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

[sethisjimmy]

This guy is full of shit, instead of blaming your shitty writing on a whole other country, how about you focus on improving it. Gears of War is an extremely stereotypical western story, filled the maximum with cliches and macho men. Is it terrible? No, but dear god why would you use it as an example of something that should be above criticism?

I mean, for a guy going around claiming others are racist, he sure seems to have a bone to pick with Japan. Instead of just attacking the journalists alone, he comes right out and says, "fuck Bayonetta, Gears of War was waaay better than that." He seems predisposed to hate any Japanese game that is unique because it's "literal gibberish" and doesn't try to be a western action movie filled with beaten-to-death cliches like GoW.

 

[Dr.Panties]

There...isn't a palm big enough, nor a face small enough...

That is all.

 

[McMullen]

This guy is an ass. The last time I tried playing Revelations, Ezio killed himself twice in two minutes by jumping in directions that were as much as 90° off of where I told him to jump, and did it a couple more times without killing himself right after that. Game disc became a frisbee after the fourth time, where somehow he jumped in the opposite direction of where I told him to. It's still sitting where it landed; don't much care whether it gets damaged or not, because playing it more consistently creates frustration than fun.

If you make a game where a player's input is so inconsistently interpreted, you're simply bad at your job. Revelations may as well be a movie for all the influence I feel I have on the character at times.

If he wants to not have the quality of his games questioned, then all he needs to do is produce quality work.

i hate to be a bit of an ass, but is it the games fault you jumped in the wrong direction, or is it your fault?

Surprised it took that long for this post to show up. I'm not sure if you've ever played AC, but the game interprets your controls based on context. As they've added more actions into the game, there are an increasing number of cases where the game chooses the wrong action. It also seems to not update its picture of the situation very often, so if you jump off a ledge after turning, you will sometimes jump in the direction you were pointing a few steps ago, instead of where you're pointing at the time the jump animation starts.

While I acknowledge that using this sort of interpretive system is necessary for a game like this, when you put the control in the hands of an AI, it's important to make sure that the AI does its job well. As the series has gone on, it does worse each time. It's gotten to the point where playing the game more often produces the opposite of fun.

And yeah, you are, and you probably shouldn't have made that post. Just a little bit though.

 

[RaikuFA]

Uhhh, aren't games from Japan MORE criticized? If anything, its the other way around. From what I have read in reviews, Japanese games should only be enjoyed through irony.

This guys an idiot alongside Phil Fish, Jonathon Blow and Biowares CEO.

 

[Ljs1121]

Why, Ubisoft? I want to love you. I so much do. Why won't you let me? D:

 

[Zydrate]

I'm confused.
Where does racism come into this?

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

snip

This dude speaks the truth. Almost everything that is 'canonical' nowadays was once considered to be either a hack, poorly structured, populist or just not fun to read/watch. And funnily enough, the kind of 'capital L' books that win awards today are usually forgotten within two years and not read by anyone outside of the academic and publishing elite who pick the Booker/Pulitzer. That doesn't mean that anything that the establishment hates is a great work (whatever certain hipsters would like you to believe), but there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't compare works of genre or populist fiction to the 'canon'.

The canon itself is not established based on quality, because that's too subjective to pin down. Really, the canon exists because there are certain books people won't stop talking about. In my opinion, The Da Vinci Code isn't written any worse than, say, King Solomon's Mines (a fucking dreadful book, I recommend it if only to witness for yourself just how racist it is possible to be, to get back on topic), but people won't be talking about Dan Brown in a hundred years because he just tapped into a fad and hasn't left any lasting interest for people to come back to.

Anyway... Ubisoft should be careful about throwing stones, because speaking of Dan Brown, I thought that the Assassin's Creed series has just been ripping him off all the way, and it baffles me how people keep giving such an atrocious storyline 8/10 ratings. But hey, subjectivity's a *****.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Ohhhh.... Ubisoft. That was so stupid. Why did you even let him talk. Someone should have gagged him the moment he started talking like that. Stuffing a sock in his mouth would have had less negative impact then this... oh god, this is going to be a shit storm.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Okay... is there any Nintendo franchise that releases yearly installments? Certainly not Mario. Not Zelda either. Metroid? No sir. Star Fox? Haven't had one of those in years.

you are right, sir, i dont think there is a nintendo franchise that has yearly installments. however, i think what mr. hutchinson meant to say was that even when a new zelda or mario game comes out, its basically the same damn game with a different skin.

Actually, i don't think that's true. I mean, okay, the Mario games have become a bit repetetive and Galaxy 2 was a step in the wrong direction. But Zelda? Nah. Those are as different as games of a single series can be. Sure, they share a specific structure and some central gameplay elements but the way they are presented is completely different. Majoras Mask was a completely different game than Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker was very much unlike Majoras Mask, Twilight Princess wasn't much like Wind Waker and Skyward Sword wasn't like TP.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I don't recall anyone praising the story of Bayonetta when it came out or after the fact. I remember it being a fun and interesting narrative through its own world, but nothing I'd be submitting for a Pulitzer.

And to be honest, Assassin's Creed is much the same. Sure the story is kind of whacked the fuck out, but that's probably because the story involves genetic time travel. It would have to be at least a little out of alignment with reality to even work. They're still largely fun games that tell their tale well.


As for gibberish? *****, please. The games out of Japan have nothing on the 13 hour anti-depressant recommendation and pseudo-philosophical banana train that was the plot of Neon Genesis Evangelion (which I loved); you want a narrative that's gibberish no matter what language its in, right there pal.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

NO.
NO.
I'm sorry, I know this is off-topic but.... NO! YOU DO NOT GET TO DO THAT EA! You cannot spin doctor one of the worst endings in gaming history into a marketing ploy! That's just... ARRRRRRRRRRGH!

 

[Casual Shinji]

It's my understanding that Japan got a good douse of criticism this entire generation for not being able to step up to the plate the way Western developers have done. Some of the criticism coming from Japanse developers themselves.

 

[DanielDeFig]

I love the Kingdom Hearts story, and I will be the first to admit that while wonderfully presented, the actual story (especially lately) is Anime-level crazy,wacky nonsense.

Assasin's Creed started out as the interesting tale of the conflict between Assasins, Templars fighting for the possession of a powerful magical artifact, as seen from the perspective of a family line of Assasins.
However, I hate how it's being overshadowed and dominated by the story of how Aliens came to earth to give knowledge, now they're gone. Oh! And now the sun will explode. That's not just nonsense, but like all "Aliens taught humans how to be smart" is an insult to the entire human species.

I would prefer a story like Bayonetta, or even Gears of War, because at least they're consistent and don't pretend to be one thing, then reveal something ridiculous and keep that ridiculous nonsense story looming over the much more interesting story that you actually play. Also, I Personally love over-the-top anime-style of stories, like Bayonetta.

 

[GAunderrated]

I find it disheartening this generation that developers are using the gaming media as their own personal soapbox to how ignorant and out of touch they are with their base.

 

[sunsetspawn]

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

Seriously this. I tried one of the AC games and it's the first game I put down and gave up on because it was, "fucking retarded," and I used to play Japanese games once upon a time. Of course, I would probably think those are retarded if I went back to play them now.

The bottom line is that this guy's being a general ass. There was a time when console gaming and Japanese went together like peanut butter and chocolate, but now, more than ever, the market is dominated by western games.

 

[Innegativeion]

Except when the first two games that come out after your announcement for annual releases are essentially the same fair with largely generic storylines , with some very forgettable new characters (Chesire was alright... I barely even remember the freaking villains from rev), your claim rings kind of hollow.

I get it, you don't want people to judge AC:3 based on its two predecessors, and it DOES look good. However, don't go and claim that racism against Canadians (ZUH?!) is responsible for people being apprehensive about the next AC game. YOU did that ubisoft, not us!

Many Japanese companies pull off annual releases because of consistent quality, even if in some cases (nintendo) the narrative isn't the focus. Then again, many japanese franchises, like yourselves, have struggled with annual releases (Final Fantasy). Don't victimize yourselves. It's unbecoming.

 

[Ledan]

Dafuq?
It's not our fault that Japanese developers have better storytellers than many westerners. We seem to have lost them.

 

[brazuca]

I do not know about you guys, but I like a good, well writen story in any media. AC is not one of them since ACII. They milked Ezio Auditore universe. Repeated the same pattern and the same structure of progression. Sold us Desmond as being the main story, after all that is the guy moving the narrative foward, using the same gimmick as cheap TV series. Insert a lot of non progressive narrative mechanics, enrich a universe that do not move the story foward and by the very end continue what you begined. Easier to exemplify.: Burn Notice does that in it's episode, so does White Collor, SmallVile the Dark Knight Rises you get it.

Ubisoft can not complain about narrative in games when they did soo little to make them better.