Urban Arcana

[Sixchan]

For the moment, let's assume this is a trend. Now, what if it was all white males in that center spot? This (kinda) makes sense, as the main demographic for WotC is white males. But if you were a black guy--or a woman--who played D&D, you might feel excluded and offended. Now, if a Black guy was to raise this issue of the lack of blacks in the center spot, this would be perfectly understandable and reasonable. In this case, there have been no white males in the center spot of the book. I highly doubt that this is a trend of deliberately excluding white males, but if it is, it would be valid for someone to make mention of it and complain. To me, it seems that all Felon is asking is "Are they excluding my race from that center spot deliberately?". To answer, no, I don't think they are, and until I wandered in on this thread, I wasn't even aware of it. My upbringing and life has made the concept of race being any more important than hair-colour completely alien to me, (and I am instead prone to discrimination based on Glaswegian subcultures) but even though I can't understand why it matters to some people, I do understand that it does.

Felon seemed to ask a question that wasn't particularly bigoted, and his posts haven't seemed particularly bigoted either, for that matter. He didn't say that WotC has an agenda. He didn't say they were discriminating against white people. He said that they may have an agenda. He said they might be discriminating against white people. He even said that it was too early to tell, and that he was just speculating. And he certainly didn't say that people of other genders and races shouldn't be represented in the books.

 

[Felon]

Felon seemed to ask a question that wasn't particularly bigoted, and his posts haven't seemed particularly bigoted either, for that matter. He didn't say that WotC has an agenda. He didn't say they were discriminating against white people. He said that they may have an agenda. He said they might be discriminating against white people. He even said that it was too early to tell, and that he was just speculating. And he certainly didn't say that people of other genders and races shouldn't be represented in the books.

Thank you. I am quite happy to see all races and genders represented in WotC's products. I just hope they don't think leaving mine out is a good business move. That's it and that's all

 

[Ranger REG]

I just simply find your speculation very funny and dare I say, silly.

I don't expect Wizards to produce the D&D for my audience of thirtysomething gamers, especially when I got into D&D at a very young age. Is it possible to get thirtysomething newbies to be interested in a D&D game for the first time? I doubt it.

I got into D&D at a young age, and because of that, I continued my RPG hobby into my 30's. And to be honest with you, I may not continue this hobby, so Wizards will have to find fresh members.

 

[Felon]

I just simply find your speculation very funny and dare I say, silly.

Because you've elected to misinterpret it.

I don't expect Wizards to produce the D&D for my audience of thirtysomething gamers, especially when I got into D&D at a very young age. Is it possible to get thirtysomething newbies to be interested in a D&D game for the first time? I doubt it.

Personally, I do expect Wizards to do a bit of catering towards to the power fantasies of their core audience. That only makes sense. And I do expect that their core audience is predominantly white and a good deal of them are age 30+. No, that doesn't mean that covers should depict plump, pale couch potato white boys, and only humans because there are no elves out there buying D20 products. Again, that line of thinking just represents an active attempt to be obtuse and unreceptive to what I'm saying. Think plump, pale, couch potato white boy power fantasies.

I got into D&D at a young age, and because of that, I continued my RPG hobby into my 30's. And to be honest with you, I may not continue this hobby, so Wizards will have to find fresh members. [/B]

I can only assume that what you're talking about here has to do with my dislike of giving the iconics "trendy" clothes that makes them look less like professional adventurers and more like mallrats.

With D&D 3e, WotC adopted a conscious disposition to not make their iconics look like they specifically belong in any particular epoch (ancient Greek, middle ages, renaissance, etc). While D20 Modern is admittedly in a rather fixed age (the "modern" era), they can just as well make characters look appealing without focusing on trendy fashions that will only appeal to certain demographics. Blade or Neo, for instance, have very cool looks that appeal to action fans of all ages (and I imagine it has some cross-race and cross-gender appeal as well). That's what I'd like to see in D20M; characters that wear battle-gear and are ready for action.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

While I do understand the point you're making, using this same logic, I could say that WotC is ommiting an entire audience from ALL of thier art. This audience is one of the larger groups of RPG players, because its the age people usually get involved in them. Teenagers. Where are the teenagers? No where. All the iconics look to be in thier 20s. Where's someone for me?

 

[Felon]

While I do understand the point you're making, using this same logic, I could say that WotC is ommiting an entire audience from ALL of thier art. This audience is one of the larger groups of RPG players, because its the age people usually get involved in them. Teenagers. Where are the teenagers? No where. All the iconics look to be in thier 20s. Where's someone for me?

You don't think the cover iconics look like teens? That's what I immediately thought. Interesting.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

You don't think the cover iconics look like teens? That's what I immediately thought. Interesting.

Don't look like teens at all to me. I'm 17...I see teenagers all the time. It just doesn't have that effect for me. The fact that we see it differently shows how hard it is to market to the right group, eh?

 

[Felon]

...which is a good reason not to target specific age groups

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

...which is a good reason not to target specific age groups

Heh. I used that example just to show your logic is kind of 'eh'. It all depends on point of view, and since we're all idiots, we all see it wrong.

 

[Darke]

As long as you think in "races" or white/black/yellow or similar terms you are dividing humanity.

If there's a human (or near human like an elf) on the cover all players are on the cover.

All changes begin in the heads of all of us.

das Darke