Ynas, what you say is like Xenophanes. If lions had fantasies, they would look like lions!
As I contemplate the conversation we’ve been having (for which I thank you all), the view recurs to me yet again that our fantasies are closely constrained by our lived realities. I think this is Ynas Midgard’s point. Much of our imagination is based on our personal experiences. That was the point in introducing the eurofantasy concept (the intended meaning of which I hope by now you all understand, whether or not you like the word). It refers to a generic fantasy populated by people who look European by default and whose material culture is a pastiche of (mis)apprehended European historical elements. Yochaigal spoke of “defaultism,” that the default of the fantasy is white, and you have to say so explictly if it is not. If you live in a relatively homogeneous social setting, such as a country defined by one ethnic nationality, with very small minorities who look similar to the majority, this is not the same issue; your fantasies may be homogeneous by default, reflecting your lived setting. But if you live in a typical US city, for example, and other places, the population has changed–according to plan, always contested but nevertheless deliberately–so much that the default has changed and these assumptions no longer make sense.
What Whidou said is, I think, often true: when you play an alter-ego, it’s based on yourself. (This may not hold for non-human characters.)
By contrast with the experience of many, here in the USA, most of the gamers I know now are not considered white. If they have European ancestry it is one of many elements. These include my wife and children and all but one of the boys my son plays with. If one looks at the presentation of generic D&D fantasy, by contrast, until quite recently there have been few generic fantasy images that reflect the heterogeneity of the gaming population that I know now. It is the discrepancy between the state of white suburban Midwestern US-American society of the ‘70s, in which D&D originated, and the state of many US-Americans’ social surroundings today.
Regardless of the “authenticity” of the “European” fantastic pastiche I called eurofantasy–which Europeans should feel free to criticize for its “untrue” character–it is understood as “Western” or “European” in origin by unspoken default. This may be originally a US-American issue, because Americans generally have little experience with Europe, but in any case it has been exported to the world through media like Hollywood (which Max mentioned) and games, including D&D, and received in various parts of Europe. If role-playing games had come from India or China, would Europeans have received it the same way? But it was Americans of European ancestral origin, who claimed that origin, who invented this game and exported it, and like Xenophanes’ lions, they made the fantasy in their own image.
The question this all addresses is how social realities condition our fantasy games. It would probably not be a big deal if these were not immersive and engrossing games in which players often identify deeply with their characters. Yochaigal pointed out that the default is white. When my daughter plays, for example, she feels she has to say what color her character’s skin is, without prompting or query, whereas “white” players I’ve played with do not. I tried to explain why this situation is so in historical terms, and why recent social changes have made it an issue among gamers now, whereas it was not so before. The term eurofantasy was a convenience I used to describe a pervasive variety of generic fantasy contrasted with other possible fantasies abstracted from non-European sources and peoples. It is a concept for that contrast, nothing set in stone. Even if Europeans dislike the term, I will be happy if I have managed to express why it is an issue, at least in the USA, where D&D and most of the hobby’s production originates, and why it matters.
