a note on racism and witchhuntsFollow

I have to say that this post definitely got me thinking about how people play this game that just don't care that there are others controlling the characters that they play alongside. When you see people posting/playing that use these terms, I find it completely unacceptable. I've had to warn 2 people in my linkshell that these types of terms will not be tolerated by my linkshell or any of the alternate leaders if I'm not on or around.

I have to say that I've always had to be on the defensive, being an unmarried white male. I've been lucky enough to learn about other cultures though, to be able to find the history of terms that have been stated here, and to KNOW that they are completely unacceptable under ANY circumstance. When I read people using those terms, I just want to slap them. They get yelled at time and time again, only to use the same term and insult people and make themselves look like a closeminded fool.

I've never used the abbreviation "J" or "JP," I've always used the country code, JPN. I encourage people who are going to talk about Japanese players to use the country code. It's the same amount of letters, and will make you look a lot more mature of a player in my eyes and many others as well.

Hopefully SOMEONE has actually bothered to read all of the posts like I have and will take the chance to rate up people who have provided very valid points in this conversation.

$.02

I dunno, maybe I should do a poll at the auction house. It's just never occurred to me that "***" could be a derogatory term. It's only short for the name of the country they're from -- I'd say that's how 99.99...% of people in this game use the word. So why take offense at it? The word itself is completely inoffensive. It has a source and meaning that is completely inoffensive -- and valid. Now, if we had any Japanese players on here saying yeah, I find that offensive, I'd be more concerned... but I've just never seen the term used in a hurtful way to anyone.

If we can get some JPN (*pats herself on the head*) confirmation here that JP players take offense at this, I'll be happy to concede the point. I've just never seen anyone use it badly or take it badly. Probably it's just a result of limited experience, but this seems so silly to me!

If nothing else, take this post as being representative of the befuddled (apparent) majority.