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[Putnam]

Just noticed that Google Chrome now has a symbol on a tab if it's making noise.

[alway]

We have to negatively portray something, or we'll run out of antagonists. COD is even starting to get in trouble for their Russia/China whathaveyou.

What do you think The Elusive Man or most of the antagonists of Bioshock are? You simply take those who were portraying the other as evil, then turn them into the antagonists. Discriminators, racists, the xenophobic, and hate groups are the antagonists.

[Bauglir]

If we suddenly became a part of an interstellar community this very moment, would all video games with aliens be racist?

I would say no, since I feel like racism requires you to actually be making judgments on some level about the race in question. Since one of the defining qualities of the alien races in video games is that they're fictional, I don't think that the depiction of an alien race in a game could possibly be racist, even if there is an actual alien species with which humanity makes contact that is otherwise functionally identical. It could totally be offensive in the context of a human society in contact with such a species, mind you, but I don't think it could qualify as racism. It could also cause racism, and further games in the same tradition might be motivated by racism, too.

It seems weird to say that whether or not something is racist is dependent on a fact that's impossible to verify, basically. That the existence of aliens with whom we never have any contact could be relevant here seems kind of like saying the alignment of the planets is relevant to your personality, ability to form meaningful relationships, and future luck.

[MaximumZero]

We have to negatively portray something, or we'll run out of antagonists. COD is even starting to get in trouble for their Russia/China whathaveyou.

This is why I'm waiting until the US gets the negative portrayal. I mean, aside from certain MGS games.

[Parsely]

I wasn't saying that we shouldn't feature aliens in fiction just in case there's aliens out there who would be offended, if that's what you mean. Because that's hilariously ridiculous.

[Bauglir]

Yeah, but you did ask whether or not first contact would spontaneously transmute things from not-racist to racist, and that's what I answered

[Parsely]

Yeah, but you did ask whether or not first contact would spontaneously transmute things from not-racist to racist, and that's what I answered

Oh okay! Sorry I just assumed that you, being an intelligent human being, would have inferred a bit when it came to the instantaneous transmutation part. My bad. :p

If we suddenly became a part of an interstellar community this very moment, I wonder what aliens would think about human portrayal of aliens as antagonists in fiction? And vice versa.

I probably should've said it like this.

[Mr Space Cat]

These peanut butter cheerios are delicious. I only got them today, and I've already eaten half the box by snacking. Om nom num num. I regret nothing.

[Bauglir]

Oh okay! Sorry I just assumed that you, being an intelligent human being, would have inferred a bit when it came to the instantaneous transmutation part. My bad. :p

Sorry I just assumed that you, being an intelligent human being, would have inferred a bit...

intelligent

JOKE'S ON YOU, PAL

THERE ARE ROCKS SMARTER THAN BAUGLIR

[Parsely]

Heh. c:

[Descan]

Well, if the aliens are silicon...

Plus, computers.

[kaijyuu]

Re: political correctness in regards to aliens.


There's an easy solution. We stop fucking portraying ethnic groups of people as inherently evil. Kill the "faceless mook" trope.

Making them "orcs" or whatever isn't really better. To eliminate unfortunate implications you have to eliminate excuses to hate entire groups of people.

[hops]

I think religious terrorists are still acceptable targets.
Bonus point if you can actually make them sound like the good guys.

[Bauglir]

Well, ethnic groups sure, but in any adversarial game you are going to need a cohesive group of foes in order for a huge variety of stories to make any sense. Unless we're going to construct only narratives in which there's a lone, evil villain of great personal power to be struggled against, you're going to need some kind of group. As for faceless mooks, I'm kind of ambivalent. On the one hand, devaluing human life is no good, on the other hand portraying sympathetic human lives is a hell of a burden to impose on somebody trying to assemble a stress-relief fantasy simulation that isn't about the characters anyway.

Anyway, it's kind of weird how good thousand island dressing and mustard are in curry.

[Frumple]

Kill the "faceless mook" trope.

That's... pretty limiting to the whole field of escapism and entertainment and whatnot. Y'already hear a lot of complaint (and occasional backlash) towards making the "bad guys" relatable or whatev', because (among other reasons) it makes everything same-y. And part of the reason many turn to fiction to begin with is to be able to deal with simple scenarios. It's reasonable to not go the other way and have nothing but blunt good/evil stuff, but too far in either direction hurts the world of storytelling. Cuts off so many possibilities at the knee.

I mean... you'd have to ditch the Zerg. And the Orkz. All sorts of robot uprisings. Pretty much the entire zombie subgenre. Almost anything caste based (in the sense of ants and whatnot) that have part of their species non-sentient. Just... a lot. Faceless mooks provide a lot of opportunities to storytelling ;_;