D&D 5E (2014) What’s So Great About Medieval Europe?

[doctorbadwolf]

You just reduced 9/10ths of the world to "three or four parking spots" in a "giant parking lot" of Western European white culture. I'm...speechless.

That’s a really impressive willful misrepresentation of what they said. Like, national politician or talking head speaking of a hated rival level of misrepresentation of an argument.

 

[Nellisir]

That’s a really impressive willful misrepresentation of what they said. Like, national politician or talking head speaking of a hated rival level of misrepresentation of an argument.

It was such an amazingly bad analogy. Or did OP not compare to non-western European culture to three or four handicapped parking spaces ("stalls") in a giant parking lot (meant to symbolize Western European culture) in an effort to make a pitch for the diversity of said Western European Culture? Is the physical size of the "giant" parking lot not meant to illustrate the diversity?

I don't have a beef with the rest of his post. I don't wholly agree with it, but whatever. But that...that was just something.

 

[Jester David]

You just reduced 9/10ths of the world to "three or four parking spots" in a "giant parking lot" of Western European white culture. I'm...speechless.

It's admittedly a poor and imperfect analogy, but it gets the emotional point across.

Who hasn't stared at those parking stalls and fumed because they had to walk four or five extra meters from a less desirable spot? The focus on what you're denied rather than what you have, and ignoring the invisible advantages bestowed.

 

[Argyle King]

As a general rule, you shouldn't produce content for public consumption based on the culture of a people you do not belong to, with the exception of making product based on the majority culture.

I agree with portions of your sentiment, but I am not without questions.

What is considered the majority culture in the context of a company producing materials used worldwide?

In an increasingly digital marketplace, the distance between producers of content and consumers of content is easier to cover.

Should a D&D book use different artwork or narrative text depending upon where it is to be shipped?

Does genre matter?
If I write a Space Fantasy setting, I am a human from Earth culture, so is all of it fair game?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It was such an amazingly bad analogy. Or did OP not compare to non-western European culture to three or four handicapped parking spaces ("stalls") in a giant parking lot (meant to symbolize Western European culture) in an effort to make a pitch for the diversity of said Western European Culture? Is the physical size of the "giant" parking lot not meant to illustrate the diversity?

No. They didn’t do that at all.

They compared complaining about one thing to complaining about another, equally lame thing to complain about. It’s completely nonsensical to whine about being asked not to appropriate form minority/marginalized cultures, in the same way that it is nonsensical to whine about not being allowed to park in one of a few parking spots in a lot full of parking spots.

One isn’t being oppressed by being asked to stick to cultures whose real life living members aren’t being marginalized or oppressed.

 

[MGibster]

As a general rule, you shouldn't produce content for public consumption based on the culture of a people you do not belong to, with the exception of making product based on the majority culture.

Then, as a general rule, we shouldn't lament the dearth of fantasy games that step outside the typical pseudo-European pastiche.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Alan Quartermain (EDIT: Alan Quartmain was not an aristocrat. huh.)

The rest of his party where though, and they are all pretty bad-ass.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

As a general rule, you shouldn't produce content for public consumption based on the culture of a people you do not belong to, with the exception of making product based on the majority culture.

Now I'm curious. Where's this rule written? Who created it? Who approved it?

 

[Reynard]

The other Tolkien elements are in from the beginning, so they can’t be there because fans demanded it.

I didn't say fans. I said players. The game was being developed through play for years.

 

[Jester David]

Then, as a general rule, we shouldn't lament the dearth of fantasy games that step outside the typical pseudo-European pastiche.

That is very much the catch-22.

I've seen people on Twitter ask why there are so few afrocentric campaign settings for D&D. The harsh answer is "because there are so few people of African decent working in gaming."

Which leads to the easy fix of hiring more People of Colour for gaming positions and supporting the ones in the industry.