to that kind of thinking is a gnat-brain. It's retarded.
And the sad truth is... that the people that need to listen to this the MOST, are the very folks that will ignore it.
Comments
Did you ever found Egyptian culture attractive ? YES all legends construction history is interesting intelligent . But their warriors equipment style design is a joke. Plus their culture root is a topic to debate because until modern days their culture lost their genetic foot print being influenced by a lot by Indo European races.
So as a result we have contradiction.
What to use Ancient Egyptians which some people think were genetic related to Ethiopian, Eritrean,Somali, and Nubian peoples. DARK skin tropical adaptation
OR
Present Egyptians influenced by Indo-European lighter skin.
Indeed I forgot about Haradrims in LOTR .
People care about skin color because, maybe, people want to make characters with similar skin tone as their own. Warhammer for example, didnt even allow you to make Black Humans.
Humans in fantasy genre is the closest race to the Humans of real world. But in many of these games there isnt a option for darker skin. Warhammer being example. same with Allod years ago when I played it.
African face features come in many different sizes and shapes, same with body. So many of them can work. But when skin tones are limited, thats a whole different ballgame.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I never realized he was a European traveling in Persia
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Too many pages to read the replies, but @OP, I'd believe it's because the fantasy in question is written by white people, and as far as I know these dev teams are pretty much white too (untill recently?).
What personally annoys me is when people are bugged if black people is added to the lore later somehow, or if a fantasy movie for example does not follow exactly the holy sribes of the original sacred writings. These nerds act like someone made a history movie but took some liberties and tries to spread false propaganda among the viewers that is historically not correct. It's a fantasy movie, it's fine, as long as it follows the general direction of the story and fits into movie boundaries, it's fine.
Well, TESO should be released in few months, I guess it's shielded pretty well against this sillyness by the whole region of Red Guard? Red Guards, damn. Might roll one my self if I'm getting TESO.
This was the only thing I found annoying in Borderlands 2. Are all the bandits gay men who does not tolerate females? Gearbox would propably say that the women are just busy cooking in the tents, where the men come out from when the shooting begun, not to mention they have to look after the children so there's just no time to get out pistols blazin', no time bro.
So we don't get racially insensitive things like that panda pet in WoW, because a co-worker can say to another co-worker..."Ah, not good" and why.
A lot of ignorance in the world because people don't have to learn, but at the same time by not learning XYZ isn't a good thing, they propagate stereotypes, which trains another generation of bad things.
Games are a reflection of society, and society is a mix of many races. When tastefully done, we not only have a more realistic representation ingame, we can educate to regions that are so homogenous that XYZ isn't the devil, too. Which in the end, helps mankind itself (because the gaming community really, really needs the help. Just hearing these kids talk, it's like some klan meeting).
.:| Kevyne@Shandris - Armory |:. - When WoW was #1 - .:| I AM A HOLY PALADIN - Guild Theme |:.
Why are hamsters not included in every MMO?
The argument over who actually discovered the americas first is another issue, but there is no doubt at all that the African's were well ahead of the Europeans in that particular 'race' though as that particular 'race' brought about genocide, slavery and subjugation of the natives, perhaps it really is best 'glossed' over, not that the African's were responsible for that European 'debacle'
We really need to bring this up? To discuss it? Maybe we can discuss all the worlds leaders next? How about religion? that always turns out well. You know why racism still exists? Because people (very prominent people in some cases) want it to exist so they remain relevant. This is a ridiculous topic and should be closed/deleted.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Yeah... its getting a little heated in here xD
Idris Elba as Heimdall comes to mind reading this. Heimdall is kind of a bad@ss, and Idris Elba plays a pretty good bad@ss. Heimdall being black is really weird, if you go with the idea that Asgardians are real. Given that they are an alien, fantasy race with super powers, it doesn't seem all that weird that one of them might have a different skin tone with slight different facial features from e.g., Thor. Of course, that's nothing compared to Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four being black in the upcoming FF movie. Apparently the Marvel Universe is going to collapse into some kind of black hole or something because his sister is being played by a white actress.
I can't decide if stuff like this is actual racism, since the arguments against things like this tend to get racist as hell, or if it's just the normal nerd behavior that can't deal with changes to continuity and retcons. Even though retcons and continuity changes have been happening since the beginning of entertainment. Just read a history of Egyptian gods or the gods of the Aztecs and Incas to see how they retcon entire histories of the universe as one city comes into power and their patron god gets carried along for the ride.
I guess my point is that people are pretty stupid. Are there black Vikings or were there ever black Vikings? No, probably not. Not very many, anyway. Does that mean there shouldn't be black, Viking inspired fantasy characters? No. That's stupid. There should be black, Viking inspired fantasy characters. Same argument for Asian, Viking inspired fantasy characters.
If people want NPCs that aren't just one dimensional, cardboard cutouts, including different real world racial characteristics is one way to do it. Instead of pulling from one culture, pull from several. Hell, make up a completely new culture and just mix people of different races in there at random. It's fantasy, where continuity and reality rarely, if ever consistently have any impact.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I have a tendency to forget I'm a different skin color until someone reminds me. I have a tendency to forget you are a different skin color until you remind me.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
While this opens a whole other can of worms, depictions of violence against women often attract higher game ratings and sometimes prevent games from being released. Bit of reverse equality right there. Women are free to be heroes and role models as part of the push for gender equality, but not villains or cannon fodder.
I pray somebody has the patience to help your ignorance. Can't say much else without infraction.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Their equipment design is a "Joke" as you put it because:
a. Their culture (when they were at their peak) predates iron age and horseback riding (saddles).
b. Egypt is hot. It is impractical to carry all armor and gear.
c. Egypt is basically a nation of river running through a desert. They don't have access to a lot of copper and tin (essential for bronze making).
Context buddy. You got to consider the context. Their gears are not "uncool" because they want to look that way, it is practicality that dictates otherwise.
If you look at ancient Punic culture (Cathage, North Africa), you will see that their gear's style do not significantly differ from the Tharacians or Greeks.
Also if you look at ancient China (where it is cold during winter months) you will see their armor style is a lot more protective and better looking, even during Bronze Age.
I think it is more because of the likelihood that people tends to write stories relevant to themselves or their own situation.
I mean, how many sci-fi novel out there do you see people writing about an Alien living in an alien civilization and has no mention of humanity in anyway? Very few - it is because it is hard and might even be quite relevant to relate to things that are entirely alien to us.
It is like watching Aliens if it was films in the perspective of an alien. What's the point? Wake up, eat, kill a few humans, sleep... there is no way that we can possibly understand and hard to try to understand their motives, even if we want to, because they have no relevance to us and our own situations.
Even when a novel is written about species/races other than ourselves it is always linked back to us or culturally and morally similar to our situations, in some way.
Ok I write my take, because the topic was very often on my mind in MMOs.
First off, I am a white dude, living in Germany, we have only very few Black people here. So, what do I know.
I usually create dark skinned avatars and my alter ego. Elikal, my persona, has always been a dark skinned guy. I dunno why. Maybe being a gay gamer, I initially wanted to create a char that visualizes difference. You know, contrary to belief, you can not SEE "the gay". Out of that grew a habit mostly to create more or less dark skinned characters. As such, I saw early off, making a dark skinned avatar in a MMO is the easiest way to make a unique looking char, because almost NOBODY makes that.
It raises a question in me, I really would be curious, asking you Black gamers: do you not play MMOs? Do Black people tend to play less MMos, or make white characters?? Sorry, I don't mean to offend, it is just a curiosity. ^^
As to their insertion into games: I am 50-50.
As gay gamer I understand the desire to have NPCs represent "your people", because it makes you feel invisible, sorta non-existent if what you are (black, gay, asian, whatevs) does NEVER exist in a virtual world. However, I understand in a MMO set in a fixed world like Tolkien I can see it may be different. In Tolkien "Black people" are Southerners in the service of Sauron. Still, I tend to think, not all of them are. So maybe some exiled Southerner fled to, say, Bree. But he'd have a hard time, so again, what do I know. Personally I would not mind. I always believed in individuality. Why should there not be a black person in Bree? Heck, there could be a Black Elf. (Not a dark elf, just a normal Elf simply black or dark skinned/toned) Why not? Tolkien was written long ago, in a different time.
I always thought we need dark skinned Elves who are not "evil dark elves".
Remember how Tuvok changed the image of Vulcans.
(the dark skinned city Elf ^^)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I think Tolkien was just a tad bit racist lol. I mean if black and indian colored people were with sauron in his books thats kind of like saying black and indian people are with satan...
And not just because of their skin color but because of their different faiths which Christians view as pagans. And lord of the rings has a lot of christian themes.
I try to make them in my likeness but not 100%. Still darker skinned if possible though. Regardless of their race.
In all my time gaming I've met two other "black" gamers. Me being the only gay one makes me sort of a unicorn. I'm not represented anywhere.
My fellow darker skinned gamer buddies don't care and make whatever they find pretty. So usually females.
I never thought much about it, until this topic. For me it's the same as living and working in a predominantly white community and suddenly being reminded that I don't really fit in. It does happen every so often.
Humans, at their best, are a diverse and 'colorful' group.
Any time I have the opportunity I play a color in game (be it blue, green, red, black or anything but what I am...which is light-skinned.) And better yet, I prefer to play an exotic race...like a Ratonga in EQ2 or ORC in WOW.
People need to get 'over' inhibitions, stereotyping and prejudices based on differences in skin color. That thinking is antiquated. Any developer still hanging on to that kind of thinking is a gnat-brain. It's retarded.
And the sad truth is... that the people that need to listen to this the MOST, are the very folks that will ignore it.