Addendum to "Honor and Orientalism"

Last week I wrote a bit about ways I understood honor to be an uncomfortable and unpleasant  topic for members of the Asian diaspora to deal with, in games or other forms of popular media, as well as the dangers of orientalism in RPGs. Thank you to Terri Ann for referring me to other episodes of Asians Represent for some additional insights.  Among the additional insights shared, the cast talk about how games often homogenize many different Asian cultures into one single culture, and also how honor mechanics can force players into stories they may not wish to tell. Both of these points are well deserved.

It is important to note that, even though I may not agree with a specific point shared, and I may not think that that point applies to L5R or at least to how I would run L5R at my table,  that does not make the point invalid.  Even if a critic gets some nuance of Japanese culture wrong doesn't make their criticism invalid.  As critics, they are sharing their experience and their feelings, and the reasoning behind those.  The feelings are valid...they don't need to be justified with an extensive education in Japanese history or encyclopedic knowledge of the game lore. There doesn't have to be a 'good reason' for the feelings. If they weren't shared,  members outside that minority would never know them. 
I admit that it can hurt when something I care about gets harshly critiqued for reasons that I don't necessarily feel 100% apply.   It is pretty human to feel defensive.   But how an RPG is received is as or more important than the intent behind how the RPG is created,  and it's good to know.
I don't know if getting a sensitivity reader or only letting minority members of a culture write anything to do with that culture is a good solution,  even if it is straight-forward.  Not every project has the budget even to pay the primary creator.  But we can all be more sensitive to the way works are created and received, and be as careful as we can.   And part of being as careful as we can is listening to criticism,  even if it's hard.

I only hope those reading me are patient with me as I stumble my way through.