Allow Blind and Deaf Wolves to Perform Roles

Allow Blind and Deaf Wolves to Perform Roles
Posted 2023-02-02 03:12:05 (edited) #947696 Today I had a pup born with spontaneous blindness!. How cool! However, my excitement quickly turned to dismay when I saw this banner on her page: [Image ID: A blue box with text inside reading "This wolf has a mutation or secondary mutation that causes blindness! Unfortunately, she can never lead the pack, participate in training, become an apprentice or perform a role."] Allow me to be blunt. Why the hell not? Sure, I understand if this was a pack of real live wolves. However, these creatures are clearly shown to be sapient; able to make medicine, use currency, and trade and talk with local creatures. The pherris even have technology advanced enough to make automatons. It's ridiculous to me that a blind wolf is not be able to do basic tasks in this sort of society. With the eyeless scars and countless blindness custom decors, people have had "blind" wolves in their pack performing all sorts of roles. Now that these are an official mutation, it should be equally limited only by a player's preferred style and their vision of their pack, not constrained by a bothersome game mechanic. And this is even without mentioning the troubling implications it has on the real world. I don't want to be throwing the term "ableist" around willy-nilly, but it's extremely presumptuous to say that blind wolves cannot perform roles that sighted ones can. They are wolves and have a great sense of smell. They can get by without sight just fine. Blind dogs can be trained to do a variety of things and can live a fulfilling life. I know this is just a pixel wolf game and I shouldn't be drawing comparisons to people, but positive representation is important! Imagine being able to roleplay a character that's like you or someone you know, then being told they can't lead a pack or become a mighty hunter. A world in which my wolves are incapable of making accommodations for their differently-abled packmates is not a world I want them to be living in. Edit: I am not saying remove all limitations. It is an interesting addition to the game after all. However, they could be affected in other ways - perhaps born with lower stats, or gain proficiency more slowly? They could perform individual tasks like scouting missions and foraging more slowly initially, or even be able to take another guide along as a helper. Then they could actually be an asset to the pack by allowing essentially an extra herbalist or scout instead of just a pretty dress-up doll. Edit Edit: I did search for a similar suggestion prior to posting mine as I couldn't find one. However, someone told me about this suggestion, which I cannot view. So this was not intended to be a duplicate.	Zea #27549

Posted 2023-02-02 03:12:05 (edited)

#947696

Today I had a pup born with spontaneous blindness!. How cool! However, my excitement quickly turned to dismay when I saw this banner on her page:

[Image ID: A blue box with text inside reading "This wolf has a mutation or secondary mutation that causes blindness! Unfortunately, she can never lead the pack, participate in training, become an apprentice or perform a role."]

Allow me to be blunt. Why the hell not?

Sure, I understand if this was a pack of real live wolves. However, these creatures are clearly shown to be sapient; able to make medicine, use currency, and trade and talk with local creatures. The pherris even have technology advanced enough to make automatons. It's ridiculous to me that a blind wolf is not be able to do basic tasks in this sort of society.

With the eyeless scars and countless blindness custom decors, people have had "blind" wolves in their pack performing all sorts of roles. Now that these are an official mutation, it should be equally limited only by a player's preferred style and their vision of their pack, not constrained by a bothersome game mechanic.

And this is even without mentioning the troubling implications it has on the real world. I don't want to be throwing the term "ableist" around willy-nilly, but it's extremely presumptuous to say that blind wolves cannot perform roles that sighted ones can. They are wolves and have a great sense of smell. They can get by without sight just fine. Blind dogs can be trained to do a variety of things and can live a fulfilling life.

I know this is just a pixel wolf game and I shouldn't be drawing comparisons to people, but positive representation is important! Imagine being able to roleplay a character that's like you or someone you know, then being told they can't lead a pack or become a mighty hunter.

A world in which my wolves are incapable of making accommodations for their differently-abled packmates is not a world I want them to be living in.

Edit: I am not saying remove all limitations. It is an interesting addition to the game after all. However, they could be affected in other ways - perhaps born with lower stats, or gain proficiency more slowly? They could perform individual tasks like scouting missions and foraging more slowly initially, or even be able to take another guide along as a helper. Then they could actually be an asset to the pack by allowing essentially an extra herbalist or scout instead of just a pretty dress-up doll.

Edit Edit: I did search for a similar suggestion prior to posting mine as I couldn't find one. However, someone told me about this suggestion, which I cannot view. So this was not intended to be a duplicate.

Zea
#27549

Posted 2023-02-02 03:34:21

#947697

Real life wolves depend on smell and hearing a lot more than they do sight. They are capable of smelling injured or infected prey animals from significant distances away and will target prey on this basis. They would absolutely be able to smell the differences between herbs, sicknesses, etc, and accordingly a blind wolf should be perfectly capable as a herbalist. There's literally no good reason why a blind wolf shouldn't be able to be a herbalist, that's the biggest gimme imaginable.

Pupsitting imo should be an option as well, but I could see it being fair to cap their proficiency at 80 or 90 or something to stimulate their extra difficulty. Again, like I said, smell and hearing are the main senses that most canids depend on. It took a hell of a lot of selective breeding for humans to produce a canid that depends on sight above those things - sighthounds - and that's absolutely not the norm for wolves.

I can see hunting and leading being forbidden roles for blind wolves, fair enough. Imo though you should still be able to make them hunters, they just get a success chance penalty.

Spontaneite
#2993

Posted 2023-02-03 01:08:44

#948259

I absolutely support this, I have a blind little sister and also I feel like wolvden is kinda ableist, its pretty dumb that they can't do much and it makes me sad, my little sister is extremely smart and active so I am deeply offended that blind wolves cant have jobs.

OmegaMaple19955
#114753

Posted 2023-02-03 09:23:05

#948391

Yes! I would love to be able to level up my blind wolf. She has a little over 600 total stats but why can't I make her useful with that? I would love to have a blind herbalist! That would make my pack story even better!

GhostTown221 [ON HIATUS]
#85756

Posted 2023-02-04 12:31:56

#948976

Hello!

As this suggestion is similar to this suggestion (blindness is mentioned in the comments), we will go ahead and lock this one as a duplicate. Feel free to support/oppose or comment on that one if you wish!

Thanks!

This is a moderator post.

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Allow Blind and Deaf Wolves to Perform Roles

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