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(Anecdotal) conversations with Asian gamers on some problems they currently face in the D&D world of RPG gaming
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 8077361" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>Oh. For sure. And, frankly, that's where the cultural consultants come into play. It's their job to know what's going to be problematic, and, IME, they're typically pretty good at it.</p><p></p><p>Going through and editing ESL textbooks for a new edition has been such a MASSIVE eye opening experience about what passes without second thought simply because of a person's background. I wrote upthread about having a dog in a bedroom. I mean, to me, there's not offensive or off putting about that at all. Everyone lets their pets into their bedroom, right? Well, apparently, no, there are a number of cultures out there that find that notion disgusting. It's dirty and not something you would expect to see in a book geared for teaching children.</p><p></p><p>So, how do we fix it? Well, we get out our magic eraser, scrub out the dog, and move on. And 99% of the time, that's all it takes. All these cries of "CENSORSHIP" and "ORWELLIAN NIGHTMARE" are largely ignorant fear mongering. It's something that we do in books all the time and have done so since the first editor was born. We want to sell books. So, we make those books as appealing to as many people as possible. Odds are, no one cares that the dog is gone out of the book. It was just a part of the illustration. But, if we leave the dog in there, there are certain places we can't sell our books. </p><p></p><p>So, poof, Rover disappears. </p><p></p><p>Could we fix OA in the same way? No, not really. There is just too much that would have to be changed. You'd be better off rewriting the whole thing, giving a more balanced view of the region. So, don't use language specific names - except maybe as examples. So, a class might be "Fighter" with examples like Samurai, Mongol horse archer, etc. Equipment might list "Longsword, example: Katana, Dao, etc. Anyway, I'm not a scholar, but, you get my point. Make sure that you give fairly equal air time to all the cultures that you are supposed to be representing, and things go a lot better.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 8077361, member: 22779"] Oh. For sure. And, frankly, that's where the cultural consultants come into play. It's their job to know what's going to be problematic, and, IME, they're typically pretty good at it. Going through and editing ESL textbooks for a new edition has been such a MASSIVE eye opening experience about what passes without second thought simply because of a person's background. I wrote upthread about having a dog in a bedroom. I mean, to me, there's not offensive or off putting about that at all. Everyone lets their pets into their bedroom, right? Well, apparently, no, there are a number of cultures out there that find that notion disgusting. It's dirty and not something you would expect to see in a book geared for teaching children. So, how do we fix it? Well, we get out our magic eraser, scrub out the dog, and move on. And 99% of the time, that's all it takes. All these cries of "CENSORSHIP" and "ORWELLIAN NIGHTMARE" are largely ignorant fear mongering. It's something that we do in books all the time and have done so since the first editor was born. We want to sell books. So, we make those books as appealing to as many people as possible. Odds are, no one cares that the dog is gone out of the book. It was just a part of the illustration. But, if we leave the dog in there, there are certain places we can't sell our books. So, poof, Rover disappears. Could we fix OA in the same way? No, not really. There is just too much that would have to be changed. You'd be better off rewriting the whole thing, giving a more balanced view of the region. So, don't use language specific names - except maybe as examples. So, a class might be "Fighter" with examples like Samurai, Mongol horse archer, etc. Equipment might list "Longsword, example: Katana, Dao, etc. Anyway, I'm not a scholar, but, you get my point. Make sure that you give fairly equal air time to all the cultures that you are supposed to be representing, and things go a lot better. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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(Anecdotal) conversations with Asian gamers on some problems they currently face in the D&D world of RPG gaming
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