Race

[Ryu_the_fox]

Race

Dudes, we need to be able to choose our race, or at least change our skin color. Not all the characters are white in the Fable universe(duh.) I mean there was Whisper, Thunder, and Garth. And there are some dark skinned NPCs.

 

[Willstopher]

Re: Race

i agree. we should be able to chose our race.

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Race

Not this topic again...

Thunder and Whisper have ancestry in far off lands, the Hero doesn't. The Heroes of all the Fable games thus all come from the same family and that's a white one from merry old Englan- I mean Albion. A shared ancestry of all the main Heroes in the Fable games is probably a trend that will carry on, so I doubt we'll have a black Hero any time soon if they decide to keep Englan- Albion as the setting.

 

[Wonderfoole WINO]

Re: Race

Well, Fable II gave you the option to chose your sex, twice in fact. So who knows, they might just put in the ability to chose your race aswell. If not at the begining of the game, then mabey with a potion or something.

If they keep the trend going with all the heros being related, then the hero you play as in Fable III would probably remain white, but not nessarily. There are a number of ways around this. The could make the story so one parent is white and the other is black, and give you the option to chose your race at the begining of the game. Or they could do what they did in Fable II and leave your parents compleatly out of the picture. Or let you chose your race first, then reveil your parents with the same race, like in Fallout 3.

But isnt it interesting that the dark skinned people in Albion come from the frozen north? Under those conditions, wouldnt the skin of a people become lighter over time, not darker?

Anyway, the hero in Fable III could be a blue skinned, three eyed alien with a tail for all I care. I'm still gonna buy it.

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Race

Frozen north? I'm pretty sure both Thunder and Whisper arrived by ship from the Fable-y version of Africa. Something about Thunder and Whisper being the only survivors when said ship sunk and Thunder swam all the way to shore carrying infant Whisper with him.

EDIT: They are all (including Garth) from a nation called "Samarkand" which has the attributes of not only Africa, but Asia as well (gunpowder being invented there as well as the katana and other "exotic" weapons being imported from there). Definitely not the frozen north.

 

[Wonderfoole WINO]

Re: Race

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I was refering to the people of the Norther Wastes, their black for some reason. But I think that place has just droped off the Fable-y map anyway so it doesnt really matter.

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Race

They are not really "black" though, more "eskimo"-ish.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Кожаный_панцирь.jpg

 

[Nukleuz]

Re: Race

I agree that you should be able to change your skin tone, it's not really a role playing game otherwise.

 

[Ryu_the_fox]

Re: Race

Lol, i forgot about the bloodline which is from a white family...
So why cant we just bleach our skin or take potions or something....?
And Garth looked cool with the shiny blue will lines on his dark skin. And the plaits hairstyle doesnt really look good on a white hero. (did they carry that hairstyle over to fable 2? I haven't found that hairstyle in Fable 2, I've only found it in TLC) We may also be able to change our skin color to unusual colors like blue or green, or pink or black(like completely black).

 

[Walker]

Re: Race

Well, Fable II gave you the option to chose your sex, twice in fact. So who knows, they might just put in the ability to chose your race aswell. If not at the begining of the game, then mabey with a potion or something.

If they keep the trend going with all the heros being related, then the hero you play as in Fable III would probably remain white, but not nessarily. There are a number of ways around this. The could make the story so one parent is white and the other is black, and give you the option to chose your race at the begining of the game. Or they could do what they did in Fable II and leave your parents compleatly out of the picture. Or let you chose your race first, then reveil your parents with the same race, like in Fallout 3.

But isnt it interesting that the dark skinned people in Albion come from the frozen north? Under those conditions, wouldnt the skin of a people become lighter over time, not darker?

Anyway, the hero in Fable III could be a blue skinned, three eyed alien with a tail for all I care. I'm still gonna buy it.

Frozen north? I'm pretty sure both Thunder and Whisper arrived by ship from the Fable-y version of Africa. Something about Thunder and Whisper being the only survivors when said ship sunk and Thunder swam all the way to shore carrying infant Whisper with him.

EDIT: They are all (including Garth) from a nation called "Samarkand" which has the attributes of not only Africa, but Asia as well (gunpowder being invented there as well as the katana and other "exotic" weapons being imported from there). Definitely not the frozen north.

They are not really "black" though, more "eskimo"-ish.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Кожаный_панцирь.jpg

I don't pretend to really understand genetics, but no, I don't see any reason for people from the north to be pale. The only place that really crops up is Europe-- if you want to get technical, western Europe. Everywhere else, tend to dark hair and dark eyes if not dark skin. See the Inuit, native Alaskans, all've them. And no, this isn't entirely true, I'm making a sweeping generalization.

But yeah, Samarkand seems to be a kinda generic "other" place. I've been thinking of it as pseudo-Russia. So damn huge that it has whatever terrain, weather, or ethnicity Lionhead feels like slapping down in it.

But yeah, changing the race doesn't make much sense. It could, depending on the time period, but having the hero be something other than pale and pasty would take a good deal of effort (on the other hand, it seems that the bloodline has spread out quite a bit, since supposedly all will-users are descended from Will, and Garth, Thunder, and Whisper all had will abilities). It would also probably open up some... interesting plotlines, call it that.

 

[Ryu_the_fox]

Re: Race

But yeah, changing the race doesn't make much sense. It could, depending on the time period, but having the hero be something other than pale and pasty would take a good deal of effort (on the other hand, it seems that the bloodline has spread out quite a bit, since supposedly all will-users are descended from Will, and Garth, Thunder, and Whisper all had will abilities). It would also probably open up some... interesting plotlines, call it that.

Im pretty sure anyone can use will powers. Scythe was just the first one to use them. And was Scythe Black...? I cant really tell cuz he looks like a zombie in TLC. Will powers were taught in the heros guild and not everyone there were descendants from Scythe....

 

[Necromancer]

Re: Race

well, in the fall of the heroes portion of the tales of albion, when the hero first writes to his wife from hook coast, he says in part of his letter, "Now more than ever, make sure she [his daughter] does not reveal her abilities. A Hero's blood flows in her veins. The mob must never learn that." to me, this greatly implies that will powers are something a person is born with. not to mention that there is the possibility of others besides william black/scythe and his descendants discovering that they have will powers on their own.

and back to the race issue, i think it is entirely possible for fable 3's hero to be something other than white. a black person could easily marry into their family, maybe even more than once, eventually overpowering the 'white' gene.

 

[Walker]

Re: Race

Im pretty sure anyone can use will powers. Scythe was just the first one to use them. And was Scythe Black...? I cant really tell cuz he looks like a zombie in TLC. Will powers were taught in the heros guild and not everyone there were descendants from Scythe....

Scythe was Will. And we've never seen him when he wasn't a semi-undead/immortal kinda guy, he could be any ethnicity, but since he's from Albion (the Nation Formerly Known As England) presumably he's as pale and pasty as I am.

And no, Scythe was never IDed as Will outright, unless I'm mistaken, but from the extracurricular info in the Tales of Albion stuff on Lionhead's website it's pretty heavily hinted that they're the same guy.

And my assumption is that everyone in the Heroes' Guild was related to Will one way or another. The assumption is that the guy bred like a little bunny rabbit. Or maybe Niall of the Nine Hostages or whatever he's called.

 

[Anon]

Re: Race

Not this topic again...

Thunder and Whisper have ancestry in far off lands, the Hero doesn't. The Heroes of all the Fable games thus all come from the same family and that's a white one from merry old Englan- I mean Albion. A shared ancestry of all the main Heroes in the Fable games is probably a trend that will carry on, so I doubt we'll have a black Hero any time soon if they decide to keep Englan- Albion as the setting.

In reality, how is that an issue?

Some of us don't actually play Fable for the background, we play it because it's a good game. I would be one of those people. If I want a good story I read a book or watch a film, both are good options. The main storyline in Fable isn't affected by any of the lore that is attributed to it in any massive way. Who is to say what race the hero of Fable III's parents are? If the signs for STF are correct and we'll be playing as the child of our current hero, how do you know that my character didn't have a child with a Black or Asian man/woman?

The bottom line is this gives players what they want. Options. If you don't like the option and feel it would break the immersion of the game for you, then you simply can choose to continue to play as the all too cliched white male hero of the piece, but explain to me how my being able to play a Black character would harm your gaming experience? Quite simply, it wouldn't.

We all like to be able to identify with our heros on some level, that's why in general on most games that offer the option players pick characters as similar to themselves as possible. For me that'd be a Black (preferable mixed race, but I don't see that happening) male character. It's a small thing that would actually make a difference to my game playing experience without detracting from yours.

The only reason to be against this is the usual gamer snobbery that exists whenever anyone tries to alter something cosmetic that another player wouldn't use.

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Race

Actually, lore and story is the most important factor in a game. We live in an age far beyond Tetris or Pacman.

I'm not saying I don't want the option, I'm saying that looking back at the previous games it isn't likely to happen.

 

[Anon]

Re: Race

Actually, lore and story is the most important factor in a game. We live in an age far beyond Tetris or Pacman.

I'm not saying I don't want the option, I'm saying that looking back at the previous games it isn't likely to happen.

Lore and Story are the most important factor in a game for you. The fact that is what matters to you does not mean that is what matters to everyone. Even if you could show me that 95% of this forum agreed with you that would prove little beyond the people who frequent these forums.

Gaming has come a long way since Pacman, but the story and lore aren't what has done that, it's the gameplay, graphics and immersion.

Don't get me wrong when I say that the story isn't the most important aspect of a game, I'm not saying it's irrelevant, however a few things that may not make perfect sense when compared to the lore don't ruin a game.

If they'd written a backstory to Pacman, would it have made the game any better? What about Mario, would that game have been lessened at all if you didn't constantly find the wrong princess?

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Race

I said we've come a long way since those games. Nobody gave a rat's arse about story back then - but now we do. Imagine Mass Effect without the universe attached to it. Imagine Halo. Gears of War.

It'd all be the same in the end, only different skins for weapons and armour.

 

[Anon]

Re: Race

I didn't play Gears of War for the story and I didn't play Halo for the story either. Both games are FPS and as such are always going to be similar. None of my friends as far as I know played either game for the story either. I've never had a conversation about the lore behind them and in reality I don't think I could tell you what the story behind Halo is to be completely honest and that's because to me and the guys I play with it's irrelevant. Some guy in a space suit shoots aliens. Story done. I don't need motivation, I don't need a character, I need a Warthog and a friend who's good with a gun.
I've done the whole hardcore gaming thing aswell, I played Ultima, Everquest, Final Fantasy Online and WoW. I've progressed to the highest level of these games aswell and I've rarely had a debate whilst playing about whether my bard should be able to perform that technique based on the lore or whether my Paladin should be able to heal quite as well as he does based on the Warcraft series.

The bottom line is whilst lore may be important to you and alot of other players it quite simply isn't important to all of us. Ignoring one small aspect of the Lore in order to give the player more choice isn't game breaking especially when it isn't a choice that will directly affect those who are only in it for the lore. This isn't something that would ever be mentioned in the story and no character would have to react differently to you. It's a simple aesthetic change that would improve the choice (which is what Fable is meant to be all about) dramatically.

If you are saying your arguement is simply that it is unlikely, then it's kind of irrelevant, the original poster isn't saying this is definitely going to happen, merely saying it'd be a great addition.

 

[Evil Scarecrow]

Re: Race

i hope they make a black character potion for fable 2 DLC.. im sic k of playing as a white dude wen i aint one lol

 

[Warpedhero]

Re: Race

I always thought it was cool to play as different races in video games. Even though I'm Caucasian, I enjoyed playing as Carl in GTA San Andreas and as a spanish guy in Saint's Row.