Where Does One Draw The Line?

[farseer_lolotea]

So I just ran across this.  And...well, I'm really not sure what to make of it.

On the one hand, the author's mostly right about the armor designs.  But on the other?  Not only is Rift one of the least egregious offenders, in even that regard, on the MMO market...but the issue seems to literally begin and end at the visual.  Even the author of

Comments

[farseer_lolotea]

To be absolutely fair to Cuppycake, I think there was a point during the beta when Mathosians were almost uniformly quite pale, while Ethians ranged from light olive to very dark.  Skin tones (and some other options) shifted a bit.  I still said "what's that supposed to mean?" at the comment about the Ethians being the "most human."  (And considering both races are supposed to be humans, just different cultures, I thought it was a weird thing to say.)

I agree wholeheartedly that the game is progressive-possibly one of the most so in the genre.  (Not that I didn't have the idea for a fantasy setting in which the dark-skinned humans are the most technologically advanced culture long before Trion did, or anything...but I ain't gonna begrudge.)

All in all?  It seems to me like Cuppycake is focusing only on the models (and, despite being impressed with them, wording things badly).  Zaewen seems to be rating the importance of visuals (specifically, outfits) above that of lore.

As for Maverynthia, she seems to focus only on visuals and possibly on things like Zaerist's cheesy little innuendo.  (Which, despite the comments about it, really didn't strike me as creepy.  Not to say that I didn't groan, or speculate that Shan would probably laugh in his face, or anything.)  Because seriously, IDK where she got the "rape culture" thing.

ETA:  The amount of derp and durr in this thread is almost surprising.  But note the "almost."