Another Example of Things I Don't Understand

This morning I was reading through RPGnet's forums when I ran across a topic titled "Cultural Appropriation in Games." Now cultural appropriation is a term that I haven't seen since college as most adults are too busy living their lives to be concerned about a bunch of kids in headdresses and face paint who are cheering for the Braves. As it turns out not everyone left behind such foolishness when they parted ways with higher education.

Bountiful Braves Fans by Bill Quick

The topic began because the original poster has a semi-regular podcast and wanted to know if it's possible for someone outside a culture to understand its values, strengths, and shortcomings. From there things just went down a rabbit hole that I find utterly disturbing. Essentially the majority of posters seem to be under the impression that there is no way that anyone can move beyond a pseudo-European setting because white people can't do that. Hell, one poster (who is apparently a moderator for the site) even went so far as to say that the "most respectful course I could take would be not to do it at all and instead devote my free time to volunteering at a soup kitchen." 

I don't understand this line of thinking. 

Look the majority of settings are pseudo-European based and were designed by Americans who are outside the cultures their trying to emulate but that isn't a problem because white people live there? That doesn't make any more sense than arguing that I shouldn't enjoy Al-Qadim because it wasn't a perfect emulation of an imaginary world where genies and flying carpets were common place; or that I shouldn't play with Oriental Adventures because it was written by Gygax.

Let me put it a different way because I'm actually using the reasons that I have seen for not playing in those settings. If I'm playing a game where I am role-playing an imaginary creature who goes out exploring the world, and often kills other imaginary creatures to survive, and the setting provides me with a fun atmosphere to do that in why should I care if it's an accurate representation of a real world culture or that it was written by a bunch of white skinned people and the culture used as a starting point was filled with brown skinned people? The answer is simple: I shouldn't and I don't. 

If I'm playing in the Al-Qadim setting I'm not actually playing in a Medieval approximation of the Near to Middle East, I'm playing in the world of Al-Qadim. That world is its own thing and should be valued on if it provides me with a fun game experience - not on if its an accurate representation of the Ayyubid Empire under Saladin.  The same goes for every setting: it's either fun or it isn't. I play and enjoy Al-Qadim, Greyhawk, the Savage Coast, Soverign Stone, Rifts, Oriental adventures and whatever else will provide me with a fun place to explore. See I'm getting too old to waste my time pretending to be outraged over my silly games because of a bunch of extraneous things that have no impact on the enjoyment I find in the setting. That's a waste of time that will only keep you from enjoying the things you actually like. 

Can Anyone Help Me Find My Fingers?

Son of a bitch it's cold! I think I've froze my fingers clean off!

Doesn't that gif make you feel like a complete pansy for bitching about the cold? I mean, here I am complaining about it being -2 with the windchill and these gals are shirtless standing in front of more snow than I've seen in decades. These ladies are more man than I'll ever be and just looking at them standing there - not giving a fuck about the cold - makes me embarrassed for complaining.

Learn this lesson in life kids: Women win at everything. You're not as tough and you won't ever be.

Wolfenstein: The New Order, a Discussion with Tracy Barnett

This morning I got into a conversation with +Tracy Barnett on twitter about the difficulty screen from Wolfenstein: The New Order which he felt was problematic. After a brief exchange on twitter I asked if he would mind writing out his position on Google+ since twitter is absolutely the worst place to have a discussion about anything more complex than 140 characters can convey (which you can read here). I'd like to take this opportunity to respond to him and to expand upon some points that he raises.

B.J. Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein: the New Order

"Let's start with the picture of the main character first. Square-jawed, blonde-haired, looks muscular. In short, everything a "real man" is supposed to be. That kind of image implicitly tells you that this is the kind of man you want doing your shooting for you. It denies the possibility that any other kind of man could do that. It's an assumption that you can't choose another image for your protagonist, so this is your man. He's an ideal, both in terms of looks, and of action. His face says "I'm strong and I'm violent."

(As an aside, he also looks really Aryan, which in a Nazi-shooting game is problematic in and of itself. But as that's not what this article is about, we move on.)" - Tracy Barnett

Arnold, B.J. Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein 3D, and B.J. Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein: the New Order

Actually B.J. Blazkowicz, the main character in most Wolfenstein games and in this one in particular, is clearly designed to look like an action movie star (most likely Arnold Schwarzenegger) from the late 1980s - early 1990s. The popularity of the action genre was at its height during this time with movies like Commando (1985), Predator (1987), Terminator (1984), and Terminator II (1991) coming out and dominating the box office, each with Arnold in the main role. So there is little surprise that when Wolfenstien 3D came out in 1992 that the main character in this series of games has a similar look (as did the main character in Doom and the countless clones that would come after) to the biggest action movie star of the time.  

 

Not to pick apart your analysis of the character but I must take issue with the idea that the long established image of B.J. ". . . denies the possibility that any other kind of man could do that." While B.J. is the main character of the game there are soldiers of a variety of body shapes and characteristics throughout the game who not only fight the Nazis and survive, but that save your life on multiple occasions. Yes you do look like the same character who has been the center of the franchise for over twenty years; but that shouldn't be any more a problem than Sonic, Mario, Link, or any other series of games using the same main character in each iteration of the series. 

Let's move on to what really seemed to bother Tracy about the difficulty screen: the names of the difficulty settings. In this version of the game ZeniMax Media chose to pay homage to the breakthrough Wolfenstein 3D, which launched the entire genre of first person shooters along with their cheesy catchphrases and over the top violence. The menu items in this version are nearly identical with Wolfenstein 3D with one additional term, Uber.

As you can see from the grouping of difficulty screens the Wolfenstein 3D had all the same settings except for Uber and contained the same sort of pictures to express the difficulty level of each setting - including the bonnet and pacifier that graces the current Can I Play, Daddy? setting. For Tracy these titles and their accompanying pictures express a larger cultural narrative around what it means to be a Man which he goes on about at some length. However I don't see that being expressed in the titles. Rather it continues on a long tradition in first person shooter games, which Wolfenstein 3D started, where the game is challenging the player's skill on every level from level select where the mind games begin to the actual game where the player's skills are put to the test.

The other thing that we discussed on twitter was the violence associated with this sort of game. For Tracy, and I don't think I'm putting words into his mouth here, that violence as the only way to deal with Nazis is a problem. Now Tracy didn't have the benefit of having played the game or even of having watched a play through of the game to give him a greater understanding of what's happening in the game and why killing Nazis in this context is a good and necessary thing. He didn't realize that the Nazis in this alternative timeline are still portrayed as the sort of people who attempted to exterminate Jews from the planet and that rape and murdered their way across the world. He wasn't aware that the Nazis murder a whole hospital of mentally deficients early in the story. He didn't know that the game builds a relationship between you and a diverse group of characters who the Nazis are constantly trying to kill (and in some cases succeed). But still, they're fucking Nazis.

Nazis are not good people who were defending their homeland from an aggressive force allied against them. They invaded other countries, murdered millions of civilians, performed grotesque human experiments (which are mirrored in the game), and in general behaved in the worst way possible for human beings to act. They are portrayed accurately in the game with people being forced into the party and soldiers gleefully murdering anyone not of the right racial stock. So is killing them the only way to deal with Nazis?

Absolutely.

If you'd like to watch some of the actual game, which is a lot of fun if you're into first person shooters, then click on the video below by +Jesse Cox. Jesse's play through of the game is enjoyable and he has a fantastic personality that keeps you coming back through each of the videos in the series. He's done a lot of great play throughs since he started his channel and I cannot recommend him highly enough as he's a clever player with a quick wit.

Oh Palladium Books, Why Can't You Get With the Times?

A confession: I love Palladium Books and Palladium Fantasy Role-Play in particular. I love the settings more than Greyhawk, more than Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, and more than any home brew setting I've ever done; BUT as things stand right now you will never see me post anything about my own efforts in those games. You will never see me create random charts, monsters, classes, or adventures for it. 

Why? 

Because of their restrictive internet policy. Unlike Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, and most independent game companies active in the market today Palladium Books demands that anything you create for their game be given over to them and put under their copyright. While it is true that they are well within their rights to continue acting like the world is the same as it was in 1995, it is also true that few in this age will go along with that policy. I know I certainly won't and surveying the blogging community I only know of three blogs that even come close to supporting Palladium Books products.

Yet even if the internet policy were fixed Palladium would still have an uphill climb because of how bloated the system has become. The whole system - which is a lot of fun if you use nothing but the core books - needs to be cleaned up and simplified again. The storylines need to be refocused and in general the whole thing just needs a good refurbishing. Then it needs a version of the open gaming license so that all of us who love it can openly support it and create the sort of community that exists for Dungeons and Dragons.

Yeah, none of that is going to be happening anytime soon because Siembieda doesn't see the need. But I'm still bitching about it because I would love to put stuff out there and won't until the internet policy is more open and reasonable for this day and age. So I guess I'll be holding my breath until I get my way. 

Embracing Atlantis

I love the idea of lost civilizations and dead cultures in my worlds - both real and imagined. There's something inspiring about knowing that once this world of ours held people who were far more technologically advanced than we would have believed possible at the time and that they suddenly decided to fuck off and disappear. Think about that for a moment. It would be like waking up one day and finding out that French had suddenly decided that they had run their course and just disappeared into the world, leaving behind empty cities and monuments for the rest of us to stare at in mute horror. 

What's wild about that is that it's actually happened in recorded history. The Minoans, the Maya, the Mississippi Valley Mound Builders, and more thrived during their day, often dominating their regions of the world, and then they just disappeared. Sometimes we can link back the cause to natural disasters (I think they blame the Mayan collapse on a pair of century long droughts now), but more often than not we're left with nothing but a bunch of pictographs, ruins, and countless questions. 

I love it. I love it because it reminds me that no matter how awesome we believe we are it could all be gone tomorrow. Then a thousand years later comes along and our descendants who excavate the holy remnants of Las Vegas out in the desert and wonder why our gods all liked so many lights and bells (of course the like sacrificial money, but all that noise!). 

Sin Eater: Welcome to the Confessionals

". . . [M]an's feeling of homelessness, of alienation has been intensified in the midst of a bureaucratized, impersonal mass society. He has come to feel himself an outsider even within his own human society. He is trebly alienated: a stranger to God, to nature, and to the gigantic social apparatus that supplies his material wants . . .  But the worst and final form of alienation, towards which indeed the others tend, is man's alienation from his own self . . ." (Barrett, 35-36)

I suffer from existential doubt and struggle with the meaninglessness of my own life and the world around me. It makes me callous and difficult to live with; yet thankful for the blessed mercies that show up when I most assuredly don't deserve them. This is not me lamenting the way my mind works. Rather it is a recognition of a failing in my character.

I have lots of failings in my character and many moments in my life where I struggle with the choices I am to make, and have made. I'm not alone though there are people out there who would like to pretend that I am. I am tired of pretending that my internal struggles solely exist within my own head and that no one else in the world understands what I'm going through or has been through it - as both those thoughts are complete and utter bullshit. So this series is going to be an opportunity for each of us to recognize our sins and failures. Each week I am going to begin the post by talking about something I do wrong, that I have failed at, or that I find reproachful in myself. Then anyone who wants to join in may post their own 'sins' either through the use of their own username or anonymously in the comments below (DO NOT POST ANYTHING ILLEGAL AND THAT WILL GET YOU IN TROUBLE WITH THE LAW). 

The idea behind this project is to humanize ourselves (so take your self-righteous judgments and pronouncements and shove them right up your ass). It's also a place to help each of us to let go of the 'sins' that have been dominating our lives and recognize them for what they are: the simple human frailties that all of us struggle with daily. This series is the place where you can speak honestly and let your frailties be devoured by the internet gods.

Let the sin eating begin. 

Untitled by Kristian Hammerstad

Works cited

Barrett, William. Irrational Man, A Study in Existential Philosophy. Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books. 1962. Print. pgs. 35 - 36.

Yeah, I Said It.

Click here to read what got me thinking

I think that the day people found that they could say anything online and find like minded people shouting Amen was a black one for all of us. Now they could find a sense that their opinions and bad behavior were the consensus of the wider community simply by listening to the insular crowd with which they had surrounded themselves. After all if my friends all say that it's okay to tell a guy who's helping his disabled girlfriend he's an enabler then he must be! Telling women who like their bodies that they should be ashamed and cover up? The crowd foams at the mouth and screams MOAR! MOAR! MOAR!

Sadly morality doesn't work that way. 

See you aren't off the hook for being a terrible, god-forsaken, son-of-a-bitch because you're friends were doing it too. Nor are you absolved from your behavior because they told you it was alright to treat another human being like they were less than one - even if the person you were doing it to disagreed with you. But I don't know why I'm wasting my time thinking about these people when the truth is that right now they're so deluded into believing that winning is worth any cost. And that's the problem right there. Many of these people have locked themselves into justifying their bad behavior because they disagree with another person and winning is all that matters. Winning an argument! Online! Can you imagine that?

When you forsake all the values that you've been espousing in order to attack another human being then you've given up the moral high ground and are no better than the very thing you're railing against. You aren't a good person at that point and in adopting the very tactics that you claim to hate you've become nothing more than a morally bankrupt, hypocrite. 

You can engage your 'enemies' without becoming the same as them. You can point out terrible behavior and shame it for being so without crawling through the mud. But let's be honest with each other for a moment. At this point Jove himself could be telling these people these same things and they would whisper to each other that what he really meant was that you should refrain from using the things you 'hate' unless its against someone that you really don't like. 

Too New for Nostalgia to Take Hold

One of the interesting things about coming into this hobby later in life is that I don't have these deep reserves of nostalgia to sustain me through the dips in quality that come along. Let me give you an example so that it doesn't seem like I'm just pontificating like some braying jackass letting the world know that I've just eaten a blade of grass. Back when I was looking at The Lost Caverns of Tosjconth I had a lot of fun discovering the differences between the two modules; however, if there hadn't been something so interesting for me to look at I would have been completely bored with the project and shelved it.

See I started actually playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was twenty-four years old so I don't have those moments when I can look back on my childhood and tell you about playing the game with my friends over in someone's den while their mother whispered seductively on the phone with the kids' newest 'Uncle.' Instead I can tell you about getting drunk while playing the game and trying to get this pretty little thing to give me her number (she did), but there aren't those fond memories of playing B2 while we were all trying to figure out the game.

Hell, in spite of my love for Basic I've never actually gotten to play the game. All of my friends were playing Third Edition (then Fourth and now Fifth) and had no interest in going back any further than Second. As for modules I don't think that even Jove himself could have convinced them to give them a chance - bunch of god forsaken hipsters!

Which is why this year I'm going to begin a journey of my own exploring some of the games that I've never gotten to play before and the modules that my friends would roll their eyes over. So much to do that I can hardly wait to get started.

2015, 

365 Days of Saying Why the Fuck Not?

Friday Artfest: La Princesse by La Machine (2008)

La Princesse (2008) by La Machine picture by Matthew Andrews

There is nothing quite as frightening as looking at a gigantic spider. At least that's what my wife would have said before she saw this gigantic mechanical spider that was produced by the french La Machine. Now she's dead and doesn't say anything. 

It's quite sad. 

I've digressed enough. I love performance pieces of art that are capable of capturing my imagination and making me think about what's possible in new ways, and this piece by La Machine certainly does that. The boney arms juxtaposed with the mechanical underpinnings give this spider the look of something straight from my nightmares where men with bone white skin and cocked eyes ride mechanical spiders as they chase me across the crowded streets of Atlanta and no one bats an eye. I love that it causes me to flinch when I see it splayed out and that it captavates my imagination.

La Princesse (2008) by La Machine picture by Matthew Andrews

These are the sort of mobile sculptures that make me salivate as I wait for the artists to release their next project. We need art that makes us excited and that slightly terrifies us. We need to be energized and to have our hearts pounding when start trying to best something this fantastic. 

La Princesse (2008) by La Machine picture by Matthew Andrews

This is the sort of thing that inspires the hell out of me. How about you?

Who Wants Some Free Stuff?

Over the Holidays I wrote an article for EN World where I found a bunch of free PDFs that you can pick up right now and use. Of the ten PDFs the one I've used the most is Artist Homes by Herbert C. Chivers which is something that every Dungeon Master should pick up. This thing is filled with fantastic floor plans for turn of the century (the book was written in 1903) homes which means that it's the shit for my games and keeps my players from ever known exactly what they're walking into when they come waltzing into the latest bungalow that Mr. Stabmeintheface is using for his sex and torture fun time.

Anyway, check it out and get some free stuff!

Tis the Season for Giving: 

10 Free PDFs for Your Home Games!