Over on Wired News there is an interesting post that really got me thinking, especially since in almost ever game I have ever played, I always try to chose the race that is the underdog. I want to see them do better, and I think that if I can put some time and effort into playing, I will come out on top.
The article takes a look at race selection and leaves you wondering about your choices in race selection, and not only what it says about yourself, but the world in general.
That’s when it suddenly hits me that this is a really weird, yet central part of online gaming: obsessing about your racial identity and appearance.
I don’t mean “weird” in that it’s unusual. Indeed, every online game begins with you carefully poring over a bouquet of races and picking your favorite. It’s completely normal. No, what’s weird is that this is crazily, dementedly out of step with how I act in my everyday world. In the real world, defining someone by his or her race is considered a classically illiberal act. But in games, racism — making snap judgments about someone based solely on their skin and ethnic identity — is absolutely central to gameplay.
Is this almost like a digital form of racism, or is it innocent of such prejudices? Something to think about for sure. Read the full Wired News article for all the details.
The big difference I see here is that racism in the real world is really discrimination against variances within our species. Really, in MMOs and such with races, they really should be distinguished as species.
In the real world, regardless of your race, we’re all humans that function in basically the same ways. Sure, there are some genetic differences, but we’re all basically built the same way and most everything we do medically and otherwise is all built around the fact that we’re human.
In MMOs, really, we should talk about being different species instead of races, as that’s a more appropriate distinction. Using WoW as an example (namely because it’s the big one right now), all races are really differing species. All are classed as humanoids for game mechanic purposes, but it’s just that — humanoid, not differing races within one species.
It’s risky but an alternative form of character selection would be if, like in the real world, we don’t get to pick which race or species we’re born into.
So, as the screen fades in to your character screen, you’re essentially randomly delegated to a race. The means to differentiate your character from the rest is how you choose to dress, act, eat, speak, etc.
A good example of this is in GTA: San Andreas. You don’t get to pick an Asian or Caucasian character but you can develop your character’s physique, style and persona via a flexible character development system.
I think this way you avoid having an imbalance of players picking one or two particular races, or by means of neglect, delegating others as undesirable and the variety then becomes what people do with their characters.
There really is a massive gap in many character driven games where variety in body type, behavior, and appearance should be. There’s a lot of potential gameplay variety to be had when you think of people playing an elf an having him over eat and not exercise enough. I mean, who’s ever heard of a fat and lazy elf or a beardless, bookish dwarf?
Like you, I prefer to play the under dogs but then that’s only possible because when the masses get to choose they tend to pick the most attractive, healthy, strong races which immediately affects variety in-game. I’d liken it to everyone choosing to be born as Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt rather than Steve Buscemi or Ria Perlman.
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