Polygon article regarding race in TW3 with a fantastic reply in comments section
I just read an article on Polygon which made me slightly irritated - link to the article:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/3/8719389/colorblind-on-witcher-3-rust-and-gamings-race-problem
Here is a fantastic reply to it in the comments section. I couldn't have put this better myself:
The world of The Witcher 3 is one that takes the area around Poland and other Slavic countries in the middle ages (and its cultures, mythologies, traditions, architecture etc.) as its starting point – and then imagines what that might translate to if those myths were actually real, with some fictionalised editing of geography.
In the same way that in Game of Thrones, yes it’s fiction, but the countries/kingdoms/races of that world are based on real-life ones (For example, Dorne is inspired by Spain), even if they’ve changed the geography and other aspects.
I think part of the problem here is, because this site is mainly written for and read by Americans, those people take an American-centric view. They project 21st century American racial demographic diversity onto medieval Poland and then get upset about the comparative lack of diversity. This is a game by Polish developers, based on a world and series of books written in Polish by a Polish author, which was in turn inspired by medieval Slavic culture/mythology – at no point should it be surprising that the game world is no more ethnically diverse than the reality on which that world is based.
I’ve got a lot of time for arguments surrounding social justice, and actually Polygon’s push for it is one of the things I enjoy most about this site. It’s just this particular example of The Witcher 3 that I have a problem with, because to me it is a) nonsense and b) exemplifies the American-centric worldview of a great number of those on the internet, accentuated by the fact that most of the people Americans on the internet communicate with will be other Americans.
I just read an article on Polygon which made me slightly irritated - link to the article:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/3/8719389/colorblind-on-witcher-3-rust-and-gamings-race-problem
Here is a fantastic reply to it in the comments section. I couldn't have put this better myself:
It’s fantasy and not based on any real place or time period.
That’s false. It doesn’t take place in a real time place or period, but it is based on one. It’s based on Slavic mythology and in particular Poland in a particular place in time, which is why a lot of the monsters in the game are actually ones that feature prominently in Slavic mythology.
The world of The Witcher 3 is one that takes the area around Poland and other Slavic countries in the middle ages (and its cultures, mythologies, traditions, architecture etc.) as its starting point – and then imagines what that might translate to if those myths were actually real, with some fictionalised editing of geography.
In the same way that in Game of Thrones, yes it’s fiction, but the countries/kingdoms/races of that world are based on real-life ones (For example, Dorne is inspired by Spain), even if they’ve changed the geography and other aspects.
And even if it were attempting to be accurate, the idea of eastern Europe as having been 100% white, at nearly any point in its history, is a fairytale.
While it’s never been 100% white, Poland (the country the developers are based in, the writer of the books on which this are based is from, and the country inspiration is drawn from for the Witcher universe) is one of the least ethnically diverse countries in Europe. 97.7% ethnic white Polish and that rises to 98.6% if you include Europeans in the country generally. Even during the middle ages Poland was still almost entirely white, with the only non-Poles still being white Europeans – mainly from around the Slavic area, particularly Russia. The story is largely the same for other Slavic countries.
I think part of the problem here is, because this site is mainly written for and read by Americans, those people take an American-centric view. They project 21st century American racial demographic diversity onto medieval Poland and then get upset about the comparative lack of diversity. This is a game by Polish developers, based on a world and series of books written in Polish by a Polish author, which was in turn inspired by medieval Slavic culture/mythology – at no point should it be surprising that the game world is no more ethnically diverse than the reality on which that world is based.
I’ve got a lot of time for arguments surrounding social justice, and actually Polygon’s push for it is one of the things I enjoy most about this site. It’s just this particular example of The Witcher 3 that I have a problem with, because to me it is a) nonsense and b) exemplifies the American-centric worldview of a great number of those on the internet, accentuated by the fact that most of the people Americans on the internet communicate with will be other Americans.
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