MMOs Encourage Racism?

25 Nov 2008 at 12:06:01 by

A Nerd Nite presentation on 18 November discussed the issues surrouding racism in Dungeons & Dragons as reported in this week's MMO Weekly.

Although the talk was primarily regarding the old-skool pen-and-pencil RPG, elements and concerns were raised regarding race and the advantages and disadvantages of choosing particular races in the game.

The presentation argues that all of the “good” classes are white while the evil classes are “tainted”, i.e. not white and representing uncivilised beings.

What the Nerd Nite Presentation fails to address is that choosing a class and a race is the choice of the player regardless of the reasons.

The question here however is whether it's fair to criticise a game for racism when the game is based on fiction and the characters are fictional.  Or should we be more worried about the real racism, where people haven't had the choice of which race to be?

We'd love to hear your comments.

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