Also I can’t help but notice that redguards had lower intelligence, willpower and personality
To be fair, they are generally regarded as excellent swordsmen in the lore, so for balance reasons I could understand them lowering more mage-oriented attributes and skills,. Case in point: they have a bonus to long swords. At any rate, I don't think he was involved in the more technical points of the gameplay. He was mostly a concept artist and writer, from what I understand. He also wasn't the only writer on the project - another big name is Ken Rolston, who is extremely talented in his own way.
The orc depiction, taken together with how orcish armor appears and the related context of all the heavily orientalist tropes surrounding the akaviri (How responsible is MK for this shit?), certainly feels like a racist caricature.
Only if you look at it from a Tolkienist perspective. Orcs in TES aren't mindless brutes. They're downright just humans (or, rather, elves, to be specific). Then again I might be biased because I think Samurai Orcs are fucking cool as hell.
He probably wasn't responsible for the Redguard stuff, given his involvement with TESA:Redguard. Here's what he has to say
No, I was actually referring to The Black Panthers and their radicalism. As some people know I'm not really a fan of the United Colors of Beneton approach to Tamrielicreation, which smacks of white guilt and offensery rather than some holistic form of beautiful inclusion. Thus, it's my fault that the Asian analogues got eaten. Oops. Looks like others are bringing 'em back, though. But I promise my choice had nothing to do with Yellow Peril, it had to do with co-opting "coolness of color" without thinking about it intelligently and compassionately. (Hunkers down for the flame.) That said, when I started writing Redguard I really thought about how unique the black people of Tamriel were: they came in and kicked ass and slaughtered the indigenes while doing so. They invaded. It was the first time I had encountered the idea of "black imperialism"...and it struck me big time, as something 1) new, 2) potentially dangerous if taken as commentary, and 3) potentially rad if taken as commentary. Who knows. AVault did say it had a story worthy of being on stage, and Michael Mack (Cyrus) once thanked me for giving him words that "Black folks don't get to say" (referring to Cyrus' speech and the reversal of Son to the Father)... which broke my heart and made me puff my chest all at the same time. Which is a long way of saying: panther-love
Which is a little clumsy-white-guy, especially with the "Black Imperialism" shit, but his heart's in the right place.
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To be fair, they are generally regarded as excellent swordsmen in the lore, so for balance reasons I could understand them lowering more mage-oriented attributes and skills,. Case in point: they have a bonus to long swords. At any rate, I don't think he was involved in the more technical points of the gameplay. He was mostly a concept artist and writer, from what I understand. He also wasn't the only writer on the project - another big name is Ken Rolston, who is extremely talented in his own way.
Only if you look at it from a Tolkienist perspective. Orcs in TES aren't mindless brutes. They're downright just humans (or, rather, elves, to be specific). Then again I might be biased because I think Samurai Orcs are fucking cool as hell.
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He probably wasn't responsible for the Redguard stuff, given his involvement with TESA:Redguard. Here's what he has to say
Which is a little clumsy-white-guy, especially with the "Black Imperialism" shit, but his heart's in the right place.
Reads like a guy who puts it all out there, even when he doesn’t need to.
Really does.