@surreality said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
@HelloProject Two points of awesome: not only are you there, you're right next to another dear friend of mine.
Congrats!
Bizarrely all the people I'm next to are the people I'm closest with as far as friends on that project. I think it was on purpose.
@Groth said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:
Wouldn't all the techniques involved in writing a good POC-centric setting also apply to writing any other fantasy or science fiction setting?
After all a well-written setting should portray unique and interesting cultures in a way that teaches the reader how to portray it and tell their stories in it. This is something I think a lot of setting books do a rather poor job of, often they're written as little more then an atlas giving geographic and demographic information while giving you almost no advice on how to properly portray someone who is from there.
I certainly don't disagree. To be perfectly honest, I find a good chunk of the way fantasy races have been historically written to be a bit shallow. Much of how I write any cultures or races in my tabletop work is more or less to address the lack of depth that I've seen in fantasy race writing in the past. I never really considered the way I did the POC type stuff to be related, but you're right in that it's ultimately the same thing.
I do genuinely find a lot of settings I read to be very dry and lacking in actually informing about the people who live there. A lot of things just exist because they're supposed to exist and that is the trope or established setting thing. So yeah, I fully agree with you, I think this is how any race, fantasy or otherwise, should be done.
I've been working on some huge official tabletop projects that I'm not allowed to talk about yet for a few companies (NDAs), but multiple of them involve basically structuring a very POC centric setting and writing things in a way that makes them easier for people who aren't POCs to digest. Like, a part of it is teaching people things to be mindful of or to consider, and presenting a POC-centric setting in a way that fully explains the setting to people who didn't grow up in them, and how people who live there think about them rather than how outsiders do.
There's quite a few ways to approach teaching people how to possibly play that kind of character! Explaining the environment that people grew up in is a great way to do that, in my opinion. It's giving people an organic way to get into the mindset of that character. This is why I recommended all of those movies and shows and such. It's just kind of a natural way to possibly digest these things without overwhelming yourself in super serious research.
There's a particular book I worked on that I really want to talk to people about when it comes out, as I think it'll be very useful to anyone thinking about playing an American POC.
I finally have a copy of the first tabletop book I ever worked on. Here's a link to pics.
@Arkandel said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:
It's like this: If I play a white dude with ties to gangs then I don't care what anyone thinks of it, as I'm a white dude. If I played a black dude then I'd care.
It's not that anyone would think it's wrong let alone say anything about it, mind you. It's most likely all in my head. But it's been enough.
I definitely get that. For me I've never quite been able to resolve if I can do it in a way that would truly add something to the narrative I'm playing in. Like, there are things I want to explore, but also I think "okay but would this add anything". There's so many narratives like that out there already, so I've taken to just exploring new and unique things, or things more close to my own experience when I'm specifically exploring possible racial stuff.
I'm honestly very inspired by movies like "Attack the Block" (the first time I ever saw John Boyega in anything and why I really wanted him to be a Jedi), because it entirely subverts the idea of who is and isn't allowed to be a hero in a film, and really subverts your expectations in general. But I can't really bring myself to actually do anything like that, it just feels so tricky and a very fine line on the risk to reward spectrum.
@Auspice I haven't, though I do think your concerns are warranted. I've met quite a few white writers who asked for my opinions on what they were writing, but what they were writing was such a tapestry of bad shit I could barely unravel it, or they got defensive about certain things. I could take a read of one of these Peter Grant books some time if I find the premise interesting though.
@Ganymede I remember Roc being pretty solid! I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but I recall it being very working class black American when I saw it, and it seemed to be very down to Earth and not too heavy-handed in a way that I would complain about. I might take a look at an episode or two again just to refresh myself, but that's my memory of it.
@Rinel said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:
@HelloProject said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:
@Rinel Also excuse me, I totally tried to bang Rinel.
Wait... what
Theo totally tried to make moves and Rinel shut him right down lol.
More substantively: your post is really good. Playing a black American is probably the thing I'm most afraid of doing. Living in Louisiana and seeing secondhand how fucked everything is just makes me feel like I would have to do a prohibitive amount of research on almost everything. But I am probably oversensitive due to working in one of the worse environments as regards racial equality (criminal law).
And as someone else pointed out, even good faith portrayals can call to mind blackface if you stumble.
I can understand your concern here, certainly. But I do believe that the fact that you're even concerned about it to begin with generally means you've probably put significantly more thought into it than even people who probably already play black characters well enough. For African-Americans specifically, they come from such an overwhelming amount of backgrounds that portrayals really can bounce around greatly. I do think that there are a lot of shared experiences and such, and those little nuances can be tricky to capture or portray, but you also don't have to do that either.
A good exercise I recommend is watching some media with black characters where them being black isn't necessarily the central point of the narrative, but is an important aspect in making the narrative work. One of my favorite examples of this is The Last Dragon. It's a bit of a campy movie, all things considered, but the main character is a black guy who is somewhat of a weirdo in his community for basically being a proto-weeb, even though he still has friends and stuff. And this movie portrays a rather large variety of black people from different backgrounds. And yeah a lot of this movie is over the top, but I think it's over the top in a way where it's obvious what isn't realistic (like the Shogun of Harlem lol).
I think it's a good example because it is fundamentally about African-Americans, and is generally set within African-American culture, but it's just kind of very chill, is basically urban fantasy, and I think that the vast majority of the characters in that film could be RPed by anyone without really thinking super hard about it.
Not sure if my point gets across here, but maybe it'll make sense if you watch the movie!
@Arkandel said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:
I've always been hesitant since I tend to play flawed characters, and I wouldn't care for anyone taking my takes the wrong way.
Fun fact: I actually pretty much never play black characters with gang type backgrounds, or anything like that. Not because I don't want to, because I think it's worth exploring, but because I just feel weird about it due to not being from that kind of background myself.
Just a take here as a literal black guy, or I guess a general story about my experiences, and some recommendations for white or non-black people in general.
When I first started MUing, I played exclusively white characters because when I was younger I had some internal racial issues that I hadn't worked out yet, and my previous experiences irl led me to believe that people simply wouldn't want to play with me because of the race of my character, and I also hid my irl race, which was easy because everyone naturally assumes that you're white on the internet if you don't say otherwise.
That said, I have on quite a lot of occasions across quite a few MUs experience people wanting to RP with my black characters less than others. Could be the culture I was in, could be that the characters coincidentally weren't as good as my others, but it is an experience I have 100% had and noticed, and in games like that I usually just drop the black character and end up getting a white one, mostly just because I don't feel like the frustration on an OOC level. They aren't really feelings I come to RP to have. And just to reassure you, this is not a common experience, just a few places I've been in.
There's also various things I've noticed just off-handedly. Like on Arx how there's literally a rule saying you can't just straight up race swap a character, and it happens there all the time. Pretty much characters get pretty drastically shifted away from their description when it comes to racial stuff. But, that said, Arx is still more diverse than the average MUSH I've played, that's just a minor racial peeve I have with the overall culture of PB selection there.
I have indeed many times played a white character as my first alt on a MUSH because I just felt it would be easier to acclimate myself and get a feel for the game, and I always have a bit of an OOC anxiety that I'll have to deal with some nonsense or people fetishing up my pages (it's definitely happened before). I feel that I need to trust a MU on some level before I can play a black character there, which I know sounds weird, but as I said, I just don't go to a MU to feel the same things I do on an OOC level. If I'm gonna play a black character I just like to know that it's "safe" to do so. That the people around me are gonna be cool.
The word microaggression gets thrown around a lot, but holy shit does playing a black character flip on that switch on an OOC level if you're somewhere people just don't know how to act.
As far as white people playing black characters (I don't wanna speak for any race here, just mine from my own perspective), I think it's totally cool as long as it's not some crazy shit like on Shang where people take that as a bizarre license to say the N word and all kinds of stereotypical shit as loudly as possible (this shit has definitely happened in Shang's square, when I used to play that MU years ago).
When it comes to worrying about being accidentally offensive, I'd say that if you're a generally mindful person it probably won't be that big of a deal. For the most part you can play a black person more or less how you'd play a white character, there's just little differences like the way we have to deal with our hair or how we might approach certain situations on a cultural level. But there are all kind of quick research things if you're ever unsure. Or hell I have literally nothing against answering questions like that, as I really don't generally find sincere questions to be offensive when I know you're really trying to learn something.
I'd say that Doctor Who (well I've only seen up to Capaldi, I'm behind still) is a great example of how to handle black characters. Hell, Martha being black only really comes up a few times in the whole series, as there's just more important and interesting shit than her race going on. And the one time I do remember it coming up was in a historical context that was done really well. Or hell even the way black characters are handled in the MCU, as they show just how diverse people can be within the same race. And if you really want some extra credit, watch Living Single (great for seeing the diversity of both black men and women as just normal ass people), Fresh Prince (posh ass black people), or every season of A Different World except the first season (the first season is Bill Cosby's trash ass season, just skip it entirely). And if you want more modern stuff, Black'ish is great (even though they had Chris Brown on one episode which I'm still wtf about), as it really captures a lot of very minor nuances about black culture. And Jordan Peele's modern work seems to be on point (probably skip Key & Peele for inspiration. It's a show I love but it's a cultural minefield).
I know this is getting a bit lengthy, but just let me name a few probably unlikely and unexpected pieces of media that I just don't think are good to take inspiration from.
Family Matters, while I really genuinely love Family Matters (Urkel), it has some pretty questionable politics when it comes to cops and stuff. It does try to address cops and race and all that, but I just don't think it's a good reference point if you're already going in confused. Plus it's got a lot of that bizarre borderline conservative Christian values thing going on like a lot of shows from back then (Fresh Prince does that to a far lesser extent and actually stops doing that at some point). And The Cosby Show, like, the fact that no one should be watching Bill Cosby to begin with, Cosby's work often had this very judgmental wag your finger at not being a "proper" black person thing to it. It's the same reason I say skip the first season of A Different World, as it stops being his show after that.
Also, never Tyler Perry. Never any Tyler Perry, ever. Also no Wayans' Brothers movies or shows (even though I love them).
You also might be noticing that I didn't really list dramas and stuff. But that's almost entirely because dramas get super bogged down in a way where I just often find the portrayals of black people to just be far too heavy handed. A Different World and Black'Ish do handle some pretty serious issues, but I just can't in good faith recommend a drama outside of Jordan Peele's work. Luke Cage on Netflix might also work pretty well, has a nice balance on characterization.
Man who remembers when I used to write these spammy ass posts on WORA? Hopefully this is helpful rather than nonsense.
Now I'm tempted to play a black characer on Arx, as I've been thinking of an OC. I do play a POC in general on Arx, Theo. So far that's been pretty chill.
@Rinel Also excuse me, I totally tried to bang Rinel.
Can anyone explain what they are? This came up in a discussion with my friend who said she was selling her Netrunner card collection, and then I remembered hearing it in a MUD context. I then learned that there are Netrunner MUDs, but I feel like they may be unrelated to the card game, so now I'm just confused and curious if anyone knows anything.
Hey, I figured I'd try to talk a bit here on some low stakes topics. What's some interesting RP you've seen outside of MUSHes in recent years? There's quite a lot going on out there, but the most interesting I've seen recently is on VRChat. A lot of professional 3D modelers and world developers literally make entire fully fleshed out 3D worlds and characters to basically virtually LARP in private RPs in VR.
I know a crowd of developers and it sounds absolutely insane but they legit build whole ass 3D worlds as side projects for RP. But I guess it's no more insane than building an entire MUSH. I don't know much about the inner workings, since they don't allow people in to watch, but I suspect I know what worlds they're using, and they look really good.
One of the developers is my friend Sketchu, if you want an idea of the wild ass 3D art and worlds they're using for this stuff.
https://twitter.com/valmaygreen
Like this: https://twitter.com/QyrVR/status/1252354796515758092/photo/1
Is something she can whip up in like a week.
Hey. I wanted to update people a bit. I had/am having a pretty bad mental health crisis, so I ended up going idle everywhere for a while. I'm gonna try to ease myself back in, but I felt I should post something somewhere so that people know I didn't fuck off randomly.
Lmao I was just remembering that years ago, WORA people told me I couldn't make a tabletop book, and now I have both an official Paizo and Green Ronin project coming out.
I love other people and everything, but I'm not gonna lie other people can be really fucking boring. When I have people as interesting as Warframe, VRChat, Doom 2016, and 15 Sonic the Hedgehog games, I'm all for being social.
This is a song I need to work on. This is the general vibe I want my album to have.
Not dubstep, more electro.
I've been in the house for over a year, only left the house properly maybe five times, aside from taking out the trash and stuff. Like, this is mostly due to an anxiety breakdown (again), but like how can someone just be bored in the house? To me that just means they don't have hobbies.
I have been self-isolating for years. AMA
There's probably an amazing marketing opportunity that WWE could take by having Wrestlemania be from the Performance Center, but probably won't because of course they won't.
Also I need to catch up with AEW, I'm a few months behind due to all my writing shit.
This is a work in progress dubstep song I started making to test my new PC's capabilities by doing some complex sound design. Wasn't gonna make any dubstep any time soon, but like, it's always a good test of a PC's resources in my opinion.
https://soundcloud.com/duansparkles/bass-body-work-in-progress