Please do not abuse other members in any way. Please
do not post links or information about hacking/warez/cheats/item or gold farming or adverts. Please read the rules of these forums as we rarely warn before
banning.
OK let me just say up front that potentially this conversation could go south, but I think the community here is pretty good so I wanted to put a topic on the table for you. Please refrain from ignorance or crude remarks thanks.
Now, we have known for a while that Nightfall was going to be basically themed after northern Africa, and maybe Arabia to some extent, just as Factions was themed Asian. And of course when we make our characters in Nightfall, many (most?) of the options involve creating a character that looks to be of an appropriate ethnicity for this theme.
When I played through the open-beta weekend of Nightfall, I created what, in my mind, was an "African-looking" character because.. hell.. nobody has ever made an rpg / mmo in this theme, and I think its awesome. So why not take advantage of it? My friends who played with me both did the same.
Well when we logged into Nightfall, we were so shocked to see nothing but a bunch of white folk running around! o.O Now, just FYI one friend and I are both caucasian and the third friend was asian. But we couldn't understand it.. why there were hardly ANY dark-skinned characters running around at all. Release has come and its the same thing. Tons and tons of white folk running around the lands of Elona. :p
Let me just say I'm not trying to convince anybody to do anything. Nor am I saying there is anything "wrong" whatsoever with prefering to play a white avatar. But rather, I'm putting this up for discussion purely on an academic level. In factions, we saw lots of people take advantage of making "Asian-looking" characters. It seems the average caucasian gamer is comfortable playing an avatar that looks Asian. But here, in Nightfall, there is a decided discomfort in playing an avatar that looks African.
I won't try to draw conclusions but for those who think about this stuff I'm curious to hear your take on it. And here's a final question: for those who *don't* think about this kind of stuff.. I wonder.. did you even notice what I'm talking about until you read this? Thanks. (once again pls keep civil)
Maybe people want a character that reflects their actual person. It's why some people have all male chars or all female chars, as it reflects their actual gender.
How is it disturbing ? White people like to make white characters, big deal. Pirates like to make pirate characters, therefore my warrior has an eyepatch.
Well perhaps disturbing is a strong word. But let me re-iterate something that you guys seem to be missing from my post: in Factions there was no shortage of Asian characters.
So the argument that ~ "white ppl like to make white characters" has already been proven insufficient. It's more specifically the case that ~ "white ppl are uncomfortable playing a black character." Likewise the argument that ~"most ppl like to play characters that resemble them" is not really valid because we know how many boys play female characters, etc.
So actually it might be more fair to say something like "ppl make characters that reflect what they want to see".. and THAT's when it becomes a little curious to note that maybe 1 in 20 characters in Elona, at most, are actually dark skinned.
Again please understand that there is no agenda here so there is no need to be dismissive or defensive about it. But I do find it noteworthy.
Maybe people want a character that reflects their actual person. It's why some people have all male chars or all female chars, as it reflects their actual gender.
I agree with him. I think that majority of the players want to represent themselves in the game or maybe they just don't prefer dark skinned color (that doesn't make them racist or anything, it's just preference).
When I make my character I try to keep them closer to my ethnic background, which is SE Asian. Most of my characters, especially from prophecies, are brown except for my necro, who is pearly white. That doesn't mean I don't like white people, it's just my preference.
Anyways, I'm glad you brought up this subject. I was noticing this too. My brother even made a light skinned paragon, but that's because he likes lighter skin tone.
That is disturbing... I'm a white guy and my Dervish is black. Perhaps most players don't seem to have read up on the "North-Africa" part.
As another person pointed out, it's preference. I'm a white male so I create characters that resemble me as close as possible. It would be disturbing if people feel they have to create a black character just because the game is based in North-Africa...
Silver Pal
Linear Mode
