I've noted before how little I like banner ads that focus on anonymous female anatomy. But to juxtapose some cartoon chick's rack with a logo that says "RACE WAR"? That's a whole new level of effed up. Do ads not get vetted before being served up on RPGnet's banners? Or did someone think RACE WAR + tits was a great ad for the RPGnet audience? I just don't understand what's going on here, but I sure as hell don't think running such an ad does much for RPGnet's image.
When I squint I can see the word "Kingdoms" in between the words RACE and WAR. And the link goes to some sort of online game called Race War Kingdoms that's probably about elves and orcs killing each other for fun. I'm sincerely hoping that the game was developed by a non-English speaker, because "the upcoming Race War" is one term the goddamn Illinois Nazis and the KKK use for their long-awaited apocalyptic battle between White and Evil. I know that's the first thing I thought of when I saw the words "RACE WAR".
Maybe it's a game about combative carriage and horse chases, rather than about skin colors or elf/dwarf hatred... But even then, the pic wouldn't make much sense in such a context.
ReplyDeleteI think that's supposed to be "Rack Wars."
ReplyDeleteIt's a brilliant deconstruction of the fact that we accept warring good and evil races as a fact of life in RPGs, whereas that concept, in the real world, is the basis of many of the great evils of history.
ReplyDeletePlus tits.
If the ads are vetted, I'll be shocked to the core of my being. And a lot of them for free-to-play MMOGs have involved gratuitous displays of female anatomy.
ReplyDelete- Brian
Which as we know are a sine qua non requirement of most modern games.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is pretty WTF. But perhaps not as WTF as the Macy's banner ad I saw on RPG.net the other day. I didn't know gamers were a target demographic for quality department store shopping.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to create a new roleplaying game called ENORMOUS JIGGLY BREASTS. It will be your basic Lord of the Rings knockoff with no female characters.
ReplyDeleteBerin, I hope your game does better than mine. I spent a couple of years writing a family card game, about kids trying to catch a chicken for dinner. But the industry's so hostile! It takes forever to set up an interview, and sometimes I barely have time to say "the game's called Underage Cock Frenzy" before I get thrown out.
ReplyDelete[...] that we accept warring good and evil races as a fact of life in RPGs [...]
ReplyDeleteAlthough, fortunately, we do have a fair number of fantasy RPGs and worlds that avoid that kind of thinking entirely.
Plus tits.
Entirely true.
They are so out of place that it's almost as if the norks are part of the RPG.NET logo.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you talking about, man?!
ReplyDeleteSome kind of race war?
In New Jersey ?
Well given RPGnet's college liberal leanings (Its why the place annoys the hell out of me, yet I cannot hate the people there for their silly ways. They mean well of that there is no doubt. It just comes off VERY STUPID entirely too often..) I am sure the admins know all about it now.
ReplyDeleteThe ad is like most of these cruddy fly by night MMORPGs. Sold on sex and little else. Heck, most webcomics seem to be advertised on this model.
The concept of racial warfare for brainless fun is rather disgusting though. There is some intelligent thought provoking ideas in the fantasy races hating each other, but somehow I seriously doubt this game is going to be the place for it!
Since "college liberals" are the most likely type of person to question racism, war, and gratuitous T&A, and you're on board with all that, I'm not sure what your problem is, Rufus, unless when you say "college liberals" you're talking about something I'm not familiar with...
ReplyDeleteI thought college people in general, regardless of political leanings (if any, in my personal experience when I was in college mostly no one gave a toss about them), where pretty much pre-disposed to bitch about pretty much anything they don't agree with.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, man. Been a long time since college for me, and my college had very few liberals, so maybe I don't know about those "college liberals."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of things that make you go "HUH?" I've always found it bizarre that in the fictional Knights of the Dinner Table universe, the first, embryonic RPG was a game called "Lynch Mob" written by "Weird" Pete.
I know the KODT dudes are all wild west fans, so they're probably thinking of the good townsfolk lynching a black-hatted bad guy, but when I hear "lynch mob" I think of postcards of smug Southern whites grinning beneath the hanging corpse of a black man.