The basic premise of massively multiplayer online role-playing games is that anyone with a computer can create an account, choose an avatar, and immediately immerse themselves into a persistent fantasy world.
Once a player arrives in a fantasy virtual world, they have a duty to respect that world by making an effort to fit into that world and play their characters accordingly. No matter who you are or where you live, when you enter someone’s home or enter a foreign country or join a new online community, you should behave as a guest and respect the culture you have entered.
There’s an old saying that describes this universal truth:
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do…”
The fundamental essence of role-playing games (RPGs) is that players should leave their real-world personas behind and actually “role-play” characters that fit into the setting of the world. The entire point of virtual fantasy worlds is that they are destinations that provide players with the experience of brief interludes of escapism. Anything or anyone that works against the concept of role-playing in an MMORPG should be discouraged and prohibited.
Players are Content Too
Video game studios spend millions of dollars to craft unique worlds. This is because they want you to be completely immersed in them. But in online worlds, there are more than just graphics and sounds, there are other human beings playing characters. If players fail to be a cohesive part of the virtual worlds settings, they are destroying the immersion of other players.
Too often, players show up in fantasy virtual worlds and make no effort to role-play the characters they have created. Instead, they destroy immersion by talking about real-life matters in public chat channels. These people are disruptive parasites who bring nothing of value to fantasy virtual worlds.
If you don’t bother to role-play in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, why are you even playing the game?
Players are indeed content. How they behave and look is vitally important to reinforcing a suspension of disbelief that is critical for escapist participatory entertainment like virtual worlds.
Sadly, in today’s entitlement-driven world, MMO studios make no demands on players that they fit into their worlds. You get the community you deserve.
Everyone is Not Welcome in Middle-earth
There’s an old saying that a change is as good as a rest. The human brain needs fallow time. The human love of leisure time is a manifestation of this. We escape the drudgery of daily life by hanging out with our friends and family, daydreaming, reading, watching TV, and having hobbies. Leisure activities give the human brain a chance escapism to be meaningful it must be immersive. Immersion requires the suspension of disbelief.
Anything that erodes immersion is bad; anything that bolsters immersion is good.
It goes without saying that players who escape to virtual worlds must do their part to fit in and help bring the world to life. If I am part of a virtual world version of Tolkien’s Middle-earth and playing a male dwarf, I should behave like a dwarf would if he lived there.
As a player in an online world within a clearly defined setting, culture, and history, if you behave like you are a woke millennial hipster from San Francisco in 2023 in Middle-earth, you are being disruptive and destroying the expectations and enjoyment of your fellow players.
Many high-end restaurants have strict dress codes for men and women. They do this for a good reason: they are creating a special experience for their clientele. The fine dining experience is not only the food and the service, it is the ambiance, the decor, and the quality of your fellow gourmands. If you show up looking like a homeless bum or wearing a tracksuit and the establishment requires you to be wearing a suit and tie, then do not expect the staff to smile and allow you to enter and destroy the dining experience of the other patrons. The same is true of online worlds.
MMORPGs studios should act as gatekeepers to ensure that players fit into their worlds. This is why immersion-breaking names like Superman or Spiderman are not allowed in fantasy virtual worlds.
Video game studios that make online worlds have no obligation or duty to validate the real-world racial identity or sexual proclivities of players. Anyone that refuses to make an effort to fit into a fantasy virtual world like Middle-earth should not be welcome.
Middle-Earth has been Invaded by Africans and Asians
Up until recently, Standing Stone’s Games’ The Lord of the Rings Online allowed people who love J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional world of Middle-earth to be a part of it with a remarkable amount of fidelity and respect for the author. Sadly, that is no longer the case as Standing Stone Games, a division of Daybreak Games owned by Enad Global 7, now allows players to create African and Asian characters as human avatars. They are also allowing human females to have beards.
From their recent update:
LOTRO is celebrating the uniqueness of every player!
Our latest update celebrates individuality with additional character customization options for the Race of Men (humans) that let players express themselves in new ways. We want to make as many players feel represented in the game as possible, and we are introducing new character creation options for your face, hair, and body! We know there is more work to do to offer a wider variety of character creation options, and we will be following up this release with additional options in the future.
Here are some things to know:
- Your existing characters remain mostly unchanged, although we have updated some textures to improve their look.
- There are now more shared options between genders, including hair and beard styles where applicable.
- The body proportion range has been increased.
- These new options are also available at the Barber for access to existing characters.
There were no African or Asian humanoids in Middle-earth. Period.
Corn rows and Jamaican dreadlocks do not exist in Middle-earth. Period.
Human females in Middle-earth were incapable of growing beards. Period.
There were no transgender people in Middle-earth. Period.
Here are some samples of the new character avatars curated from a YouTube video by Ghynghyn:
African Male Avatars in Lord of the Rings Online
African Female Avatars in Lord of the Rings Online
Asian Male Avatars in Lord of the Rings Online
Asian Female Avatars in Lord of the Rings Online
Facial Hair for Human Female Avatars in Lord of the Rings Online
Have you seen enough?
Representation Has No Place in Middle-earth
The concept of representation states that people can only relate to things if they see themselves using the product or service if see their identity represented in the actual content of the product or service.
The implied theory is that if people do not see themselves represented they will not purchase the product or service or be less likely to do so. To remedy this, proponents of this theory demand that companies and institutions that create products or services must be inclusive and welcoming to those not represented.
This reasoning is fallacious because people certainly can and do enjoy products and services without being represented. The quality of a good or service speaks for itself.
The demand for representation is political in nature. It is a real-world manifestation of the diversity, inclusion, and equity agenda.
By embracing the divisive notion of representation and allowing these disruptive avatars in their world, Standing Stone Games is willfully desecrating the work of J.R. Tolkien and destroying the enjoyment of authentic Tolkien enthusiasts who are happily role-playing in The Lord of the Rings Online.
Representation is a sub-set of the concept of inclusion, which is a part of the diversity, equity, and inclusion cult and a sub-set itself of neo-Marxist ideology.
I suspect that Standing Stone Games is doing this because of internal pressure from their woke superiors at Daybreak Games and Enad Global 7. I believe that these companies are trying to increase their ESG scores to keep their globalist overlords happy.
The heading “LOTRO is celebrating the uniqueness of every player” is quite revealing and frankly disturbing. They are talking about your identity, not as a player, but you in real life. This is a betrayal of what fantasy virtual worlds are supposed to be and wrong on so many levels. Who you are in real life should not matter, nor should it have any bearing on the character you create and role-play in a fantasy world.
The genius of virtual worlds is that all characters start off as level one equals. No matter if you are rich or poor, male or female, young or old, straight or gay, abled or disabled, virtual worlds offer everyone equality of opportunity not equality of outcome. Virtual worlds are probably one of the only examples of true equality.
If you tell your players that their real-life identity is important in a virtual world and that it should be represented, you are proving that you are ignorant of the importance of immersion and fidelity to the setting of that virtual world and are unfit stewards of Tolkien’s legacy.
The Pandora’s Box of Representation
Players who demand that their real-life personalities, politics, and social conventions should be validated in fantasy virtual worlds should be stopped dead in their tracks. These selfish people have no place in virtual worlds. They should not be pandered to in the slightest.
If studios give in to these woke activist players, what is next?
Will African players demand special rights in online worlds because of alleged past discrimination of African people in the real world?
Will African players demand financial assistance and lower prices in Middle-earth?
Will African players demand that African food be sold in Middle-earth?
Will NPC quest givers in LOTRO expect less from African players and give them easier quests?
Will African players be given lighter sentences for committing crimes?
Will Asians demand Asian food be served and chopsticks be made available in Middle-earth?
Will other races and LGBTQ people also demand representation in the Lord of the Rings Online?
Where does this end?!?
By capitulating to the golden idol of wokeness and pandering to the neo-Marixst-inspired diversity, inclusion, and equity agenda, Standing Stones Games is putting its thumb on the scale and making a clear political statement. It is obvious that they care more about wokeness than being faithful to Tolkien’s legendarium. And, they certainly don’t care about the loyal Tolkien fans that play Lord of the Rings Online as many long-standing issues like lag and an antiquated user interface still plague this venerable MMO.
If these developers want to engage in political or social activism, they should do it on their own time and leave it at home. They should also lead by example, resign from their positions, and find Africans and Asians to replace them.
Conclusion
For 16 years, The Lord of the Rings Online was an authentic and respectful reproduction of Tolkien’s Middle-earth. LOTRO was the shining city on a hill that Tolkien fans could point to as being a place that was uncorrupted by modernism and wokeness. Sadly that era has come to an end with the introduction of playable African and Asian human characters and modern hairstyles. Given this terrible trajectory, it is only a matter of time before LGBTQ content rears its ugly head in Lord of the Rings Online.
This audacious nonsense would have never been allowed by the previous owners of Middle Earth Enterprises. This artistic malignancy would never have been allowed while Christopher Tolkien was alive as he was the head of the Tolkien Estate.
The story of the Lord of the Rings is all about the eternal war between good and evil. It’s also about how humans can give into temptation and be corrupted by power. It is also about reluctant heroism, bravery, personal sacrifice, and having the courage to go outside your comfort zone. It is clear that the people responsible for the addition of African and Asian avatars into LOTRO have become corrupted by the demonic spirits of this age and care more about the fleeting praise of society than they do about being faithful to Tolkien.
If Tolkien were alive today, he would be furious about these changes and drive the money changers from the temple.
Identity politics and ideological indoctrination has no place in video games.
The leaders of Enad Global 7, Embracer Group, Middle Earth Enterprises, Daybreak Games, and Standing Stone Games are despicable cultural vandals who should be ashamed of themselves for defiling the authenticity of Tolkien’s majestic Middle-earth. In their zeal to virtue signal, they have forgotten that players inhabit fictional worlds to get away from politics and social strife in the world. These people need to be called out and shamed for their evil deeds. In the next few months, we will be doing a lot of investigative digging to find out who is responsible for this travesty and we’ll be reporting our findings to the public.
–Wolfshead
Ever since Christopher Tolkien died, I remember that I had thought he was too rigid handing out the rights to Lord of the Rings and other works of his father. Well, I was wrong.
Embracer, Enad Global 7, Daybreak … Amazon… who is holding the rights for what. I am losing track at times. Simon Tolkien and George Michael Tolkien and whoever else is still involved in the Tolkien Estate and handing out rights lost it.
It always takes two is a common saying, in this case rather three or more. A company desperate and tasteless enough to introduce even more pink, purple, whatsoever hair, as it reportedly sold from the age of Ultima Online onward, more diversity to attract a “diverse crow” of customers, or maybe just a woke guy/gal in the studio and people who simply don’t care anymore. I really wonder, as Standing Stones was formed from people who know Tolkien. Well, seems they don’t have a say anymore.
The other “person” is the company owning the rights to let this pass and then it is back to the Tolkien heirs to interfere. But they are not Christopher Tolkien, and they aren’t taking their duty as serious as Christopher did. The fat black woman added to any TV series is also common these days, THIS happened to the Rings of Power series in form of a dwarven wife.
This is agenda pushing, and people don’t resist it enough. Let’s see how people on the RP servers of LOTRO will take this when the first neon-rainbow sparkly ponies come to their festivals.
Standing Stones Games should be ashamed. They are destroying a faithful depiction of Middle Earth. And this was the one thing that LOTRO had going for it. In most other ways its hopelessly outdated. The engine update isn’t coming, graphics are not doing well going above 1920×1080 and combat/UI aren’t up to speed anymore either.
I have fond memories of LOTRO. The landscape, this is Middle Earth, breathtakingly beautiful. This is typical and sad, wokeness destroying beauty once more!
I had to look at previous articles you penned here, well, the writing on the wall was already there. I have uninstalled Lotro, till some miracle happens, but no way currently for the greedy and soul-less owners.
Evil cannot create, or cannot be creative even within its own bounds. All it can do is take an idea, and then pervert that idea.
It would’ve creative in Lotro if they had African people origin in a new zone part of an expansion, more south on the world map, having those stories done there, and player who sets their African character per origin, have it as an instance of the new zone and somehow get over to Bree(the human starting zone) as a messenger from lands far away, affected by Sauron’s evil. Plus have it so the leveling process currently isn’t disrupted too much.
I used a creative way, within a budget limitation for this problem, but none of the ESG or DIE processes even allow the freedom or true thinking to this. All of it is metastasized cancer that hurts the company, leading to the eventually death of it. Depending of the usage of Hebrew word Meta, it can mean death, playing the finance game to squeeze the blood from a victim, and then vampire onto the next thing when it is completely dried out.
Sadly, there is already an LGBTQ etc example in LOTRO. In the higher-level areas of the game, where the PC meets many different dwarves factions and nationalities, there is one quest that is given by a female dwarf, who tells the PC to go talk to her “wife”. I’d have to go back and research exactly where that is (I believe it’s in a big camp in the mountains, preparatory to the dwarven assault on Gundabad), but it is quite obvious. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the game began to turn, because there is no way for players to let their opinions be known outside the forums (I can’t send an email or note to the leadership at Standing Stone) and we can guess what happens to someone who questions DIE in a forum. If this goes the way I think it’s going, I will be deleting my account in the near future and spending my time on something else.