What We Lose When We Eliminate Controversial Content

[Micah Sweet]

Halle Bailey is in the Little Mermaid.

Great! Who does she play?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't know if you missed the news, but the recent live action The Little Mermaid had a black actress in the titular role and some people were angry about that.

I didn't know that, but some people get angry whenever literally anything happens. That seems like a bad reason to me, but I have no investment in The Little Mermaid.

 

[Justice and Rule]

So Paizo's just announced return to Tian Xia isn't based on what I think it is? Or do they not have a problem with anything in those cultures at all?

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Or did they hire a few professionals to help them avoid things a lot of their fans think are tired tropes where possible and put in some of the hundreds of other things that haven't been highlighted before?

As they did with the Mwangi Expanse, too. When you take on these sorts of projects where you are drawing upon different cultures it is best to have people from those cultures writing and reviewing because they will catch things that you probably will not. There is not nearly as much risk to these projects as people think there are, the problem is that some companies are more comfortable with bringing in the right voices for it than others.

 

[Irlo]

Great! Who does she play?

Oh, sorry. She's the mermaid.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

As they did with the Mwangi Expanse, too. When you take on these sorts of projects where you are drawing upon different cultures it is best to have people from those cultures writing and reviewing because they will catch things that you probably will not. There is not nearly as much risk to these projects as people think there are, the problem is that some companies are more comfortable with bringing in the right voices for it than others.

I find this interesting because it makes me curious about if they have corporeal undead in the setting, and if so if they have exposed bones. I remember how many ever years back World of Warcraft redid the design on skeletal undead and the Forsaken due to Chinese cultural thoughts on physical undead.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Sadly true, the real benefit of stuff like the first amendment is that you cannot be hung for saying something deeply unpopular. Which I guess is progress.

Well, there's benefit to making it harder for the government to tell you what you can't say. Its just that I'm not sold "free speech" really describes the situation.

 

[Hussar]

So Paizo's just announced return to Tian Xia isn't based on what I think it is? Or do they not have a problem with anything in those cultures at all?

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Or did they hire a few professionals to help them avoid things a lot of their fans think are tired tropes where possible and put in some of the hundreds of other things that haven't been highlighted before?

One would rather hope the latter. And, being 100% fair to Paizo, they've tried REALLY REALLY hard to be inclusive in their products. Not that there haven't been missteps, of course, but, certainly give credit where credit is due.

But, this does rather highlight some differences. Paizo does these things, and they get a hearty slap on the back. Cultural sensitivity? Great!! Removing slavery? Great!! Diverse iconic? Great!! On and on.

WotC does exactly the same thing? As in virtually word for word identical? They're a bunch of anti-free speech jerks who are destroying the hobby.

It really is frustrating.

 

[Alzrius]

But, this does rather highlight some differences. Paizo does these things, and they get a hearty slap on the back. Cultural sensitivity? Great!! Removing slavery? Great!!

That's not how I remember news of Paizo's new stance on slavery being received.

 

[Hussar]

That's not how I remember news of Paizo's new stance on slavery being received.

A small ripple of a couple of posters grumbling is hardly a major reaction.

And the overall reaction to everything that Paizo does regarding these kinds of issues is almost always positive.

IOW we don’t see multiple threads sprouting up about how Paizo hates free speech and is destroying the hobby and they all hate gamers.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A small ripple of a couple of posters grumbling is hardly a major reaction.

And the overall reaction to everything that Paizo does regarding these kinds of issues is almost always positive.

IOW we don’t see multiple threads sprouting up about how Paizo hates free speech and is destroying the hobby and they all hate gamers.

Well, as I have complained about many times, no one really cares about what anyone but WotC does. Side effect of being the biggest dog. If WotC had a smaller piece of the pie, then everybody can be castigated online equally.