POC representation

[Asuras]

Although my opinion may be in the minority, I would not mind seeing characters modeled after POC. Changing skin color is one thing but there are dominant features that you may see with certain races which can translate over. For example, the original Erudites from Everquest were were distinctively modeled after POC regardless if their skins were brown or later blue. We do see POC characters in Final Fantasy games such as Barrett from Final Fantasy 7 and Sazh from Final Fantasy 13.

Yes, it is a fantasy game but let us not kid ourselves and pretend that these characters are not modeled after people; some may just want the WoL to more closely represent themselves or members of their community. I see no problem in that and I am not going to make the issue political but just take it for what it is (a reasonable request) and not what I think it should be.

[Drkdays]

He’s clearly a dark skinned Caucasian. Skin color doesn’t tell you what race you are. Your bone structure does and his face is clearly Caucasian.

That's one heck of a tan...and l'm pretty sure color is the ONLY teal difference in races. Bone structure is species. i. e. homo sapiens.

[Lauront]

It's a fantasy world, and theirs to populate as they see fit, so it's a non-issue AFAIC. I care more about seeing the fictional races they've created being represented in a meaningful way, to better understand their lore, than rather irrelevant and frankly boring arguments from RL being shoehorned into a game they have little to do with. They have no obligation to make it resemble any specific representation from the real world.

He’s clearly a dark skinned Caucasian. Skin color doesn’t tell you what race you are. Your bone structure does and his face is clearly Caucasian.

This is lost on a lot of people. It's why you also get these arguments with Gaius, where it's (to me) transparently obvious that it's just a tan.

[SamRF]

I'm going to be honest. I disagree with OP's nature of request (as you can see in my post on first page) and don't agree with how Antonio may be defending it, but specifically when it comes to Raubahn.. I kind of agree that he doesn't look like an afrikan person of color but rather somebody from perhaps latin Amerika or southern Europe with a tanned, darker skin. That's how I'd interpet him anyways, I never thought of him being afrikan and it's indeed probably due to face structure.

Now I have no idea what "caucasian" entails and I believe it's a completely useless discussion here. Imo threads like these play into more racism instead of accepting that race or skin color simply doesn't matter. If OP had rephrased their request by saying that they would simply like to see more different skin colors in game without the "more diverse representation etc" reasoning behind it, it would be fine probably.

[Drkdays]

It's a fantasy world, and theirs to populate as they see fit, so it's a non-issue AFAIC. I care more about seeing the fictional races they've created being represented in a meaningful way, to better understand their lore, than rather irrelevant and frankly boring arguments from RL being shoehorned into a game they have little to do with. They have no obligation to make it resemble any specific representation from the real world.



This is lost on a lot of people. It's why you also get these arguments with Gaius, where it's (to me) transparently obvious that it's just a tan.

I need to see a Photoshop version of Rahb without his "tan."

[Antonio_Xul]

Caucasians can get really brown when tanning. It doesn’t change their race. The last image is of a wrestler of Sicilian parentage who apparently is naturally that brown.

[Esmoire]

The general topic of characters that look white to foreigners VS characters looking just Japanese to the Japanese is kind of muddied, anyways. Just talking stuff like global trends in cultural beauty standards, and what they could mean. Like, in Japan or similar countries like South Korea, there's a jarring increase the sales of skin whitening products, surgeries to take a flat nose and make it more like a button, surgeries to open up the eyes more, and stuff like that, that make what we feel an Asian looks like to be less Asian, particularly on women. On the other hand, in the west, a lot of white people find a tan attractive, to the point they'll spray fake tan on themselves. Though we wouldn't say a very tan white person is not white/Caucasian anymore just because their skin is darker.

So like, I do think a variety of skin colours is nice if just for variety sake, though when it comes to reflecting racial identity and characteristics it's a little more nuanced than that.

[Enla]

Although my opinion may be in the minority, I would not mind seeing characters modeled after POC. Changing skin color is one thing but there are dominant features that you may see with certain races which can translate over. For example, the original Erudites from Everquest were were distinctively modeled after POC regardless if their skins were brown or later blue. We do see POC characters in Final Fantasy games such as Barrett from Final Fantasy 7 and Sazh from Final Fantasy 13.

Yes, it is a fantasy game but let us not kid ourselves and pretend that these characters are not modeled after people; some may just want the WoL to more closely represent themselves or members of their community. I see no problem in that and I am not going to make the issue political but just take it for what it is (a reasonable request) and not what I think it should be.

I do think they've gotten better about this. When Viera first dropped my friend and I were commenting on how their features are very South-East Asian / Afro-Asian and how darker skin tones tended to look better on the vast majority of them due to that fact. However I do agree that with the base races, and even Au'Ra, it can be a nightmare trying to make any PoC character as most of the models lend themselves to a more Caucasian like bone structure with occasional Asian influences if you fight with the CC long enough. Which is understandable for Elezen given their lore but it can be a struggle when you're working with the other races. The only base game race I've had any manner of success with making a PoC character on a consistent basis would be Male Highlanders and occasionally Roegadyn, but every time I've tried to do it with any of the others I just give up after awhile.

If they ever expand the CC I'd absolutely want more unique facial features that would make it easier for people to create characters that better represent themselves regardless of ethnicity. Not just because more representation would be phenomenal, but also because it'd make creating characters a lot more fun as well.

[Lauront]

I need to see a Photoshop version of Rahb without his "tan."

I think you're missing his point. He's not saying Raubahn has a tan, just that he has features consistent with those of a (naturally) dark-skinned Caucasian (e.g. many Indians would fall under this grouping.) We can quibble over whether that's the case for Raubahn, but as far as his argument goes regarding skin colour =/= race, he is entirely correct.

[Barraind]

l'm pretty sure color is the ONLY teal difference in races. Bone structure is species. i. e. homo sapiens.

Thats not at all the case (theres a few anthropology disciplines that specifically study this), but if you can tell aBMD, vBMD, or hip axis length differences from sight alone, you've got some freaky genetics going on.