[ SECRET POST #5038 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5038 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 18 secrets from Secret Submission Post #721.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/ebIvwQX.png

[(Anonymous)]

I had a conversation about the Baldur's Gate thing with someone the other day lol

We both agreed devs complaining that people always made generic humans (wherein "generic" is assumed to mean "white" which is already a whole other thing) in any D&D-ish video game or tabletop system were mistaking a fault of a system for that of the players. Of course if given the opportunity to either

1) play the neutral race that can be basically anything you want, wherein race does not equal culture, or
2) play a set non-human race or "variant" (aka usually non-white) human in which invariably culture = race = culture and you only have a few alignments to choose from, plus all these other racial drawbacks, plus you're an alien in most settled civilizations because that's just how the incredibly white-western-human-centric world is designed...

most people, especially new players, are gonna pick the path of least resistance. Regular Human of whatever default ethnicity and culture the setting is - usually super white. Then devs assume that means "no imagination! characters that are self inserts!" and not "I'm a POC that doesn't want to deal with being the only POC in the very white fantasy world you designed"

But it's easier to say "players are basic" than examine what causes people to play what they do, or what in the system deters them from playing other things

SA

[(Anonymous)]

To be clear I'm not saying you're doing these things OP, I'm saying the devs are. But this is a lot of the reason people just "play generic characters"

[(Anonymous)]

So your contention is that, if Faerun was a setting where most of the in-setting characters were black or brown, those statistics would be totally reversed and most people would make black or brown characters?

[(Anonymous)]

I can't speak for games in which most of the characters are black or brown because games like that don't really exist, which sucks.

But if you compare systems where "race" is a thing that comes with stats and faction relations, default civilizations, and whatnot are a thing, then something like say, Asian MMOs are a better comparison. If you compare something like say, Blade & Soul which has pretty great character customization options too, most of the characters there are not white characters, because the setting and "defaults" are Asian/Eastern.

For a Western-ish example, if they added full character customization to say, Assasin's Creed, I don't think 99% of player characters are going to be blond and blue-eyed.

On the flip side, in areas where race and appearance are not tied to stats or in-game effects at all e.g. VR chats, people are wandering around as giant dildos and pikachus and anime girls because when it doesn't affect anything, people will have the freedom to be whatever they want and there's no default anything so there's no drawbacks to not being default. However, games like Baldur's Gate come with pre-set defaults, then their devs complain people pick the default, like c'mon...

OP

[(Anonymous)]

It does seem like there are a lot of people who play Tieflings. Maybe I just see that because all my mutuals are trans.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen a lot of the trans player playing tiefling thing too. I think people generally play characters they can relate to, not necessarily ones that look like them.

For new players who aren't familiar with the games though, especially trying anything D&D-based for the first time, the whole setting kinda pushes everyone toward white default human as the most adaptable or "can be anything" thing to try. And I don't think anyone can argue that (cis/het) human is definitely the "default" race in a ton of RPGs - often explicitly stated to be so in race summaries - and that's a conscious design choice

[(Anonymous)]

I disagree completely. I play an MMO in which culture really has nothing to do with how you play the game or your ultimate storyline (so other than the brief intro), and yes, most people play humans.

[(Anonymous)]

What MMO is this in which humans aren't considered the default race that most of the lore and storyline revolve around, and most of the heroes are?

[(Anonymous)]

SA
(If you say World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy I'm gonna lol because it's so untrue.)

[(Anonymous)]

D&D has a long history of making humans either the only characters able to play any base class (and all but a few prestige classes), or handicapping all the other "races" with stat distributions or penalties for picking a non-ideal class. WotC has been trying to change that, but still....

[(Anonymous)]

Oh man, same. I can make a character that looks like whatever I want, why on earth would I want to make one that looks like me? Let me have a tall Amazon-esque elf lady with fiery red hair and purple eyes because I can. That's way more fun!

[(Anonymous)]

Same here. I'll always make my character look as little like me as I can manage, even better if there's other races because then I can get even further away from that.

[epicurean]

Reading the secret and looking at the picture all I could think was that song "Straight White Male" by Bo Burnham.

Anyway you do you, OP. I like costumizing my character since rarely if I ever see characters that look like me or have similar features (curly black hair, freckles, etc). So it's nice to be able to change them and imagine they look like me for once.

[(Anonymous)]

I like to make characters who look like me/are an idealized version of me SOMETIMES. But most times, there aren't exactly options for that, so my av looks nothing like me (but I love them anyway). I like to pretend it's me going on this adventure (be it Sims or something else) or like an anon, or you OP? MENTIONED above, avs that can represent me, of not physically then in other ways. Connection.

All that said, that super need for rep was a lot stronger when I was younger.

Also, the dude in your secret is so generic. Lol.

[(Anonymous)]

I RP as a man 9-5 for the health insurance. Why would I want to do that on my free time off?

[(Anonymous)]

Same, plus I'm fat, and seeing my face in someone thin always looks weird. I prefer just making an "OC".