What is a "depiction" of violence or bloodshed?

[geoffthemedio]

It was suggested that we provide an OARS rating for our game project, which is a sci-fi empire-building / war game.

I'm having difficulty interpreting several of the content-related OARS questions, particularly about what is a "depiction" of violence or similar concepts.

FreeOrion has, arguably, no "characters", fantasy, realistic, or otherwise. There are space and ground battles in which intelligent beings are implied to be killed, but there is no visual representation of this besides some high-level text and a few numbers about the results of a battle that says some ships were destroyed or damaged, or that a planet was captured after a ground battle. Is this a "depiction" of violence or bloodshed at all? If so, is it "realistic"?

Additionally, there are various different intelligent species that can be on planets or ships. Is a "species" equivalent to a "race" for purposes of discrimination? (There are also "humans" as a species, but there is no distinction about different types of them.) This question may be moot in this case, as there is content in the game called a "Concentration Camp" that is used for removing a particular species from a planet, which I assume is enough to warrant the "intense" rating regardless of the details. But, I'm wondering how I would answer that question if that content wasn't in the game... There would still be a strong distinction between populations on planets or ships based on their species, and just one species can be on each planet, which is arguably a version of "speciesism" built into the game mechanics, and players make gameplay decisions about what species to colonize on planets.

[hughsie]

but there is no visual representation of this

I think the violence has to be depicted, think Doom or Quake.

Is a "species" equivalent to a "race" for purposes of discrimination?

I don't think so.

Concentration Camp

Hmm, maybe problematic wording for some cultures.

which is arguably a version of "speciesism" built into the game mechanics

I don't think any aliens will have cause for concern. I think in most cases this will be mild.

[geoffthemedio]

Then I suggest tweaking the wording of the questions to clarify that "depict" means a visual representation of violent or bloodshedding acts against an individual or a group of people, and not just the abstract indication that it has occurred with text.

Or perhaps something in the introduction to the questionnaire that specifies that depictions must be visual, and abstract and purely text-based descriptions of events don't count, or fall under the mildest classifications.

I assume the concerns with depicting racism are not just about who identify as a particular race being offended by discrimination against that race specifically in a plausible real-world or historical setting, but rather anyone being potentially offended by discrimination based on race-like classifications of "people".

Presumably a fantasy scenario with a thinly-veiled representation of a real-world culture or "race" and discrimination against that group would be a more intense categorization than against a fantasy race that had no implied correlation to a real-world culture, which is in turn more intense than against a sci-fi species that aren't at all human-like. But I would assume that race-based or similar discrimination as a concept and its depiction are probably still potentially offensive, even if not connected to real-world cultural issues... Sci-fi examples of such issues are often used specifically to illustrate those issues without the cultural context / baggage of real-world equivalents.

[hughsie]

Then I suggest tweaking the wording of the questions

A pull request would be much appreciated, I'm not super at English prose I'm afraid.

a fantasy race that had no implied correlation to a real-world culture

I'm not so worried about this, and OARS should probably be specific so that it means races that exist on this planet.