Filament wrote...
Fast Jimmy wrote...
Well, that's fair that you have that opinion of the writing team (largely, Gaider himself, since he did the vast majority of the heavy lifting early on the world building process, so he could be said to have fashioned the "European-esque, white" Thedas). But I think that is a dfferent thread... "Bioware is racist because there are no Asians in Thedas." Not "There should be Asians in Thedas." I don't personally ascribe to that theory (again... Jade Empire says hello), but you are more than welcome to create a new thread that more clearly states the perceived problem issue.
I would also say that you could consider me going off the rails on that silly train, then. Because its basic genetics - races look alike because they have been breeding together for hudnreds, thousands and even TENS of thousands of years. If you were to mix people with different racial traits together for hundreds or thousands of years, they would cease being separate races merge into a new one, unless, of course, there is reproduction segregation going on... or the constant introduction of new races, as well. You'd need a large, robust population of new race roughly every couple hundred years to stem the tide of a 1,000 years of co-mingling. And even then... that would likely result in a roughyl equivalent number of integrated racial traits, not preservations of the original racial traits entirely.
Apparently you think BioWare are already racists then too. If you believe that, why is Rivain OK? There's no explanation of them heralding from some isolated land (ie another continent) where they can engage in "reproductive segregation" without these Implications.
Not true. Greeks lived less (apparent) distance away from the Germans as Fereldens do from Rivain. Yet the skin tones between the two groups in our real-life history are quite disparate. Why could not the same be said of those who live in Rivain and Ferelden?
It's one thing to say "different nations look different from one another." It's another, entirely, to say "everyone in Thedas lives next door to people who reflect a wide variety of ethnic appearances that mirror our real-life... and it has been that way for millenia, with races remaining the same in apperance." That's a shallow replication of our real-life state, which is, as I've stated here and in other responses, completely unsustainable from a genetic point of view. A middle ground in appearance and traits is found when groups live within mere miles of each other... unless, of course, racism or other social pressures keeps these different groups from interacting in a more familiar basis over centuries.
To the general point of the setting being problematic simply for its existence, I'm not going to really push it, but yeah, you can put me on the record that it's annoying that it's just another another medieval = white fantasy sandbox when it could be different.
Turn random NPC's in the Orlesian market to suddenly represent every conceivable ethnicity in our real world with no real background of what's going on? Nope. That sounds like bad story telling and narrative consistency.
Sounds like the Denerim market, except Denerim was terribly underpopulated as a city. An appropriately populated one could have even more conspiciously asian looking denizens who are nonetheless ignored as such for the sake of argument.
Yet every foreign citizen in the Denerim market was from another country. If they lived in Ferelden for even two or three more generations, their offspring cultural identities would be much more in line with their Ferelden counterparts than those of their native countries.
Genetic, physical traits are a little more resilient, but would still become manifest in a different manner than the original appearnce over the course of hundreds of years, unless there is social barriers to doing so. To say otherwise seems to ignore basic sociology, biology and psychology.
EDIT: In addition, nearly every single NPC who could be recognized as "not Ferelden" had a backstory and explanation of where they came from and why they were there. If Asian-appearing NPCs were to also appear in Thedosian cities, but did not have similar discussions and explanations, it would risk damaging the narrative integrity. If they want to do that and also include backstories, I'm all for it. But just don't say "Oh, yeah, there's been Asians living amongst us all this time, we just haven't mentioned it."
Modifié par Fast Jimmy, 13 septembre 2013 - 02:07 .
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