Racial Stereotypes - What's up with that?

*grabs Flumi's arm to pull him into sea with her* now let your wettend body rot!

D= . Sterotypes are always going to be there. Just ignore those who say you can't do that. Who made them the boss I say. Also... SAVE ME FROM THE SQUID! D=

*uses claws to tey and cut off the forsaken's arm*

You has no claws just suckers and a beak!
I think the worst sterotypes in wow is Night elves, Blood elves and druids.

draenie have very claw like hands *nods* take a close look at them

you only fight me because secretly you want some tentacle wife!

Your my wife now! *Puts you in fish tank in his bedroom*
I had problems with sterotypes on my goblin as well, not oocly though just IC people seem shocked when flumi ain't insanly greedy ( he is a little but not to goblin sterotype standards). He mostly likes to be kept busy.

Morinth is the Goblin of the pair of them. xD He's the elf!

Ahh well there was a few interesting posts in this thread at least ...

Eh... Turn this back to a serious discussion.

Ah, the old "What's an elf doing here?" (with 'here' being anywhere outside the elf themepark).

People aren't really interested in change, especially the changes that happened from between WC3 and WoW launch till now.

I've always played stereotypical-ish characters (blaming the lack of my imagination and/or lazyness, because I've wanted to make "not so ordinary" characters many times by now...) but I'd still strongly suggest doing the same as handful of people before me have already said. Just play her/him as you want.

Pffffft seriously those girls wer're like some cliche American bitch cheerleaders. Clearly they were not the slightest bit interesting enough to actually have a conversation, instead they were so bored (and boring) that they just stood there, occasionally coming out with completely OOC bitchy little snide comments veiled in IC accents and completely metagaming tbh, they saw the guild name and called us Pirates when no mention of anything of the sort had took place.

Whereas I myself, and a lot of Cartel members, often discriminate minorities, this has no background OOC. If I call a night elf a primitive tree-hopper IC, there is no OOC message behind it such as 'Go back to your tree, RP a nelf like you should!'

I just like to add such blunt aspects to my chars, gives them depth and realism. There must be contrast!

Sullee Swiftspeech wrote:Whereas I myself, and a lot of Cartel members, often discriminate minorities, this has no background OOC. If I call a night elf a primitive tree-hopper IC, there is no OOC message behind it such as 'Go back to your tree, RP a nelf like you should!'

I just like to add such blunt aspects to my chars, gives them depth and realism. There must be contrast!

Pritty much like my gobo. . But he will verbally attack some one if they act like a sterotype. Mostly Blood elf males. XD He goes into a rage and fire insults like a machine gun.

I often don't have anything against people RP'ing a race differently than what the lore mostly says about said race. Heck, I often do so myself, even though I usually drag in much from the lore in order to play the race a bit more like it is usually seen. For example I wouldn't choose a Night Elf to play a bishop of the Light, I mean there's a reason for why I'd be playing a Night Elf and not a Human.

What I don't like is when people go out of their way to be special snowflakes and when it doesn't make sense. As long as it makes sense I'm fine with it though. But I must admit that I have grown very tired of seeing bars overflowing with Draenei and Night Elves that are 20 years old, fabulous, attractive, strong, extremely good fighters and at the same time don't miss an opportunity to loosen their pants and underwear for the evening. Of course it's possible (Except from a Draenei with that age), but good lord..

Hate on the general, fuck yeah.

Who cares if your character is a master warrior? Human? Fuck you tall guy, go back to your bricks and wood in that laughably outdated town you got named Stormwind and be a self-loving greedy punk like the rest of your lot!


On a more serious note. I love racial stereotypes, why remove them? We have them IRL, why shouldn't we have them in-game too?

The stereotypes are based on facts, it may be loose facts at times, but facts regardless. If it fits their general appearance (through rumors or whatnot), it becomes a broad generalization.

It's like every person believes all Gnomes are Engineers, or that all Gnomes are super smart or whatever.
There will always be rejects or oddballs who stand out among the crowd, and each individual is different once you get to know them- however, you -will- create a basis for a race no matter what, in your head which you will use to deem them on from the first encounter.

It's also hilarious to play the stereotype at times.

Yarnaat wrote:I often don't have anything against people RP'ing a race differently than what the lore mostly says about said race. Heck, I often do so myself, even though I usually drag in much from the lore in order to play the race a bit more like it is usually seen. For example I wouldn't choose a Night Elf to play a bishop of the Light, I mean there's a reason for why I'd be playing a Night Elf and not a Human.

What I don't like is when people go out of their way to be special snowflakes and when it doesn't make sense. As long as it makes sense I'm fine with it though. But I must admit that I have grown very tired of seeing bars overflowing with Draenei and Night Elves that are 20 years old, fabulous, attractive, strong, extremely good fighters and at the same time don't miss an opportunity to loosen their pants and underwear for the evening. Of course it's possible (Except from a Draenei with that age), but good lord..

I've seen that a lot. x) I make a habit of not including a 'proper' description of characters looks. In profiles, I'll list stuff like notable markings and the like, haircolour, eyecolour, leave the rest to the people I'm RPing with. \o/

I also get a lot of OOC nastiness coming out ICly when I RP with some people. >.< Generally people I don't know.

Sadly much of this comes from the big guild and some even from the RPers in this Forum. One guild in perticular who should know better (and yes word always finds its way back to me). I am currently RPing a Undead seeking atonement and a Highborne DK. Hate it, you can suck my balls they are great chars.

The big secret of RP anyway is that the majority see knowing lore as 100% of being a good RPer when in reality it is prob less than 30%. Far more important is to learn RP tools and skills that could be used in any world. Instead we have a world where everyone knows the colour of illidans undergarments yet cant fight an emote fight; and worse does not even think this is a problem.

As to RP Elves/Draenei lets just rembember most RPers are 16-20 and youare giving them crap for not seling RPing as a 1000 + yo char. Please how the hell is anyone truly going to sell that. Even Blizz cant! There are athiests trying to RP Lighties, gays RPing straights, men RPing girls... Lets cut some slack for the love of all that is holy.

Summery.

* Bitches please.
* No one here cant imrove, dont cast stones in glass houses.
* RP is really hard, be cool.

Nnnngh, worst stereotype I'd name would be the typical Paladin one.

"I'm , I have done this, this, this, possibly this, I was a spectator at this and that and I have fought battles such as . I have done all this and yet I still have my natural blonde hair and it looks like Im about 18 years old with this armor made our of pure gold that will make me look like a retard."

Speaking as someone who's been RPing a character very much against the racial stereotype for draenei for as long as I've been on Defias Brotherhood (and have occasionally taken flak for it), I'll say this:

The key to making a character a char that doesn't fit the stereotype, is to know that you are breaking it. Know what it is, and why and how you are breaking it. A night elf or draenei won't be a pirate for the same reason that a human would. For them to turn to such things would require a severe deviance. And that deviance will leave marks... you are not from a human culture, you are from a night elf culture. That means, that background must still shine through, even though the character does not follow it.

"You must know the rules before you can break them." You must know what makes a night elf a night elf, before you can make a night elf that has distanced themselves from night elf culture.

I don't know enough about night elf culture to really offer suggestions there, but in my own case, just look at the fact that for all the evil Dru does, she is still very much draenei in belief. She might be selfish, a necromancer, someone that lies and deceives people, yet she still believes in helping others, still believes in the Light, and doesn't believe in isolation. She goes about her life in a much different way from other draenei, is very broken, but she is still fundamentally draenei. It is a conflict, between her racial roots and her deviant ways.

To break the mold, you still have to start from the proper mold. "Night elf pirate" doesn't make sense on its own. It has to instead be "Night elf that became a pirate". The difference is subtle, but essential. In the former, it is a pirate that happens to be a night elf. In the latter, it is a night elf that happens to be a pirate. This is the same thing I've said about death knights, and it is the reason why many death knights are RPed badly... they do the former instead of the latter. The character's roots must show through if you want your character to work.


Now, I'm not saying you aren't doing this already, I haven't RPed with the character. This is just food for thought based on my own experiences in this kind of situation.

Stereotypes also give you something to hold on to, something to start with. Call it culture or stereotypes, some races do have other traits than others.

It's like Drustai says, you are a Night Elf... it is bound to have something of the kind.

My character Aithon had similar problems in the beginning. He is a former Knight of the Silver Hand who happened to be in Silvermoon when Arthas struck. He was a traveling knight, protecting priests as they went from church to church. The Silver Hand consists of mostly humans and dwarfs, and very few High Elves. The High Elves and the Blood Elves are quite xenophobic. However, my character is used to traveling with other races. That he does not mind.

However, he does tell that he preferred travelling with High Elves as he "understood them better" and "felt a connection with them from the start". It's those subtle things that make a character a more convincing one.

Monrena. wrote:Suck it up darling! I got exactly the same (and still get it) 'cause my blood elf is a pirate god of some sort. "BLOOD ELVES SHOULDN'T DO THAT BLAHBLAHBLAH". I don't give a fuck. If they want to RP their characters with no diversity, let them. They may be elves, but they're quite capable of making their own choices and having their own minds and personalities. It's not just humans who can be badasses. They're so racist.

My bitch is still quite capable of being a superior cow to everyone. She just prefers not to, it's so much hassle only relying on other elves. Especially when they're all holed up in Sillyspoon braiding each others hair.

Really, RP a pirate all you like, as long as you make it believable and have a good backstory for it I am the last to complain. But I do loathe this attitude that people that want to play a more normal character are 'characters with no diversity'. I can make a character that is not generic but still fits certain elven standards just fine without making her a pirate. There is this thing called subtlety. I am willing to give anyone with a highly unusual character-concept a chance, but I cannot see why you feel the need to bring others down if you are happy with your character. If you don't give a fuck, show it.

Secondly, there is a difference between feeling a character has to fit a stereotype, or judging other characters (you do not know) ICly based on your stereotype of that race. An Orc that has never met that parricular elf before, will have the stuck-up sterotype in mind at first, an elf meeting an Orc for the first time, will probably view him as a brutish warrior. It is through RP that we define ourselves and that we break free from the stereotype or not. Make your character believable through their actions and their reasons. As Drustai said, knowing a stereotype is even quite benificial if you wish to break free from it.

In all honesty.. I'm not a fan of breaking the stereotypes too much. I like the moulds and archtypes, simply because they fit in the environment. It's a fantasy world! Play a stereotype! Play a strongly typed character.
When Aragorn & co were chasing the Uruk'hai across the fields, they didn't tumble past a Dwarven travestite theatre. (Not that there's a lot of work for a Dwarf to dress up as a female. They can even keep the beard.)

It seems our community struggles to accept stereotypes, barring the over-the-top Paladins. Outside dedicated Light orders, there's hardly a regular, Light believing commoner. Noooohh.. We all have inherited our modern day scientific, atheist mindset, even though we were all raised as farmers or merchants.

But that is -my- style. And that's also all it is... Nothing more, nothing less. It certainly isn't a server rule, and I certainly won't reject people breaking the stereotype. In fact, some of my favorite characters in this community are stereotype breaking chars. But.. the reason I like them is because there's a great depth in them.

Yeah... I doubt I'll ever play a pirate Night Elf. They have lived 'an eternity'. Secluded. AFAIK, prior to WC3, they weren't known to us. How does a NElf break from several hundred years of tradition to become a pirate? I wouldn't be able to cross that distance myself.

But that doesn't imply others aren't permitted to play that. There is no "thin line" between preferring stereotypes and rejecting other people's RP. It's not a thin line. It's a world of difference. Who the hell are we to dictate what and what not?

So sure. Have a Nelf dissident. Poverty and the struggle for survival doesn't discriminate. It affects and punches everyone the same. I reserve the right to call them "looney" in character, if they would break the social expectations of my character's mind, but... isn't that -good-? I try to imagine a travestite Dwarf and my char passing by "meh, nothing unusual". Now that would be bad, I think.

I've had a post about RP'ing in mind for some weeks now. I'm encouraged to finish it, seeing the responses here.