(Not very) sorry for the clickbait, but you’ll never guess who’s most likely to complain about being assigned a black avatar.
The designer says it’s a survival game where it’s difficult but important to form coalitions, and the assigned visual traits are a way of preventing anonymity for avatars—you can’t betray people and come back looking different. That’s looks like an excuse—avatars could just have permanent names or tattoos or somesuch.
Still, this is a really interesting experiment, and the game is apparently good enough enough that people have been playing it for years.
The game designer explains
(Not very) sorry for the clickbait, but you’ll never guess who’s most likely to complain about being assigned a black avatar.
The designer says it’s a survival game where it’s difficult but important to form coalitions, and the assigned visual traits are a way of preventing anonymity for avatars—you can’t betray people and come back looking different. That’s looks like an excuse—avatars could just have permanent names or tattoos or somesuch.
Still, this is a really interesting experiment, and the game is apparently good enough enough that people have been playing it for years.
I have a little sneaky worm of suspicion that it might have been an excellent PR stunt.