The protagonists in “Flight to Freedom” are Drakes, flying lizard men who are most similar to DnD's Draconians. Their racialization in “Flight to Freedom” is that of the colonized native people, though in a symapthetic “postcolonial” sense, as they are neither the intellectual nor moral inferiors of the Knights of Wesnoth, and their vulnerability to invasion, enslavement and literal colonization is a result of the greed of humans and not a failing of the Drakes. Even as they are treated sympathetically, they are not idealized, to the campaign's credit: the “noble savage” is just as colonized a figure as the slave and the headhunter.

The basic premise for “Flight to Freedom” is a shock: in the opening narrative of the campaign, humans land on the Drakes' island, and a tribal leader, Malakar, sends his daughter to parley with them. She is killed out of hand, and the first scenario consists of the humans overwhelming the player-controlled Drakes. The player is expected to lose, though a campaign fork allows the player to retreat into the swamp and ally with another tribe, which only postpones defeat – the humans always conquer the Drakes.

Either way, the surviving Drakes are captured and sold into slavery, their young held captive to ensure their compliance. When Malakar leads a slave revolt (this occurs in the second scenario of the original campaign) the young Drakes are whipped and, if the player does not move quickly enough, killed.

What follows after is a high-detail, Deluezian-Guattarian analysis of how the campaign subverts traditional turn-based-strategy mechanics via designing victory conditions according to, oftentimes quite-literal, "lines of flight," as opposed to the ordinary strategy game victory conditions that relate to enforcing a "sphere of influence." (my term) He then explains why he sees these mechanics as subverting the traditional "High-Fantasy" perspective on race relations (which are implicitly racist as hell) on an even deeper level than the narrative story.

Anyways I think thats enough of a summary for now. It is a very fascinating analysis, and I think that a lot of people who otherwise might not ordinarily have any interest in video games might be like to take a gander at this here article. Anyone who liked my crawl article might like this too!

Thanks to the fellers from badgame for tha link. *nods in their general direction* .

Impper posted:
i know as many women who play warcraft as men now. something about that makes me angrier

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by mmporgs, bingeing hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the Warcraft streets at dawn, looking for a special axe.

Impper posted:
what exactly is supposed to be progressive about world of warcraft?

The stereotypical good races on the Alliance are imperialist tools and the orc/troll/goblin side emancipates themselves from slavery and grow into their own sophisticated society with plenty of wise and noble heroic figures

Also sexism is basically gone, no one objects to women leaders, soldiers, etc.

Impper posted:
i read the whole article joey, and i was kind of laughing because truly, videogames do encourage you to act in very obviously evil manners: kill em all, total annihilation, purges in preference to battles, expansion, domination of space. it's somewhat interesting attempting to subvert this, particularly in a ruleset of an (strategy RPG?) that is very obviously set up to think like a maniacal feudal lord

What exactly is wrong with playing evil? I've had tons of fun winning WWII as Hitler in different games, my latest game of Victoria II I annexed the Union as the Confederacy and by the 1880s started colonizing Africa for better access to slaves, etc.

I could not be more against those things in real life, but in virtual form, if the gameplay is fun, they are entertaining experiences.

tapespeed posted:

Impper posted:
what exactly is supposed to be progressive about world of warcraft?

The stereotypical good races on the Alliance are imperialist tools and the orc/troll/goblin side emancipates themselves from slavery and grow into their own sophisticated society with plenty of wise and noble heroic figures

Also sexism is basically gone, no one objects to women leaders, soldiers, etc.

Typical Horde horse shit. The orcs were only enslaved to demons, not the Alliance, and that's because they willingly chose to be because of the power it gave them. Granted that they valiantly fought for their freedom and are much better off now, but c'mon.

The Horde took on the Forsaken, even though the Forsaken openly accept evil apothecaries and warlocks amongst their ranks, who wish to create a world of undead.

They harvest the hell out of all of the environment without any respect for druidic biological conservatism. And now they took on the Goblins, who are even worse in this respect, heartless capitalists.

The superior Night Elves are responsible for saving the world from the Burning Legion and even sacrificed their immortality for it. Sorry that they seem arrogant, it's because they're better.

lungfish posted:
Typical Horde horse shit. The orcs were only enslaved to demons, not the Alliance, and that's because they willingly chose to be because of the power it gave them. Granted that they valiantly fought for their freedom and are much better off now, but c'mon.

Some orcs were enslaved by the demons, but the Mag'har resisted. Either way, after the second war, Thrall and the others were rounded up and enslaved, made to fight as gladiators, etc. until they rediscovered their authentic roots and escaped from their oppressors. Thrall's story is as inspiring as Frederick Douglass or anyone like that.

The Horde took on the Forsaken, even though the Forsaken openly accept evil apothecaries and warlocks amongst their ranks, who wish to create a world of undead.

"Openly accept?" The whole Battle for Undercity quest chain? Sylvanas and Thrall come to realize what Varimathras and the apothecaries were up to after the incident at the Wrath Gate and destroy them.

They harvest the hell out of all of the environment without any respect for druidic biological conservatism. And now they took on the Goblins, who are even worse in this respect, heartless capitalists.

The tauren have always been equal to, if not better than, the elves with respect to druidism, and the trolls are moving radically towards that direction now too. As for goblins, well, no Alliance ever had problems working for Booty Bay or Gadgetzan themselves so thats a really weak argument.

The superior Night Elves are responsible for saving the world from the Burning Legion and even sacrificed their immortality for it. Sorry that they seem arrogant, it's because they're better.

Hogshit, and you are a terrible poster

Impper posted:
lol this thread ownZ right now

getfiscal posted:
softens american men, making them easy targets when jdpen happens.

Shit, I missed LF.

*single tear appears in eye, rolls down cheek*

tapespeed posted:
Also sexism is basically gone, no one objects to women leaders, soldiers, etc.

Pfft. There's like, two female leaders in the whole series, and half of female armor is ridiculous chainmail bikinis. Sexism is not gone in World of Warcraft.

getfiscal posted:
maybe women like wearing bikinis.

Maybe, when you're going to battle, you should wear armor that covers your torso effectively and deflects blows away from it, rather than something that will be a) incredibly uncomfortable and b) almost completely useless.

Cycloneboy posted:
Maybe, when you're going to battle, you should wear armor that covers your torso effectively and deflects blows away from it, rather than something that will be a) incredibly uncomfortable and b) almost completely useless.

women have different priorities than men sometimes. for example, what's the point of fighting a flame orc or whatever when you don't look your best? a little bikini on a lithe elven body can really make a girl's day. if you think women should show up to battle in the equivalent of a baggy sweatsuit then i don't know what to say. if you aren't going to look sexy why even get up in the morning.

discipline posted:
women like wearing bikinis but only when they look great in them and the crotch is made of breathable material, unlike chain mail

wtf how is chain mail not the ultimate breathable material ??

germanjoey posted:
discipline posted:
women like wearing bikinis but only when they look great in them and the crotch is made of breathable material, unlike chain mail


wtf how is chain mail not the ultimate breathable material ??

pretty sure you put a leather cuirass or something on under the chains

Cycloneboy posted:

lungfish posted:
The vast majority of armor, especially the tier sets, are fully-covering and identical between the sexes. I don't think I have ever seen a bikini armor set in the game. The active leaders of both the night elves and the undead are female.

Wow, two female leaders. It's just like I said.

2 out of 10 playable factions ain't that bad, and women play prominent roles throughout the game.

Cycloneboy posted:

lungfish posted:
2 out of 10 playable factions ain't that bad, and women play prominent roles throughout the game.

lol you're actually defending World of "Wasp-Waisted Women" Warcraft for its portrayal of women.

Also, two out of ten factions is bad.

The men are all super-buff too. And I'm not convinced leadership has to be 50/50 women in order to not be terrible reactionary garbage. I think you just want to get angry at a game so you hold it to absurd standards.

Cycloneboy posted:
Pfft. There's like, two female leaders in the whole series, and half of female armor is ridiculous chainmail bikinis. Sexism is not gone in World of Warcraft.

Magatha Grimtotem
Jaina Proudmoore
Lady Vaszh (dead now)
the brown Mag'har orcs in Nagrand were matriarchal
Tyrande Whisperwind
The only real God in the universe is female (Elune)
Sylvanas Windrunner
Onyxia was running the human empire for years before she was slain
Alexstrasza of the Red Dragonflight (most powerful dragon/Azeroth native creature) and Ysera of the Green Dragonflight
Warlord Zaela

There are sexy exploitative dresses for Valentines and stuff but all the serious armor for actual raids and fighting is unsexy robes or full plate that looks the same on both sexes.

Also there are plenty of quests that show female agency, like the whole Blackrock Depths where the dwarf king sends you to rescue his daughter who has been mind controlled by the evil dwarves and when you get there she wasn't mind controlled at all but actively in love and working to reunite the clans.

Cycloneboy posted:
Also, two out of ten factions is bad.

Since the petrification of her father, Moira Bronzebeard now leads the union of the Ironforge and Dark Iron dwarves, and since Kael'thas went insane and his dictatorship was undone, the blood elves have no technical leader but the Matriarch of the Blood Knights (Lady Liandrin) is working with the naaru to steer the direction of the future of her race and is the ruler de facto, so its 4 now.

Also, the male leaders are not necessarily sympathetic or prudent or noble, the new orc warchief is bloodthirsty and bellicose, the goblin leader is a self-centered capitalist, and both the human and worgen leaders are racist pompous aristocrats and shown to not be as sensible or effective as Jaina Proudmoore in Theramore. Same with Tyrande and the guy who was the highest ranking male night elf and went insane.

So in terms of good faction leaders doing the best they can, its 4 females (Liandrin/Sylvanas/Moira/Tyrande) and 4 males (Velen/Mekkatorque/Voljin/Bloodhoof, though he is a little green) and that's pretty good.

Cycloneboy posted:
hey, can you figure out the difference between the portrayal of super-buff men and wasp-waisted women??

Also, the many of the male members of races are obviously unattractive (worgen, draenai, trolls, et al), but only - maybe - the Tauren women are.

The elf women and human women are unrealistically attractive. The draenei/troll women, maybe if you're kinky. The orc/goblin/tauren/undead/dwarf women are not attractive. The female gnomes are cute and whimsical, but not sexual, just like the males. The worgen women are cute like a puppy but not sexually appealing.

Anyway, despite the difference in portrayal, it doesn't amount to discrimination in the world. Females can be huge-sword wielding warriors or backstabbing rogues or the most powerful of sorcerers without objections. If you apply the standards of our world looking in, yes, the character models are objectifying, my point was that in the internal logic of the game things are much much better than our world.

Most feminists would kill for a world where women could take up any role from labourer to soldier, etc. and be regarded as effective and morally equal and reverence was based on merit at the role, with good looks not factoring into those decisions (a female elf will not be picked for a task over a female dwarf if the dwarf is better except for being ugly.)