This is really lazy “journalism” because this article isn’t even about campaign 3 or Marquet. There are no examples cited as the “problem” from the actual campaign. They whole argument is based on the intro video and the cast members dressed up as “explorers”, which was shot with the intention of being spoiler free…

“It is no longer just a group of friends. It was never just a game.”

This is one of the worst takes I have ever seen.

In the same vein as the criticisms this article makes: Kotaku could have taken the opportunity to point out other live play streams or other games that in their view appropriately explore these themes or more prominently feature people with relevant backgrounds.

Kotaku chose not to do so.

In the instance of both…

A bunch of white people start streaming their home game 5 years ago, become wildly popular, and now they’re not allowed to do anything that anyone else playing D&D are allowed to do ever again.

“This may seem like an overly cynical and bad-faith interpretation of what Critical Role is doing with this new campaign.”

I understand people’s reticence to this, especially if you belong to the cultures this particular fantasy-inspired campaign exists in, but if your example boils down to them wearing some costumes in a silly promo piece that explorers used to wear, then that’s... not a lot.

So no matter how sensitive or respectful they might be, white people should never explore anything outside of their own culture and heritage? It is WILD how the far left is swinging all the way back around to the idea that segregation might be a good idea

This crap makes me wish D&D would go back to being something we all just kinda did in secret with our friends and the greater population shunned it.

THANKYOU.GIF

That pretty much somes up 99% of the “outrage” reported by the news thjese days.  Its a handful of people on Twitter bitching.

You really need to take a look at yourself and find out what is wrong if this is the take you get. The exact same thing could be said for the cultural inspirations used in the locations for the first and second campaign. You are literally just virtue signaling in hopes of getting some clicks from something popular. I…

Imagine a group of allies and progressives being like “hey we want to explore some other cultures in a fun and not appropriation way so let’s hire some people to guide us on that way and present it to people” and standing on the sidelines and being like NO YOU CAN’T DO THAT!!!!

In role-playing games with predominantly white players, even with the most intricately built worlds there is still a lack of connection between the cultures they play in and the way they play their characters. The characters (and people playing them) are untouched by the world in which they exist, with most of their…

This is the article that will cause me to finally unsubscribe from Kotaku. What an absolute load of shit.

Maybe they thought that dressing up in traditional attire of cultures that aren’t their own as white people would’ve been 10x worse.

No one is ‘so mad’, it’s just like 20 people on Twitter. I’ve seen just as many people be happy to be represented and feel seen by the campaign.

In the end...it really is just Dungeons and Dragons.  It has inspirations from other cultures...sure.  It also has dragons and talking robots and people who can shoot fire from their hands.  Why doesn’t the author make the same complaint of Wizards of the Coast themselves?

So....a solution? Sounds like you don’t want them to explore these cultural identifiers and the explorer-genre tropes. Should half the cast be fired and people you find “approved” be playing this game?

“This may seem like an overly cynical and bad-faith interpretation of what Critical Role is doing with this new campaign.”