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Assassin’s Creed Shadows Producer Responds To Backlash Over Yasuke

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Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
76fa78cc76b7538546189a12d1bf9ed3.jpg

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When Ubisoft unveiled Assassin’s Creed Shadows in May, there was backlash directed at the inclusion of Yasuke, the game’s Black samurai co-lead and real-world historical figure. Some argued that the reaction was simply over a matter of what they saw as historical inaccuracy, as they repeated that the real Yasuke was not a true samurai. Others who joined in the backlash made no effort to hide that they were just racists upset at the idea of a Black man starring in a game set in feudal Japan. Ubisoft producer Marc-Alexis Côté talked with Game File about the backlash, and how Yasuke fits into Assassin’s Creed’s historical fiction.

In the interview, Côté recalls how Twitter owner Elon Musk responded to claims that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was some kind of woke mind virus diversity product by saying “DEI kills art.” Côté did not take the claim well.

“That tweet generated emotions, that…the first thing I wanted to do was go back on X—that I had deleted—and just tweet back,” he told Game File. “And I just took a step back. I have a mindfulness app on my phone. And I did a bit of mindfulness to try to explore the emotions that this tweet created. For me, Elon, it’s sad, he’s just feeding hatred. I had a lot of three-word replies that came to mind.”
Click to expand...

Côté opted not to respond, explaining to Game File that replying to someone like Musk

“will not convince people about [Ubisoft’s] point of view as a team.” Instead, he states here that Yasuke is “very, very grounded in the history of the franchise and how we make our choices.”
Click to expand...

via Kotaku
 
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SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
The false pretense of this article is staggering. Not only does it try to frame people questioning the historical accuracy as being wrong ("what they saw as historical accuracy", as if one can have a wrong opinion about facts) but it also immediately lumps a lot of the backlash on the "racism" pile simply because people are upset that a black man is the protagonist in a feudal Japan game.

What they're saying is if you think Yasuke was not a samurai you are wrong, and if you don't appreciate playing as a black person in a feudal Japan game you are a racist.

I like how soy boy opened a mindfulness app because he was upset, lmao.

IF the writer of this article had balls they would've asked this guy why he thought it was necessary to play hiphop beats in the background when you play as Yasuke.
 
Wandering Leopard

Wandering Leopard

Member
In my mind this is a like The Last Samurai (Tom Cruise) movie, which was also criticised, but it seems like there's more criticism over this. The difference in reaction could be because times have changed, or for other reasons...

Historical accuracy is also irrelevant in this situation because Ubi have a track record of being loose (taking creative liberties) with historical figures in their AC titles.
 
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Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Lokaum D+ said:
Make a "historicaly fiction" game about Japan, uses an African nobody instead of a Japanese samurai like Mushashi, makes sense.
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And then once there is backlash bring ‘mental health’ into the equation so everyone has to back down and not be mad because you’re not allowed to once they say the words.

I’m not trivialising mental health but it’s a get out of jail card for some.

Just admit you fucked it up expecting everyone to be cool with it but they’re not.
 
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Portugeezer

Portugeezer

Member
Cyberpunkd said:
This is how people deal with emotions nowadays, eh?
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Yes, when upset people instinctively start staring at their phone, but this chad deleted twitter probably because of sigma Elon takeover made him butthurt, so decided to use another app to meditate because some Instagram "influencer" told him energy crystals wrapped around micropenis is calming.
 
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recursive

recursive

Member
BigBeauford

BigBeauford

Gold Member
He really showed a lot of restraint by immediately putting everything he wanted to tweet into an article. Much bravery.
 
Saber

Saber

Gold Member
His attitude is exactly what I expected from the guys who says everyone is wrong and they are right, using the typical racism card and mental stuff as shield.

Why don't double down your trend and see how it fairs? Make a historical game about USA where all the old presidents were all lgbt or whatever.
 
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Zannegan

Zannegan

Member
Saber said:
His attitude is exactly what I expected from the guys who says everyone is wrong and they are right, using the typical racism card and mental stuff as shield.

Why don't double down your trend and see how it fairs? Make a historical game about USA where all the old presidents were all lgbt or whatever.
Click to expand...
They probably will with Lincoln. There's already a movement.
 
FewRope

FewRope

Member
SJRB said:
The false pretense of this article is staggering. Not only does it try to frame people questioning the historical accuracy as being wrong ("what they saw as historical accuracy", as if one can have a wrong opinion about facts) but it also immediately lumps a lot of the backlash on the "racism" pile simply because people are upset that a black man is the protagonist in a feudal Japan game.

What they're saying is if you think Yasuke was not a samurai you are wrong, and if you don't appreciate playing as a black person in a feudal Japan game you are a racist.

I like how soy boy opened a mindfulness app because he was upset, lmao.

IF the writer of this article had balls they would've asked this guy why he thought it was necessary to play hiphop beats in the background when you play as Yasuke.
Click to expand...
This is not talked enough in the conversation about this game. Why the fuck they added hiphop in this game? Why every single black character has to have ass hiphop music in the background? When the beats starts you know something is truly creatively dead, Miles Morales damage to overall culture cannot be undone
 
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Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
FewRope said:
This is not talked enough in the conversation about this game. Why the fuck they added hiphop in this game? Why every single black character has to have ass hiphop music in the background? When the beats starts you know something is truly creatively dead, Miles Morales damage to overall culture cannot be undone
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Find me one line in a history book that suggests there wasn't hip-hop in feudal Japan.

I'll wait.
 
A

Aguero9320

Member
I get tired of all the anti-woke shit on here sometimes (all the time), I don't care if they have a green samurai in 17th century Wigan, England as long as the game plays well, but I made the mistake of thinking 'maybe I should check out ResetERA' the other day, as I'd heard apparently they're not as focussed on the anti-woke thing... Holy shit. Somehow it's even worse but in the other direction... If the samurai isn't defiantly thumbing their surgically constructed clitoris in a school playground, daring you to say something about it, then it's not gone far enough for them.

I dream of a forum where people are just excited about games more than pursuing an agenda. I'd rather have console wars than this woke/not woke shit, and I fucking hate console wars. There are other places you can go (that I can avoid) to pursue your MAGA, trans, right or left wing agendas...
 
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diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
I am convinced that this is a conscious strategy of companies these days. They know what they are doing. They do it to generate controversy because they know people will call them out on their bullshit. Then they can go and cry to a game media that they know has their back. The idea of making this guy, who has maybe 2 paragrahs of documented history, the centerpiece of this game, and using this as the first "real" person as MC in AC history, is just absurd. Then to release a trailer where he is chopping off Japanese peoples' heads to a rap track... it's like, come on. It's like a parody. It's absolutely intentional.

Even if "Yasuke" was everything that the advocates say he was and he was actually some great warrior and noble (of which there is no evidence), the fact remains that 99.9999999999999999999999999% of samurai were Japanese men, and the concept and idea of a samurai is rooted in the Japanese mindset, culture, and way of life. Ubi knows what they are doing.
 
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M

Metnut

Member
Who cares who the protagonist is. Ubislop games are garbage. Just play Ghost of Tsushima or Rise of the Ronin if you’re itching to explore and play this type of game. Also, check out the show Shogun.
 
RoboFu

RoboFu

One of the green rats
There is always a third explanation that never gets echoed because it doesn't play well with any narrative.

Could be that a lot of people are not racist but are just so tired of the matter being " forced " on every aspect of video games that they are just upset about that they know that's more than likely the ONLY reason for the decision.

I bet you anything that if they made this same game before 2020 not many people would complain about the character.


Every other modern AC game you have two equivalent male and female character To choose from. Why is this one different ? We all know why and that's why people are upset.
 
samoilaaa

samoilaaa

Member
Aguero9320 said:
I get tired of all the anti-woke shit on here sometimes (all the time), I don't care if they have a green samurai in 17th century Wigan, England as long as the game plays well, but I made the mistake of thinking 'maybe I should check out ResetERA' the other day, as I'd heard apparently they're not as focussed on the anti-woke thing... Holy shit. Somehow it's even worse but in the other direction... If the samurai isn't defiantly thumbing their surgically constructed clitoris in a school playground, daring you to say something about it, then it's not gone far enough for them.

I dream of a forum where people are just excited about games more than pursuing an agenda. I'd rather have console wars than this woke/not woke shit, and I fucking hate console wars. There are other places you can go (that I can avoid) to pursue your MAGA, trans, right or left wing agendas...
Click to expand...
i normally dont want to get into these type of woke/not woke subjects but this time i will

If you look carefully this isnt just about games , its about how certain companies try to normalize an abnormal behaviour , a couple of days ago a journalist was taking an interview from one of the main actors of House of the dragon and in the interview they talked about Emma Zia D'Arcy which is non binary and uses they/them pronouns , the reporter referred to the actress using "her" pronouns and Matt Smith corrected her by using "they" in the next sentence , the reported wrote an apology for her mistake

Thats just one example , another one is a grown man using the same shower area in the gym with women ( some under age ) because he considers himself a woman , thats not normal

My point is music , games , movies , tv shows and all forms of entertainment are used to make people believe that these kind of things are normal , they are not

If i buy a game that promotes this kind of behaviour then i will help them continue their mission
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
sloppyjoe_gamer said:
I mean of course he's going to double down, did anyone expect a different response?

Ubitrash games are all the same anyways......if you want a true game in this setting, play Ghost of Tsushima to see how a time period can be fun and more importantly, accurate and respectful.
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Remember that the game media tried to shit on Sucker Punch for being a bunch of westerners making that game...


Yet the actual island of Tsushima loved the game so much they made Sucker Punch ambassadors for the island.

Now if anyone can point me to an article in the games media where Ubisoft is criticized for being a bunch of westerners who lack understanding of Japanese and samurai culture making this game, please let me know because I have not found any. It's a game where they took a black guy with a few sentences of documented history, have him walk around in full samurai armor, chop off peoples' heads to a rap track, load up the trailer with blatant historical inaccuracies so obvious that Ubi had to go back and say they will fix it... and the media is totally silent. I can't even find commensurate criticism for AC Shadow from this guy who writes for Polygon.

www.polygon.com

Ghost of Tsushima, Kurosawa, and the political myth of the samurai

Unpacking the baggage of well-intentioned homage
www.polygon.com www.polygon.com

I forced myself to read that article and all the shots he takes at GoT can apply to AC Shadows tenfold, but... nothing. Obviously I'm not expecting any criticism to come from the media because they have an agenda. Having the producer go and cry to the media is part of reinforcing that agenda. The game media is still fighting gamergate.
 
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A

Aguero9320

Member
samoilaaa said:
i normally dont want to get into these type of woke/not woke subjects but this time i will

If you look carefully this isnt just about games , its about how certain companies try to normalize an abnormal behaviour , a couple of days ago a journalist was taking an interview from one of the main actors of House of the dragon and in the interview they talked about Emma Zia D'Arcy which is non binary and uses they/them pronouns , the reporter referred to the actress using "her" pronouns and Matt Smith corrected her by using "they" in the next sentence , the reported wrote an apology for her mistake

Thats just one example , another one is a grown man using the same shower area in the gym with women ( some under age ) because he considers himself a woman , thats not normal

My point is music , games , movies , tv shows and all forms of entertainment are used to make people believe that these kind of things are normal , they are not

If i buy a game that promotes this kind of behaviour then i will help them continue their mission
Click to expand...
Mate, by and large I agree with you (on the principles) but I'm not trying to take a position on the issues here, I just don't want it to infest my gaming experience. I play games in part to escape the horrors of the real world. If a character creation screen asks me to select pronouns I just choose the traditional ones and ignore the rest.

The endless threads and outrage (on both sides) just keeps it in the spotlight and eventually it becomes self fulfilling - developers either do it to provoke discussion or because they are afraid of the woke mob (or they're just that way inclined), or don't do it to provoke discussion and prove they won't bow to the woke mob (or they're more traditionally inclined).

And you end up with two highly annoying mobs endlessly lobbing shit at each other.

To sum up, if everyone just shut the fuck up and ignored it, then it would go away quicker IMO :messenger_tears_of_joy: Group hug? (In an observable and interruptible space, where everyone is free not to actually make physical contact without fear of judgment if they so choose)
 
lughnasadh123

lughnasadh123

Member
The main problem is Ubi going hard on the "historical accuracy" angle in marketing for these games when it would benefit them more to have some creative leeway when telling an story with a unconventional character like Yasuke.

And while Naoe does thankfully exist as an option, I disagree with immediately labeling someone racist for wanting to play a certain gender as someone from the region of the game. It's not hard to imagine people equally losing their shit if a new game set in Wakanda had Letitia Wright's BP as a lead with Bucky being in the spotlight.

I'd rather focus more on what they do with the story instead of who is cast for it - that's going to matter long term far more along with any improvements on gameplay.
 
poodaddy

poodaddy

Gold Member
Skifi28 said:
I'm afraid to ask what a mindfulness app is.
Click to expand...
Based on the context of the story, I'm thinking it's an app you can use to say how you're feeling and maybe it "processes" those emotions somehow? Or at least just gives some boiler plate motivational bullshit about how you can "get through this", or some shit. That's what I'm assuming at least.

You know.... empty praise meant to comfort the weak mind if it finds reality too overwhelming.
 
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