1. 11 February 2012 · 10:26 PM ·

    the difficulty with harry potter roleplay games

    So, I roleplay. Currently, I’m part of a Post-Deathly Hallows game, but it’s set to end in a few months. So I’m trying to look for another game.

    Easier said than done, apparently. Then again, it took me a while to find this particular game to begin with, too.

    The problem is that I have a couple of criteria that a game must fit for me be interested in joining.

    1) Preferably, the game should be set around Deathly Hallows or post-Deathly Hallows. This can include Next Gen games. Mostly because as I grow older, I find myself not wanting to play school characters as much anymore. I’ve also found that I’m not as interested in Marauders era games (I’ll go into why later since it ties into a different criteria.)

    2) The characters in play must not contain any white washed characters. I’ve had to disregard a good number of games due to this, as more often than not, there is a character that should be a POC who is whitewashed. More often than not, it’s Alicia Spinnet. Next Gen games can also be a mess when the played-bys (people whose likeness is used to represent the characters) don’t reflect their heritage (i.e. Angelina Johnson and George Weasley’s kid is completely white).

    3) The characters in play must include a reasonable number of characters of colors. For example, if there are 10 characters in play, I would expect there to be at least one COC. If there are 30 characters in play, I would expect there to be 3 or 4. This is a large reason why that I don’t check Marauders Era (or earlier) games. More often than not, the characters will be all white or have 1 COC in a list of 30 characters. 

    4) The game must be accepting of non-straight characters. Unfortunately, I have come across several games that more or less claim that 99.9% of characters must be straight, or else it is “unrealistic”. Yeah, cause magic and wizards and witches are totally realistic, but non-straight people are not. Oookay. 

    5) The game must be at least a bit flexible in terms of names I am allowed to use to play characters in. Many games restrict you to a list, and if a name is not on the list, you’re out of luck. But more often than not, I will play a canon character from the book that mattered and another not-really-mentioned-in-the-book character. And I want that second character to have a Japanese heritage, because I’m of Japanese heritage, and you don’t exactly see characters of Japanese heritage represented in Harry Potter, let alone most media. But if I’m not allowed to use game canon names or have them be a relative of someone, it becomes hard to play such a character.

    So, yes. It seems quite difficult to find Harry Potter roleplay games that fit these criteria. Which really sucks. If anyone has any recommendations for me, I’d love them!

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