Is Starbound potentially racist?

(Disclaimer: Don't take this thread too seriously, no one actually cares. This is just a point that occurred to me earlier)

With the recent release of the WIP into sequences, we've been given some clearer insight toward the story of Starbound, ie. why the characters are going off into space in the first place. After watching them a couple hundred times because I'm obsessed with this game and have nothing better to do but refresh and read the updates every 10 minutes, I was suddenly struck with a strange thought... This universe Chucklefish is forming could just be a little bit biased. Allow me to elaborate.

It's been mostly confirmed that the reason behind the Avians' retreat from Avos is because of their civilisation's overly pious nature, seemingly committing ruthless murder on those who don't follow their religion. Their ethical and justice systems seem primitive and arbitrary, leading to an overall self-destructive society.

From the released images of the Apex, it can be assumed that their reason for retreat is because of a totalitarian society, where citizens are constantly monitored and their lives controlled by a government trying to keep its masses mindless and content a la Fahrenheit 451.

But then look at the Human intro... Everything is happy an peaceful and prosperous when BOOM, GIANT TENTACLE ERUPTIONS! The intro, while interesting, comes in stark contrast to the (assumed) stories of the Avian and Apex. The Human society is shown to be practically flawless and their escape from Earth is from a cause completely out of the Humans' control or even contribution. They're not forced away from their home because of nuclear warfare or other real-life relevant threats, it's alien infection. At least I assume it's alien; if it turns out to be the Humans' fault after all then that's my rant made completely moot. ;D

So is it possible that Chucklefish don't want their Humans shown in a bad light? Could they really hate birds and apes so much as to show them as morally lesser beings? Does anybody really care? No, I don't think they do. I just thought it was interesting. =P

As a side note, I'm really hope the reasons for the Florans and Novakids retreat into space is because they get bored and want to see what causing chaos on other planets is like. That's always been my image of the little cuties ^_^

 

That... is actually a very interesting Idea.. Bravo... Although I don't think it was meant to be racist.

also. First!

 

Interesting point. Looked at it from this angle, it does look that way. At the same time, we all know of human history, so maybe we just dont need to be reminded of our own faults? Let's also not forget that all the races are facette of our own. Their wrongs are ours. As for the Floran, I think it was something about some not wanting to be tribal canibals anymore and being rejected for it? I could be wrong. Pretty sure the Novakids are out there just because they went to explore their moon and forgot were they where going on the way. So they just kept going .

 

Interesting point on the human story, but an alien invasion still sounds like a solid back story. Also, the revealed races are themed, the Avians being Aztec/Mayan based and the Apex being based off George Orwells' 1984. Their stories make sense in relation to their theme. Humans are just bland lolz.

 

Just because the Apex had social problems and humans didn't doesn't make it racist..

 

Actually it is sort of in line with the original Start Trek TV series. I don't think its racist at all.

 

well about the human thing maybe the humans destroyd themself and the tenticals were a secret weapon that they used on themself in a civil war fassion becuase of a currupt government that was secretly using there people for there own needs and giving the illusion of peace then when there secret underground conflict became public people freaked out and thus were forced to join sides and in all the confusion and chaos they started overreacting and released the tenticals

put the civil war in a vary short time between peace and the tentical thing and theres one way it could have happened

 

Well, you if godzilla movie ever taught me anything, giant monsters appear on Earth not without a reason! Appearently, figuring out what happened may be part of human storyline, so I wouldn't be surprised if it would turn out the tentacle monster is, in fact, not your friendly neighbour Cthulhu or random abomination from space, but a failed experiment!

Also, your definition of racism is somewhat stupid, no offence, but thinking it's racist just because some fictional race, from your point of view, has worse society is pure superstition. Fact is, there are no objective ways to measure racism in worse/better society aspects and etc. All races have their problems, strengths and weaknesses, for instance humans pretty much are completely homeless and Apex, despite having a somewhat opressive government, are the smartest of races!

 

I'm pretty sure that Chucklefish isn't purposefully making sure humans are viewed in a better light than other races, I mean Jesus Christ.

 

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism

Also how would it be bad to make humans look better that is not racist, as far as I know we don't know the full info on biology of all the races in the game it could be possible they will each be superior to each other in one way or another. Could be possible that humans are the weakest who knows as of yet.

 

When I first saw the human intro I had to make a face for a moment at the "a place of enlightenment and peace" comment. We all know that that's NOT how our current Earth works... really, it's anything BUT. Sometimes.

But from a storytelling point-of-view, when I sat down and thought about it, it does kinda feel right. Conflict and change is what drives a story forward. For the Avians it's rebellion (assumed from the intro we've seen). To have Humans in the game living in the same world we exist in would be... 'muddy' at best, in my opinion. On top of all our other worldly problems of racial, religious, and sexual intolerance I think it would color the Human's backstory in an undesirable way. We'd not only be running away from Earth because of tentacles, we'd be running away from each other. Would that be an interesting story to tell on its own? Sure, but something like that might overshadow the other races.

In other words, I think it's a great idea to have Humans reach the point of peace on Earth before disaster strikes. It implies we've united and gotten over petty things between each other. And that makes it all the more tragic when we lose all we've built up to. We finally reach the pinnacle of our civilization, only to have it all destroyed. If Earth in Starbound were the same as it were on our Earth, what with all these natural disasters and war and such... would it really be as compelling? Not to take a pessimistic point of view, but many might just think it was inevitable for the world to be destroyed in one way or another.

These are all assumptions and opinions though. It could very well turn out Humans were responsible for it, or maybe things aren't as rosy as they appear. We'll just have to wait and see before we make any real judgement calls.

 

Mankind is not very likely to kill itself out on purpose as in general humans tend not to attack one another unless they are threatened into it (aka being, "cornered"). There are exceptions to this rule, sure, such as racial genocides, religious genocides and wars over resources, but some could argue that those are extreme and very rare (compared to average day to day things humans tend to do).

Anything inside our control would stay in our control, least we bomb it into nonexistence (See: The highest protocol for a biological outbreak that might eliminate mankind is nuclear cleansing, for instance). An invasion of another lifeform that is resistant to our defenses, or blitzkriegs our living space so quick it forces a retreat (mass space dispersion) is more realistic than global war forcing us off world... Note: Upon colonizing of multiple planets and satellites, this may change quickly.

I see no cause for alarm here, but I do intend to enslave them monkeys before they get me first! LIBERTY FOR CALCULATORS, CHAINS FOR APEX!

 

It's quite possible Earth was having a "golden age" before it's destruction. You know, recently discovered new sources of energy, FTL drive, deep space colonization solved resource scarcity and overpopulation... everyone was pretty much happy until their planet got tentacle-r***.

 

Thing is, is that this does actually happen, and has happened in our past.
Blood rituals, anyone? Or maybe a good Sacrifice, eh? (In Reply to the Avian Intro Claim)

Also, the Human race is naturally racist against other beings, so it's really just taking our past and putting it in a nice, new shell of story, if you know what I mean.

 

I'd like to see some Hitler-like NPCs then

 

We are just talking about Earth here, remember the intro said "Earth, the jewel of the human empire" We are talking about a space empire this means that humans have colonized other planets, while Earth was having a great time this doesn't mean it was the same thing for the other colonies. (Think Europe when they were colonizing the Americas, you know just ignore the wars in this case.) For all we know human society is the same as it always has been, its just that Earth was prospering from the colonies.

 

The game was made by humans, so I would expect the humans to be presented in a favorable light.

But I kind of agree that the human intro would have been more interesting if it showed the downfall was our fault.

 

You're a human. But you might not be -playing- a human.
Feel proud of your own civilization, boy.

 

Yes. Wait, what?!

 

I think the tentacle invasion idea is shit, personally. And I would think humans to be very capable of depleting their resources or turning their planet into a dystopian world or destroying it.