Races: What to expect

[Luckmann]

I hope the Human sub-races, if they have them, are done well. They tend to come across as a bit racist, is it Oblivion that has a black version of Humans that have enhanced physical stats but reduced intelligence?

Of course it's racist. It's races. It's practically the definition of racist.

 

Christ, would it have been somehow less racist if whites were the one with the reduced intelligence?

 

If anything, that would have made it so much worse.

 

It is people like you that are ruining everything they touch.

[Jandor]

I hope the Human sub-races, if they have them, are done well. They tend to come across as a bit racist, is it Oblivion that has a black version of Humans that have enhanced physical stats but reduced intelligence?

Of course it's racist. It's races. It's practically the definition of racist.

 

Christ, would it have been somehow less racist if whites were the one with the reduced intelligence?

 

If anything, that would have made it so much worse.

 

It is people like you that are ruining everything they touch.

 

Hmm, here was me thinking I hadn't said anything controversial.

 

Of course it is practically the definition of racism, but it isn't just in game fantasy racism, black people being stereotyped as less Intelligent than others is real world racism. As in, in real life, that is something that racists say about black people.

I don't really know how else to phrase this? Would you think it was ok if female characters had a strength penalty? At least that had some slight basis in reality...

 

 

Also, "ruining everything", really?

[AwesomeOcelot]

To be fair to Bethesda, they are apparently racist against Scandinavians as well as Africans, because Nords also have negative traits, -10 Intelligence. I don't even think they're racist, I just think they're stupid. Yeah, it's probably a really bad idea to model fantasy races on pseudo-scientific racist categories of the 19th and 20th century.

Edited October 2, 2012 by AwesomeOcelot

[Meshugger]

The 4x100m.

The 110m hurdles.

The Boston Marathon.

The Indianapolis 500.

Gnomes.

A really spirited game of duck duck goose trying to pass itself off as a race.

A biathlon using arquebuses.

The 100m freestyle.

 

I would like to add javelin and triple jump as well in order to make more use of the strength and dexterity attributes respectively.

[Rabain]

Elves, dwarves, humans, gnomes, drow, orcs, goblins, kobolds, Xvarts etc all have that humanoid shape that allows game mechanics to play cheap and nasty with armors.

 

To be honest sticking a beetle head on a human and calling it a Tssska or whatever wouldn't really present as a new and interesting racial type to me. Likewise lizard people are typically never impressive in most games because they are just humans in snakeskin.

 

Anything with more than 2 arms or 2 legs often presents too many game mechanic issues to be viable. It is probably also why we don't see playable races with robotics or are completely constructs in too many games because the weaponry and armors that go along with those diverge too much from everything else.

 

There is also the argument that even though many players don't think about it or would admit it, they identify with their characters and want to be the musclebound human, the singing and drinking dwarf or the handsome elf etc. Trying to identify with the snakefaced lizard person with a lisp doesn't seem so attractive.

[KennethTopp]

I like hybrids too, but do they have to be in Project Eternity. probably not, at least not as a playable race I guess or perhaps that is the Sub race for the Humans?

[Undecaf]

I'm not expecting anything, but I do hope for an out of the norm - at least to a certain degree - presentation of these races.