Obviously there's that big bad evil forum post Gygax made that SJWs use to make out Gygax is "literally Hitler". But I still give him props for trying things out. Instead of coming up with dogma and confirmation bias, he invited his daughters to play the game. Gave them a fair oportunity to enjoy it and they didn't. So Gygax came up with his opinion based on his actual experience. And really that's all you can ask a decent person to do. He tried something. Found out the result and formed his opinion based on that. The end. He didn't form that opinion out of made up dogma to oppress people nor did he make up a test with moving goal posts for an agenda. But facts and figures are inherently racist and sexist according to some.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron on March 25, 2023, 04:54:38 AM
I am going to say something bigoted: all people with rainbow hair are lunatics.

Now, they're not born with rainbow hair, so I'm not sure we can call it bioessentialist. But it's something-essentialist. As soon as you put in that hair dye, insanity ensues. Usually BPD.

It's more the other way around, if you're mentally ill you're more likely to dye your hair. Also if you're dealing with teens they just want to try something different, haven't experienced it yet. It's more with adults that you're going to see that problem. Among adults I know one Anglophone with dyed hair who isn't nuts. She's definitely left wing, but isn't hostile to those with different beliefs, to the extent of being able to accept that Donald Trump has some good things going for him. But that's just one exception. Non-Anglophones I've seen a lot more sane people with coloured hair.

Quote from: S'mon on March 25, 2023, 04:18:20 AM

Quote from: Mistwell on March 24, 2023, 10:13:35 PM
That said, I don't think this was a belief of Gygax.

OTOH the 'race does not exist' trope was only invented in the late '90s afaicr

It's not a trope, ask this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Luca_Cavalli-Sforza
Long story short, there isn't enough genetic diversity between human ethnicities to justify the use of the term "race" in its usual meaning when talking about human populations. Culture is another thing, but genetically speaking the differences between human genotypes are insignificant.

Quote from: Vestragor on March 25, 2023, 10:22:19 AM

Quote from: S'mon on March 25, 2023, 04:18:20 AM

Quote from: Mistwell on March 24, 2023, 10:13:35 PM
That said, I don't think this was a belief of Gygax.

OTOH the 'race does not exist' trope was only invented in the late '90s afaicr

It's not a trope, ask this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Luca_Cavalli-Sforza
Long story short, there isn't enough genetic diversity between human ethnicities to justify the use of the term "race" in its usual meaning when talking about human populations. Culture is another thing, but genetically speaking the differences between human genotypes are insignificant.

Different populations have different % of species. Some are 100% homo sapiens (sub-Saharan Africa), others may only be 90% homo sapiens (Pacific Islands) with the other 10% being Neanderthal and Denisovan. I'm not sure it makes sense to say when we're talking about mixed-species that there isn't enough genetic difference to even talk about race.

Quote from: Vestragor on March 25, 2023, 10:22:19 AM

Quote from: S'mon on March 25, 2023, 04:18:20 AM

Quote from: Mistwell on March 24, 2023, 10:13:35 PM
That said, I don't think this was a belief of Gygax.

OTOH the 'race does not exist' trope was only invented in the late '90s afaicr

It's not a trope, ask this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Luca_Cavalli-Sforza
Long story short, there isn't enough genetic diversity between human ethnicities to justify the use of the term "race" in its usual meaning when talking about human populations. Culture is another thing, but genetically speaking the differences between human genotypes are insignificant.

Race is basically social categorization by phenotype (observable physical traits). What counts as a race in a modern sense is dependent upon the society doing the categorizing.

Regardless of its use or lack thereof in real world biology, in terms of RPGs, Race has come to have a standard and useful meaning of "the categories of beings available as player characters" (as distinct from monsters) and "the collection of traits available specific categories of playable beings."

That's a very useful keyword for defining an rpg setting.

In the real world, race is observably real, even if different cultures come to different conclusions about what to make of it.  You can just look at genetic distance and draw circles and you'll end up with something that approximates races as they are generally understood (and that genetic distance is far enough to mark different species in the rest of biology).  The fact that anyone who brings this up can get cancelled, even Nobel laureates, shows that it's impossible to even have a real discussion about it.

Twitter people recently found this old video and Musk commented on it:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1638728403858898944?cxt=HHwWgIDStaGz970tAAAA

I notice no one is arguing with that guy or people who talk like him, trying to tell them that race isn't real or whatever.  He seems to have no problem figuring it out.

Instead of going to have a chat with them, those people hang out on reddit and get mad that the idea of an "elven race" or a "dwarven race" is somehow making a bunch of real statements about the real world- which it actually does not appear to be.  In most worlds dwarves can breed with no one except other dwarves, whereas elves, humans, and orcs are some level of cross-fertile.  In D&D, "race" has almost always been a word that describes how the members of that fantasy world view different peoples, be it entirely a social construct, entirely biological, or anywhere in between (even in some cases, a difference entirely enforced by magic!).  But remember, their viewpoint can't budge an inch- if even a tenth of a percent of race is biological anywhere, even in fiction, it's extremely offensive to them, and they have to fight even a reference to it.  That's why they can't actually forgive Gygax, and why, even though the pen and paper gaming community is small and not even remotely a real force in the culture wars, they will continue to attack him. 

Now, is it likely that Gygax tried to screw Arneson?  Seems real likely! ( https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/473/759/2148159/ ) 
But I know that people making a big deal out of it may have a political motivation to attack Gygax.  Same with almost anything bad said about him.  The entire thing seems like a "ah, we've identified something about the past that people we hate like, lets go give one sided accounts to split the community", which is absolutely ubiquitous in everything from television to textbooks to statues.

Gygax
Lawful Neutral Cosmic Entity

Move: 12 or Teleport
Armour Class: 10 Faded Tee Shirt
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: Acerbic Wit save verses Death
Special Abilities: Dungeon Master`s Discretion because I said so that`s why`functions as a Wish spell once per round

Greetings!

Gary Gygax was an absolute genius, and also a kind, witty, and generous man. Gygax was intelligent, perceptive, insightful, and fun, and an outstanding gentleman.

Fuck the haters. All of the sobbing, crying, Woke morons should be bathed in napalm.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

It's Reddit, their women have dicks and they can't figure out why can't get pregnant.  They can't even slur Gygax properly.  I'm just happy that they are playing Gary's game and spreading it far and wide and there is nothing they can do to break that.  Short of a leftard figuring out how to create, which they can't because they don't understand the fundamentals of Western society and what the West likes for a story.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on March 25, 2023, 06:19:22 PM
It's Reddit, their women have dicks and they can't figure out why can't get pregnant.  They can't even slur Gygax properly.  I'm just happy that they are playing Gary's game and spreading it far and wide and there is nothing they can do to break that.  Short of a leftard figuring out how to create, which they can't because they don't understand the fundamentals of Western society and what the West likes for a story.

Guys, can we stick to defending Gygax, or discussing race versus species versus "racism" and not go down the path of just calling people names?

Quote from: GamerforHire on March 25, 2023, 07:07:05 PM
Guys, can we stick to defending Gygax, or discussing race versus species versus "racism" and not go down the path of just calling people names?

Gygax doesn't need defending. Saying he does is buying into the manure that the 'progressive' assholes on reddit are spewing.

Quote from: GamerforHire on March 25, 2023, 07:07:05 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on March 25, 2023, 06:19:22 PM
It's Reddit, their women have dicks and they can't figure out why can't get pregnant.  They can't even slur Gygax properly.  I'm just happy that they are playing Gary's game and spreading it far and wide and there is nothing they can do to break that.  Short of a leftard figuring out how to create, which they can't because they don't understand the fundamentals of Western society and what the West likes for a story.

Guys, can we stick to defending Gygax, or discussing race versus species versus "racism" and not go down the path of just calling people names?

The people doing this, they're leftards.  Always have been, always will be.  They don't care about the game and they hate you and they hate the West, all of it has got to go.  Do not be nice to these people, they will happily put you in a gulag and kill you if they had power, never forget that.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on March 25, 2023, 06:19:22 PM
Short of a leftard figuring out how to create, which they can't because they don't understand the fundamentals of Western society and what the West likes for a story.

How does it go? "The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own."  It's a good line.

Maybe WotC will remove his name from the D&D credits too for 6e.