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race popularity

your favourite PC race

  • human

  • elf

  • dwarf

  • ugly humanoid (orc, half orc, ogre, stronger and bigger humanoids go in here)

  • midget (halfling, gnome, fairy, anything that can run between legs of human oponent)

  • furry (furry and scales bucket. Check this if you want to be a dragon )


Results are only viewable after voting.

111111111

Guest
Let's be real if there is a clear 'race' to hate it's the occasionally appearing undead race. Most people who play undead are edgy wrist slitters
 
Unwanted

Micormic

Unwanted
Joined
Mar 25, 2009
Messages
939
I only play as a Human or VERY rarely an elf/half elf(arcanum during magic playthroughs).
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
Let's be real if there is a clear 'race' to hate it's the occasionally appearing undead race. Most people who play undead are edgy wrist slitters
Bull, there's not enough playable undead in single player rpgs to decide that. MMOs don't count.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,284
Let's be real if there is a clear 'race' to hate it's the occasionally appearing undead race. Most people who play undead are edgy wrist slitters
Bull, there's not enough playable undead in single player rpgs to decide that. MMOs don't count.
Not, but there are a number of 4X games that does :D
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,284
Let's be real if there is a clear 'race' to hate it's the occasionally appearing undead race. Most people who play undead are edgy wrist slitters
Bull, there's not enough playable undead in single player rpgs to decide that. MMOs don't count.
Not, but there are a number of 4X games that does :D
GENERAL RPG PLAYING GAMES DISCUSSION
Oh, please, kid. Warlock 2, FFH2, Age of Wonders all are 4X but have heroes, and other unique units that blurs the line between 4X and RPG.

Plus, note the humour in the :D
 

Beastro

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
7,938
No place for good old EQ trolls on the list (No, that middle option doesn't count).


serveimage


Never played gnome what's their niche?

I've always taken it as a short troll - more active asshole than the laid back kind in the above picture.

I was going to say in the shoutbox convo that started this, Dragon Age probably isn't the best place to look for stats for quite a few reasons, most notably that Elves in that universe were kinda the supressed hobo race, which wont fit with people's power fantasy. You then combine this with the fact that in those games you're given a specific job title relating to the human world, I think it was Grey Warden for that one, or was that the other ones, well whatever, you know what I mean & picking an Elf for that job is kinda weird from the outset. Then on top of that you have the sexualised nature of Bioware games at that stage & the meme of gay Elves was kinda at its peak then. So yeah, the perfect storm there to have players picking human 80% of the time.

In my playthrough of that game years ago I never considered Elves as an option given their smug, self-righteous attitude over being a pack of fantasy Indians.

Well, you moan about generic races, but generic races only really appear in dumbed down for-the-masses games & you not knowing much about SitS other than knowing you wanted to try it 'one day' suggests you're not a fan of smaller games, so I'm having a hard time imagining what you class as 'fun'... unless you're one of those people who like AAA crap but is dedicated to the Bioware=gay meme.

Alright, I opened SitS manual, the races are: Pink elves, white humans, humans with tatoos on their face, asians and hairy humans. Their description also smells of cliche, I don't understand your argument about SitS original and creative races, is it because they have fancy names ?

As for small games, I do play them, but they are usually not RPGs.


While I appreciated SitS different setting, the races all blended together differentiated only by their odd skin colours. This is a problem between driving the generic into the ground and creating something totally new that no one has related to yet.

I think when it boils down, Sju is asking for something fresh but relatable, which you can only get by doing an old race in a new way so you get the fresh take while also knowing deep down what the race is.

That's understandable. Today we often demand something completely new and original, but rarely is it ever embraced, while what is almost always is a new take on an old idea. Look at Xenomorph in Alien, which is one of the freshest, most alien ideas in recent history, but deep down, it's nothing but an archetypal dragon of chaos. Yet we don't care because it delivered the perfect balance of old and new.

The main advantage of dorfs is that they are usually a kind of anti-elves.

I never really got this, at least from the way Tolkien built his Elves. His always came off more like the ideal Greek or Roman, a cultured intellectual warrior race that had rich tastes, yet preferred austere living.

I hate the hippie Elf stereotype because it's nothing but modern environmentalism shoe horned into a race that had conservation as one of their many affinities.

I hate elves cuz they gay and stuck up. I read too much tolkien too early, and still think of them as "that race that is humanity, but better in every way"

With regards to the Elf, it is not their "gayness" that irritates me, stick your dick where you want i'm not interested in your sex life has always been my maxim. What irritates me is their supposed superiority, how they are better, wiser, more beautiful and noble than mankind. This invariably attracts the same kind of person, along with the vampire fans, smug elitists who believe that their shit doesn't stink and that they are looking down on their fellow man from a great height. Mankind is varied, we have great minds, conquerers, artists, leaders, architects, heroes, explorers and honest, humble workers and also shit slurping, scrounging, moronic scum of the earth. We are better and worse, to try and remove ourselves by emulating the other is foolish and dangerous, and may well lead to dyed hair.

As for Tolkien, and many of his contemporaries, well we can all see why they wanted to escape into a fantastic world where there are creatures better than humanity. After all they had seen the worst side of our species, and horror we probably can't concieve of, but for a soft modern man utterly unused to true tribulation to flee humanity in such a way...that tells.

How'd you get that from them? I love Tolkien, but he made most everyone stuck up due to his terrible character writing. About the only ones who stood out were Gandalf and Sam, since even Frodo has that snobbish air about him and the only thing which differentiates Hobbits is they exclaim more.

How are Elves better in every way? They're world weary and morose, burdened by their long lives, history and the fact that even in death they will not escape this world.

What I found annoying is how that sentiment you hate wasinserted ninto Jackson's trilogy with the hint of disgust and loathing Elves have towards Men in the typical way "better" races are in modern fiction, like Star Trek's Vulcans. Tolkien's Elves are so dour in large part because their sins are that much greater than Man's. If they have anything towards Men and Evish greatness it's resent towards them for their Gift and freedom from Elvish greatness that produce so much suffering.

Most RPGs use humans as the standard because they are the most relatable. They are the average, the yardstick that all other races are measured against. That means that there will be some races which are better and some which are worse. I have no problem with that.

And yet all races are relatable because all are fundamentally human, only focusing on and exaggerating certain aspects of humanity to provide a different perspective on those parts of human life and the cultures we have made.

If anything, I hate humans in RPGs for precisely this problem as they become the generic, middle of the road race that often fails to measure up against the races more specialized in their classes. I'd like to eventually see settings of all kinds, fantasy, Sci-fi, etc, that actually have Mankind set apart in some way, and not just the typical "we advance and adapt quicker as we've the youngest race" way.

To me, that would be our knack at the art and science of warfare, how we're able to consolidate things in the brutal, sly fashion in which wage it that has us secure our victories while other races just fight for the honor, glory, principle, warrior culture, they have tied to it.

I also wish there was more racial considerations in games, like environmental ones that are the typical hobble of humans in any setting that doesn't just pay lip service to such things. EQ comes to mind in illustrating how bad it is to lack infravision or ultravision and until the devs gave up on such important things by throwing out gear that gave such effects by the wagon load, was one of the primary reasons why most players of Classic EQ avoided picking one of the three human races. It was a very real handicap that could leave you helpless if you didn't have a light source that left most people picking Barbarians or Erudites for their specializations (Barbarians being the only Good/Neutral Shaman race, best non-evil Warriors too; Erudites having the most innate int if you wanted to min/max a caster and didn't want to play a Dark Elf), and when it came to PvP servers, could mean not only life and death, but leave you with a corpse somewhere you had no idea where because you panicked and ran away into the dark like a headless chicken.
 
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Beastro

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
7,938
Bitch please~ The US blacks have serious issue and crippling inferiority complex is one of them. If they can fix that, at least the possibility of a civil war can be on the table, as that means they are willing to fight *as a race*. But currently they havent fixed that yet, and at worst the US is just frothing with a kind of cold apathy going on.

Please note the stress. I dont mean individual blacks not willing to fight. I mean their WHOLE RACE IN USA. There is problems with their own subcultures. Standing alone I can believe many great things about individual blacks.

It's when they are standing together that they sucks. God, how they sucks!

Look at the enshrinement of gangster culture and other things tied to it where many well off boxers and such practically take pride in their lack of education and inability to read or write.

It's already bad enough that American culture in general has a streak of pride about such things, but too blacks inflate that by orders of magnitude, which is in contrast to the days before the 60s or so when blacks had a burning pride around bettering themselves and not being the stereotypical less well off figure of pity that was nothing better than a slave.

If it's "straight from Tolkien" then quote please. Just remember I'm talking about Lord of the Rings and 3rd era elves because those books are the ones that influenced the pop culture image of elves. It's true that elves used to be full of vigor and vitality in earlier ages of Arda as we learn in Silmarillion and in a few passages in LotR. But they aren't any more during LotR times.
In general the trope of long living beings who lack vigor and passion and are opposed to short living but vital race is quite common in fantasy, not just in Tolkien. Though Tolkien might have influenced it. BTW Elves aren't immortal per se, only Ainur truly are. Elves don't physically age. So no, Tolkien's elves (from LotR) are not "vital" by any stretch of imagination and the fact that the opposite is true, that they are an "old", weary people is actually an important part of the story and their identity as a race.

Tolkien's Elves are in the fact that they go to the Halls of Mandos to stay and sulk after death. Halflings and Dwarves at least share in the Gift of Man in that their souls are able to pass on beyond the world of Middle Earth spiritually to go elsewhere beyond that creation.

Tolkien did help set the archetype of the old being slow to act and long to think over things. Not just with the Elves, but the Ents and how they were to represent the more aged, sedate perspective of plants.

It's also worth noting that the morose nature of Tolkien's Elves applied not to all of them, only to those who took part of, or are ancestors to, those which undertook the Flight of the Noldor. Their attitude has as much, if not more, to do with their sins stemming from that, than their long ages, and their central role in Tolkien's work gives the impression all were like that.

Besides that there's the Sindar who were the most effected by the Noldor and sucked into their sins, we see almost nothing of the Vanyar or Falmari while the Nandor of Lothlorien were effected by Noldor who came to dwell there leaving those in Mirkwood to be left unaffected, which is why the Elves of The Hobbit were so different as well as Legolas choosing to join the Fellowship given his people's different outlook that were nonetheless politically tied into inaction due to their relations with the other Elvish factions.

We could get into a clintonian debate on what the meaning of vitality is but that's far from how the cultures themselves are displayed in the books, where the elves (and hobbits) seem to be doing some actual living (the dwarves are basically germans and working/living is the same thing for them) while the humans barely drag out their miserable existences.

How, at least from the perspective of Tolkien's work?

Like the Elves and the legacy f the Noldor, much of Mankind in LOTRs time is burdened by the conflict with Sauron. Arnor was destroyed long ago leaving nothing but ruins, Gondor is always under threat, the Roharrim are fine until Wormtongue fucked with their king, most everyone else is under the dominion of Sauron or largely unknown being outside the scope of the setting while those that stand somewhere in the middle, like the Breelanders aren't much different from the Shire, just rougher and foreign to Hobbits who have only known the Shire.

Animals aren't morally lesser than humans to begin with. All the things you listed make them more animalistic than elves.

Orcs are more primitive than humans who are more primitive than elves. So you could aruge the orcs and elves are opposite ends of the spectrum with humans somewhere in the middle

If anything, animals stand in the middle being more or less amoral beings.

Elves and Men and other Free Folk stand together being more or less good, but still capable of great evil, that evil only differentiating based upon their abiltiies which is why the worst sins in history outside of the Ainur were comitted by Elves.

Orcs, though, stand apart due to how their were twisted and have become beings incapable of doing any moral good due to the evil Melkor has inflicted upon them. Other races see the moral landscape, orcs only see oppressor and oppressed, themselves largely being oppressed and desiring only to climb up and get into a position of dominating and hurting others while being too weak to become as strong as someone like Sauron, and so they settle on whatever position they can get within his society to get a sense of power over others.

All that primitive talk reeks of a 19th Century perspective though. I'd think by now we can acknowledge that ones sophisticated level of culture or technology doesn't make a culture more moral, but rather the foundations of that culture and how they work to grind off the rough edges leave people more open to listening to their better angels or demons.

At the very least, dysfunction and the problems that come from it are not limited by such things.

Within Tolkien's work you have the extremely dysfunctional world Melkor and Sauron ruled over that was such because it was based entirely around their power hungry natures, the Elves that were capable of great good as well as evil, with the sins of the Noldor leaving a massive scar on history and right down to the Hobbits, which as much as they were a humble, insular people still have issues manifesting themselves if only through those who colaborated with Sharkie at the end of LOTR.
 
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Funposter

Arcane
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
1,773
Location
Australia
Race is kind of weird because even if I were to choose 'Human' races say, 75% of the time, it depends entirely upon the context of the game world. I never play as anything other than 'human' (Nord/Breton) races in Daggerfall or Skyrim, but I also have spent very little time playing Morrowind as anything other than a Dark Elf. I suppose the point is that it depends entirely upon the effort that developers and writers have put into making the non-human races appealing, and that usually involves giving them a rich history or immersing the player into their homeworld, so as to be able to understand and roleplay as one. Lizards in Divinity: Original Sin 2, for instance, are really cool and appeal to the part of my brain that signed up for a deviantart account in 2006. Argonians in TES are comparatively boring (or can't wear boots), which makes me ask in the character creation menu, "Why would I bother?". That being said, playing as vanilla high-fantasy elves isn't very appealing in any context.

also dwarves suck too
 

Kliwer

Savant
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
215
My favorite choice is a dwarven race. I like roleplay dwarf in p&p adventures, especially in Warhammer or Tolkien settings (not so much in D&D). Problem is – there are no many cRPGs where you actually could roleplay a dwarf character. Some exceptions:


-I like dwarfs in Dragon Age: Origins, especially the noble one origin. Dwarfs in DA:O have most of the canonic features of dwarves. Moreover they have some new features which fit to their typical picture. They are proud, honorable, clannish and traditional. They should be more patriarchal however you cold not expect such approach from Bioware. I like the dilemma of your character when you come back to Orzammar; my noble dwarf usually supports Bhelen because he values the good of his family more than his own. It is nice that game support such approach in dialogues.


-The dwarfs of Arcanum are also cool. You have some nice dialogue options here and there.


-It’s quite nice to play dwarf in Drakensang: River of Time. There is reliable crafting system in this game (important for the dwarven smith), you have some unique dialogues (mostly minor ones, however it is nice when someone call you “master dwarf”) and the visualization of dwarf characters appeals to my taste.


In most other games dwarf main character acts and speaks just like a human. Moreover your character is mostly a foreigner, far from his home and family. And a dwarf without a clan is only a half of a dwarf… Still I’m waiting for a game which can recreate the dwarf theme from Tolkien’s books – with all its melancholic, poetic atmosphere.


I don’t like “modern” approach to races in games, when developers tried to “humanize” every other species. For example in Pillars of Eternity I can’t see major differences between elves, humans and dwarves.


In theory I like elves. I grew up on Tolkien’s books and Noldor elves are my most beloved race. However I really hate most of adaptations of this folk in games and movies (including P. Jackson’s trilogy). D&D elves are weak caricature of Tolkien’s elves. They are effeminate and just unreliable. Elves in Warhammer universe are pretty cool, but there are no good cRPGs in this setting. So I avoid playing elves in video games.


I am not surprised why a lot of people choose to play humans in cRPGs. If the game is not designed to roleplay different races your character feels out of place (like in Baldur’s Gate series). To roleplay different races the design of the game should have four important features:

-some race-specific dialogues (possibly not just cosmetic ones);

-a player should encounter some places or situations close to his race theme (like dwarven underground kingdom) where NPC’s recognize him like one of them;

-races should have some canonical features (not like, e.g., Dragon Age city elves who are not even a bit “elvish”);

-races should have some unique skills, classes or mechanic.


Sadly the trend in the industry is quite opposite. For example race-class restrictions are almost gone so every race seems similar to each other, even from mechanic perspective.


Someone could tell that I have disgustingly genetic taste with all this Tolkien’s inspirations. Someone could say: “enough with these elves and dwarves… make something new and original!”. Hover I can’t remember any game which can imitate those classic lore correctly. (A)D&D, Dark Eye, Dragon Age, even Warhammer – all this settings are just shallow, superficial versions of Middle-earth. So I’m still waiting for something traditional but better executed. In fact I much prefer classical themes in fantasy (Tolkien-like, Conan-like) than any nowadays quirks. It’s not even the case of SJW propaganda (however I truly hate it in fantasy settings). Contemporary fantasy worlds feel so… modern. I can’t feel those “ancient” and mysterious atmosphere of Tolkien’s or R.E. Howard’s books. Try to compare AD&D and D&D illustrations – you will catch my point.


D&D 1.E (so cool…)

mouth.gif



AD&D (it’s ok…)

5b3627f259d519c03525d5adaa8e85bc.jpg



D&D 5.E (no comment)

19ckckra095kmjpg.jpg





BTW: Welcome everyone! Your forum is good reading for cRPG players.
 

DJOGamer PT

Arcane
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
7,347
Location
Lusitânia
All other races are inferior to the glorious white humans,and should serve them:smug:.

Redguards are the best swordsman race. :smug:

With regards to the Elf, it is not their "gayness" that irritates me, stick your dick where you want i'm not interested in your sex life has always been my maxim. What irritates me is their supposed superiority, how they are better, wiser, more beautiful and noble than mankind. This invariably attracts the same kind of person, along with the vampire fans, smug elitists who believe that their shit doesn't stink and that they are looking down on their fellow man from a great height. Mankind is varied, we have great minds, conquerers, artists, leaders, architects, heroes, explorers and honest, humble workers and also shit slurping, scrounging, moronic scum of the earth. We are better and worse, to try and remove ourselves by emulating the other is foolish and dangerous, and may well lead to dyed hair.

As for Tolkien, and many of his contemporaries, well we can all see why they wanted to escape into a fantastic world where there are creatures better than humanity. After all they had seen the worst side of our species, and horror we probably can't concieve of, but for a soft modern man utterly unused to true tribulation to flee humanity in such a way...that tells.

I don't think Tolkien liked elves more than humans, because you are forgetting one very important thing. While they are technically "better" than humans they are also very envious of Humans because their fate will always be in Ea. And they cannot change their fate since unlike humans, elves don't possess the Gift of Men.
Also despite their inferiority to elves, Men are the ones accomplish the most impressive feats. All named dragons were killed by men, Numenor was the most advanced and impressive civilization in Arda (even surpassing Valinor) and both Dark Lords are killed by men - Sauron by Frodo and Sam, or just Gollum (Hobbits are an off-shoot of Man) and Morgoth by Turin "Black Sword" during Dagor Dagorath.

As for the modern man escaping from their humanity, that kind of reminds me of the Fall of Numenor.

My favorite choice is a dwarven race ... Problem is – there are no many cRPGs where you actually could roleplay a dwarf character.

Severance: Blade of Darkness
It's no RPG, but you can play as Dwarf... if you can play as one that is.

In theory I like elves ... However I really hate most of adaptations of this folk in games ... So I avoid playing elves in video games.

Have you tried Morrowind? :obviously:
 
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JoonaAhonen

Prospernaut
Shitposter
Joined
May 17, 2018
Messages
104
Location
The Glow
Having a human PC makes role-playing easier to me. Elves are the same experience to me, and so are scalies. And...

I want to fuck dragons, so yeah - that settles it.
 
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DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
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Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Let's be real if there is a clear 'race' to hate it's the occasionally appearing undead race. Most people who play undead are edgy wrist slitters
Edgy wrist slitters tend to play vampires specifically and vampirism tends to be curse/affliction mechanically.

Undead races are interesting, if only due to worldbuilding and mechanical potential - there are so many ways to make their gameplay and place in the setting different in interesting ways.

The same reason why scallies and furries, especially at most demi-humanoid scalies and furries, can be interesting (even if most devs fail at using that potential) - they have potential mechanical and cultural differences built right into them. If you have a race with noticeably different body plan, they are going to build their dwellings and everyday items differently, possibly organize their societies differently and so on, not to mention suffer different set of limitations in gameplay.
Elves and dorfs? They are just another kind of humans, lean, pointy-eared ones and short, stocky ones respectively. They make nothing and do nothing that would clash with a human making or doing it.
 
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Unwanted

Kalin

Unwanted
Dumbfuck Zionist Agent
Joined
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Messages
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We need a GD version of this poll on the popularity of human races.

In before standard frothing commie retort: nooo thar be onleh 1 jewman race!
 

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