Ubisoft CEO Says Company Will Work to Extend Diversity

[RicoADF]

I didn't know that. Considering the hype machine they had for 2, 3 and 4, I still say they weren't giving Liberation nearly as much attention.

It seems that they released the console versions a few months later. I remember seeing it on Total Biscuit's channel and have debated which system to get it on. Also the main character is in AC4 (as DLC I believe).

 

[Kerethos]

I think it's funny how diversity seems to mostly boil down to "make a woman protagonist". I don't want a female protagonist for the sake of her being female, while still playing just like any other protagonist.

I want different protagonists that play in new and fun ways. If that protagonist is a white guy, asian girl, black man, straight, gay, bi or some crazy child raised by pigeons and dressed in a chicken suit doesn't matter. I just want diverse gameplay, and the protagonist is an important part of that. Gruff white guy's aren't the only ones that can be fun to play.

And seriously a female assassin has the potential for new gameplay elements, for changing how you play the game (instead of countering yourself through armies of lobotomized guards). As does any character with a totally different background, personality and way of dealing with the gameplay challenges in the game. That's the kind of diversity I want. Not just some gender swap, but changes to how the game plays depending on who you're playing as.

Liberation took some baby steps towards this, actually, but the execution left much to be desired and the "counter and murder everything" approach was just as valid in that game as the others.

 

[rob_simple]

Even if I believed him -I don't- for fuck sake: you're Ubisoft, not some little two-man indie start-up company.

Shit like 'we don't have the resources' is a lot harder to swallow when you have hundreds of people on staff, and 'we'll learn for next time' isn't acceptable for a company who have been in the business for well over twenty years, now.

They should be leading the way, not asking for fucking directions.

 

[Callate]

Announcing a desire to please everybody is nothing to celebrate. That's creative death.

Frankly I just have a hard time swallowing that creativity was ever alive at Ubisoft. When they flat out say that they only want to make games that they can make franchises out of (You know, instead of just making a game that's good and then making a franchise out of it if there proves to be a viable market) then it's pretty clear that creativity took a far distant backseat to making money.

Don't know why so many people protect creativity in the AAA industry when it's not really there.

Without Ubisoft, I probably never would have played a game that took place entirely in Sub-Saharan Africa, nor would I have seen a game entirely in rhyming couplet (however mixed the results), or a game with a bonus stage accompanied by a mariachi version of Eye of the Tiger (partly on kazoo.)

I wouldn't have enjoyed a game with hacking mechanics like Watch Dogs, and I couldn't look forward to a cartoon adventure game set during the under-represented period of World War I.

As legitimate as some of the frustration towards Unity not featuring a female PC avatar may be, the echoing of the sentiment seems to be creating a disproportionate sense of just how wrong-headed or creatively bankrupt Ubisoft might be. In a year where the other notable AAA studios seem largely content with the umpteenth iteration of FPS franchises, sports games, and movie tie-ins, even Ubisoft's franchises went to the French Revolution and the Himalayas.

I understand the cynicism towards the AAA market; I've predicted that they're in a death spiral before, and I suspect that's still the case. But trying to "please everybody" isn't the cure for the disease; it's a symptom.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

You know, just because a company does do some good things doesn't mean that they are incapable are doing bad. As interesting as Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs can be, there are still very limiting corporate factors at play, like the fact that Assassin's Creed is churning out sequel after sequel every year, with things getting rather repetitive as a result and it feels like it's more about making money than anything else. Yeah, it CAN be creative but I still feel like the creative team has a lot of pressure put on it by executives. As much as I like Ezio, I think him getting three games is a bit overdoing it, but then again when he left we got Conor...ugh. And Watch Dogs is showing signs that it's going down the same path, with Ubisoft saying that it needed it to be a franchise game. Really, I do enjoy a lot of Ubisoft games, but they do get a wee bit samey. I'm not quite sure what their fetish with making people climb towers are. Also remember the fact that they use U Play and apparently give shit PC ports. (Though frankly I'm more getting on their ass for Assassin's Creed more than anything, when it comes to me loving and hating gaming companies, Ubisoft is stuck right in the middle, because I haven't played Watch Dogs and Far Cry 3 was fun as Hell and their revelation about the main character in Far Cry 4 has me glued to my computer screen for more information, but Assassin's Creed has just been going on for so long that it's starting to taste really stale. And frankly, Unity seems like a massive step backwards for the franchise. No sailing, no multiplayer, instead we get co-op, which is going to make an already easy franchise laughable)


See here's the thing, when companies say "please everyone" and "appeal to a wider audience" they mean "We want COD fans." And really, I'm not quite sure how to take that statement, trying to please everyone is a symptom? Are you saying it's impossible for a game to appeal to both men and women?

 

[Callate]

snip

I agree with most of what you say regarding Ubi; I just think it's too easy for one company to become a lightning rod for everything wrong with the industry on the crest of an issue like this, and honestly, I think Ubisoft has done better than most, especially on the creative front. I really despise the current face of EA right now, by way of example, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten that they once published Bard's Tale and Wasteland and a number of other really good games. I still hope that the AAA companies might turn it around, even as I note that the economic realities and the tactics they've chosen to use to grapple with them may make that unlikely.

I don't think it's impossible for a game to appeal to both men and women; the number of women who feel strongly about Unity makes a pretty good case that the series has more than its share of female fans, even if I wonder if the particular way this issue is being handled by the press doesn't risk doing as much harm as good.

You mention "wanting COD fans", and in some ways, that's a good part of what I'm afraid of- not the COD fans themselves, but decisions made on high by market researchers and management rather than in the trenches by writers and character designers and the people who actually work with the mechanics. I worry that decisions made on that level- the "hit as many bases as possible, offend no one" level- are where we get "slap a woman/minority character" into this spot, possibly at the last possible moment, rather than "how would such a character fit into this setting" decisions that are made at a creative, rather than a marketing or financial level. Or we continue getting white males because they're relatively safe, they're far less likely to get anyone grousing about tropes and stereotypes, and the relevant parties have far more experience both creating them and creating for an audience consisting (to whatever real or imagined degree) of them.

When Guillemot talks about a desire to "please everybody", I don't hear an appeal that's being registered in diversity or creativity; I hear one that's resounding with the risk/reward assessment that gets us beige franchises in the first place.