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What was a profound moment that a video game caused you to experience, and why? (reddthat.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The moment that inspired this question:

A long time ago I was playing an MMO called Voyage of the Century Online. A major part of the game was sailing around on a galleon ship and having naval battles in the 1600s.

The game basically allowed you to sail around all of the oceans of the 1600s world and explore. The game was populated with a lot of NPC ships that you could raid and pick up its cargo for loot.

One time, I was sailing around the western coast of Africa and I came across some slavers. This was shocking to me at the time, and I was like “oh, I’m gonna fuck these racist slavers up!”

I proceed to engage the slave ship in battle and win. As I approach the wreckage, I’m bummed out because there wasn’t any loot. Like every ship up until this point had at least some spare cannon balls or treasure, but this one had nothing.

… then it hit me. A slave ship’s cargo would be… people. I sunk this ship and the reason there wasn’t any loot was because I killed the cargo. I felt so bad.

I just sat there for a little while and felt guilty, but I always appreciated that the developers included that detail so I could be humbled in my own self-righteousness. Not all issues can be solved with force.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Were any of the female characters you idolized black?

You make it sound like it's a direct racist association, but in reality your brain just doesn't have any good frame of reference for a probably stereotypical high-fantasy black person lol.

I'm sitting here thinking you were going to end it with saying you treated that person with the respect they deserved by not wantonly giving them some bogus high fantasy white name.

There's a reason why so many black people give their children uniquely non-Anglo names. There is nothing new about it, and you're right, it probably wouldn't fit. Because most white names are distinctly non-black lol. Even moreso most uniquely white names are distinct in the same way that uniquely black names are.

Understanding that all people hold intrinsic biases is essential, but acknowledging cultural differences isn't racism lol.

https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-black-names-from-perlie-to-latasha-130102

https://www.thedailybeast.com/are-blacks-names-weird-or-are-you-just-racist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_names