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[G-Flex]

My problem with the always online thing is my internet connection drops out frequently enough for it to be annoying. Where I live I have at least 20 networks within range and no matter what I try they still seem to be interfering enough to occasionally kick me off my own goddamn network at random times. And because of where the modem is, an ethernet cable is impractical...

Stupid question probably, but have you tried changing the channel your router is operating on?

As for ads:
Personally I think if you're going to do ads in games, you should put them in the game as background details and update them via an internet connection whenever a user is connected.

Call me strange, but I'm not sure how you'd integrate an ad for a modern company into a Diablo game as a "background detail".

[MorleyDev]

My problem with the always online thing is my internet connection drops out frequently enough for it to be annoying. Where I live I have at least 20 networks within range and no matter what I try they still seem to be interfering enough to occasionally kick me off my own goddamn network at random times. And because of where the modem is, an ethernet cable is impractical...

Stupid question probably, but have you tried changing the channel your router is operating on?

Yes, repeatedly. Yet to find a setting that doesn't do this though I have managed to find a setting combination that changes it from occurring every few hours to every couple of days...that's something.

As for ads:
Personally I think if you're going to do ads in games, you should put them in the game as background details and update them via an internet connection whenever a user is connected.

Call me strange, but I'm not sure how you'd integrate an ad for a modern company into a Diablo game as a "background detail".

Admittedly that's one flaw in the idea xD

[forsaken1111]

I dunno, I could see the witch doctor pushing puppy chow.

[G-Flex]

Yes, repeatedly. Yet to find a setting that doesn't do this though I have managed to find a setting combination that changes it from occurring every few hours to every couple of days...that's something.

This might also be something you've checked, but if not, check for other potential sources of 2.4GHz interference, like certain cordless house phones or microwave ovens. Not much you could do about the latter, and that's probably not the issue, but it's worth mentioning (it's happened to me before).

I dunno, I could see the witch doctor pushing puppy chow.

Please don't remind me of the witch doctor. Can we please stop creating video game characters who are obvious racial caricatures from a few decades ago? Might as well create a dark-skinned character class with thick lips who eats watermelon.

[mcclay]

This is going back a bit but one of some's grivences was WoW fanservice, and I have to ask how is that a bad thing? If it is the fanservice that we all know about I see no problem with it, a busty charcter should not piss you off so much to not play the game. I personally believe that it is a good thing but is just me. If it is thing like making nods to the WoW game universe I think that is kinda cool. if it is directly emulating gameplay I can see how that would piss you off.

[V-Norrec]

lolwut?  I remember history pretty well, so correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm fairly certain we/anybody never claimed people of African descent could summon demon dogs, or spread flesh eating bugs around, or even make a wall of zombies.  The idea that we conclude a tribal character of African (by our standards not the game's standards) is instantly racist when he has the same opportunity to develop as a character as all the other potential choices you could make kinda makes me think you call any portrayal of a dark-skinned male racist.  You jump to the conclusion that it must be racist and the witch doctor can't instead be based off of African lore and be a really cool example of said lore.  A (perhaps) stereotypical design does not equate to a stereotypical character.

[Vherid]

Please don't remind me of the witch doctor. Can we please stop creating video game characters who are obvious racial caricatures from a few decades ago? Might as well create a dark-skinned character class with thick lips who eats watermelon.

Oh no, anything but the actual fantasy of a real witch doctor that originates from such cultures. I guess maybe if it was an Irish witch doctor it would not only be non-racist, but also make so much more sense. Anything to be politically correct these days! As a matter of fact, let's indeed stop having CHARACTERS, and instead let's just base everyone off of real life examples. No more witty adventurous die hards, let's just make everyone dull and boring, and REALISTIC. Let's make the game exactly like Star Wars episode 1. Not a single memorable character.

Voodoo witch doctors are bad ass, and just because it's a possible stereotype, doesn't mean it's stereotypical. Stereotypes exist for a reason, and they started somewhere, they didn't just appear out of thin air. Characters are also supposed to be VIBRANT and possibly even EXTREME in what they represent, other wise they wouldn't be, you know, characters.

[G-Flex]

lolwut?  I remember history pretty well, so correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm fairly certain we/anybody never claimed people of African descent could summon demon dogs, or spread flesh eating bugs around, or even make a wall of zombies.  The idea that we conclude a tribal character of African (by our standards not the game's standards) is instantly racist when he has the same opportunity to develop as a character as all the other potential choices you could make kinda makes me think you call any portrayal of a dark-skinned male racist.

No, it's the fact that

You jump to the conclusion that it must be racist and the witch doctor can't instead be based off of African lore and be a really cool example of said lore.  A (perhaps) stereotypical design does not equate to a stereotypical character.

If the design is a racial stereotype, that's still a problem... and I'd say it's more than the design anyway. Seriously, the guy runs around wearing skulls, giant hoop lip-rings and comically oversized masks while raising the dead. It sounds like the sort of classical American/British caricature of African tribal (and possibly Caribbean) culture that I didn't think was even around anymore.

Voodoo witch doctors are bad ass, and just because it's a possible stereotype, doesn't mean it's stereotypical.

Quoting this just to bring attention to it. Seriously, what does this even mean? And yes, it is a stereotype. The entire freaking character concept is an amalgamation of fucked-up Imperial British style attitudes toward African tribal peoples, with a dash of American stereotypes surrounding "voodoo". I wouldn't be surprised if the Diablo character also had head-shrinking powder, for crying out loud.

Stereotypes exist for a reason, and they started somewhere, they didn't just appear out of thin air. Characters are also supposed to be VIBRANT and possibly even EXTREME in what they represent, other wise they wouldn't be, you know, characters.

Actually, yes, you can have memorable characters without making them "extreme" or basing them off real-world cultural stereotypes. I'm not sure why that needs to be explained to you. The rest of your post was so off-kilter it's honestly not worth responding to. Lay off the straw-men and non-sequitur crap.


The fact of the matter is that racial and cultural caricatures still exist and are still not very nice, so you have to be kind of careful when you're teetering on the edge of seeming ignorant about what you're trying to represent in any work you create. People do that shit with "gypsies" all the time, incorporating them into stories as dudes who curse people or steal things or act as conniving tricksters without realizing that they're maligning an actual ethnic group and people in the process. In this case, if you're going to base a character class off of some particular tribal society, you have to make damn sure you do it right and that it doesn't come off as the same kind of head-shrinking witch-doctor (seriously, that word itself is pretty damn ahistorical and steeped in the ignorance of an earlier historical period) caricature that you'd have seen in cartoons from the 1940's.

[Niveras]

Tangent, but:

As for ads:
Personally I think if you're going to do ads in games, you should put them in the game as background details and update them via an internet connection whenever a user is connected.

No, actually, that would be even worse. There -may- be some merit in something like sports games, or a game based in the modern day (think GTA), where billboards and other advertising space is present, but because of the limits in legality they're all faked and frequently satirical. But in any other game setting - and the former is surely the minority of games - advertising of any kind will simply break immersion. I don't need a giant "Drink Coke!" floor tile while playing Spiral Knights, or a smart car mount driving around LoTRO.

Advertising in general needs to be taken down a notch, not amped up and inserted into every crevice, every media, you can find.

[Lagslayer]

How are we ever move past racism if we can't handle a little caricature without flying off the handle? Avoiding the problem won't make it go away.

[ChairmanPoo]

It could be worse, G-Flex. In warcraft 3, witch doctors were cannibal jamaican trolls. Compared to that, the ethnical stereotyping of the Diablo 3 witch doctor is pretty tame.

And if I might add:

the saddest thing about the witch doctor is that it's an ethnical stereotype that is there for essentially no reason. It's essentially a slightly tweaked, black,  Diablo 2 necromancer, so it's not even that original.

[G-Flex]

How are we ever move past racism if we can't handle a little caricature without flying off the handle? Avoiding the problem won't make it go away.

Huh? Yes, avoiding the problem won't go away, which is exactly why I try to be aware of stereotyping where it exists even when it's a grey area or almost certainly unintentional.

It could be worse, G-Flex. In warcraft 3, witch doctors were cannibal jamaican trolls. Compared to that, the ethnical stereotyping of the Diablo 3 witch doctor is pretty tame.

Hrm. I'm not sure. What was ethnically offensive about those trolls aside from maybe having an unfortunate accident? I never played the game.

But yeah, sometimes the most insidiously unfortunate stereotypes are the ones people aren't even aware they're doing. If you write about a black guy who eats watermelons and fried chicken a lot and steals home theater equipment from people's homes, that's obvious. If you write about a gyspy who curses people and weaves illusion (presumably also to steal home theater equipment), it's not, because we aren't as aware of where that stereotype comes from, or even the fact that there's an actual ethnicity out there being maligned.

[Lagslayer]

What qualifies as "obvious" stereotypical images is too subjective. What is obvious to someone may be completely alien to another. Also, there are individuals that would seem very stereotypical, with some being more common than others. Are you supposed to ban an image of a black person eating fried chicken and watermelon? What about the gypsy that curses people? What about a Jewish businessman or an Arab suicide bomber?

Also, at least under american law, I'm going to call First Amendment on this one. For non-Americans or anyone that may not know what that is, here's a wikipedia link.

[V-Norrec]

Trolls were my favorite race in WoW and in WC3 I had a fun almost entirely Troll build (got a Farseer and some grunts/tauren to soak up damage for my Headhunters).  I'd hardly call it an issue if it's poking fun at a stereotype; after all, nobody taken seriously actually thinks of Caribbean people as Cannibals/Headhunters/Witch Doctors.   I think with the Diablo 3 Witch Doctor they are just expanding the "universe" of Diablo so there is more variation of locations, cultures, etc.  Adding diversity to a game world that already includes caricatures of Amazons and Vikings, by adding Monks (obviously based off of the Shaolin Monks), and Tribal Witch Doctors is hardly out of the question.  Seriously, why would witch doctors be so bad but the Amazon, Viking, and Monk stereotypes don't put you off a bit?  If you're going to be offended, go for the gold and be offended by everything.

[G-Flex]

What qualifies as "obvious" stereotypical images is too subjective. What is obvious to someone may be completely alien to another. Also, there are individuals that would seem very stereotypical, with some being more common than others. Are you supposed to ban an image of a black person eating fried chicken and watermelon? What about the gypsy that curses people? What about a Jewish businessman or an Arab suicide bomber?

Also, at least under american law, I'm going to call First Amendment on this one. For non-Americans or anyone that may not know what that is, here's a wikipedia link.

What the fuck does the first amendment have to do with this? I never said that people don't have the right to engage in racial stereotyping. That is completely irrelevant to discussion.

Seriously, why would witch doctors be so bad but the Amazon, Viking, and Monk stereotypes don't put you off a bit?  If you're going to be offended, go for the gold and be offended by everything.

This is a fair point, and in that case I'd add the barbarians too. However, the "monks" are often less of a stereotype and more a character archetype that is distinctly Asian to begin with, and the Amazons never actually existed, instead being based on some old Greek story or another.