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.