welll.... it *is* an issue that in just about every game, from EQ to DDO to AoC, dark skinned races are consistently portrayed as evil and light skinned races are consistently portrayed as good. it's not an issue with the games, it's an issue with our society that's reflected in the games.

the people who are bothered by that sort of of thing aren't over-reacting or picking on gamers, they're making a valid point about our perceptions of each other in the real world and the way those perceptions impact the fantasy worlds we create and play in. Is it really a coincidence that even though in the real world black folks and white folks in america use drugs at about the same rates (for example), black folks are more then 10 times as likely to be incarcerated for drug use? (that's a real statistic by the way).

there's a reason why racially biased policing is the norm - and it begins with the fact that people with dark skin are consistently portrayed in our culture and media as menacing, threatening, and criminal and so cops, judges, and juries tend to be much more aggressive in punishing people of color. to the degree that AoC or any other game, movie, novel, or other art form reinforces that tendancy to associate dark skin with 'evil', it's a problem for real people with dark skin (and their friends and allies) who are sick of being portrayed in a negative way.

video games are just one tiny tiny part of that, and far from the most important part. gamers need to chill out and quit feeling attacked when people bring up real issues that are only tangentially related to gaming. get it straight here: they're not picking on your game, they don't give a damn about your game. AoC is only relevant to their analysis because it's one of many examples of something that happens over and over and over again in the real world.

as for the blood and violence and nudity and all of that, it says M on the box people. if you can't handle seeing a nipple or some blood then you shouldn't be playing the damn game in the first place. personally, i like AoC (over all) and I'm enjoying the game.