Do you think the classic elves, dwarfs and humans presented in video games are a cool fantasy driven way at looking at different body types? Specifically in player driven character creation.

Not sure if I said that right but hopefully someone understands what I mean.

@LexGear I think there's a risk of associating body types with monocultures?

That's something could be interesting/useful for storytelling purposes (eg: Star Trek has stories exploring "What does it meant to be a scientist in Klingon warrior culture"), but the kind of monocultures that classic fantasy races represent can also say things you might not want to say (eg: in a world where all goblins are greedy, having all goblins physically resemble Jewish stereotypes ends up being a bit yikes)

@Cheeseness I was more-so referring to "making yourself" in character creation. And basically picking your body shape based on fantasy races to create a fantasy-you.

But you do raise good points re: world-building.

@LexGear Yeah, I figured that's what you meant, but it can still end up carrying that baggage IMO

@kazriko @LexGear Right, and often having realistic distribution isn't a concern.

Take Star Trek again - writers and showrunners were generally thinking more about metaphors for real-world fears, conflicts, hopes, and values in the 60s than about the implications some depictions might have outside that context and/or building out cultures with believable demographic diversity