Emma and Gil sit down with James Mendez Hodes to discuss his work as a cultural consultant, and the series of "orcticles" he wrote describing how the depiction of orcs in fantasy games can bring up problematic real-world stereotypes.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes many references to racism and a section discussing sexual assault.
SHOW NOTES
01m55s: Orcus, a god of the underworld.
04m29s: J.R.R. Tolkien's Urak-hai, the strongest kind of Orc in Middle Earth.
27m49s: The Marathi people from India. We also get into the thorny, complicated, and vitally-important subject of intersectionality.
32m57s: Here is the Adam Ruins Everything episode on the "model minority" myth.
34m30s: Gil meant the "domino theory," a Cold War idea that suggested that one country that became communist would inevitably make its neighbors, and those neighbors, communist as well.
38m04s: More information about James Baldwin's writings on race.
45m19s: We had John talking safety tools on Ludology 227 - Respect the X.
53m03s: Edward Said’s Orientalism is an important analysis of how a group of colonizing nations perceive the nations they colonize.
57m56s: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
1h06m28s: Here is the comic Gil and Mendez are talking about, as well as the Sam Sykes tweet that inspired it.
1h11m43s: Here's another link to Jiangsi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (which seems to come up every episode!). We spoke with Banana in Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play, and Sen most recently in Ludology 236 - Role With It. Of course, you will hear a lot more from Sen soon on this very show!
We also mention the RPG Agon.
1h14m43s: Blaise Pascal first expressed the sentiment in his 16th Letter from his lettres provinciales: "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte." Mark Twain wrote out a similar thought two centuries later: "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."
1h19m08s: More information about Maria Dahvana Headley's modern-day vernacular translation of Beowulf. Also, Eric Zimmerman's plea to keep games away from art, because in his words, "enshrining something as art is death."
1h22m47s: Mendez' website, Twitter, and Patreon.
GameTek Classic 251.5 - Lotteries
Ludology 251 - All in the Family
Biography of a Board Game 250.5 - El Grande
Ludology 250 - Thanks for the Emma-ries
GameTek Classic 249.5 - Battle Royale
Ludology 249 - Gaming the System
Biography of a Board Game 248.5 - Pass-out
Ludology 248 - Solo-liloquy
GameTek 247.5 - Mana
Biography of a Board Game 246.5 - Quarriors
Ludology 246 - Cornering the Market
GameTek Classic 245.5 - Leadership
Ludology 245 - Play It Again Games
Biography of a Board Game 244.5 - Alien Frontiers
Ludology 244 - Games Brought to Life
GameTek Classic 243.5 - Beacons
Ludology 243 - Play Blall!
Biography of a Board Game 242.5 - Bingo and Yahtzee
Ludology 242 - Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
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