Feedback: Ntoto and Hanzen cultural background

[jamescfm]

In the recent past some changes were made to the cultural background of a number of countries in the so-called "Third World". Although most of these changes were intended to make the culture of these countries more accessible to players and to improve the range of cultural groups represented in the region, some concerns were raised a short while ago about the case of Ntoto.

For this reason the Moderation team decided to seek the advice of Wu Han who had been a player in neighbouring Hanzen and proposed a broader cultural background for the two countries that incorporated a number of Southeast Asian cultural groups. Based on the initial proposals that Wu Han made for the two countries and trying to maintain some degree of continuity with the previous cultural backgrounds of both countries, the Moderation team has drafted a new set of descriptions for these two countries:

Hanzen: Hanzen is a former colony of Yingdala and has been heavily influence by Yingdalan (Chinese) culture throughout its history. Since independence it has operated primarily as a monarchy (both absolute and constitutional). The largest ethnic group in the country are the Phra (Thai) people and the Phra (Thai) language is the most commonly spoken language. Despite this there are several notable ethnic minority groups in the country including the Suman (Lao) people and Chon (Khmer) people.

Ntoto: Ntoto is a culturally diverse country with a mixed political history that has included communal violence. As a former colony of Luthori, the Luthorian (English) language has become dominant as a lingua franca among the country's various ethnic groups. Among the largest of these groups are the Errawa (Bamar), the Ebako (Kongo) people and various Asli (West African) peoples.

Over the next few days we would like to hear from players about their views on this proposed change. For comparison purposes you can view the current country descriptions on the "Third World Information" thread. If you have questions about anything related to these particular changes then please ask them in this thread and we will do our best to provide you with a response.

[Pragma]

With regard to Ntoto, I would worry that the relative inacessability of the proposed indigenous languages would dissuade potential players or cause a total reversion to English. This might encourage further reversion to a typical post-colonial Africa model that I fear would not be particularly enriching to the game. I might also suggest this is something we want to dissuade considering the time lapsed from decolonization. A portrayal of African nations as linguistically reliant on English, while not unrealistic, is one that interrelates with other IRL preconceptions of contemporary African culture and may ultimately encourage the adoption of other similar preconceptions.

From my perspective, there are already nations for pretty much all accessable Bantu languages and cultures, so I don't quite understand why one would need to create another one with some distance from the others if we're not going to make it different in some other way. If we are to create a new nation based on an African culture, I for one would like to see effort input into developing a unique character that differentiates it from the others. An inaccessible language - one that may blend in to the subsaharan landscape to some - would only hinder the process of creating a distinct identity with which players can interact to the betterment of regional RP.

I am by no means an expert on African cultural or linguistic matters, but those are just some things I'd like to put out there. With regard to the TW, I passionately oppose inaccessible languages and passionately support clear, distinct identities. I'm sure that's not unclear from past statements I've made.

[jamescfm]

I'm not sure that it is an entirely accurate characterisation to say that this would create a new country based on an African culture, Ntoto has been a predominantly African-based country since the Third World countries have existed in their current form (c. 2016) and that only changed at the end of last year. During that period the cultural background of the country did shift significantly from being based primarily on Central Africa (with the largest ethnic group being based on the Kongo people) to having a predominantly Mandinka culture.

Role-play in Ntoto has been relatively limited but the original Central African culture has been the focus of most of it. Notably there has been no role-play since the country's culture was changed to one based on the Philippines, which means that reversing that change would not be overriding work done by a player (which is obviously something that we would seek to avoid).

The original reason for the change of the culture from primarily Kongo to primarily Mandinka was two fold: 1) Temania at the time was based on Central Africa and 2) the cultures of Ntoto's neighbours were based on West Africa. For this reason it appeared reasonable to move the Kongo people (located principally in Central Africa) to Temania and specify a West African group as the dominant group in Ntoto. As you will know it is no longer the case that Temania is based on Central Africa and the Kongo people (who are among the largest ethnic groups in Sub-Saharan Africa) are not represented elsewhere either.

With all of that for context the description that has been proposed is based on trying to reconcile the historically role-play background of the country (which as I said is not massively extensive but still exists) with the need to ensure a diversity of cultural groups within the game and the various concerns related to accessibility. For the latter the previous Mandinka culture has been "generalised" to the fictional Asli people, who in the game represent a broad grouping of West African ethnic groups based in countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.

If you have specific suggestions that you think should be considered for Ntoto then it would be great to hear them. Personally I have a very limited knowledge or familiarity with the culture and languages of Sub-Saharan Africa and this is part of the reason that we decided to open a consultation on the matter before moving ahead with the changes.

[jamescfm]

The changes outlined here have now been implemented. If you have any further feedback then please continue to share it.