- Location
- Hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
SV has an Imaginary Number problem
- Thread starter Fivemarks
- Start date
- Discussion
You know, this thread reminded me of something interesting.
I've been playing a lot of Stellaris recently, a game where you direct a spacefaringempire into expansion across the stars, exploration of the universe, warfare, and so on.
You know what's fascinating about playing a 23rd-century spacefaring human empire in that game? The population and leaders of this empire can be white, black, Asian, Latino, coloured, etc.. They also have European, Asian, and African names.
And nobody bats an eye at it. In fact, what's remarkable about it is that nobody is commenting on this inside the game. The game just tells you "Yeah, humans are diverse. Even centuries into the future. Deal with it."
Of course the game doesn't simulate humanity having different cultures within its population (except a bare bones factions systems). You can also change the names of your leaders -- but not their portraits.
But with just a bit of effort at diversity using names and in-games portraits, it reminds us that humanity is diverse and will be diverse for a long time to come. It doesn't need to justify why black or Asian people exist in its setting -- humanity exists in it, thus they do as well. End of discussion.
And I really like that about it.
I've been playing a lot of Stellaris recently, a game where you direct a spacefaringempire into expansion across the stars, exploration of the universe, warfare, and so on.
You know what's fascinating about playing a 23rd-century spacefaring human empire in that game? The population and leaders of this empire can be white, black, Asian, Latino, coloured, etc.. They also have European, Asian, and African names.
And nobody bats an eye at it. In fact, what's remarkable about it is that nobody is commenting on this inside the game. The game just tells you "Yeah, humans are diverse. Even centuries into the future. Deal with it."
Of course the game doesn't simulate humanity having different cultures within its population (except a bare bones factions systems). You can also change the names of your leaders -- but not their portraits.
But with just a bit of effort at diversity using names and in-games portraits, it reminds us that humanity is diverse and will be diverse for a long time to come. It doesn't need to justify why black or Asian people exist in its setting -- humanity exists in it, thus they do as well. End of discussion.
And I really like that about it.
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galahad
Seeker of Truths
- Location
- Searching for a better world
The alien civilizations in Stellaris also seem to have different ethnic groups going by the pop portraits. Which is a cool touch .
Kokurokoki
"IDW DA NYA!"
- Location
- Area S09
That works too. You could have mentions of characters conversing in their own language in the perspective of the character who can't speak that language (protagonist or POV character). Which would help drive home the point that the world is inhabited by a fuck ton of diverse groups.
I honestly find cultures a lot easier to grasp than languages because there are a lot more nuances in language that can make it difficult to translate especially if you are trying to write coherent conversations in said language.
Vyslanté
The self is a prison
- Location
- European Union
You'll also notice that the preset ruler for the United Nations of Earth is a Black woman with an african-sounding last name. It's a nice touch, imo.
Private Lee O'Malley
Easygoing Egoist
- Location
- Gensokyo
Holy shit people played that game? Err...well I guess it was a book originally but yeah, was he in the game?
vicky_molokh
Posthuman spidery thingy.
- Location
- Kyïv, Ukraine
Oui. For Europa, Private!
Even in linguistically-themed discussions, I've seen people mistake my tertiary English for a primary; a minority of cases, but at least I've seen it happen (in text; my spoken accent is very obvious by comparison). But whenever cultural topics come up, not only is it soon obvious to absolutely everyone that I'm not native to Anglo cultures, but much of the time I have to ask questions about very basic things which are considered self evident - to this day; so much for the Anglo-Saxon cultural hegemony and everybody else's education by cultural osmosis.
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- Location
- New Delhi, India