speaking of games with PoCs characters…

…has anyone ever seen/written commentary on the way the Guild Wars campaigns handled race? Because there’s the two campaigns where if you start a character out in those campaigns as opposed to carrying your character over from the first campaign, you play a PoC character by default, which I always found interesting. And while I admittedly do not know enough of the different African cultures to critique (what I’ve played of) Nightfall, and (what I’ve played of) Factions is a bit hit or miss sometimes (I’m not real fond of how it’s random Asian mishmash, for one, unlike say A:TLA which more carefully molded each kingdom after specific cultures and history), I always really enjoy that when I’m in Factions most of the NPCs are (East) Asian (pretty much except the ones who crossed over from the other campaigns) and all the environment is clearly designed to evoke a feeling of fantasy-world (East) Asia, and the music is Asian (mostly it’s all Chinese, but again, they throw in random Japanese and Korean references, so), etc. And Nightfall seems similar about the way it handles (probably generic) “Africa.”

And not really being an expert in either games or these cultural references, I was wanting to see if anyone had a better critique of the games than my vague “well some things seem kinda cool and some seem kinda suck,” but in my searching I kind of just pull up comments on ingame racism of players. Not so much a critique of the worldbuilding, which is what I’m curious about. Also because I have also never seen comments of the “but what about the white people?! D:” lines about them, and wondered if that ever came up or if this somehow just slid under the radar (maybe partly because the other two campaigns do feature white people and you can always carry your white char into the next campaign? IDEK) or if I just. Have been living under a rock. I mean I probably have, but still.

So yes, link me if you know of anything, please?

(If you don’t know what I’m referring to in the title, check out The Arkh Project, because it is looking pretty cool so far.)

bollyspired:

A Yin——Women of Inner Mongolia

I am not Genghis Khan; behind me, there is no sea of flags and battle horses, but I am a genuine offspring of Mongolian forefathers; and in front of my camera lens, there are my fellow brothers brave and strong, as well as our nomadic culture full of strength and wisdom. 
       Reputed as “the nation on the back of horses”, Mongolians are derived from the grasslands of northern China. In the 13th century, the sacred Emperor Genghis Khan commanded his brave cavalries conquering Asia and Europe, creating a historical legend of heroism. Through hundreds of years of survival, the offspring of   Genghis Khan have lived their nomadic life in the North of China like the Great Wall built upon real lives, resisting the sand and dirt from the north-west, protecting their Chinese brothers and sisters on the continent of East Asia, guarding the ever lasting homeland of all Chinese people.  Nevertheless, since the mid-20th century, owning to over breeding and excessive exploitation of grasslands, as well as mining excavation, the ecological environment has deteriorated. As a result, herders have become inhabitants who graze their livestock in farms. The nomadic living style has been vanishing, and the culture of grassland nomads has been facing threats of extinguishment. 
        Save the nomadic culture that comes to the end, and record what is about to become history! —I seem to hear the calling of Father Tengeri and Mother Grassland—As a descendant of Genghis Khan’s people, I know the regret of nomadic Mongols; these people are no lack of heroes creating history, but have no history recorded for their rich culture. It incumbents upon me to carry on this mission and to contribute my work to our people, not for art, not for fame or fortune, only to seek the trace of their survival on the grasslands, and to narrate their life stories in the artistic form of portrait photographs.
        Thus, I begun my journey from the rural villages of Keyouzhong Banner in Xing’an League of Inner Mongolia, carrying my simple photographic equipment and heading towards the last “sacred land of Mongolian nomads” in China, East Ujimqin Banner of Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia.
        Living with vast blue sky and lush green grass,  the local herders on this land are hardworking and courageous, frank and full of hospitality. They are the last carriers and guardians of Chinese nomadic culture, herding all year round on grasslands, green hills and riversides, living with their livestock day and night, and communicating through sincere dialogues with nature. 
         I was attracted and touched by the authentic nomadic living culture. From 1998 to 2003, while photographing Mongolian herders in documentary style, I noted down in Mongolian the history, customs, as well as the state of living of the local people. After having had edited and published 26 local biographies and introductions of nomadic folklore, I recalled the past and realized in an instant that I had resided in the depth of the souls of our ancestors, while sacrificing mine to the nomadic culture.
         From 2003 to 2008, I focused deeper and further upon nomadism without special artistic applications,  concentrating on the typical visages of Mongolian people unadorned and without pretension, expressed in static stillness or  in a  combined manner of motion and immobility. They fixed their eyes directly on my lens, opening their spiritual world to the outside. They expressed deep concerns about grassland desertification and livestock reduction, feeling helpless and hopeless for  the loss of the cultural heritage from their ancestors; but they could speak frankly about their lives improved though hard work: “The Communist Party has not disappointed us after 30 years of opening up and reform…..”
        My journey was carried on in the spirit of nomadism accompanied by the Mongolian herders of North China, which was rather like taking an endless gamble on my life. While preparing my journey at the beginning, I received kindly and thoughtful advices: “On our magnificent and magic grasslands, people of capabilities and talents are numerous. How come nobody else has the same intention? As someone independent who always works on your own, have you ever wonder why you attempt such a difficult project.” I answered: “Except for being sincere to art and true to myself, I probably don’t have anything extra, but my life, I can gamble my life on the nomadic culture.” Then I   accomplished my journey after ten years of traveling and discovering, sparing time not to stay with my family but to follow up herders and their livestock even in the snowy wind on winter days below 30 degree; I canceled all social activities to save my energy photographing on the desertified grasslands; I gave up completely commercial projects, investing more than 10,000 Yuan every year only for shooting documentary photographs.    
         A decade of hard working with passion and diligence brought me more than 200.000 traditional film negatives; and a decade of cultural worshiping in the nomadic spirit and shooting in exile reserved the remaining culture of the last nomadic region in China. 
          While Mongolians nomads from North China approach the outside world, I shall turn around wandering through our grassland, singing a melancholic long lasting Urtiin Duu*.

haptisms:

there’s “Groovy UV,” #4 on the list of colleges that smoke the most pot.

somehow, I am totally not surprised.

I’m… somewhat surprised CU Boulder isn’t on the list of colleges that smoke the most pot, given the (in)famous 4/20 cloud. (Also at first I thought the “Most right-wing students” was pointing at CU and was like. How is that even possible. But the Air Force Academy makes sense.)

dragonbloodink:

,

incantatafiora:

bochelly:

WHAT THE HELL? PANGOLINS? OF ALL THE THINGS TO ATTACK A PERSON, PANGOLINS??? I can’t even. THEY HAVE NO TEETH. SURE, GIANT PANGOLINS CAN CLAW YOU, BUT YOU’D HAVE TO BE AN IDIOT TO MAKE IT MAD AND STAND THERE WHILE IT ATTACKS YOU. THEY ARE NOT THAT FAST OR AGILE.

If the Crabs are cannibals shouldn’t they be eating each other instead of the half naked man?

I wish I could do a set of these for women.

INTREPID WOMAN SURVIVES SPY MISSION TO SECRET LAB OF 1,000 DAVID TENNANT CLONES.

„„

I’m kind of dying form the one where… I think he’s pulling the weasel off him, but it kind of just looks like he’s trying to use it as a club to go on a murderous rampage himself.

SOPA EMERGENCY LIST.

SOPA EMERGENCY LIST.