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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ddougan" data-source="post: 1289729" data-attributes="member: 11480">I'm sorry, but I really find the above excuse laughable. What exactly did the author think would be taken up by so many of the statements in the book? Why did they even need to be there - it would have been so easy to describe the various nations in the EA without resorting to such an aggressive style of writing.If you are one of the playtesters, you failed in your job to highlight this. How can many other people be offended by material you think contains no slurs?Branding an entire nation (the Irish) as terrorists is racism. Branding an entire nation (the Germans) as warmongers throughout their entire history is racism. I read dozens of other racially offensive and negative stereotypes belonging to other nations.racism:The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.The EA Factbook's "Life in the EA" chapter is simply littered with racist remarks, and pro-actively suggests people play out many of them.We've already asserted that you didn't find any of the statements in the book a slur on anyone, but (taking it slightly further) consider the following:If PersonA claims that black people are stupid because of the shape of their head (a ludicrous stereotype which I'm sure you'll know once passed for so-called fact and influenced social attitudes), PersonA cannot claim they are not being racist because someone else (ie a black person) "blows it all out of proportion". PersonA could not then defend themself by saying that so called "scientific evidence" means the offend person is concentrating on the negative aspect of his claim.If you think I've taken the analogy too far, tell me exactly what level of racism do you accept (other than the transparent level which you did not detect from playtesting the book)?(I don't mean for the "tell me exactly..." question to sound like a personal attack - I'm instead trying to tie up your original comments above that you knew there was no intent, by referring to some legal precedent on what constitutes racial abuse - whereby Employee A in an organisation made racial comments to Employee B, but nothing was said or done because the two employees understood each other and accepted that behaviour knowing intent was not present, but when Employee C made the same remarks, he was considered to have committed racial harassment, because the target of those remarks did not believe the same intent (or lack of) was present in Employee C's comments.)I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the other sections in the book are great - there is just no reason for the racist statements in the "Life in the EA" chapter. Nor does the fact that the rest of the book is good quality excuse the racist remarks.I dread the day when people find such racist remarks so acceptable that they dont feel the need to complain.To take it to the extreme, we only need to look at recent 20th century history and see how racist remarks are used to engineer social attitude, resulting in general acceptance of terrible crimes against entire nations and ethnic sections.Where do you draw the line between racist remarks and acceptable racist remarks because "hey, its only a game"? Again, I think you are making excuses (and not very good ones) to cover something you claim doesnt exist. There's plenty of review sites where products are well reviewed. There's plenty of posts on these forums and others where products are well reviewed. If positive feedback is less quantitive than negative feedback, its no excuse for not speaking out against offensive material.Or do you not agree that the following would be a ludicrous excuse for distributing anti-semitic material?"Hey, I put up all those racially offensive posters saying 'Jews not wanted here', but I also did some really good artwork on my other posters - so cut me a break cos no one ever praised me for it".Firstly, I'm not a troll. It would be nice if you apologised for calling me it. I raised some very valid points hoping to generate some discussion and understanding of how this could happen (a major product line by a major publisher releasing racially offensive material which offends so many different cultures and nationalities), and followed up on pretty much every response directed to me. And I did so in a polite way. This was my first post ever on the subject (I never posted to Mongoose boards about it). The Mongoose boards have been censored in these regards (and unfortunately some of the posters let their anger rule their judgement and posted some offensive messages concerning the book - something that will hardly generate sympathy for their views).Secondly, the excuse "its only a game" doesn't wash. Racism is racism. The fact its being promoted in a social medium like gaming is as offensive as if it was being dictated from a TV broadcast, or presented on bill posters.Thirdly, If the matter is still alive, it is because Mongoose has not satifactorily closed it. The so-called apology (or at least the only one I could find) was from a single Mongoose employee within a forum thread, and did not appear to be a company statement (hassanisabbah from Mongoose actually stated "I expect a much higher level of quality and sensibility from Mongoose" - which doesn't sound like a company statement to me).If Mongoose wants to close the matter, it should (in my opinion):(1) Issue an official and public company statement which<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">   (a) Acknowledges the offensive material   (b) Apologies for its inclusion in their product   (c) Affirm their commitment to not releasing racist material   (d) Outline the quality control procedures they are implementing to ensure it won't happen again in the future</li> </ul>(2) Clear up the existing mess by agreeing to produce a revised book on a replacement basis for existing customers who wish to uptake of the swap, and recall books from the distributors to be replaced by the revised book which does not contain racially offensive material.Great ... leave racially offensive material floating about to destory the good name of B5, the good name of Mongoose and the good name of RPGs.And your argument applies both ways. The author, Mongoose and Warners Bros are all responsible for allowing racially offensive material to enter the RPG market. Unfortunately, their ability to reach a wide target audience and potentially taint social attitudes with racist material means that the subject has not yet ended once and for all.</blockquote>

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