Far Cry 4 Creative Director Responds to Box Art Concerns of Racism

[nevarran]

Goddamnit I was really looking forward to playing as Brayko from Alpha Protocol...

Such a game would've been boring. Give some Himalayan mushrooms to this guy and he'd be unstoppable.

 

[Lightknight]

Apparently it is racist to depict people from other races. I'll have to remember that if I'm ever casting people for any media. Like that NPR article on "glass cliffs" about how sad it is that females minorities get hired into high profile jobs with high pay that are likely to fail as if hiring them was a bad thing (what's the intended effect of that study? Should companies not hire minorities because the job is hard? That's crazy).

Seriously, the presence of minorities is not inherently racist. The mistreatment, different treatment or stereotyping is what's bad.

 

[SNCommand]

Found it hilarious how few people on tumblr picked up that the villain on the cover wasn't Caucasian, apparently people define races strictly by hair and skin color

 

[Erttheking]

For fuck's sake. I just don't care any more. Everything is racist or sexist to the kind of social justice shit-stains the gaming industry has for consumers. Can we even explore themes like racism and sexism any more? Is depicting racism racist? I give up. It's this kind of infantile willingness to decry anything potentially offensive that makes me want to leave games behind as a whole.

Seriously, what is wrong with people? OMG, light skinned south asian man in a position of power over a fairly light skinned, dirty south asian man, RACISM!

Exactly. It's pathetic.

Then again, it isn't just games. This kind of first-world socio-political obsession is everywhere.

Actually, people do have some reason to be concerned about racism from the Far Cry series, considering that 3 claimed to subvert the trope of a white person becoming the leader of a tribe of brown people by being the best warrior there and driving out a foreign threat...by depicting a white person becoming the leader of a tribe of brown people by being the best warrior there and driving out a foreign threat. Yeah, the last Far Cry game really did mishandle the depiction of race. Is this reaction to the cover overreacting? Yes. But it's not unfounded.

And everything is racist or sexist? Don't you think you're blowing things out of proportion? Everything would be racist or sexist if every single minority or female character was called racist or sexist, and that just does not happen.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

The only reason someone would guess that he isn't the protagonist is because western marketing teams would never let the main character have a hairstyle and shirt color so "flamboyant". (aside from Deep Silver, but you already pointed out Saints Row has it's own negative quirks)

Or you know, it kind of has a similar style to Far Cry 3's cover.

Spoiler

I think you missed the part where I said

"While he fits the antagonist stereotype of most FarCry games"

 

[Covarr]

Don't worry too much about this, Hutchinson. People like to invent problems to ***** about. There's no racism on here. At worst, the character himself is racist (I'll wait and see on that one), but seeing as he's obviously not the protagonist, that hardly amounts to racism on the game's part.

I've also seen people shout homophobia because of how the guy's dressed, in spite of the cover not having made any statement as to the guy's sexual orientation. And even if he is gay, so what? I've seen gay people dress a lot more flamboyant than that. Does that mean that actual gay people who dress flamboyantly are homophobic themselves? No. Poor fashion sense, maybe, and trying too hard to make a statement with their clothes, but not homophobic. And this cover isn't either.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Ninjamedic]

Seriously, the presence of minorities is not inherently racist. The mistreatment, different treatment or stereotyping is what's bad.

You have to wonder if this is a possible reason why we see a lack of minorities in games and other media, the designers are reluctant to involve them if they know their work is going to be over-analysed and nitpicked to such an extent. I mean, given all this scrutiny for a game that hasn't had any of it's content revealed beyond a cover, unless you have a major reason to have a character in there that is of a specific ethnicity/gender/nationality, why would you bother?

(This is excluding games with character creation of course)

 

[Rayne870]

Have a perfect solution. Let's only put white people in art, media and anything else so we can avoid racism....oh wait...

Seriously people need to put on some man pants and quit going out of their way to get butt hurt.

 

[BrotherRool]

It says something about us that someone looked at the guy sitting on a throne of weapons, calmly putting his hand on the head of someone who is being forced to hold a grenade without a pin... and thought, yep that must be me!

I haven't even played Far Cry 3 and I was thinking about the similarities between this guy and 3's villain.

Actually, people do have some reason to be concerned about racism from the Far Cry series, considering that 3 claimed to subvert the trope of a white person becoming the leader of a tribe of brown people by being the best warrior there and driving out a foreign threat...by depicting a white person becoming the leader of a tribe of brown people by being the best warrior there and driving out a foreign threat.

The critical part is "depicting a white person who thinks he is becoming the leader of a tribe of brown people by being the best warrior there and driving out a foreign threat and is actually just some disposable tool". Revealing the last part right and the end and only if the player makes certain choices was a mistake. Especially as many players saw that ending, didn't like it and dismissed it instead of putting it into the context of everything.

I'm not saying it wasn't incompetent, but it is the big indicator that it wasn't meant to be racist beyond the writer merely saying so. It's also full of big upper class jet set holiday tones and toys and yet those tones and toys are fundamentally entangled with people killing each other at an uncomfortable level of brutality.

 

[VanQ]

But why does saying "He's not white" make this any less racist? Sounds like racism to me.

 

[zombiejoe]

For fuck's sake. I just don't care any more. Everything is racist or sexist to the kind of social justice shit-stains the gaming industry has for consumers. Can we even explore themes like racism and sexism any more? Is depicting racism racist? I give up. It's this kind of infantile willingness to decry anything potentially offensive that makes me want to leave games behind as a whole.

Seriously, what is wrong with people? OMG, light skinned south asian man in a position of power over a fairly light skinned, dirty south asian man, RACISM!

Exactly. It's pathetic.

Then again, it isn't just games. This kind of first-world socio-political obsession is everywhere.

Actually, people do have some reason to be concerned about racism from the Far Cry series, considering that 3 claimed to subvert the trope of a white person becoming the leader of a tribe of brown people by being the best warrior there and driving out a foreign threat...by depicting a white person becoming the leader of a tribe of brown people by being the best warrior there and driving out a foreign threat. Yeah, the last Far Cry game really did mishandle the depiction of race. Is this reaction to the cover overreacting? Yes. But it's not unfounded.

I'm still willing to argue that Far Cry 3 did handle the "white savior" thing in a respectable way. On the surface, yeah, you are going around saving natives and becoming their white chosen one. But narratively, Jason's transformation into the "chosen one" is not presented as a good thing. In fact, its heavily implied that by trying to live out a Rambo chosen one fantasy, he is deteriorating mentally to the point where he wants to stay as their leader, when in reality he is only being manipulated. It's not even so much about his race as it is about his desire to be a hero.

 

[Erttheking]

I'm still willing to argue that Far Cry 3 did handle the "white savior" thing in a respectable way. On the surface, yeah, you are going around saving natives and becoming their white chosen one. But narratively, Jason's transformation into the "chosen one" is not presented as a good thing. In fact, its heavily implied that by trying to live out a Rambo chosen one fantasy, he is deteriorating mentally to the point where he wants to stay as their leader, when in reality he is only being manipulated. It's not even so much about his race as it is about his desire to be a hero.

Those are all good points but...I don't know. It still kind of leaves a semi-bad taste in my mouth that a lazy white boy was able to turn the tide of a war that highly trained warriors had been losing against. True, he was being manipulated, but there was still the uncomfortable feeling that the warriors (I can never remember how to spell their name) still needed him in order to save themselves from being wiped out and somehow one of him could do what a hundred of them couldn't.

I still love the game, it's just that I feel like this was mishandled. It would've been nice if we had seen the warriors doing more to take back the island, or maybe Dennis having more of a proactive role.

 

[zombiejoe]

I'm still willing to argue that Far Cry 3 did handle the "white savior" thing in a respectable way. On the surface, yeah, you are going around saving natives and becoming their white chosen one. But narratively, Jason's transformation into the "chosen one" is not presented as a good thing. In fact, its heavily implied that by trying to live out a Rambo chosen one fantasy, he is deteriorating mentally to the point where he wants to stay as their leader, when in reality he is only being manipulated. It's not even so much about his race as it is about his desire to be a hero.

Those are all good points but...I don't know. It still kind of leaves a semi-bad taste in my mouth that a lazy white boy was able to turn the tide of a war that highly trained warriors had been losing against. True, he was being manipulated, but there was still the uncomfortable feeling that the warriors (I can never remember how to spell their name) still needed him in order to save themselves from being wiped out and somehow one of him could do what a hundred of them couldn't.

I still love the game, it's just that I feel like this was mishandled. It would've been nice if we had seen the warriors doing more to take back the island, or maybe Dennis having more of a proactive role.

I can see where you're coming from, and I think that issue arises mainly due to the gameplay. I think they wanted Jason to start out as an untrained, scared person who develops into a warrior over time. But a lot of the game has you fighting off entire armies alone, even before you've gotten your tattoos and training from the natives. Maybe if they had more opportunity for the player to have companions, sort of like Far Cry 2, it would have made the idea of Jason being made into a warrior who then believes himself to be the chosen one, instead of him already naturally talented at slaughter and sort of fitting easily in the chosen one mold.

 

[Erttheking]

I'm still willing to argue that Far Cry 3 did handle the "white savior" thing in a respectable way. On the surface, yeah, you are going around saving natives and becoming their white chosen one. But narratively, Jason's transformation into the "chosen one" is not presented as a good thing. In fact, its heavily implied that by trying to live out a Rambo chosen one fantasy, he is deteriorating mentally to the point where he wants to stay as their leader, when in reality he is only being manipulated. It's not even so much about his race as it is about his desire to be a hero.

Those are all good points but...I don't know. It still kind of leaves a semi-bad taste in my mouth that a lazy white boy was able to turn the tide of a war that highly trained warriors had been losing against. True, he was being manipulated, but there was still the uncomfortable feeling that the warriors (I can never remember how to spell their name) still needed him in order to save themselves from being wiped out and somehow one of him could do what a hundred of them couldn't.

I still love the game, it's just that I feel like this was mishandled. It would've been nice if we had seen the warriors doing more to take back the island, or maybe Dennis having more of a proactive role.

I can see where you're coming from, and I think that issue arises mainly due to the gameplay. I think they wanted Jason to start out as an untrained, scared person who develops into a warrior over time. But a lot of the game has you fighting off entire armies alone, even before you've gotten your tattoos and training from the natives. Maybe if they had more opportunity for the player to have companions, sort of like Far Cry 2, it would have made the idea of Jason being made into a warrior who then believes himself to be the chosen one, instead of him already naturally talented at slaughter and sort of fitting easily in the chosen one mold.

Actually yeah, that would've been REALLY interesting. Jason bloats up his own ego to think that he's some kind of chosen one when in reality that isn't the case. Actually I can think of a way that they could've done that, AND still had the fun rambo style gameplay. Jason is supposed to be sticking insane amounts of drugs into his system right? How about he only thought he was clearing out entire bases single handily. Every time he had help and he wasn't as much of a badass as he thought. It would be an interest plot development and it would help make it ambiguous what was reality on the island, a theme that they already had going on.

 

[Lightknight]

Seriously, the presence of minorities is not inherently racist. The mistreatment, different treatment or stereotyping is what's bad.

You have to wonder if this is a possible reason why we see a lack of minorities in games and other media, the designers are reluctant to involve them if they know their work is going to be over-analysed and nitpicked to such an extent. I mean, given all this scrutiny for a game that hasn't had any of it's content revealed beyond a cover, unless you have a major reason to have a character in there that is of a specific ethnicity/gender/nationality, why would you bother?

(This is excluding games with character creation of course)

It's an interesting premise. I mean, Resident Evil 5's creators didn't see anything wrong with placing their game in an African village until people started saying it was racist for doing so since it effectively made the zombie population black. This indicates that there is a public sentiment that just the portrayal of minorities at all can be deemed as racist and that's just nuts. It's such a fine line that developers have to walk that they just play it safe every chance they get. I'd rather have an environment where developers don't have to worry about what skin color their characters are. Where diversity isn't a liability and also isn't inserted to meet a token quota. But as things are right now, that doesn't appear to be safe for anyone to do. We've really got to save our complaints for situations that are actually racist.

 

[zombiejoe]

I'm still willing to argue that Far Cry 3 did handle the "white savior" thing in a respectable way. On the surface, yeah, you are going around saving natives and becoming their white chosen one. But narratively, Jason's transformation into the "chosen one" is not presented as a good thing. In fact, its heavily implied that by trying to live out a Rambo chosen one fantasy, he is deteriorating mentally to the point where he wants to stay as their leader, when in reality he is only being manipulated. It's not even so much about his race as it is about his desire to be a hero.

Those are all good points but...I don't know. It still kind of leaves a semi-bad taste in my mouth that a lazy white boy was able to turn the tide of a war that highly trained warriors had been losing against. True, he was being manipulated, but there was still the uncomfortable feeling that the warriors (I can never remember how to spell their name) still needed him in order to save themselves from being wiped out and somehow one of him could do what a hundred of them couldn't.

I still love the game, it's just that I feel like this was mishandled. It would've been nice if we had seen the warriors doing more to take back the island, or maybe Dennis having more of a proactive role.

I can see where you're coming from, and I think that issue arises mainly due to the gameplay. I think they wanted Jason to start out as an untrained, scared person who develops into a warrior over time. But a lot of the game has you fighting off entire armies alone, even before you've gotten your tattoos and training from the natives. Maybe if they had more opportunity for the player to have companions, sort of like Far Cry 2, it would have made the idea of Jason being made into a warrior who then believes himself to be the chosen one, instead of him already naturally talented at slaughter and sort of fitting easily in the chosen one mold.

Actually yeah, that would've been REALLY interesting. Jason bloats up his own ego to think that he's some kind of chosen one when in reality that isn't the case. Actually I can think of a way that they could've done that, AND still had the fun rambo style gameplay. Jason is supposed to be sticking insane amounts of drugs into his system right? How about he only thought he was clearing out entire bases single handily. Every time he had help and he wasn't as much of a badass as he thought. It would be an interest plot development and it would help make it ambiguous what was reality on the island, a theme that they already had going on.

Yeah, I like what you're saying.

Another way of doing that could be to have had missions with Jason alongside the tribal warriors be designed for realistically (a stronger emphasis on taking out your enemies strategically, helping your companions, a higher chance of being killed, ect) and have moments where Jason is alone and going full Rambo being drug induced hallucinations. While he may be seeing himself gunning down countless waves of enemies, in reality he's killed maybe 2 or 3 pirates by surprise and shot in the air a bunch of times.

 

[saltyanon]

The only reason someone would guess that he isn't the protagonist is because western marketing teams would never let the main character have a hairstyle and shirt color so "flamboyant". (aside from Deep Silver, but you already pointed out Saints Row has it's own negative quirks)

Or you know, it kind of has a similar style to Far Cry 3's cover.

Spoiler

I think you missed the part where I said

"While he fits the antagonist stereotype of most FarCry games"

What stereotype?

 

[Ninjamedic]

It's an interesting premise. I mean, Resident Evil 5's creators didn't see anything wrong with placing their game in an African village until people started saying it was racist for doing so since it effectively made the zombie population black. This indicates that there is a public sentiment that just the portrayal of minorities at all can be deemed as racist and that's just nuts. It's such a fine line that developers have to walk that they just play it safe every chance they get. I'd rather have an environment where developers don't have to worry about what skin color their characters are. Where diversity isn't a liability and also isn't inserted to meet a token quota. But as things are right now, that doesn't appear to be safe for anyone to do. We've really got to save our complaints for situations that are actually racist.

Goes a long way to explain White Male protagonist syndrome.

Remember though, this is Games Journalism! It's not enough that you don't like a game, you have to attach a stigma to it so you can feel superior for not liking it! Screw evaluating games based on actual merit! That would interrupt our worship of Half-Life 2!

I should look into writing for Kotaku.

 

[Baresark]

Of course it's racist... a bunch of stupid fucks looking for racism decided this was racist, so now we all have to deal with the fact that those people are completely insane.