Racism question

[Camel]

Are characters in game allowed to develop or hold prejudices against people of other races, regions, languages, religions, or whatever other distinction we can come up with. There's a lot of feelings about the issue OOC for some players, so while I have no characters that would currently be prejudiced, felt it better to ask now then potentially get banned down the line.

[Hedgedhogst]

I couldn't give official answers on this, but I wanted to throw in the approach I've been using in the past.

I'm comfortable with holding prejudice against regions and religions, because those that exist in Cantr aren't regions or religions that exist in real life, even if there may be some similarities.

Race prejudice, I stay very far away from if it's a race the exists in real life. I don't want to risk offending anyone out there, and if I have a character who has a big problem with race A, then it's possible for any/every player from race A to be offended personally by that.

Language prejudice is a little more grey. I've seen towns that ban languages other than their own. I've seen groups kill characters that speak languages other than their own. I haven't seen any big issues arise from that, first hand. I guess, for me, if my characters were to have a problem with languages, I would have to base it on the theory that he doesn't understand the language, so he can have the fear/paranoia that they could be talking about him or plotting against him.

What I wouldn't want to see, is big wars breaking out in-game with white vs black. I don't want to see Polish vs Engish, but I have no problem with seeing Treefeather vs Fu.

[MattWithoos]

As long as it is sensitive to any real life issues (I.e. don't use the N word...) and the prejudice is 100% developed in-game (and you can prove it with turn reports for example) then it should be okay. I think you also need to have a character who isn't too bright and usually generalises. For example if they are Polish and they only ever see two groups of English players - and both are pirates or raiders - it's fairly reasonable for them to be distrusting of the EZ and form a hatred for them.

[Camel]

I'd say that's fairly sensible, and about my own thoughts on the matter. I would like a member of staff to weigh in in some official capacity though, for some confirmation

[Vega]

I had this character that thought that every person that spoke a different language than her was evil, cause that's what they taught her when a newspawn: People that speaks other languages are killers and we must lock and kill them.

[SekoETC]

I've had some characters that are homophobic, which I think spices things up because several of my characters are bisexual or gay. It's surprising how, even though the world is superficially very tolerant, no one has ever confronted them for being ridiculous, and if you say two guys doing it with each other is wrong, people are more likely to agree than not. Maybe it depends on the environment.

I also had one character in the past who thought heterosexuality was abnormal while homosexuality was the norm. She grew up in a small town with two lesbian couples and it took her probably ten years or so to find out that men can be sexual creatures as well as women.

[MonkeyPants4736]

That's totally allowed to hold prejudices that are developed in game, and it's happened plenty of times already.

[ManyVoices]

It is a society simulator ... societies and people hold prejudices and are racist.

I had a character Orand Een who lived on Fu. He met the Polish people for the first time and had what he felt was a very bad experience. Based on that experience he thought the Polish people were all evil. He even tried to get a person banned from his English town, and as punishment have to go live with the Polish.

He carried that prejudice/racism for years, even as his fellow townsmen tried to persuade him otherwise.

Near the end of his life as he met other Polish characters, and got to know the one he had such great fear of better, he actually came to love the Polish, though often questioned the usefulness of their language.

Good ole Orand Een, probably my most entertaining character!

[SekoETC]

A bit off topic but I remember Orand vaguely. I played Cole Bach and as far as I can remember, they spawned around the same time.

[ManyVoices]

Yes, Cole and Orand came from the same town. I think Orand did a pretty good job of annoying Cole ... and all the other towns folk. He paraded around in a skirt and nothing else, finishes most of his sentences with a nod or a "Hmm". He was very blunt and said what he was thinking, hence his racist rants against the Polish.