Slavery

[hideo kuze]

I want slavery in the game, so long as I have choices to fight it or outright stop it.

 

That's really a position that doesn't make sense in a medieval context. What does it mean to free the eunuch slaves who ran the Ottoman Beuracracy? What does it mean to free the serfs who were tied to the land their lord owned? What does it even mean to be free in a medieval setting, when your life is foreit for anyone powerful enough to take it, when a king can strip you of your property and exile you from your homeland, when 80% of the population must spend their lives toiling in the fields for the other 20% to be able to do anything else?

 

But it makes sense from a cRPG POV.

And having the possibility to do something and see its impact on the game world, to me at least, is lots of fun.

 

I agree that having an impact is really fun, but I'd prefer it if we had impacts that actually made sense, in conflicts that actually made sense. So, for example, say that we're dealing with a conflict between a top-down divine monarch who appoints lords who own serfs, and a germanic style monarchy where heads of households gather at Things and elect Lawspeakers and Shire-Reeves and Chieftans (who then go on to elect Kings / Emperors). Then, sure, you can side with the germanic-style state and think of yourself as promoting freedom, but while you're at it you're probably sowing chaos and instability, and you're not really changing that much. The heads of household will still probably have farmhands who can't vote, and the higher positions will still probably stay within one family most of the time. And what will most often decide how people vote at the Things and the other assemblies? The threat of force, and family loyalty.

 

Compare this to, say, the simplistic conflict we had in BG:II:SoA, where there are Yuan-Ti peddling children and pit fighters for the enjoyment of the Ultra-Rich. Some may prefer the latter, and that's fine, but I'd prefer the former.

 

Yes, this is exactly the type of things I want to see in the game. And I'm pretty sure we'll have those type of situations.

 

And in regard to slavery, like I said here

It would also be fun to try to abolish it on given countries (and maybe see a prospering country crumble because it only relied on it) or even become a slaver (and become a wanted criminal, or eventually build an empire on crime).

I'm expecting some backlashes from actions that initially seem the obvious thing to do, but its real impact is far more dramatic and less rainbow than the expected one.

Like having a country's economy crumble, lead them to poverty and finally war.

Edited September 23, 2012 by hideo kuze

[Lady Evenstar]

I don't object to the game dealing with slavery, but I don't share what seems to be a widespread gamer fascination with it. If it's on the devs' short list of issues to tackle, and they have something new to say about it or how it affects people, sure. Unless it's really a focus of the game (which I would be disappointed to learn), I'd consider different regional systems of slavery to be overkill.

 

The (to me) most interesting slavery-related quest I've done in an RPG was buying wives for the workmen in order to complete the Redoran stronghold in Morrowind. I was pretty uncomfortable with it and not at all prepared for the slaves' positive reaction to the prospect of arranged marriages--although in retrospect I probably should have been. I also unlocked slave bracers when ever I had the opportunity, but my role as abolitionist didn't present me with any provocative choices.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Lady Evenstar

[AzureWatcher]

If slavery is in the game, I want the ability to have slaves. I want them to labor in my player-owned house (when we reach the goal, which we will) to keep it clean and tidy for their master.

 

If my character has the gold, what is stopping him/her from buying a slave?

[dlux]

You know, I chose "don't care" because there aren't many options.

 

I do not wish to have a character that is a slaver, but I kind of like it when there are slavers in a game. You just love to hate them and killing those mother****ers is really a lot of fun.

Edited September 23, 2012 by dlux

[Nonek]

Imagine a race of slaves that would object to being freed however or simply cannot, they did not have their freedom taken from them but gave it away as payment for a debt, somewhat similar to the haruchai from Stephen Donaldsons Land books. It would be their personal and harsh code of ethics that forces them to serve, not their supposed masters at all. Indeed the "slave owners" could be horrified at the lengths to which these honour bound fanatics would go to pay their supposed debt. Who then do you side with, whom can we look down upon from our supposedly enlightened twenty first century viewpoints.

 

Do we free them, break their curse and damn the whole race to shame and dishonour, for their own good. Who are we to judge the issue, and what right do we have to interfere in the dischargement of their debt, and are we doing so simply to feel good and heroic. That's the kind of moral minefield i'd like to see laid across the protagonists path, and with Obsidian i'm hopeful that we'll see such struggles in the grey areas between reality and idealism.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Nonek

[NerdBoner]

definitely slavery...I'll go further and say i want the option to buy a slave to care for my home or to travel with me and carry my loot.

 

Whats an evil overlord in the making to do without a body slave to groom him in the mornings? It would be absolutely scandalous!

[Michał]

I would like to see slavery not only as it is seen today (pure evil) but also "from inside" of the cultures in PE world.

For us slavery is something repulsive but for some nations in the world of PE having a slave could be sign of high status and something positive (so slavers wouldn't be criminals but normal merchants).

[Orogun01]

I'm definitively for owning slaves, although if it offends anyone they can be renamed to interns.

[Nivenus]

An interesting question to pose, since there are many kinds of slavery.

 

In Medieval Europe, slavery as we usually understand it, was more or less prohibited, since the keeping of slaves (especially Christian slaves) was considered contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church. However, slavery did exist peripherally in most of Europe and more significantly in rich parts of the continent like the Italian city-states or the Byzantine Empire, where the mix of foreign cultures ironically made slavery more appropriate (since the Church was more willing to allow the enslavement of non-Christians). And Muslim nations had virtually no objections to slavery at all, though it was considered good behavior to free your slaves before your or their death.

 

More significantly, perhaps, serfdom was pretty much ubiquitous throughout all of Europe and is quite similar to what we would consider slavery. However, serfs were not chattel property who could be sold at the market and were instead tied to the land they worked. They were obliged to perform work without pay, but they weren't exactly considered property either.

 

There's also, of course, the long-practiced tradition of indentured servitude.

 

So I'm going to go with a "yes," even though the question is rather non-specific in its meaning, because slavery of various forms did exist throughout most pre-modern societies and I don't think we should shy away from it. Also, the second question adds a bit more variety to the equation, so I'll vote yes for that as well.

[eimatshya]

I don't object to the game dealing with slavery, but I don't share what seems to be a widespread gamer fascination with it.

 

Pretty much my feelings on the matter. Given its prevalence in ancient societies, I don't think it would be odd to see it in Project Eternity, but I probably wouldn't miss it if it wasn't. In the end, it can be interesting, but it doesn't strike me as a critical feature to make the cultures seem alive.

[Badmojo]

Slavery should be in the game, I also agree that if you are the evil type that you can buy slaves to work in your house.

definitely slavery...I'll go further and say i want the option to buy a slave to care for my home or to travel with me and carry my loot.

 

Whats an evil overlord in the making to do without a body slave to groom him in the mornings? It would be absolutely scandalous!

 

That would actually be pretty good, getting into the slave market would be interesting too like the original fallout. Perhaps having an option instead of killing enemies, you could capture and sell them into slavery. Hell, I would like to go further, having the option to capture bosses and force them to clean your house to show everybody what happens when they go against you.

[AzureWatcher]

That would actually be pretty good, getting into the slave market would be interesting too like the original fallout. Perhaps having an option instead of killing enemies, you could capture and sell them into slavery. Hell, I would like to go further, having the option to capture bosses and force them to clean your house to show everybody what happens when they go against you.

 

Kind of like in Mount & Blade? If an enemy is knocked out but not killed you can take them as a prisoner and sell them to ransom brokers. The higher level of soldier you captured meant the more money that was paid out to you. You could also try to recruit these prisoners into your warband but I highly doubt you would be able to do that in Project Eternity.

 

Although I am also fairly certain that you wouldn't be able to capture bosses or creatures that aren't sentient.

[NerdBoner]

Slavery should be in the game, I also agree that if you are the evil type that you can buy slaves to work in your house.

definitely slavery...I'll go further and say i want the option to buy a slave to care for my home or to travel with me and carry my loot.

 

Whats an evil overlord in the making to do without a body slave to groom him in the mornings? It would be absolutely scandalous!

 

That would actually be pretty good, getting into the slave market would be interesting too like the original fallout. Perhaps having an option instead of killing enemies, you could capture and sell them into slavery. Hell, I would like to go further, having the option to capture bosses and force them to clean your house to show everybody what happens when they go against you.

whoop an ogres ass, make him your butler...

 

i rike za way you think friend-o!

[Gorth]

Slaves? Just give me some serfs that I can sacrifice on the field of battle... and on the fields of crops when saving up for the next battle.

 

[twincast]

I don't particularly need slavery to exist, but it's interesting and if it's there lore-wise I expect to at the very least see it in-game -- the more depth, the better. (Albeit it being roughly High/Late Middle Ages at least serfdom should be a given.) Anyway, I have no reason to doubt them delivering this.

[incubus9]

I want all female NPCs to be slaves of my passion...

 

Oh, wait, this isn't a Bioware Forum....

[NerdBoner]

I want all female NPCs to be slaves of my passion...

 

Oh, wait, this isn't a Bioware Forum....

uhh wouldn't it be more accurate to say we'd be bitching about why there aren't more homosexual romances? or has that topic already burned itself out?

[leshy]

I like when there's slavery in the game. Always whether the mechanics allow it or not I play a slaver hunter then, and slaughter every-****ing-last-one-of-them.

[Lucas]

Don't care right now: I just want places and characters that make sense in the context of the world lore: if that means slavery, so be it, but if it isn't in the game, no problem for me.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Lucas