What We Lose When We Eliminate Controversial Content

[Hussar]

I often wonder why. They were clearly willing to try non-European settings--Planescape, Council of Wyrms, and a lot of the Realms shows that. Were they afraid they couldn't do it right, was it some sort of belief that gamers wouldn't want to play humans who weren't white, or was Africa just not cool in the same way that the popularity of kung fu movies and ninjas made Oriental Adventures cool?

Probably a bit of all of the above.

 

[Scribe]

I brought up sexuality, specifically in reference to a mock product featuring big-breasted women. You brought up skin color, apropos of nothing.

Fair, I still think that the assumptions of a monolith for all parties in this strained comparison, are fully and completely wrong.

 

[billd91]

As a non-American my first thought here is why should the rest of the world be beholden to US history and current culture?

1) You sure it's just US history and current culture?
2) If the US is the biggest market for a particular product, shouldn't its particulars be taken into account?

 

[Scribe]

1) You sure it's just US history and current culture?
2) If the US is the biggest market for a particular product, shouldn't its particulars be taken into account?

Yes to both?

 

[MGibster]

They were clearly willing to try non-European settings--Planescape, Council of Wyrms, and a lot of the Realms shows that. Were they afraid they couldn't do it right, was it some sort of belief that gamers wouldn't want to play humans who weren't white, or was Africa just not cool in the same way that the popularity of kung fu movies and ninjas made Oriental Adventures cool?

Well I think the existence of Oriental Adventures and Bushido is evidence that playing humans who weren't white wasn't the problem. What you're seeing I think is a result of many of us being exposed to movies from China and Japan as well as Japanese manga and animation in the 70s and 80s. I can't think of any African cartoon, movie, or comic book that could be found by the average American in the United States at the same time. Maybe if we knew about Botswanan heavy metal back then we'd have more African inspired sourcebooks.

 

[Lanefan]

Market realities are what they are. WotC and Paizo are American companies, largely selling to American markets. US history and culture will dominate their work. Expecting otherwise is unrealistic.

Perhaps, but expecting the rest of us to take the same view of things as does US history and culture is also a bit unrealistic. I mean, Canada ain't perfect (to say the least!) but we simply don't have the same history with slavery that the US does, and thus can perhaps look at it a bit more dispassionately as either just one more thing Bad People do (in some settings) or as a socially-accepted fact of life (in some other settings).

 

[Lanefan]

I often wonder why. They were clearly willing to try non-European settings--Planescape, Council of Wyrms, and a lot of the Realms shows that. Were they afraid they couldn't do it right, was it some sort of belief that gamers wouldn't want to play humans who weren't white, or was Africa just not cool in the same way that the popularity of kung fu movies and ninjas made Oriental Adventures cool?

I suspect the latter.

England was "cool" in the 60s. Australia was "cool" in the early 80s. Kung-fu etc. was "cool" for a longer run, maybe mid-70s to early 90s, and has come and gone since. One could argue Africa really hasn't had its "cool" moment yet in western culture.

 

[Scribe]

One could argue Africa really hasn't had its "cool" moment yet in western culture.

I think Black Panther would have been this? I cannot think of anything off the top of my head that I would have been exposed to in Canada that was clearly playing off Africa, like we had for other regions (Japan takes over the world, England as you noted, romantic views on China). I dont know, the vast majority of media influences I had would have been punk, western views on japan/china, old school fantasy, and thats about it.

Afrofuturism settings?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I suspect the latter.

England was "cool" in the 60s. Australia was "cool" in the early 80s. Kung-fu etc. was "cool" for a longer run, maybe mid-70s to early 90s, and has come and gone since. One could argue Africa really hasn't had its "cool" moment yet in western culture.

I think Africa gets most of its RPG exposure by way of Ancient and Roman Egypt which has had a lot of references throughout D&D history.

There is certainly a lot of untapped interesting potential to be found in central and south Africa, for sure.

 

[Kaodi]

I suppose at some point the question becomes: If WotC does not want to publish material for IPs that are too controversial to reform then why not just sell them? If they are in fact a dollar maximizing endeavour and they are sitting on material they will never develop again then why hold onto it rather than spin it out into a new 3rd party publisher that can do what they don't want to?