coop500 wrote: »

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

Vanya wrote: »

Observation based on what? Opinion of dozen of players playing Argonian race? Any race can be a healer,also you may be lucky only. It makes no sense if person plays specific race may or may not be what you implied, the word.

I play Altmer does that make me more of them "lore-wise" or attitude. Generally players who are healers tend to be more desirable to many.

I disagree respectfully for me there I see no logic in thread.

Millions plays Elder Scrolls Online, completely random and irrelevant if Player A plays Nord,Altmer,Argonian or Player B can be Orc and all of them could be as same world you provided" So if you met few cool Argonians does not mean its true ,far from it.

No, it's actually fascinating, I think. A huge body of research exists that examines racism in fantasy games, particularly in MMOs and how racism perpetuates in role playing. I've only skimmed it, but the majority of what I've seen usually focuses on white and Black avatars and how racism is perpetuated in RP.

I was trying to research whether RPing someone racist against Argonians might be more likely to be racist in general. It's a much "safer" type of fantasy racism because they're, well.... lizard people. There exists already a race that's closer to actual Black people (the most frequent target of even fantasy racism): Redguards. I don't know that I've seen any racism targeting them in the game.

What interests me, then, is that in TES there's an interesting structure: Argonians, the most oft-discriminated race in-universe and least favorite among real players. Then you've got the Redguards... if you've played Morrowind and looked at their concept art and original portrayal, they were meant to mirror Black people. Players may view them as more Arab/Saudi now, but even with that, their minority status in the real-world still stands. However you look at it, they seem pretty ignored (which in and or itself may signal an issue, but that's a different topic) by players. We're thus got a universe where the primary targets of racism are those from a race that doesn't exist in the real world, even when that race actually exists in the game universe.

Maybe it's less interesting or meaningful than I think it is. It adds an interesting structure in terms of fantasy racism. To your point, I think there's something to be said about players who actively seek out the most oppressed race and choose to play them. They are wildly unpopular in-universe, and if you go to Stonefalls on any given day, there's a good chance that someone in zone chat will be professing their hatred of them. I'd assume they might tend to be more compassionate (the ones who choose to play them b/c of this, not those who choose them b/c they're good healers). The people I know who play them like this are all awesome and thoughtful people, but my sample is pretty small and it may just be that I tend to seek out this kind of person anyway.

Or maybe I'm just an armchair psychologist who spends too much time on social justice Twitter...

I think this is quite correct, frankly I am a bit wary of people who roleplay as racist all the time. IMO it means they're probably a jerk IRL/OOC too. Maybe not actively racist, but still unpleasant to be around.