Jimquisition: Diversity? LIEversity!

[Reasonable Atheist]

I am legitimately sad right now, is anyone even interested in how fun this game may or may not be? .....sigh Heterosexual white male signing off.

 

[Abnaxis]

-From what Ubisoft have done recently, the 4-identical co-op partners are there because I think they want to do the same sort of 'seamless' multiplayer that they did for Watch_Dogs. The way it was done there was that only the skin of Aiden Pearce changed, and only towards other players(the principal player, the observer saw themselves as Aiden Pearce, and other players as random NPCs, and vice versa(depending on perspective)). This means that they would probably require another campaign just for the female character, or a GTA V sort of affair where you have multiple protagonist. Basically, if this sort of Co-op is what they are going for, then it makes sense that they would have to spend a lot of money(in co-ordination as well) just to write another campaign.

Is this really the way the game actually works?

Because if so...I'm sorry Jim, but your video is way out of line. It doesn't make sense to have females without writing an entirely new storyline for them, which would be expensive. SO Ubi isn't full of BS.

 

[MCerberus]

I am legitimately sad right now, is anyone even interested in how fun this game may or may not be? .....sigh Heterosexual white male signing off.

That's something that wasn't actually hit on much, but no, nobody is expecting much from it now. This entire thing, their responses, and Ubisoft's recent MO stinks of design by focus group. Everything that the focus groups don't like suddenly become too expensive. Any sort of creativity and newness are counter to the mighty focus group.

 

[DrOswald]

Imagine if this sort of logic was applied to any other type of fixed narrative:

J.K. Rowling is so sexist. Why didn't she consider inclusivity from the start? Clearly she should have written a second version of the Harry Potter series, "Harrina Potter", so her female readers could read about a witch instead of a wizard. What? That would be too much work? What a lazy writer. #womenaretoohardtowrite

Or what about movies? Why couldn't they have made a female version of Django in Django Unchained? Too much work? So lazy! #womenaretoohardtofilm

Or what animation? Why couldn't they have created a female version of Hiccup for little girls in How to Train Your Dragon? #womenaretoohardtoanimate

I just don't get it. Is there something I am missing? How is demanding genderswapable protagonists in a fixed narrative in any way reasonable? I mean, demand that they be female in the first place if you have to, but how can you justify demanding both genders?

You think an INTERACTIVE medium has a fixed, completely linear narrative? 0_o I would say you have no grasp of the issue people take of excluding women from gaming but it actually just looks like you have no grasp of gaming.

But it does have a fixed linear narrative. The game has a main character, the main character has a name and a personality, specific events happen, specific words are said by the player character. They player does not change these things in any way. Just because the exact method of how you get from cutscene A to cutscene B isn't set in stone does not mean the narrative is not set in stone. It is a fixed narrative.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

-From what Ubisoft have done recently, the 4-identical co-op partners are there because I think they want to do the same sort of 'seamless' multiplayer that they did for Watch_Dogs. The way it was done there was that only the skin of Aiden Pearce changed, and only towards other players(the principal player, the observer saw themselves as Aiden Pearce, and other players as random NPCs, and vice versa(depending on perspective)). This means that they would probably require another campaign just for the female character, or a GTA V sort of affair where you have multiple protagonist. Basically, if this sort of Co-op is what they are going for, then it makes sense that they would have to spend a lot of money(in co-ordination as well) just to write another campaign.

Is this really the way the game actually works?

Because if so...I'm sorry Jim, but your video is way out of line. It doesn't make sense to have females without writing an entirely new storyline for them, which would be expensive. SO Ubi isn't full of BS.

It's just a suggestion in mind. Since you can only access the co-op partners during specific missions, it would make sense for the co-op to function that way.

Like I said though, only a suggestion, my word for that section should not be considered as hard evidence of anything.

 

[Erttheking]

Oh hey! Zelda's a playable character in the Dynasy Warriors style Zelda game? That's pretty cool, who else do they-MIDNA! Yes! Midna is back! (Mourns lack of Wii U)

Pretty much Jim. The AAA industry is pretty much sticking their fingers in their ears and going "LALALALALALALALALALALA" when it comes to people making complaints about their games. Because as I always said "people will bite, kick, scream, and let their lives fall apart before they admit that they were wrong."

 

[Abnaxis]

You think an INTERACTIVE medium has a fixed, completely linear narrative? 0_o I would say you have no grasp of the issue people take of excluding women from gaming but it actually just looks like you have no grasp of gaming.

Depends on the game, and the story the devs want to tell. Yes, you can make a game that is completely agnostic to what the player looks like or what sort of character they have made--a la Skyrim or Saints Row--but there's no requirement that every single story has to not care what the protagonist is like. You can also try to write a story about a specific person, and let the player live in their skin for a while. Assassin's Creed is (and always has been) trying to achieve the latter, and in that case it works a lot better if you start with a predefined protagonist.

 

[Erttheking]

I disagree with one point. Those that say, "Dur... Social justice warrior" as if it were an insult is an idiot.

Are people really dumb enough to use something as a slur when it just makes them look way worse and way more bigoted?

I live in a house with Tea Party supporters who seem to think saying someone is Liberal is a good reason to dislike them, so I can say from experience, yes, yes they will.

 

[lukesparow]

While I'd love to see more variety in protagonists, it doesn't bother me too much.

The funny thing is, that even when I get the option to create my own character out of many diverse characteristics, I usually end up with a steriotype white male at the end of the day.
So yeah, not a big deal to me.

I do hope more variety is implemented for people who do want to see it though.

 

[otakon17]

Still feeling ill, Jim? Sounds like it in the intro and outro.

Yeah, bit of a relapse. I did the middle bit feeling great, then a few days later I had to do the intro/outro, and started losing my voice and stuff.

Gonna be going back to the doc this week to find out what happened. Got a sneaking suspicion whatever demonism I picked up on holiday turned into an infection.

You know Jim I said the same thing on your second point at the end of the video in another topic here. Just that publishers don't want to take even the slightest chance of losing revenue on something they haven't tested/focus-grouped/whatever. Bastards need to trim the fat, so to speak.

Off topic of trimming the fat, man your podium is getting REALLY crowded. And did I see a Johnny Test figure on there? You need to burn it man, that show is hot garbage.

 

[10BIT]

As one of these people that has thrown the "SJW" term against you, I think if there was anything wrong with your rant, it was because you were being too soft on Ubisoft. If it weren't for uPlay, there attitude towards this would have been the thing to turn me off the game. Even if you were to ignore the "political" issue and there asinine reaction to it, there are still clear benefits to a game that diversity can bring. There are the tangible benefits of being able to tell what skills a character has at a glance (are they best at stealth, duelling, crowd control, etc.), but also the intangible benefits of having a more charismatic cast than Blandy McGruff and his clones.

 

[Weaver]

The problem is it isn't just "Some animations and a voice actor".

It's the art team to design an interesting character. Then the modeling team to model it. The texture artists need to texture it. Then the animation team to animate it and rig the skeleton. Then the QA team to test to make sure all the grabbing animations when climbing the feet and arms hit the same locations and don't bug out. Then the dev team to fix the bugs that are obviously going to happen, then the QA team to make sure all the bugs are sorted, then the build team to make sure it gets into the final product before the RTM which with game publishers is incredibly inflexible.

The cost and expense was not money, it was time.

 

[Something Amyss]

People will buy the excuse, even defend it. That's why.

Well I didn't say it was a valid excuse, I just said it was more valid than saying it was too expensive.

Well, no. The historicity argument is utter crap. Not only do we have evidence of female assassins, not only did Ubisoft add them into other games, but Ubisoft chucked historicity out the window with the very first game and got worse with time. That excuse doesn't fly at all. But the excuse that maybe Ubisoft so poorly manages things that their games with huge Hollywood budgets and three-year dev cycles still can't manage to make a woman possible?

I'd say that's a more valid argument. You still have to ignore them animating women before, even women with voices, even women with voices doing assassiny things. But it's still the more likely reason.

and this is the same game where mayans built a holographic projector using a crystal cube that somehow holds blood plus a matching skull.. The same game where a pirate could afford to plate his entire ship in iron long before it became the norm and long before a shipwright would have been able to do it. Yet every harbormaster has an army of expert blacksmiths on hand.

The same game where the very same pirate melted down gold to make his cannons, his guns, and his mortar. On an incredibly tiny ship that can hold shit loads of cargo and have loads of crew members.

Don't forget that da Vinci discovered man-powered flight in AC2, something he not only failed to do but we can't really do even to this day using his methods. I mean, we sort of have man-powered flying machines, and his designs led to a lot of modern ideas about flight, but Ezio flying through the air like a bird was pretty freaking unhistoric.

But then, it seems feminism is harder to believe than sci fi for a lot of people.

But even then, women have already had positions of power within both the Assassins and Templars by this point in history, AND we've already had a female main character by this point, so it doesn't jive with their own rules either.

ug.... just ug....

Games are art, they can make whatever art they want, i wish they did not make the lame excuse at all. Honestly, they do not owe anyone an excuse.

Then shouldn't you be complaining about the company that limited them? Remember, it was resource constraints that supposedly kept women out. They claim that they had intended for there to be a playable female character. "Games are art" is a ridiculous defense in the first place, but here it's a non-starter.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's the art team to design an interesting character.

We had like five games with Desmond, who was not interesting in any sense of the word.

But more to the point, the cost in time has already been addressed. In fact, the video kind of addresses it. At the very least, Jim references other people who have addressed it.

 

[ex275w]

The excuses they use are so flimsy... I can come up with a better one: "The main character can only be a white, male because Xaspect of the plot wouldn't make sense otherwise" or the lore justifies that decision.

For the Social Justice Warrior thing, the episode wasn't really about that only about lies. Social Justice Warrior behavior is about bullying and shaming people and company for not sharing the exact same political agenda as you. Basically calling someone racist/sexist/ableist for trite reasons like a Powerpuff girls drawing or the Harry Potter books being books (these are actually real examples).

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

i dont really think adding every gender, every race, and every ice cream flavor just to not offend anybody is the right way to go, it kind of reminds me of some 90s cartoons that tried to be all famility friendly and inclusive, most of the time this lead to poorly made characters in which race and gender and not part of their character is THEIR character and they become walking stereotypes, if the dev thinks they can pull it off, great, but i dont think most devs have the talent to do so

that being said, this excuse is bullshit, if you, for whatever reason, dont want to add female characters to the game, dont freaking do it, dont make up dumb excuses

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Well, in the case of AC: Unity, do the extra protagonists actually have any impact on the story?

The original "it is too hard" quote came from a dev. Ubisoft PR actually came up with a pseudo rational response: everyone, even when joining in as co-op, is still playing as the main character Arno, so the model should stay male anyways. In this manner, "Yes" there could be an impact on the story, but it's the other people needing to stay as the main character.

This reason makes sense, but it still is a bit silly, because if we all play as the same character, THEN THERE'S FOUR OF THE MAIN CHARACTER. Also, why do we get to fully customize armor, weapons, facial expressions, and body shape? I mean, we can customize the Arno to the point he no longer looks like Arno, but god forbid anyone actually wants to make this no-longer-Arno character female

However, whether their defense is logical or not, I'm just getting tired of staring at the same man-bro character design for a 7th year running. Variety is the spice of life, and currently there's just so little of it.