Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
May the best race win....err get nerfed!
Civil war? Yes please!
Brothers killing brothers? For sure!
Patricide? Omg yes!
Matricide? Why not!
Better yet, we take hate out of the equation. You know those peeps in the next node over that will ask you about your day? Slay them, just because.
I would rather Ashes not implement a reason for races to hate each other. I get why Tulnar would be opposed to everyone else, but outside of that it seems like a weak gimmick to artificially create game conflict.
Also, just because someone wrote a book that had some rl racism, you can't hold them responsible for future content creators. Unfortunately, we all have our own minds.
It’s fine with me that you are blunt and direct. I actually appreciate that.
We good, AFAIK.
I don’t think I’ve really expanded on my opinion of the racism in Tolkien’s work more than I did in my original post.
I provided the links instead of a detailed answer in my own words because I want to minimize any debate that might arise on that specific tangent.
People in the Ashes community tend to get uncomfortable quickly when direct references to real world racism are made.
Apparently, it’s OK for them to be racist and promote racism in-game as long as it’s against fantasy races. (That’s a legacy of trying to emulate the tropes in Tolkien’s works.
I never see people suggest we should have gender wars, blatant sexism or homophobia in fantasy MMORPGs - likely because these were not tropes in Tolkien’s works, nor in D&D and true other RPGs that try to emulate Tolkien’s work.) But, it’s not OK to reference the effects of unchecked racism in fiction on people in the real world
Feel free to DM if you really want me to share my take on this in greater detail.
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An aspect of Ashes that I love is that I won’t be restricted to playing a European Dwarf. I can play a Polynesian Dwarf if I choose to.
Choosing a race won’t limit the classes I can choose.
Nikua might be tribal, but they aren’t animalistic, like the Tauren. Orcs might have a somewhat beastial jawline, but they aren’t inherently savage and don’t inherently have low Intelligence. And the lore doesn’t strongly hint that Orcs are Evil.
I might find myself in a situation where I kill on sight any non-Vek near my city in order to ensure that the city becomes a Vek Metro, but after that, I can welcome all races to be citizens or even government leaders/mayors of the Metro because that’s not going to change the racial architecture, and it’s not going to impede my racial progression, AFAIK.
That makes whatever racial conflict there is more “meaningful” - it’s an example of what the devs mean by “meaningful conflict” - again, because it’s really about resource competition rather than just a legacy of the Tolkien fantasy tradition.
There’s already a disturbing level of racism against the Tulnar - because some people don’t set any boundaries... anything said is fair game as long as the target is a fantasy race instead of a real world race (in their estimation).
It should be interesting to see how racial tensions might ease when historical rivals face a common foe.
Will Elves and Tulnar unite in an alliance in order to oust tyrannical Nikua queens from their monopoly on the Castles?
Should be fun to watch. Especially since it will most likely be a different story on each server.
(We’ll also have to keep an eye on religious conflicts.)
*starts masschant* Purge. Purge. PURGE. PURGE! PURGE! BLOOD FOR THE BLOODGOD!
Come take a look at ashesofcreation.wiki!
With AoC it just doesn't seem to make as much sense when players are already going to be at odds with every node that is trying to limit the size and level of the node they are trying to build up and with guilds being at war over castles and resources it just makes more sense for it to be more along the lines of guilds and cities instead of race.
I would think the vast majority of players won't actually care too much about the race of the node they are in. The node type, level, location and leadership will likely be what 90%+ of the playerbase look for. It is somewhat murky at this stage the level of in game benefit that living in a node that is predominantly your race will have, but the differences seem to be far lesser than the differences offered by node type and location, and the stability offered by good leadership.
I would expect in game NPC's to have some level of (potentially) unwarranted suspicion - or worse - towards the Tulnar. I wouldn't expect too much between the other races, as they have had thousands of years living together, and as stated are living in a world on the other side of the portals where the population is somewhat mixed, suggesting a level of harmony.
I wouldn't at all be surprised to see a one off NPC that dislikes a specific race for one reason or another, but with the exception of the Tulnar, I don't expect it to be wide spread.
As for player racism though, if a player wishes to hate on one race as in the quote above, more power to them. I'm sticking by my stance of hating on the individuals that deserve it, ignoring their race totally.
It's like anything. If you look hard enough, isolate yourself from all but the opinions you want to hear, and fail to think for yourself, you can surround yourself in a bubble of any given opinion. If you surround yourself in a bubble of a single opinion, you believe that opinion without question.
Basically, if you want to think a thing, you will find others who think that, which reinforces to you that the thing you want to think is true, despite the fact that all you have done is find a few people that want to think that same thing.
I mean, this is where Flat Earthers come from.
Even if it were, that would be racism from the character; not the player.
The cultural conflict is a feature of this game, specifically.
I expect the race of the Node will have a more significant impact than you seem to think.
And I think Steven agreed with me.
mark 1:00:34
The races that left Verra split into subraces with different cultures for a reason, rather than becoming one, united culture. There will be cultural conflict. Especially since there are 9 races, but there can only be 5 Metros. And it's not going to be as simple as all the servers striving to ensure that there is a Metro for Orc, Dwarf, Elf, Human and Tulnar.
I don't expect to see that more with the Tulnar than the other races, but I do expect some individual NPCs to be racist, sure.
Yeah, we don't have to be racist in order to fight other races due to cultural conflicts and we don't have to continue that enmity after those cultural conflicts are resolved.
Aggelos will be playing a Dwarf and he hates Elves. I don't have a problem with that. How he goes about portraying that hatred could be a concern, but he seems to know what lines not to cross, so... that's all good.
(Aggelos' "racism" with regard to Dwarves and Elves is from the player - and carries over to all of his characters in all of the RPGs he plays, IIRC.)
In addition to that, people will hate individuals they feel deserve it - even within their own race... for sure!