If it is, I'm sure it's equally racist towards the not-Western-Europe cultures as well. Which is to say, I don't think so.

Oh look, a thread where a bunch of white people get to decide what is and isn't racist.

How novel.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;563618As near as I can tell, 4e fans at rpg.net have a hard-on where Paizo and Pathfinder are concerned.

It is a specific subset of users, which IMO have in fact not much to do with the 4e fans, but which many 4e fans on the web generally follow blindly, who are in fact the problem. And this is not a problem limited to RPGnet.

Quote from: ningauble;563612What I don't get about that thread is... why pick on Golarion? It's not like it's the only fantasy/RPG/D&D setting where this topic applies. Seems like a Paizo hate session to me.

The thought has occurred to me.

Fortunately, they would never sink so low. They are just out to do good and chew bubblegum, and they are all out of good.

That thread is less about Golarion being rascist and more about Ettin being the OP. He's the only RPGnetter to make my IL.

Quote from: Benoist;563569No, Golarion is not racist. It does use archetypes and stereotypes to fuel its fantasy, which pretty much any and all fantasies do, but it is not racist in the conventional sense of the term.

To play devil's advocate here: prove it.

And I would think the proof would be in two points:
First, is there less variety in the black or asian cultures of Golarion compared to the caucasian cultures?
Second, if they're all based on stereotypes of some kind (which is probably a fair assumption for a fantasy setting full of cultures modeled on real world historical cultures), the question would then be whether the stereotypes of the quasi-european cultures are in some way less stereotypical than those of the quasi-african or quasi-asian cultures.

RPGPundit

These debates always reminds me of that "Feminist FAQ" (written by a feminist woman):

Q. Do feminist women go with everybody because they are "liberated", or they go with nobody because "it is mine and I manage it"?

A. Grow up.

Quote from: Skywalker;563634That thread is less about Golarion being rascist and more about Ettin being the OP. He's the only RPGnetter to make my IL.

So much this.

Why do they have to write as much about African or Oriental style cultures?

They're probably white.

Of course it's racist.  It's centered on Humans, Dwarves and Elves, and if you see any "greenskins" they're only allowed to be Half-Orcs, which is what happens when The Man keeps going after our women.  Always keeping the green people down.

JG

Taking 'racism' to mean the Nazi ideology of racial supremacy and hostility to 'lesser' races: no, Golarion is not racist. I don't see any indication of that at all.

On the rpgnet standard of 'everything is racist' then yes, Golarion is racist. Because: problematic. If you say "Golarion is problematic" then per rpgnet standard, you have irrefutably demonstrated the truth of your position. So: racist.

What killed that thread for me right in the OP was the bit about how including tea ceremony in an obviously Japanese culture was racist.

Because, hmmmm.




However, I haven't read that book and it's hard to get a true impression at what it truly looks like because the haters were claiming all kinds of shit and the fans were contesting it and probably both quoting things out of context to prove agendas (and it's a lot easier to prove something bad that way than the absence thereof), and then Firefly is racist because it has no Chinese for 200 posts and WHARRGARBL.

But it seems to safe to bet that there are probably a few problematic bits here and there? The gypsy bit has potential for all sorts of problems. However what I gathered about the faux Africa was that it was decently portrayed.

Just looked at the RPGnet thread - OP is one of the chief SA goons. It's just trolling for a tangency-esque circle jerk, hoping that a non-member of the consensus will pop his head up to be whacked down. Though that's gotta be getting less frequent, as the ideological cleansing is almost complete, surely?

Quote from: Killfuck Soulshitter;563654Just looked at the RPGnet thread - OP is one of the chief SA goons. It's just trolling for a tangency-esque circle jerk, hoping that a non-member of the consensus will pop his head up to be whacked down. Though that's gotta be getting less frequent, as the ideological cleansing is almost complete, surely?

Doesn't Paizo have a reputation for trying to include diversity?  If so then that's the next stage, tighten the ideological circle to ever greater degrees of holier than thou moral purity.

(Edit: and it is moralistic, more than it is political).

Quote from: Dog Quixote;563655Doesn't Paizo have a reputation for trying to include diversity?  If so then that's the next stage, tighten the ideological circle to ever greater degrees of holier than thou moral purity.

Also, the perps here are bigtime 4vengers who hate Paizo, and they're feeling their oats after last month's Desborough/Mongoose frenzy made them feel they have the power to actually harm a game company.