Gamesing

[aesmael]

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Around December I went back to playing World of Warcraft, mainly because the people I played with decided to go back to it also. The group had branched out to another server to play Horde characters and because of various complications (me doing NaNoWriMo, my home net connection being throttled to dial-up speeds so that downloading the game patches took two weeks), by the time I got back into the game everyone else's characters were all levelled in the mid-20s or higher. So I created a tauren druid named Katacat to join them (and an undead mage named Antikata, and... )

The point is I spent a fair meanwhile playing her to catch up with the others, so they could group together. Playing on the Horde side felt distinctly uncomfortable relative to the Alliance side of last time. It put me in mind of race drag. The tauren feel very much like pop-cultural Native Americans and the trolls are seeming very much to be Rastafarian stereotypes (plus some Cannibal Islander in the mix). It bothers me. And the Horde side seems to have much more extreme sexual dimorphism, with the women often scarcely resembling the men beyond skin colour. When I was making an orc warlock it seemed like the female model could fit entirely inside the male model.

It is also quite jarring when Voodoo is referenced within the game (pertaining to trolls, of course... are they just all islanders of colour all at once?), such as when a character mentions sending an enemy's severed head to a troll friend because he 'knows he likes to use that sort of thing in his voodoo rituals'. Do the writers not realise this is an actual, specific real-world religion they are referencing? I think if the word 'Voodoo' there were replaced with 'Christian' I think many more people would recognise that as jarring, as pertaining to a specific set (of sets) of beliefs and rituals which have no place being explicitly referenced in a fictitious world which does not support their development. Likewise for shaman. These are specific, actual things, not generic terms which attach to nothing particular.

Conversely, I have been quite enjoying the wildlife of the Barrens. We stick European animals and plants in fantasy settings all the time, so it is a pleasant change to see some lions and zebras and hyenas and giraffes roaming about, although I mislike how much of a minority that zone is in compared with the rest of the world. It does make me think I would like to see some areas themed with Australian-based flora and fauna (perhaps the new island zones in the Cataclysm expansion? although I think that decision and work is already past and done by now). I suspect that ironically where that where 'voodoo' and 'shaman' pass often unnoticed and unremarked, including creatures derived from those inhabiting Australia would throw people out of suspended disbelief and perhaps lead to accusations of inappropriate inclusions. I say that because I believe the general 'we' is accustomed to seeing, frex, kangaroos as symbolising the specific place Australia, and that we are accustomed also to seeing the religions of people of colour as synonymous with dark magic and spirits so we don't notice the appropriation of those or see a problem with it. (the omnipresence of wolves and boars[1] and bears is also invisible, for different reasons) Then again, they have annual festivals based on Christmas and Valentines, so maybe not.

Speaking of the festivals, they have recently put me in mind that I would love to see global seasons implemented. I suppose the way the festivals are synced annually would be an impediment but still I would love to see changing seasons done on a scale shorter than a year (maybe over four months? one month per season, keeping the festivals always occurring in their proper season), and separated too north from south. It would be lovely to see how the zones change through the 'year'. Much of the game I have been finding quite beautiful even with the graphics necessarily turned far down; I wouldn't want to see them all given conventional spring, summer, etc., but something appropriate to existing themes could be quite breathtaking.

[1] Oh, boars! This game is the only time I have seen them depicted as peaceful, plentiful creatures rather than elusive, ornery animals it is unwise to stumble upon.

Comments

[smurasaki.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the sexual dimorphism in WoW is a little much (other than gnomes and dwarves - they seem about right) and Taurens and Trolls do seem like race drag. On the other hand, I've always liked that the Horde side is better (on the good/evil scale) than the Alliance - even if both sides are rather mixed. And I like that Dwarf and Orc women actually look like they could be warriors.

Seasons would be a nice addition, since it is a pretty game.