Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Turning Point MUD: Responding to a review

Geras · 11-20-2003, 01:46 AM

Okay, devil's advocate time...

I dropped by TP's website and read over the High Elf file... aside from one inconsistancy which isn't too big a deal, I kind of wondered if the reviewer was right in one aspect, that is that stereotypical racial behavior is restrictive. High Elves being good and pure is all well and good, but isn't that boring? I mean, in books and on MUDS my favourite characters have always been gray, conflicted, complex.... not 1 dimensional do-gooders.

I don't know if you've read the Silmarillion (definitive text on High Elves in my opinion, other than perhaps Laws And Customs of the Eldar, also by Tolkien), but my personal favourite characters were Feanor, Maedhros and Fingolfin. All three were at least somewhat good, but they were arrogant and conceited. They did Evil's work, killing other elves and betraying their friends, not because they were evil, but because they thought it was right and what was owed to them. They were complex characters. The previous poster's lament to the Dudley Dark Elf (kidding, we all read those books...) is not really that central to my concerns... that's another 1 dimensional character and not necessarily the best RP IMO. I think there is a distinction to be made between the High-Elf enchanter who is so vain he values his work above human and elvish life, and the High-Elf enchanter who is bitter cause he got beat up in the playground and now wants revenge.

I didn't notice any provision for that... is there one?

11-20-2003, 01:46 AM	#17
Geras Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 36	Okay, devil's advocate time... I dropped by TP's website and read over the High Elf file... aside from one inconsistancy which isn't too big a deal, I kind of wondered if the reviewer was right in one aspect, that is that stereotypical racial behavior is restrictive. High Elves being good and pure is all well and good, but isn't that boring? I mean, in books and on MUDS my favourite characters have always been gray, conflicted, complex.... not 1 dimensional do-gooders. I don't know if you've read the Silmarillion (definitive text on High Elves in my opinion, other than perhaps Laws And Customs of the Eldar, also by Tolkien), but my personal favourite characters were Feanor, Maedhros and Fingolfin. All three were at least somewhat good, but they were arrogant and conceited. They did Evil's work, killing other elves and betraying their friends, not because they were evil, but because they thought it was right and what was owed to them. They were complex characters. The previous poster's lament to the Dudley Dark Elf (kidding, we all read those books...) is not really that central to my concerns... that's another 1 dimensional character and not necessarily the best RP IMO. I think there is a distinction to be made between the High-Elf enchanter who is so vain he values his work above human and elvish life, and the High-Elf enchanter who is bitter cause he got beat up in the playground and now wants revenge. I didn't notice any provision for that... is there one?