The Human Dilemna

Sep 16, 2010 11:28

What traits, advantages, or disadvantages are innately human?    Before you take recourse to the writings of St. Augustine or Francis Bacon, I should contextualize the question: video games.

The question struck me as I was playing Dragon Age: Origins today.   It's something every developer has to face if they produce a game featuring multiple races with anything more than aesthetic differences.   If you look at Dungeons and Dragons, we're given greater choice for specialization: choose a stat to boost +2, a free skill to train, and a free feat.   In Dragon Age: Origins, humans are given broader talent, with a +1 to all but a few of the core stats.  In Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, we are painted as charismatic, social creatures with a certain clumsiness in our physical respects.

So here again is the question: what traits do you think are intrinsically human?   This is a little difficult to answer without a given system to balance within, but feel free to ply whatever game systems you know or remain abstract in your responses.

I know this sounds like an LJ prompt, but it's something I'm honestly curious about.   I mean, consider from another race's point of view.  Now consider what another race might be like:  cat-sized, sentient crickets.  It's a strange thing.  
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