Brian J. Audette @bjaudette.bsky.social I've got a game out in less than two weeks.
I've got a hotly anticipated game out in less than two weeks.
I've got a hotly anticipated game that I feel more confident about than any game I've worked on since I (technically) started making games professionally back in 1999 out in two weeks.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Prime Posts: 1,348 Posts: 339 Likes: 756
He's 52. Not sure he is doing his former colleagues any favours with how he is acting though.
Many of us just want an escape from this crazy world. Not for its "culture wars" to show up in our games as well- because what a way to break immersion. Just look at the dumpster-fire the devs at Ubisoft find themselves in. Instead of just focusing on a rich story and amazing game design, they decided to make obvious polarizing statements with characters in their games that ultimately not only made moderate gamers uncomfortable, but was incredibly insensitive to Japanese history and culture. When there was even the slightest pushback, instead of acknowledging it and making worthwhile changes, the devs devolved into accusing the gamers, *their audience*, for their own game's inept failures.
I don't follow the news but what were the issues they are having with Japanese history and culture?
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Brian J. Audette @bjaudette.bsky.social I've got a game out in less than two weeks.
I've got a hotly anticipated game out in less than two weeks.
I've got a hotly anticipated game that I feel more confident about than any game I've worked on since I (technically) started making games professionally back in 1999 out in two weeks.
Dragon Age Neve Gallus - the cynical private detective - joins the Veilguard 🔍 You can also catch her in the final episode of DragonAge: Vows and Vengeance.
Many of us just want an escape from this crazy world. Not for its "culture wars" to show up in our games as well- because what a way to break immersion. Just look at the dumpster-fire the devs at Ubisoft find themselves in. Instead of just focusing on a rich story and amazing game design, they decided to make obvious polarizing statements with characters in their games that ultimately not only made moderate gamers uncomfortable, but was incredibly insensitive to Japanese history and culture. When there was even the slightest pushback, instead of acknowledging it and making worthwhile changes, the devs devolved into accusing the gamers, *their audience*, for their own game's inept failures.
I don't follow the news but what were the issues they are having with Japanese history and culture?
From what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong anyone), SW: Outlaws flopped due to mostly poor gameplay design, so Ubisoft desperately was needing AC:Shadows to be a success but it was long mired in controversy in America/Europe surrounding one of the main characters being a black samurai. Ubisoft ignored the uproar from the fanbase as racist bigotry from presumably toxic white gamers, but when news reached Japan and promos showed a glorified black samurai slaughtering endless amounts of ethnic Japanese in Edo era Japan, well, there was an uproar from the Japanese too about it being historically inaccurate and essentially woke. Ubisoft devs doubled down and insisted this was all gamer toxicity harming the reviews and image of the game, not tokenism, and that the black protagonist is historically accurate. Ubisoft was basically arguing with the Japanese now about their own history. It was made worse when promotional images for the game included a broken tori gate that's associated with the nuclear bombing of Japan in WW2. It was so intense, there was a motion I believe in the Japanese government to ban the game- of course this didn't happen. Instead, the game was cancelled at the Tokyo game shows and the game's release was pushed back to 2025.
Edit: Anyway, I feel this is leaving the topic of Veilguard. So that is where I'll leave it.
You could at least use his name. Yasuke was a real person who actually existed. Whether Ubisoft should’ve used him as their protagonist can be debated, but this is fact. And he appears in other media too, such as Nioh, and even has a Netflix show.
When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived, And now I do not sleep.
"I'm one of the few people you'll meet whose written more books than they've read." - Garth Marenghi (Author. Visionary. Dreamweaver. Plus actor.)
I don't follow the news but what were the issues they are having with Japanese history and culture?
From what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong anyone), SW: Outlaws flopped due to mostly poor gameplay design, so Ubisoft desperately was needing AC:Shadows to be a success but it was long mired in controversy in America/Europe surrounding one of the main characters being a black samurai. Ubisoft ignored the uproar from the fanbase as racist bigotry from presumably toxic white gamers, but when news reached Japan and promos showed a glorified black samurai slaughtering endless amounts of ethnic Japanese in Edo era Japan, well, there was an uproar from the Japanese too about it being historically inaccurate and essentially woke. Ubisoft devs doubled down and insisted this was all gamer toxicity harming the reviews and image of the game, not tokenism, and that the black protagonist is historically accurate. Ubisoft was basically arguing with the Japanese now about their own history. It was made worse when promotional images for the game included a broken tori gate that's associated with the nuclear bombing of Japan in WW2. It was so intense, there was a motion I believe in the Japanese government to ban the game- of course this didn't happen. Instead, the game was cancelled at the Tokyo game shows and the game's release was pushed back to 2025.
Edit: Anyway, I feel this is leaving the topic of Veilguard. So that is where I'll leave it.
Oh, I shall correct you: this 'controversy' is fabricated, often by the very same people who grift and ragebait about Veilguard. The character Yasuke is based on a real historical figure, and even Japanese folks had to jump in and correct those who said that he wasn't a samurai. There was actually more outrage (or, more like: confusion) about this than a supposed "a glorified black samurai slaughtering endless amount of ethnic Japanese". Samurai slaughtered one another, and Yasuke lived in a time when Japan was very violent (that period of Japanese history is literally called "Warring States period"). In fact, he exited the historical stage after fighting scores of attackers to protect the one whom he served, Oda Nobunaga.
Ubisoft was wrong on many things. On this, they weren't.
Also, let's be real - this isn't anything that was caused by anything "woke", but by the anti-wokes being outraged about a black protagonist. You can tell, because *the very same crowd* got IMMEDIATELY outraged by female lead in "Ghosts of Yotei", who coincidentally is voiced by Erika Ishii (one of the voices of Rook). Literally, despite them not saying much about game, people began dragging them through mud and insisting that Ghosts of Yotei got 'wokenized' as well, just because Erika is non-binary and stands for trans rights (entirely outside of them playing a role in the game - so those who brought "culture wars" into this are actually not the 'wokes', but their opponents).
Last Edit: Oct 19, 2024 4:48:35 GMT by midnight tea
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
Hm... I wonder if DA4 character designs and art style had anything to do with minimizing potential negative backlash as Ubisoft got for their samurai game. I mean, Bio did get some with their 1st trailer but not to Ubisoft's extent.
Morpheus: "know what happened happened and that it could not have happened in any other way".
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Hm... I wonder if DA4 character designs and art style had anything to do with minimizing potential negative backlash as Ubisoft got for their samurai game. I mean, Bio did get some with their 1st trailer but not to Ubisoft's extent.
Definitely not. The Assassins Creed games have always lent themselves to a more photo-realistic graphical depiction. There's also not many - if any - environmental overlap between the two games. Lastly, one of the preview goers mentioned that BioWare was none to thrilled about the Reveal Trailer that released (suggesting it may not have been their doing). It likely also explains the frantic sprint to showcase snippets of their Level 1 Gameplay footage soon after, along with comments about how the game would not look like the trailer.
Hm... I wonder if DA4 character designs and art style had anything to do with minimizing potential negative backlash as Ubisoft got for their samurai game. I mean, Bio did get some with their 1st trailer but not to Ubisoft's extent.
Definitely not. The Assassins Creed games have always lent themselves to a more photo-realistic graphical depiction. There's also not many - if any - environmental overlap between the two games. Lastly, one of the preview goers mentioned that BioWare was none to thrilled about the Reveal Trailer that released (suggesting it may not have been their doing). It likely also explains the frantic sprint to showcase snippets of their Level 1 Gameplay footage soon after, along with comments about how the game would not look like the trailer.
Which is hilarious, considering that DA has a tradition of "not looking like the trailers", starting from DAO and continuing through DA2 and DAI
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
You could at least use his name. Yasuke was a real person who actually existed. Whether Ubisoft should’ve used him as their protagonist can be debated, but this is fact. And he appears in other media too, such as Nioh, and even has a Netflix show.
Yes, his name is Yasuke, and I was quickly summarizing why it turned into the heated controversy. He did exist, and his title was that of a samurai; but, no body can be sure exactly what role he played, if any at all, other than to be a souvenir prop for a powerful Japanese warlord since records of Yasuke are incredibly vague. Despite this, Ubisoft threw Yasuke into the spotlight rather than one of the thousands of other more historically recorded ethnic Japanese samurai making it appear he was chosen purely for his skin color.
I'm not saying the haters are right- they're very problematic, but the devs are too when they choose to be inflammatory. At the end of the day, this whole woke vs anti-woke nonsense is ridiculous; both sides suck- can't please either side anymore and they ruin everything. Wokeness plays a role in an equal society- it benefits me as a gay dude, but it can be overdone and is often times unnecessary in video games. It's the story and gameplay that make a game good. Not whether the cast is diverse enough to get all the inclusivity boxes checked.
Am Yisrael Chai - Free the hostages - Israel forever
You could at least use his name. Yasuke was a real person who actually existed. Whether Ubisoft should’ve used him as their protagonist can be debated, but this is fact. And he appears in other media too, such as Nioh, and even has a Netflix show.
Yes, his name is Yasuke, and I was quickly summarizing why it turned into the heated controversy. He did exist, and his title was that of a samurai; but, no body can be sure exactly what role he played, if any at all, other than to be a souvenir prop for a powerful Japanese warlord since records of Yasuke are incredibly vague. Despite this, Ubisoft threw Yasuke into the spotlight rather than one of the thousands of other more historically recorded ethnic Japanese samurai making it appear he was chosen purely for his skin color.
Or because they thought it made for a good story. When it comes to stories about Japan from the west, they tend to want to use some form of outsider as lens for the audience. Shogun and Silence both focus on westerners in Japan. If you want purely Japanese perspective, your best bet is to read or watch Japanese media. (Granted Silence was written by a Japanese Catholic, but I imagine most people hadn’t heard of it until the Scorsese film.) Kurosawa, Miyazaki, Hamaguchi, Murakami, Kawakami, Murata… all Japanese artists that will bring you Japanese perspective.
When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived, And now I do not sleep.
"I'm one of the few people you'll meet whose written more books than they've read." - Garth Marenghi (Author. Visionary. Dreamweaver. Plus actor.)
I love diversity, but things can get a little complicated when several different cultures and continents are involved. Asians have historically been othered by Western culture, from their designation as the "exotic" (read: strange) "Far East", to weird caricatures and fetishisations of them. So to have a Western company try to race-splain to the Japanese was probably never going to be easy.
But of course, we can't capitulate to the anti-wokists either. Not an easy situation for anyone - except the trolls looking for rage-bait, that is.
Yes, his name is Yasuke, and I was quickly summarizing why it turned into the heated controversy. He did exist, and his title was that of a samurai; but, no body can be sure exactly what role he played, if any at all, other than to be a souvenir prop for a powerful Japanese warlord since records of Yasuke are incredibly vague. Despite this, Ubisoft threw Yasuke into the spotlight rather than one of the thousands of other more historically recorded ethnic Japanese samurai making it appear he was chosen purely for his skin color.
Or because they thought it made for a good story. When it comes to stories about Japan from the west, they tend to want to use some form of outsider as lens for the audience. Shogun and Silence both focus on westerners in Japan.
And The Last Samurai. But hey, without Cruise, there's no money to make the film.
I love diversity, but things can get a little complicated when several different cultures and continents are involved. Asians have historically been othered by Western culture, from their designation as the "exotic" (read: strange) "Far East", to weird caricatures and fetishisations of them. So to have a Western company try to race-splain to the Japanese was probably never going to be easy.
But of course, we can't capitulate to the anti-wokists either. Not an easy situation for anyone - except the trolls looking for rage-bait, that is.
Good point. Although it's not like Ubi actually gets historical Western cultures right.
Or because they thought it made for a good story. When it comes to stories about Japan from the west, they tend to want to use some form of outsider as lens for the audience. Shogun and Silence both focus on westerners in Japan.
And The Last Samurai.
Last Samurai... more like "Dancing with Wolves" in Japan
I mean, unlike Tom Cruise's character, in case of Yasuke we're talking about a character based on a *real, historical figure*, who despite his humble beginnings and foreign status became (in a famously insular country) a samurai serving one of the very important Japanese feudal lords.
In what universe is this not a story worth telling??? Especially given that we do have several stories featuring white dudes already.
Last Edit: Oct 19, 2024 6:39:14 GMT by midnight tea
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
I don't intend to keep rattling, so I would simply say this: When Eastern culture (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) is related, go consult the real Easterns who live there. Don't just ask some random guys who pretend to understand the Eastern culture.
I can't speak for the Japanese, so I'm imagining a game set in medieval Germany. The protagonist is a black guy in gothic plate armour. In the demo gameplay, there's a building that looks like a church on the outside but inside it's a pub. Then they make a figurine of him at the Auschwitz memorial. When this doesn't go well, the devs/publishers claim that they did their research and respect my culture and that I'm a terrible person for criticizing their product. And there's people on the interwebs who defend them for it.
Probably wouldn't buy that one.
"Give me a fully loaded Hornet and I'll shake the gates of heaven." -Aria Reilly
I can't speak for the Japanese, so I'm imagining a game set in medieval Germany. The protagonist is a black guy in gothic plate armour. In the demo gameplay, there's a building that looks like a church on the outside but inside it's a pub. Then they make a figurine of him at the Auschwitz memorial. When this doesn't go well, the devs/publishers claim that they did their research and respect my culture and that I'm a terrible person for criticizing their product. And there's people on the interwebs who defend them for it.
Probably wouldn't buy that one.
It's a comment that would make sense if it wasn't brought at least 3 times already that the black guy they based their character on was a real, historical figure. Black samurai literally happened, and even Japanese historians weighted on that, given that the 'controversy' is mostly manufactured outside of Japan (in this specific regard). So, this particular aspect is about as historically accurate as those who shout about historical accuracy seemingly want it to be.
HOW exactly history of that period and surrounding those characters is going to be interpreted for the AC universe remains to be seen (the game's not out yet), but that would be true regardless whether a character was foreign in origin or their ancestors have been living in Japan since fall of Atlantis (or whatever happened in AC universe), as Ubisoft is not a Japanese developer.
I'd however keep underlining the irony that - however that story is going to be; it may as well be as historically anachronistic as your hypothetic example suggests - the black samurai living in Japan in that period is, in fact, what's accurate.
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
I can't speak for the Japanese, so I'm imagining a game set in medieval Germany. The protagonist is a black guy in gothic plate armour. In the demo gameplay, there's a building that looks like a church on the outside but inside it's a pub. Then they make a figurine of him at the Auschwitz memorial. When this doesn't go well, the devs/publishers claim that they did their research and respect my culture and that I'm a terrible person for criticizing their product. And there's people on the interwebs who defend them for it.
Probably wouldn't buy that one.
It's a comment that would make sense if it wasn't brought at least 3 times already that the black guy they based their character on was a real, historical figure. Black samurai literally happened, and even Japanese historians weighted on that, given that the 'controversy' is mostly manufactured outside of Japan (in this specific regard). So, this particular aspect is about as historically accurate as those who shout about historical accuracy seemingly want it to be.
HOW exactly history of that period and surrounding those characters is going to be interpreted for the AC universe remains to be seen (the game's not out yet), but that would be true regardless whether a character was foreign in origin or their ancestors have been living in Japan since fall of Atlantis (or whatever happened in AC universe), as Ubisoft is not a Japanese developer.
I'd however keep underlining the irony that - however that story is going to be; it may as well be as historically anachronistic as your hypothetic example suggests - the black samurai living in Japan in that period is, in fact, what's accurate.
I didn't dispute the existence of Yasuke. I know he existed but I admit I have no clue for how many years he was considered "active" as a samurai, how many recorded battles he fought in and all that. Still, he would have probably been an absolute rarity and exception and most common folk would have probably stood there gaping at him.
My point was the overall sloppiness with which the setting is portrayed combined with the claim that research was done and the culture is being respected.
"Give me a fully loaded Hornet and I'll shake the gates of heaven." -Aria Reilly