This is the one thing I’ll say:

Yes, orcs and goblins and elves aren’t real. But the people who play the game are—the people who write the game are.

You cannot draw a line between fiction and reality because they feed one another. It’s a constant loop.

As game designers, we’re responsible for ensuring that ugly harmful realities like racial stereotyping do not make it into the fiction. Because if they do, and players see it and use it to justify themselves, the game only reinforces the pain real-life racism sows.