Raduin711
Hero
Not what he said.
And I don't really understand your position of why every board game depicting that time and place must include harems. What is this fixation on harems?
D&D General Al-Qadim, Campaign Guide: Zakhara, and Cultural Sensitivity
And I don't really understand your position of why every board game depicting that time and place must include harems. What is this fixation on harems?
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Personally, I don't think the board game needs harems. But the issue isn't that they're not present and should be. It's that they're not present and reviewers praised them for their absence. If it's not relevant to the game, why comment on their absence at all?
Faolyn
(she/her)
Because it's such a prevailing (and badly done) trope that not having a harem in the game is remarkable.
Raduin711
Hero
Because it is a discussion of Orientalism. Orientalism focuses on cultural differences at the expense of similarities. Harems, opium dens and genies are examples of these differences that could have been shoehorned in. The unnecessary inclusion of/ exaggeration of these differences of creates a skewed perspective of the people of that area.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Its a game review, not a discussion of Orientalism. At least, it shouldn't be. The absence of harems that mean nothing to the game itself has no place in a review. They could simply say the setting was handled respectfully in their opinion.
Who are you to say what they should or should not include in their review? A board game or ttrpg is a cultural product, this one uses particular themes and aesthetics and so they included a discussion of how those themes were handled, which seems not only fair game, but useful to some potential customers.
DrunkonDuty
he/him
A cultural artefact (eg: a game) does not exist in a vacuum...
and ninja'd by Malmuria.
and ninja'd by Malmuria.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Sometimes, I really, really wish it did. Just focus on the quality of a product in regards to its intended purpose. Not the world we live in, I suppose.
Ondath
Hero
While I understand the sentiment, it's sadly just not how life works. Everything is created and consumed in a specific historic and cultural context, and we can only view things from that lens (we might expand our lens by learning about other cultures, but then the lens gets bigger, you're still looking through a lens at the end of the day). Everything is political, and when some things finally get rid of culturally and politically problematic tropes, I can see how that would be a cause for celebration.
After 15+ pages without significant movement, with rock-solid, unmoving, dug-in positions, folks should already be questioning if, "actual discussion," is in the offing here in any event.
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