Calmar

Yeah, thecape of the Obsidian Order should be enchantable. Otherwise its about completely useless.

People want a gritty, violent and 'realistic' world but complain when one dude has prejudices?

I don't agree with the OP, but I like Titan Quest and the video he posted is misleading. Normally, defeated enemies don't fly around much, only a critical hit sends them flying *a bit*. In the video, however, we see a powerful high level character fighting very weak low-level enemies. Naturally he does overwhelmingly high damage to them, causing to be hurled away for unusual distances.

"Sergeant," asked the old man, "I've come to See my son." "There," said the sergeant, "There he lies across his gun." "Across his gun, you say? Then Johnny stood his ground?" "He stood there like a rock until they cut him down." The old man left, his John part of the battle won. "Yes," said the sergeant, "John was too damned dumb to run." Chicken, chicken, chicken; Hoorah for Johnny Zero! He wasn't worth a **** alive; but dead he is a hero... from The Tomorrow Testament by Barry B. Longyear, p.7

Basically, it does work. The cucial difference is that one word is charged with strong negative connotations while the other isn't. A word by itself is just a sound that is given a meaning by human use. Every word could be used as insult (as it might happen with mobbing). When, for instance, we go back to the olden-timey example of World War I propaganda posted earlier, we find that "hun" is used as a hostile and derogatory term to refer to Germans. It is not difficult to envisage that it could evoke strong emotional reactions a century ago. To-day, however, it is again just a word that doesn't cause even the slightest stir.

Actually, "dark skinned and tribal" (or green-skinned) are the aspects of to-days depiction of Orcs that I quite dislike. I like my Orc to be inhuman and militaristic, a foil to whatever culture's perspective we share in the narrative; not a racist depiction of another culture. But I maintain that it should be avoided to interpret everything in fantasy with the goal to discern some racist undertone, lest we have worlds where every conflict is blurred diluted by a filter of misguided need of harmony. Everything can be misinterpreted into being racist or offensive. You can achieve satisfying orcishness with pale skin.

World War I is over for 96 years and WW2 has ended seven decades ago and there is peace now - the anti-German and anti-Japanese hostility in fiction must end!

I'm fairly positive that Tolkien's idea of the orcs began to develop before any Asian powers or supposed threats began to make any significant appearances in Europe. Here is an interesting essay on Tolkien's orcs. Note for instance that according to that site, it is "often theorized that Orcs represent German soldiers. There certainly are similarities between them. Orcs are almost caricatures of the German enemy of trench warfare: the hordes of gray, pitiless warriors who overwhelm the brave and outnumbered defenders of the West." ^ That boy looks cooler than racist-stereotype-Japanese-guy in any case. You can interpret any fantasy race as a racist caricature with more or less effort. What I find more convincing is that the Orcs are inspired by the trench fighter of the Western Front in general - a person who has lost his hope and his humanity in the endless battles of the hellish trenches. * * * The discussion here reminds me of a very interesting take on the question whether Watto from Star Wars Episode I is an anti-Semitic stereotype on jewornotjew.com: "If a character is designated as Jewish and is portrayed as loving money, having a big nose, being henpecked by women, whatever, that's a negative Jewish stereotype and the creator should be called to task. But if a character has a big nose and loves money and the anti-defamation league or whoever says that makes him/her Jewish, well, that's not the creator of the character spreading negative stereotypes. That's the Jews themselves." I think fantasy races should first of all be considered by themselves.

Using genuine orcs and goblins is ok - they're as much part of the fantasy-mythology as are angels, trolls, or wyverns. Using stuff that clearly behaves and feels like orcs and goblins but pretends to be an original creature (about every usually-evil race of usually-minions) is rubbish.

Where does this even come from? Is it a Warcraft thing? Orcs in Tolkien are different.

I think rape is among the most boring devices to establish someone as a villain. Worse are only burning orphanages and kicking puppies. Your example is basically a scenario about a guy who's unable to cope with his suffering. That's fine. Having him being a man of virtue and reputation who's raped by monsters looks more like morbid excitement about and fascination with the violence and humiliation itself, as opposed to the effect it had on him. I agree with you, but at the same time I wonder if violence and war (tried and true story devices) don't have the same effect on those who had to endure them in real life.

To me, the Icewind Dale series is a great experience *because* it is so linear - all focus is put on its plot and atmosphere, like in an interactive book (th ebox and cut scenes even *are* books). Baldur's Gate 1+2 are great games, in comparison, but the experience derives from the sense of freedom created by the numerous side-quests, not from the pretty straightforward and simple main story.

Shoulder eats crossguard! But it looks cool! Where is this picture from?

Don't know if this approach is the best, but I definitely like it, too. The hero narrating her or his own story sounds a bit too self-absorbed, so it's got to be someone who's trustworthy, but not too deply connected with the actual adventure.

I like realistic armor, but the more nitpicky the the discussion becomes, the less fun it it. Why don't we just trust the devs to create armor that doens't look silly? I mean, IF they want totally unrealistic stuff in their game really hard, they'll include it no matter what.