Assassin's Creed Exec Accuses Game Journalists of "Subtle Racism"

[Hollow_Knight]

I don't think he's wrong, but frankly I think it should be taken as a compliment. Revelations received criticism because its narrative was bad when compared to the other games in the series. Compared to ACII particularly, it was a little dis-jointed and not nearly as engaging.

I think most reviewers tend to factor these expectations into these reviews. They expect a Japanese game to have new characters appear halfway through the plot with no explanation, and for the the protagonist to adopt a different motivation every 5 minutes...

 

[MatsVS]

The same applies here: you can enjoy a convoluted, nonsensical, poorly-constructed mess of a story like many JRPGs, but that does not make it good, because it remains a convoluted, nonsensical, poorly-constructed mess despite your personal subjective level of appreciation.

Narratives can only be judged objectively if all parties agree as to what functions a narrative should uphold. Applying western standards to eastern games (convoluted! spiky hair! androgynous characters! nonsensical!) is ethnocentrism.

Also your generalization is drivel.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Hutchinson wants games to be based on whether or not their narratives are "any good," but that's entirely subjective--what's "gibberish" to one person could be fantastic to another.

Fallacious nonsense. Whether a person appreciates a narrative is subjective, but the written form has a structure and narratives CAN be judged objectively on that basis, just as art can be judged objectively on technical quality, and music can be judged by form and harmonious complexity.

I like Pulp military sci-fi, Warhammer 40K novels in particular, but I would be a cretinous moron if I tried to equate them with actual capital-L Literature. I like some cheesy Eurodance music, but arguing that such music is "good" would be nonsense.

The same applies here: you can enjoy a convoluted, nonsensical, poorly-constructed mess of a story like many JRPGs, but that does not make it good, because it remains a convoluted, nonsensical, poorly-constructed mess despite your personal subjective level of appreciation.

You might be surprised.

Shakespeare was a hack writer of his day, perhaps the hack writer. Plays like Marlowe's Faust were considered the capital L-Literature back in that time period, as well as Ben Jonson, and in general all playwrites were considered inferior to poets. Shakespeare thought his own plays were crap whereas his Sonnets were his true literature.

Louisa May Alcott said the following about Little Women:

Spoiler

A book for girls being wanted by a certain publisher, she hastily scribbled a little story describing a few scenes and adventures in the lives of herself and sisters - though boys were more in her line - and with very slight hopes of success sent it out to seek its fortune.

Things always went by contraries with Jo. Her first book, labored over for years, and launched full of the high hopes and ambitious dreams of youth, floundered on its voyage, though the wreck continued to float long afterward, to the profit of the publisher at least. The hastily written story, sent away with no thought beyond the few dollars it might bring, sailed with a fair wind and a wise pilot at the helm into public favor, and came home heavily laden with an unexpected cargo of gold and glory."

A Christmas Carol was Charles Dickens needing some money fast, not a grand Literary project, the Romantic Poets considered their own poems inferior because they wanted to revive classical 16th Century plays (oh the irony) and of course Tom Sawyer was pretty much nonsese written to provide the character for Huckleberry Finn.

So what is and isn't Literature is not some great set in stone thing decided by English professors at Oxford University, and often stuff considered trash in its day becomes considered Literature (capital L) a hudnred years later.

As for this myth of being able to judge narrative objectively on its technical merits, objectively James Joyce writes absolute crap. There's very little coherence, it's all very stream of consciousness and it's almost unreadable in many parts. Ever read Finnegan's Wake? Jesus it's incomprehensible. And yet in 1998 Modern Library ranked Ulysses as the no.1 English-Language novel of the century. (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was 3rd) No Structure to speak of, very little narrative, punctuation and grammar are all over the place and the storylines interweave in non-chronological order with several repetitions and the author admitted not a great deal of thought given to them.

So accuse me and my very fine English Literature degree of being cretinous morons but I would say that I feel very within my writes to call pulp sci-fi Literature with a capital L, in the same way that I call the written-for-the-masses, money-making, sub-par to the classical poets Hamlet a piece of Literature with a capital L. Remember that Hamlet was effectively fan-fiction of the play Amleth or possibly the lost Elizabethan play 'Ur-Hamlet.' In four hundred years someone we consider 'great' like Ian McEwan might be forgotten, while Tara Gillespie of My Immortal fame is considered a visionary ahead of her time.

To try and judge what is or is not fit for the English canon and the designation of 'Literature' is a subject not even the most well respected academics in the world can agree on, so what exactly gives you the ability to pass judgement on it? Because I would genuinely like to know your reasoning behind that decision.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

A good point, but "subtle racism" was probably the wrong phrase to use if he wanted to keep shit level headed instead of waving a red flag to defensive fanboys.

 

[KagatoAMV]

I don't think it is a racial issue at all, I think it is the result of Japanese companies simply don't participate in the western game review & press the same way that western game companies do. So I think he should expect to see more feedback, both good and bad for a western company.

As to AC2: Revelations itself, while I enjoyed the gameplay in Revelations, I thought the story took a nose dive. It failed to capture my interest the same way the first two installments of AC2 did. A big issue for me was it didn't answer the questions I wanted answered from Brotherhood, and it felt like a ham handed retcon of Desmond's background.

I should note that I thought Enzio's story line continued well, but I went from liking Desmond to despising him.

 

[MatsVS]

The problem being that if it is going to be released to a western audience it will be judged by western standards, same as anything released over there will be judged by their standards.

OT: There is a reason it is very, very rare that I buy an eastern game. (If I recall the last one was Infinite Space on my DS)

When de-constructing a narrative, authorial intent is vital. Ergo, western standards must inevitably take a back seat when looking at eastern games.

 

[FallenTraveler]

A good point, but "subtle racism" was probably the wrong phrase to use if he wanted to keep shit level headed instead of waving a red flag to defensive fanboys.

Agreed, probably prejudice or discriminatory would've been better to use.

OT: What the hell is wrong with this guy, people don't really like yearly installments because it's overload and people that tend to criticize it would prefer to see a bigger leap in mechanics and design instead of retread with minor improvements.

And who said Bayonetta had a great story? It fits with the over-the-top nature of the game, but I don't think anyone is holding it up as a triumph of videogame storytelling.

And since when has Gears ever had a worthwhile story? It's always been goofy and messed up.

 

[Shinsei-J]

Um, can anyone think of a Japanese game that come out yearly with more than just a loosely tied in world and branding?
I actually can't.
Anyone?

 

[kuolonen]

I don't think a single word he just said made sense.

I've read his statements about five times over now, trying to get to the bottom of his feelings, and I just don't understand it.

'Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do.'

And what do they do? What is it exactly that Japanese Developers are doing? Because I have to say I don't think I'd ever put Square-Enix and Capcom and Konami all in the same basket and say they are all the same.

And aren't sweeping generalisations about what races do something like not-subtle racism? And where exactly is this bias in the journalistic world? Mass Effect has been hailed as one of the best series ever (ending notwithstanding let's not start fights) Valve of course, as well as Bungie, Bethesda and even Activision (regardless of what you think about them, the journalists are usually pretty complimentary of Call of Duty)

So maybe if journalists are nice to everyone unless they put out a bad game, and they aren't being nice to Ubisoft, then maybe the falt doesn't lie with the journalists if you catch my drift.

Thank you. You have restored some of my faith in humanity. How in gods name this guy has the gall to accuse someone of racism while generalizing entire nations' worth of developers is beyond me.

OT: Oh Ubisoft, trying to direct that awkward attention off your medieval DRM policy? Sorry, I remain unconvinced. In fact my opinion of you has merely worsened.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I have no idea what I'm reading here unless someone replaces all his news storys, reviews and forum posts with the opposite before he gets to it.

Capcha: 8th chevron someone is a Star Gate fan.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

This industry never ceases to amaze me. Other people have explained why better than me, but just to summerize; the dude's got it... wrong, just... wrong.

Oh, but on a side note I will mention that journalists -on average- tend to either be in the pocket of one or several companies at a time (altering their content drastically in favour of certain titles anyway) be complete fucking idiots (altering their content drastically in favour of certain titles anyway) share particular tastes with those of their audience (altering their content drastically in favour of certain titles anyway) or have genuine integrity and competency leading to truthful and insightful reviews (altering their content drastically in favour of- oh fuck it, you get the point already).

Only a small note, and not the whole picture, but still a reasonably significant part of it at least.

 

[MammothBlade]

Are you kidding me? I've become more sceptical towards Japanese games recently, as it seems to me they've become too reliant on cutscenes or stylisation to make up for boring or short actual gameplay and mediocre stories - for example, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. Sorry, but they're going to have to do better than that. I feel that the calibre and innovation of games coming out of Japan has in general diminished or stagnated. I've yet to see a current gen Japanese game as well balanced and immersive as say, Mass Effect or Deus Ex HR (assuming Japanese involvement was mostly confined to the cutscenes).

This is a reluctant criticism, as I loved many, many Japanese games for PS2. They were pretty much the champions of the last generation. The problem is, now many studios have got their priorities wrong. Stunning cutscenes and visuals alone do not a game make. Neither do generic moe characters. I think the guy in the article is right, there is a more recent tendency towards pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-philosophical earwax plots which do not make an iota of sense. Case in point, the bullshit excuse for a story that was FFXIII. Squeenix's writing has gone down the pan. I could well be wrong on that point, it could just be a criticism confined to Square-Enix, Capcom, and Nintendo by and large.

 

[Palademon]

So since they don't particulalry like japanese games and prefer a western one...suddenly people are subtlely racist for thinking some japanese games are better?
Please tell me if I'm getting this wrong because it sounds funny.

I understand some Japanese games beign repetitive, like Nintendo often repeats themselves, but it could be argued in different ways. Like people associated a significant change in Assassin's Creed based on change in time period, whereas many small changes are present in Nintendo games and they get noticed more? Or maybe some people just didn't like playing Assassin's Creed for a long time and so without changes to core mechanics it felt boring?

Also

Hutchinson wants games to be based on whether or not their narratives are "any good"

....Wha?
Games are for playing. I like good stories in games, but that's a bit of a silly stance if true.
"This game is completely boring and unplayable, but the story's nice. 10/10".

Hey, maybe they wouldn't review it somewhat poorly if you focused on gameplay
[small](I want to make it clear that that was a joke, since I and many others like Assassin's Creed's gameplay)[/small]

 

[T'Generalissimo]

Seriously, someone involved with Assassin's Creed criticising other people's stories for being gibberish?

 

[Thespian]

I think bringing a racial issue into the fact that Ubisoft has released the same game three years in a row (But with horses! And tower defense!) is silly.
That said, I'm sure this was a throw-away comment. I don't think it's meant to be taken to heart so much.

 

[rbstewart7263]

OP: I do believe he has a point we do give the japanese game industry alot of slack. For example:

"Big brash full of life black man steps into japanese game where he is the only black man" Awe look at that SOOOOOO TOOOOOKKKKEEENNNNN!!!!

"Same Black man steps into english game where hes the only black man" This is clearly blatant racism, The developers hate everything good including blacks and gays. THEY SHOULD HAVE MAINTAINED AN EVEN COLOR SPECTRUM OH MY GOD WHY OH WHY WERE THEY RAISED BY THE KLAN!


lmao

Edit: But given further thought we cut ourselves slack as well.hmm......

 

[blackdwarf]

we didn't like bayonneta for its story. but for its presentation and characters. sure. story was ridiculous, but the game was ridiculous (in a good way), so it works.

but i don't get why people disliked revelations, i really thought it was one of the best, if not the best. competing with the first one, which people also disliked. i found 2 and 2.5 really boring and unimpressive. i can't even remember one thing at all of those 2.