Goblins and the evolution of Gaming Morality

[Morty]

When D&D came out goblins were intended to be the enemy. They were characterized as implacable and irredeemable monsters. This was, and remains, normal in games where the player has (imaginary) living enemies to defeat.

This is not racisim!

Some modern portrayals of goblins show them to be human in all but appearance. They were most likely written that way precisely to make a point about racism.

Conflating the two is the problem here. The first is a game mechanic and the second is social commentary. When I mentioned Pickett's Charge and Monopoly the point was clear to me: in real life these things were horrible, but in a game they are just game mechanics. Nobody gets hurt in the game. There are no dead to bury, no wounded to tend, no bankrupt millionaires to house and feed.

It seems to me that we as a culture are losing the ability to differentiate the real from the imaginary, and that frightens me. How long will it be before I am accused of genocide for wiping out all of the red checkers?

Nobody has accused anyone of being racist because they're killing imaginary goblins. Certainly not you, specifically. You've claimed to be accused of such several times, it's been debunked as false each time and you've ignored it. Now you've come up with some strawman about being accused of genocide for playing checkers. Why do you keep trying to make it a personal attack on yourself when nobody has made one? The argument has only ever been against trends of portrayal in fiction.

If doesn't frighten you that we as a society are "losing the ability to differentiate the real from the imaginary", because it's not happening and you know it. People are simply critically analysing things you've been taking for granted. If you're not comfortable with that, no one is forcing you to read the comic or threads like this one.