Racial Stereo-typing, What Our Characters Can Do

[SpiralLateralus]

This is really starting to get on my nerves, and it is something I want to get off my chest.

Many people are saying that certain races can't do this or that, because their race wouldn't do that, because of their beliefs. For example, a night elf becoming a shadow user. A belief is an opinion, not a fact of life.

I may be going against a majority of the server here, but saying somebody can't do something because of their race is silly. Look at the Twilight's Hammer Cult. They have night elf members, who are -evil-. You also must remember that our characters have free will. Most of those night elves in the Twilight Hammer's Cult weren't corrupted or enslaved, they joined the Cult because they wanted to.

There is no reason to say somebody can't choose a profession because of their race. Yes, a tauren engineer may be weird, but that doesn't mean they can not exist. They would probably have to, otherwise how do the tauren have elevators, and huts? Now, I'm not saying that ICly you can not have your character say, "A tauren engineer? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!"

But trying to prevent people from playing those characters doesn't make sense to me. Stereotypes are just that: stereotypes. If you want, you are free to avoid roleplaying with that character who upsets your OOC view that all forsaken are evil etc, but to try and get somebody banned for it, or starting OOC drama over it is asinine.

I hate seeing people fight, especially over something as silly as a fictional universe. I have questioned people about their characters before, but I have stopped because it is their character, and not mine.

There are rules to prevent people from being something too silly, such as the son of Jaina and Thrall. But there is nothing OOClywise to prevent a human character of mine to want to become a druid, and a night elf druid from agreeing to train him. It probably won't work out in the end, but they can try (and funny shenanigans would be had).

As long as somebody is roleplaying something realistically, than I don't see why there should even be a problem, as long as it is in reason.

So don't go giving me this racial purity crap when we have http://www.wowpedia.org/Valeera her, and that Medivh and Garona fell in love during the First War, and Garona and Khadgar were friends during the First War.

I control my characters. I will make sure they follow the server rules, but they are not going to follow the whims of somebody who thinks races of the Alliance and Horde should start fighting as soon as they spot one another (unless Kretol makes it a rule that they have to).

[ThePharaoh]

I agree with this message.

I do think the horde and Alliance should hate each other more though. Or have it visually represented in RP a little more.

[Gyran]

You can stray from racial stereo-types, but keep in mind that the majority of your race will most likely look at you disgustedly for doing so.

IE: A Night Elf who takes to engineering and technology will be looked down upon by their Elven peers. Why? Because Night Elves typically view technology as an abomination.

Also, keep in mind that if you do have a character that strays from racial stereo-types to have a reason for doing so. I've seen people that have played some weird characters without any explanation as to how they got that way.

[SpiralLateralus]

You can stray from racial stereo-types, but keep in mind that the majority of your race will most likely look at you disgustedly for doing so.

IE: A Night Elf who takes to engineering and technology will be looked down upon by their Elven peers. Why? Because Night Elves typically view technology as an abomination.

Also, keep in mind that if you do have a character that strays from racial stereo-types to have a reason for doing so. I've seen people that have played some weird characters without any explanation as to how they got that way.

That's what profiles are for.

One of my characters (who won't be coming back), a gnome who got lost in the wilderness of Dun Morough went crazy and thought he was a shaman.

[Kaghuros]

You would do well to also note that each race pursues each path differently. Tauren engineers make devices that are leagues apart from Gnomish ones, for instance. Everything about the way you look at the class/profession must be changed to suit the race, because their perception of the world is significantly different than the race that most widely follows such a path.

[Grakor456]

The problem is not exceptions merely existing. There is nothing inherently wrong with creating a character that strays a bit from his/her racial norms. The problem is when exceptions become the norm, and get RPed as the norm. This is not just a problem with the people RPing the exception, but those who RP with the people RPing the exception. Never should a someone properly RPing a race's hatreds actually be in the minority.

[Benislav]

You can -always- differ from the norm. The problem is that people don't see the realism. If you were to want to be a night elf shadow user, your character is not going to be popular in Darnassus. It wouldn't be strange to see you hated by some of your own race as well.

One thing, though: If you roll something improbable, like a Draenei interested in fel magic, you -WILL- be ousted by your race.

Keep things like that in mind.

[SpiralLateralus]

The problem is not exceptions merely existing. There is nothing inherently wrong with creating a character that strays a bit from his/her racial norms. The problem is when exceptions become the norm, and get RPed as the norm. This is not just a problem with the people RPing the exception, but those who RP with the people RPing the exception. Never should a someone properly RPing a race's hatreds actually be in the minority.

In the end, this is in the hands of the users, and the users want to roleplay their characters as getting along with other races. And lore-wise, our characters are in the minority. Most people in Azeroth are commoners and fodder.

You can be as upset as you want, but you aren't going to change these people into playing characters who are racist. It's difficult to play a racist when you yourself are not one.

What I'm saying is that this is only a problem because others are making it out to be, when it really is not. Live and let live. Be a racist IC, heck even call out other people ICly if they are a human and an orc paling around. Don't go into OOC chat and say "You guys have to hate each other.".

[Maelstrom]

It's difficult to play a racist when you yourself are not one.

Not for me. ;P I find it quite easy.

[Grakor456]

In the end, this is in the hands of the users, and the users want to roleplay their characters as getting along with other races. And lore-wise, our characters are in the minority. Most people in Azeroth are commoners and fodder.

You can be as upset as you want, but you aren't going to change these people into playing characters who are racist. It's difficult to play a racist when you yourself are not one.

What I'm saying is that this is only a problem because others are making it out to be, when it really is not. Live and let live. Be a racist IC, heck even call out other people ICly if they are a human and an orc paling around. Don't go into OOC chat and say "You guys have to hate each other.".

I'm hardly upset.

This is not a problem just because of people complaining about "World of Peacecraft." This is a problem because of the very people doing the love and peace RP without thinking about to realistically go about it in the context of our world. You actually make a good point in that, yes, our characters are a minority. What do you think will happen to your average Joe human, after "paling around", as you put it, with an orc, being very public about it, and then returns to Alliance lands?

A lynching, most likely. No one thinks about that.

What's going to happen when that blood elf and draenei decide to get all friendly in the Ratchet Inn? What's going to happen to all those people that decide to defend them in the name of love and peace?

The NPCs wouldn't take too friendly to them. No one thinks about that.

Don't get me wrong here, though. If you don't want to play a racist, there's nothing that says you have to. However, if you want to roleplay well, you'll take into account things like this. You'll realize that you're in the minority in the world, and if you're being all public with your "forbidden" love for the other faction, the majority of the world isn't going to take kindly to you, and something bad would undoubtedly befall you. Or you can be a bad roleplayer and ignore it. Don't be surprised, then, that people complain about this.

Don't get me wrong, though. I don't think that this is a one-sided problem. There are a lot of people who vocally complain about this, but when was the last time they did anything about it? When was the last time these people banded together and beat the tar out of the "love and peace" crowd and treated them as they seriously would be treated?

Food for thought.

[Anaros]

I didn't read it that they're forcing stereotypical behavior on you. In fact even if you follow the racial roles, hatreds and whatnot you still have a ton of space to individualize the character. The problem isn't if your character isn't 100% in accordance with their race/culture, noone would really be! The problem is when your character is less than 50% in accordance with their race and there is no explanation as to why. Don't take the rules for how to act as an order, your character doesn't have to attack the hated enemies at sight, but can express their disdain in other ways. That part is what personality is about and no racial stereotype tells you what your character's personality is like.

Your character can have oppinions even behave against stereotypes they see as bad, in fact that what the chaotic aligned characters are expected to do. But also understand we aren't elves in real life, I realize that we can't really fit ourselves completly into the situation of being one of the fantasy races. The world is just too different from ours and we tend to take our cultural programming from real life with us subconciously into the game. Thus we can also take the notion that all people need to be treated equally and try to apply it as our character's policy even when culturally speaking there is no reason at all the night elf would want to buddy the blood elf when there is lots of bad blood between the two groups already.

What I want to say basically is: the server tries to stay with the lore and thats good. I don't feel being forced to play a specific character, I take it that I'm just given advice to what my character's views would be like being raised among their race and take it away from there with personality and history in the profile.

[Raven776]

If people are palling around of different factions in public places then they are also in a town that is cross faction, and therefore goblin. Goblins don't care about the factions, not yet at least.

As of yet I have not seen someone bring that back into faction only towns and causing a scene, calling a GM, and having them play NPCs. People of this sort do also make profiles, which explains it.

If your character has a problem with someone doing something like this, don't come OOC and tell them to stop doing it because there are IC consequences...

Make there be IC consequences.

[Terant]

When was the last time these people banded together and beat the tar out of the "love and peace" crowd and treated them as they seriously would be treated?

Actually, I remember a couple Horde guilds like this. They were declaring people traitors to the Horde and trying to kill them/lock them up for fraternizing with other races in Ratchet. The problem is that most of them took it too far and started trying to apprehend/kill people IN Ratchet. The other problem is that these people made these guilds and characters solely for the purpose of ruining other people's cross-faction RP, and thus created more OOC drama.

[Raven776]

At this point...with the lich king...i think that both the alliance and the horde have bigger problems at the moment.

There are alliance and horde up in northrend fighting side by side, whether they like it or not.

If I may make a bold statement... there's not much war in warcraft anymore...unless you count with NPCs

[Piroska]

We are given far more leniency during character creation in the Warcraft universe than many people give credit, most likely due to the limitations and balancing issues that arise from the World of Warcraft game. However, it's important to have solid, logical, lore-based reasoning in these deviations; if there's nothing to support -- and especially if there are things contradicting it -- then it shouldn't be done.

For example, in the roleplaying game characters are given the latitude in selecting which faction their characters belong. They have three: Horde, Alliance, and Independent. And the choice isn't always dependent on race; there are examples outlined in which characters that normally belong to a specific faction in World of Warcraft are actually members of the opposing faction. Example? Spies, which the roleplaying game makes out to be fairly common, comparatively speaking.

Does this mean that everyone should be doing it? Personally, no. But, as others have mentioned, I also believe that these kinds of things should be an impetus for roleplay.