Exploring racial bias through the goblin race in Baldur’s Gate 3

Abstract

The idea of homogenous races that incorporate traits from real groups of people and portrays them negatively to audiences is one that has occurred in several media before this such as The Hobbit or Harry Potter. However, in the video game Baldur’s Gate 3, there is conflicting messaging when the game makes attempts to acknowledge racial issues and yet still chooses to have goblins be a unified race with the same negative beliefs and attitudes. A semiotic and textual analysis was held to analyse the goblin race, using the relevant literature related to race and the fantasy genre as a basis. This was done to form a connection between the handling of the race and the wider racial issues that have become standard within the fantasy genre. In doing so, it became evident that the perceptions held about goblins are ones that reflect western colonialist perspectives held about minority racial groups, considered to be a racial “Other”. There is a level of importance to bringing about discussions and criticism to these issues. Despite goblins being a fantasy race, the messages passed through them can still influence players. Calling attention to this allows for more mindful approaches to the subject of race and prevents further spreading of harmful racial ideologies that can then harm real people.