Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8329624" data-attributes="member: 71699">In my experience everyone has some things they find too repugnant to include of games. You can - I hope - think of some things you would never include in your games. The fact we can have things that are too repugnant tells us that it's not a question of separation from reality, but of where the line is drawn for us. I have in mind three audiences, who might draw that line in different places -<ol>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">There are those who really are sharing stories innocently. They don't mean harm and the narrative doesn't stand for harm, to them.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">There are those who are using those same stories to celebrate and normalise their world view. A harmful world view. Regardless of what the first group intend their innocently shared stories are taken advantage of by this second audience.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">And then there are the harmed. Those for whom the brave paladin defending the colonists is not some abstract tale of heroism against monsters. Those suffering present and ongoing harm, for whom such narratives are echoing and normalising ideals that will go on to harm them. I am thinking here of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and Maori people, and all the other dispossessed whose health, social, and economic outcomes today are a dismaying product of projects of colonialism.</li>
</ol>Given we are free to choose what narratives we sustain in our games, I believe we have the reasonable question: why do we need to echo harmful themes? We might well do so to illuminate and challenge them, but to do so blithely? It is easy for the unaffected to argue that something that doesn't affect them is being taken too seriously.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="clearstream, post: 8329624, member: 71699"] In my experience everyone has some things they find too repugnant to include of games. You can - I hope - think of some things you would never include in your games. The fact we can have things that are too repugnant tells us that it's not a question of separation from reality, but of where the line is drawn for us. I have in mind three audiences, who might draw that line in different places - [LIST=1] [*]There are those who really are sharing stories innocently. They don't mean harm and the narrative doesn't stand for harm, to them. [*]There are those who are using those same stories to celebrate and normalise their world view. A harmful world view. Regardless of what the first group intend their innocently shared stories are taken advantage of by this second audience. [*]And then there are the harmed. Those for whom the brave paladin defending the colonists is [I]not[/I] some abstract tale of heroism against monsters. Those suffering present and ongoing harm, for whom such narratives are echoing and normalising ideals that will go on to harm them. I am thinking here of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and Maori people, and all the other dispossessed whose health, social, and economic outcomes today are a dismaying product of projects of colonialism. [/LIST] Given we are free to choose what narratives we sustain in our games, I believe we have the reasonable question: why do we need to echo harmful themes? We might well do so to illuminate and challenge them, but to do so blithely? It is easy for the unaffected to argue that something that doesn't affect [I]them[/I] is being taken too seriously. [/QUOTE]

Verification