arguements AGAINST black/asian customization options in WoW

[derpkitteh]

Because its nice to see someone who's like you be in whatever media you're enjoying?

don't feel that at all.

i'm excited about a game coming up soon that lets you play a native american that kills white people. i literally couldn't care less if there wasn't a single white person, human, or whatever else in a game.

the story of it is all that matters to me. if that is interesting, then you got me.

[Video Games]

you kind of have a point
I mean, wouldn't stripping asians of their "culture" and aesthetics associated with their race- which happened already because of... pandas- be kinda offensive?
If I were asian I wouldn't be too happy about it, I think.

I dont think I've seen a single asian person complain. Aesthetically it was great, anyway

[Ragu4]

I mean, this IS an RPG, so yeah, prolly a good idea to add this...8 xpacs later lmao. Can I be a white or brown furred worgen? That could be cool

[Kyphael]

don't feel that at all.

i'm excited about a game coming up soon that lets you play a native american that kills white people. i literally couldn't care less if there wasn't a single white person, human, or whatever else in a game.

the story of it is all that matters to me. if that is interesting, then you got me.

Kind of feel the same way. People pay too much attention to color. My own character looks very little like me. Hell, 14 out of the 15 characters I play are of fictitious races. I'm not against inclusion of other ethic appearances for humans, but to me it wasn't make or break. I will probably have a female Asian character though, because I do love that ethnic appearance, on top of the blue-haired female DK alt. Diversity means even more customize options which I'm down for but it shouldn't be used as a race card. I would just as well play the game if all characters had African or Asian ethnic features.

[Relapses]

The amount of flat out, blatant and unapologetic racism in this thread is enough to keep Twitter busy for months.

Like, I really don't care much about words on the internet but it's really quite fascinating how many people are just, like, straight up racist.

[Doffen]

I always wanted to play a black asian ginger, so far been able to be just black and ginger, but with coming "asian" face it gotta be perfect <3
gonna name him Thrall.

Sounds awesome to me!

[Derpleton]

Quite honestly if they're going add different ethnicities of humans into the game I'd want to see them also add in some new human kingdoms. Not only does it give a lore background to these ethnic groups existing (which is shaky at best atm) but it also gives us a chance to see human architecture that isn't just the boring generic Stormwind stuff all the time, that's one of the things I loved Gilneas for.

[FAILoZOFF]

decided to stroll though some comics for the "doesn't fit the lore" people. there is a clear black guy and then Althea Ebonlocke who is more then likely Asian but didn't have the model to back it up.

wow dude.... if that's how asians look to you, ebonlocke with that face... damn that's racist.

[derpkitteh]

This is like rich people telling poor people, that being rich isnt that great.

i am poor. or very near it at least.

identity has become far too much of your persona if you need to see yourself in everything you ever deal with.

[Dalheim]

Well, there is that black child from the Traveler series?

She's from Stranglethorn, and it seems that humans from STV *are* black, same with those from Tanaris.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

wow dude.... if that's how asians look to you, ebonlocke with that face... damn that's racist.

Asians tend to look like that in comics though it vary's from artist to artist, Cassandra Cain is Asain and looked like this for a time.

[derpkitteh]

It seems absurd to want to deny people basic things in video games because of some reactionary ideas about identity and lore.

i don't want to.

at least, for humans. already said that. it's elves that don't need changes, that's just dumb, since it's not humans.

[Malacrass]

They are just giving back what was taken from a lot of players with the model revamp in Wod.

Since then people couldn't create black skinned characters anymore, just humans with a Jersey Shore tan. And the Woo Ping face was nuked completely.

As to where those humans originated from? I don't know, ask those who created Vanilla WoW. It's nothing new. STV / South Seas is a good guess though. I don't think humans lived on Kalimdor (Tanaris) up until recently.

[Echeyakee]

I'm generally against hamfisting diversity for no legitimate reason, but that mainly applies to works that are grounded in history or focused on specific geographical or cultural areas. A black person in eastern Europe, especially if we're talking pre 00s would be an example. There will be people staring, there will be racist remarks, and I would call out any work that tried to glaze over that. Or the shitshow around Witcher netflix series.

But wow is different. It's not really grounded in any specific culture (although it does borrow from many) and it's not really a historic piece in any way, so it does not have a direct correlation to our perception of race. It also never really touched on topics of racism, apart from some light mistrust and animosity between warring factions, at least not to the extent of other works of fiction, so it does not have a defined baseline on the topic. And we are dealing with an entire planet as a stage, so it's not that much of a leap to assume similar physiological differences would occur. Well, apart from the whole thing where humans are mutated version of Vrykul rejected babies, that, itself, are artificial mechanical life form affected by curse of flesh. So maybe it is a big leap...

Something else to keep in mind, in wow we are dealing with very small time periods, when it comes to evolution. Azeroth was an artificial ecosystem with very little diversity for the most part, and most of the native races only existed for 15000 years or less. That is not that much time, and can be used as an argument why there would not be ethnically different humans, dwarfs, gnomes etc. It is more likelly to have those differences in "older" races, like trolls, orcs, draenei and, maybe, elfs. But on the other hand, magic. Just look at the aforementioned elfs and their color swaps over short periods of time.

But either way, it's just as likely to have difference in looks for each race as not to, as there is no strong argument either way. And I've always said, more choice is better than less choice.

[Mirishka]

I've made arguments against the whole idea of character color customization. It's stupid, we don't ever see our faces in game, it's a fucking fantasy game and let's not forget the unfortunate reality that some will use these to be even more racist in the game.

Sorry, but suggesting that everyone should be okay with everyone being white in WoW because 'its a fucking fantasy game' is about the dumbest argument I've seen. And tons of people transmog their helms to hidden so yes, genius, we do in fact see our faces in game all the time.

The idea that people like you are so threatened by the idea of non-whites in games that you play is hilarious to me.

[Sorrowseer]

Woo Ping. SW weapon trainer.

What about him?

[Shinrael]

What about him?

Asian human character already present in-game from the very beginning of the game.

[Heladys]

There are no good arguments against it.

[Itisamuh]

I despise progressive nonsense as a general rule, but things like skin color, eye color, hair color, different facial features, etc should already be options, and there is no reason not to have them. I would only see it as a problem if they started pushing it as forced diversity, or segregating them, using it as a plot point to push some sort of agenda, which is all too common in fiction, and real life, these days. As long as the story stays neutral to these things, and basic male female stuff is left alone, politics are left out of it, etc then no, there is no reason not to have these as customization options. Maybe they never existed in the lore before, but really, who gives a crap, considering how much stuff is pulled out of nowhere, or even outright changed, you could never accuse the writers of attempting consistency.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

You can make a case I guess that there has never been any Human cultures shown to match those skin tones on Azeroth.

But honestly anyone trying to defend against this is putting themselves in a terrible position and should find a better hill to die on.