What We Lose When We Eliminate Controversial Content

[Lanefan]

The way I see it- The Ptolemaic Dynasty accounts for something like 1/10th of the “Egyptian empire’s” history. Blondes were rare among Ancient Greeks.

Even if we charitably assume blondes were more common among the Ptolemaic rulers than Mediterraneans in general, it’s an odd choice to have an image of pale blondes operating as the introductory art for the mythology of a North African culture.

Probably comes down to something as simple as those being the only two people available to model for the artist that day...

 

[billd91]

I think the 'unrealized potential' part is key here. People talk about GoT and its issues, and like you said - the show, and others like it, are completed. These subjects can be addressed if you let people know - hey, grown up things ahead, and here's a keyword list of the triggers in it.

RPGs are movies/comics/books not fully written, for tables of people who will never meet each other.

I'd take it even a step farther. Not only is a novel or show a realized thing while an RPG incorporates unrealized potential, there's also the degree of closeness and participation. When I read Game of Thrones and its sequels or watch the show, I'm fundamentally a passive witness to the events that unfold. They may emotionally move me, but I'm still buffered from the experience - I'm not experiencing it as a participant or have a hand it its creation. But when I play an RPG, I do have some degree of participation, my PC representative is living it, I'm less buffered from the experience.

I think what we see in these discussions are just the same discussions we're seeing writ large in America and the world. I think with the fact the country seems to have lost the ability to have civil discourse, along with all the revisionism going on, keeps publishers from being able to safely put out a book, fully with trigger warnings, and say 'Here we go.'

In some ways, they are. And we've been having them on this board for years as well. I was just looking at an older thread from 2015 about Gen Con pressuring Indiana about some of its anti-LGBT politics. There was a... spirited... discussion. But I'm not necessarily sure that we've lost the ability to have a civil discourse as much as the civil discourse of bygone days has been shown to be more of a facade than a real thing. Or, at best, a practice for a subset of Americans who weren't even the most affected by the debate. I know that looking back at history, every time a new group tries to join that civil discourse, they're the targets of decidedly un-civil treatment.

 

[Lanefan]

I'd take it even a step farther. Not only is a novel or show a realized thing while an RPG incorporates unrealized potential, there's also the degree of closeness and participation. When I read Game of Thrones and its sequels or watch the show, I'm fundamentally a passive witness to the events that unfold. They may emotionally move me, but I'm still buffered from the experience - I'm not experiencing it as a participant or have a hand it its creation. But when I play an RPG, I do have some degree of participation, my PC representative is living it, I'm less buffered from the experience.

Until-unless you play an RPG with a Game-of-Thrones-like outlook on itself, its setting, and its characters; in other words just the sort of RPG I prefer.

 

[Krachek]

I am asking my self this question?
Are we to the point that RPG should state by rules that a player cannot make his character perform an action that would be illegal in the country where the player play the game?

 

[Irlo]

I am asking my self this question?
Are we to the point that RPG should state by rules that a player cannot make his character perform an action that would be illegal in the country where the player play the game?

No.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

It's okay to portray Pharaohs as white

Well, at least one famous person from Antiquity who spoke an Afro-Asiatic language has been frequently portrayed as blond in Western representations.

But it does make me suspicious of the limitations of the cultural perspective of the artists.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Probably comes down to something as simple as those being the only two people available to model for the artist that day...

That IS possible. I know from past experience that it can be very difficult to get models in general, even moreso if you’re looking for a certain ethnicity that isn’t exactly well-represented in your area. But after that, you could still use darker pigments for the skin & hair.

Besides, someone else has to sign off on including it in the printed product.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Indeed if the game allow the players to help or use the « bad » guys and thus promoting bad behavior, the designer can have serious problems.

I am not sure that this is a problem. I think that from a player perspective the issue is more the one referred by @billd91 in a later post to you one. Which is a stress on the player.
The other issue is that rpgs and D&D in particular relied very heavily in pop culture stereotyping to carry the heavy lifting as to why the bad guys are bad and quite frequently just said that they were bad with out any good reason nor any insight to their inner state.

Novels (the better ones) and similar narrative forms cannot get away with that kind of laziness in the modern world. On of the strengths of GRRM's writing in Game of thrones is that he can show some appalling human behaviour and still makes the character feel human even engender some sympathy for the character.

 

[bloodtide]

I am asking my self this question?
Are we to the point that RPG should state by rules that a player cannot make his character perform an action that would be illegal in the country where the player play the game?

Well, we might be less then a year away from this.

First games that have shady, illegal or criminal settings or player characters backed in will have to go: Wild West based RPGs, Spy RPGs, Cyberpunk RPGs, Mob RPGs, Superhero Rpgs and ones like Blades Against the Dark.

Games that in any way "glorify" money, so that is the bulk of all the future dystopia RPGs.

Any historical accurate game has to go, next: they are wrong or illegal on so many levels.

Then finally get rid of all violence from all RPGs. So that will leave, maybe, like the baking RPGs?

After all the typical, default RPG is about a group of violent unlawful unsanctioned murders doing whatever they want at will.....

 

[Hussar]

Probably comes down to something as simple as those being the only two people available to model for the artist that day...

You are most likely right. But this also highlights the problem quite well.