Umm...
Okay, this is a question I hear a lot.I mean A LOT.
I don't just mean from e-mails. This is a question that has been asked repeatedly since FFXI first came out.
Just last night, I got an e-mail about this.
Where are all the black people?
One of the first things players notice when they start playing FFXI is that there are very few character models that even suggest a variety of real world races.
They then immediately race to their nearest FFXI forum to comment on this fact.
I read those posts and die a little inside.
Now, some of you may think this is silly, but I can understand this being a big issue. Some people like to create characters that resemble them personally.
That could prove kind of difficult when the blackest hume character available is this guy:
Yeah.
This has always been a pretty big deal.
At least... It could have been a big deal.
I know when the game first came out there were many cries of racism and prejudice.
That might have been true if it weren't for the fact that the only Asian face is this guy:
How are these two topics related?
Well, the game was designed in Japan.
By a Japanese company.
And was originally released only in Japan.
Assuming we were going to throw around the idea of prejudice and racism, wouldn't one think there would be a higher proportion of Asian faces?
Like more than one?
There's only eight freaking hume faces to begin with. How much diversity could we really have?
I'm all for getting angry over stuff, but I think it's time we put this to bed, people. This one was a real non-starter in terms of stuff to get pissed about.
95% of the time, you only get to see the back of your own head anyway.
Can we all just get over this?
Please?
Trust me. There's no racism or prejudice at play here.
We're cool with everybody.
Unless you're retarded.
Is retarded a race?
I don't think retarded is a race.
It'd be a heck of a slow race.
Bah dump psshhhh.
Please stop e-mailing me about this.
Please.
I can't take it anymore.
posted by Goblin Smithy @ 4:38 PM
12 Comments:
FIRST!
good point, Dave.
I guess the complaints are mostly from overly-PC people
sucks
All Galka are black.
All Tarutaru are Asian.
Square-Enix is considering a salon for giving your character a makeover of sorts. Maybe they'll add a few new faces to go along with it. FFXI is an old game. Older MMOs have insanely few choices for looks.
I'm still waiting for an MMO with the customization of Spore.
Where the hell did you find those renders? Those are friggin sick.
Tyler I heard that old Star Wars MMO (Cant exactally remember the name of it) had a sick customization system. Although City of Heros/Villians has an awsome system too. I never played either though so I dont know how well they play.
Sword is referring to Star Wars Galaxies which used to be the best MMO ever created.
In short it got screwed up by SOE the hosting company, but a nearly complete emulator is nearly finished at swgemu.com
You know, it IS understandable if people wanted to look like their characters. Honestly though, if I met a guy in real life that looked like a galka, I'd kick him in the throat.
And I don't think I'd want to party with a 300 lb WHM who's muffin-topping out of her AF and trying to pop that monster whitehead on her forehead inbetween buffs. Or a 50 year old PLD who weighs 90lbs soaking wet and is using his shield to hide some naughtiness he's doing to himself while staring at Mithras.
@ Rob: You know, a few weeks ago I saw a guy that really looked like a Galka. I was pretty shocked. I really didn't think people can look like FF characters (unless we talk about Hume of course), but well...I was wrong there.
Yeah...weird topic. First time poster, not really that long reader. Maybe a few months. Anyway, love the blog, and keep up the awesome work. All bow down to GMDave.....GMBob would be a cool name too...
Yeah, I remember COX. Played it one time on my friend's free trial. The customization was amazing, but the graphics were... "lacking" at best.
It really couldn't hurt Square to add more faces, though. Each face .dat is less than 1/10'th of the space requirement of a body .dat, and they have no trouble spewing those out.
I'm sure the only thing they've got a problem with are the voices. I've VERY oftentimes wondered where our characters' voices come from.
There are plenty of races in FFXI. There aren't any blacks and other such races in this game because Vanadiel isn't Earth. At least that's how I see it.
There actually is at least 1 black/brown person, but they look like a really old (or tanned) Elvaan. This dude.
Or maybe this is actually where Osama's been hiding all this time.
Post a Comment
<< Home