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"The Piper"

XareXare Posts: 124
in General Discussions
From the TC pub 100 Notes is this questionable item:

"The rat king Champion will now be known as “The Piper.”"

Why in the world does Broadsword suddenly decided to mess with a boss that's been in the game for ~15 years?  Power trip much?

Game is just going down the toilet.  Someone wake me up when UO is finally put out of its misery.

Comments

  • crunchnastycrunchnasty Posts: 241
    someone complained that barracoon was racist lol pc police 
  • PinkertonPinkerton Posts: 105
    edited June 2018
    Absolutely fantastic move on Broadsword's part.  I acknowledge that there was possibly no intent in the time the champ was named.  However, it is undeniable that as it stood the name needed to be changed.

    Barracoon (the term) is the origin point for the racial slur (last 4 letters of his name).

    He is a vagrant minstrel which is almost totally reminiscent of the racially charged character Jim Crow.

    He is some type of "less than" (sub) human.

    He rules over the "vermin horde" (Vermin being a term used extensively in neo-nazi parlance to refer to minorities)

    Rather a coincidence or not, this is not a kind picture to paint.  The name change disabuses anyone who might think there is a racially charged encounter within the game.
  • Arroth_ThaielArroth_Thaiel Posts: 1,060
    edited June 2018
    Xare said:
    From the TC pub 100 Notes is this questionable item:

    "The rat king Champion will now be known as “The Piper.”"

    Why in the world does Broadsword suddenly decided to mess with a boss that's been in the game for ~15 years?  Power trip much?

    Game is just going down the toilet.  Someone wake me up when UO is finally put out of its misery.

    "The Piper" is a reference to the rat king Champion's original theme based around the myth of the Pied Piper.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin

    -Arroth
  • MervynMervyn Posts: 2,208
    Two words: Virtue signalling, 
    I tell you the truth, tis better to do 10 damage on the right target than 100 damage on the wrong target.

    Breaking in the young since 2002


  • Uriah_HeepUriah_Heep Posts: 915
    crazy.  Whole world has lost its mind...after twenty years it's suddenly an issue.

    Glad we have the PC police looking out for us and keeping us straight [/sarcasm]
  • FatFat Posts: 97
    Honestly I don't care. Some people did care and the devs renamed it at their at their earliest convenience.

    Let's move on
  • SyncrosSyncros Posts: 116
    Pinkerton said:
    Absolutely fantastic move on Broadsword's part.  I acknowledge that there was possibly no intent in the time the champ was named.  However, it is undeniable that as it stood the name needed to be changed.

    Barracoon (the term) is the origin point for the racial slur (last 4 letters of his name).

    He is a vagrant minstrel which is almost totally reminiscent of the racially charged character Jim Crow.

    He is some type of "less than" (sub) human.

    He rules over the "vermin horde" (Vermin being a term used extensively in neo-nazi parlance to refer to minorities)

    Rather a coincidence or not, this is not a kind picture to paint.  The name change disabuses anyone who might think there is a racially charged encounter within the game.
    Let's start looking at all named items/npcs/players and go on a huge renaming spree cause its not politically correct.    Depends on the state you can walk into a hardware store and ask for a racoon trap and someone will bound to say they call them coons around here.  Do you run out screaming racist?     Some prob do.  Sad world we live in nowadays. 
  • JudasJudas Posts: 254
    edited June 2018
    The word barracoon means  "a place of temporary confinement for slaves or convicts." 


    While the current developers aren't responsible for this, someone once upon a time was, and it's possible it was done with ill-intent, as it's not a common term.  Now that they've been made aware of the meaning, they're correcting it.  Thank you, Mesanna and Broadsword.

    This is really no different than when they changed "Zog Cabal" to "Followers of Armageddon."  At the time, Zog had been a term in Ultima lore since 1990's Ultima 6.  But after they recycled the concept for UO, the developers were made aware of other connotations, and they also did the right thing.

    I'm not sure why people think it's "too PC" to eliminate a term that, outside a 20 year old video game, has zero associations except for the forced servitude of other human beings.  I'm sorry it bothers you so much that our cultural awareness has evolved past the 1950s.
  • MariahMariah Posts: 3,235Moderator
    "The Piper" was always part of the name. Sensitivity was shown to an issue. This thread is done.
This discussion has been closed.