Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Statement Fails To Say The Only Thing It Needed To

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Stacey Henley

Published Jul 24, 2024

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Summary

Ubisoft's defence of Assassin's Creed Shadows failed to address racism directly.
The vagueness of the statement left it too open to interpretation, rendering it pointless to begin with.
Corporations will struggle with their consistent 'no viewpoint' philosophy if tensions continue to rise.

For a statement that undoubtedly went through many hands before being released to the public, Ubisoft's recent defence of Assassin's Creed Sܫhadows sure was messy. Maybe all those hands are even the reason why. And as my colleague Tessa Kaur points out, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:yes, it was a defence. Not an apology. But it also didn't say anything... at all, really, and that's the big issue statements like these always have, and why major studi🐭os feel so toothless in the face of Gamergate.

The crux of the statement is as follows: a) underlining that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin's Creed always tries to respect the historical eras it depicts, b)🌄 reminding everyone that the game is make believe, c) apologising for some mistakes in the promo materials without specifying any, which almost certainly means a flag used without permission and not Yasuke, while being so vague that many will take it to mean Yasuke, and d) defending the choice to use Yasuke specifically because he has a mysterious history, and that this will be addressed in the game anyway come November.

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadow Statement Explained

Yasuke and Naoe in a small village in Assassin's Creed Shadows

Here's the core problem with the statement: it doesn't say 'racism is bad'. I know various senior executives at Ubisoft have come out 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:stronger in individual interviews, but without that clear and direct language, it's hard to understand what the point of this message is. It claims to be directed at Japanese fans first and foremost, but wa🦋s initially posted in English with the Japanese message linked underneath. It's also easily the biggest game to be caught up in the swirling tornado 𓆏of Gamergate 2, and by posting this statement, Ubisoft is engaging with that sphere of gaming. Its response has been found wanting.

Here's the truth of it all: I have no idea if Yasuke was really a samurai. And for the most part, neither do they. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I could point🐼 🉐to an expert who says he was, they could point to an expert who says he wasn't, we could flail around with Japanese terminology we don't understand to prove our points, and neither of us would convince the other. I don't think it matters. And for the most part, neither do𒁏 they.

Assassin's Creed has never been about true historical accuracy, and as for the idea that it's disrespectful to Japanese people, there is a Japanese character in the game we can play as already in Naoe. We know Yasuke really existed in this time period, and to quibble about whether he actually had the rank of samurai is a line being drawn almost entirely because of the colour of his skin. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ghost of Tsushima featu⛦res the anachronistic presence of haiku and katanas, while this c🐲rowd has no issues with it.

DEI Is A Codeword, And Ubisoft Didn't Need To Respond

A large man called Yasuke in samurai armor insAssassin's Creed Shadows.

This began when people 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:didn't like Yasuke because he was Blaཧck. Whether this is truly racially motivated hate or a too-far-gone obsession with labelling everythi💎ng that doesn't look like you a DEI conspiracy (and really, what's the difference?), Yasuke's skin colour is the beginning and end. It has become wrapped up in a bigger crusade about whatever wrongs they think Sweet Baby Inc. has perpetrated against them, and the historical accuracy gives it an air of legitimacy. Now, Ubisoft has ratified that legitimacy.

Yasuke's historical inaccuracy is a codeword, much like DEI, just as woke, SJW, and political correctness were before it. You can't argue with these people because they don't mean what they say. So what is Ubisoft doing? The reason people are drawn to causes like Gamergate is not because they're all racist and violent or other superlatives - we know radicalisation was a ꧃ꦗmajor issue with the original Gamergate to the point where politicians studied i෴t. It's because Game📖rgate speaks to a cause.

Gaming can feel pretty bad these days. Long delays, mass layoffs, lack of originality (often stemming from the first two), and a reliance on cash generating live-service games that inspire no one leaves gamers feeling directionless. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gamergate grifters pick up on this and tell these impressionable souls that DEI is the reason they𝐆 feel this way🀅.

Corporations can't answer thi🌞s. Their identity, by and large, is to stand for nothing. They don't want to risk alienating a single player, but this desire to feel nothing and represent nothing leads to alienation too, not least from creative developers who do stand for something. Ubisoft says it continues to welcome criticism in its statement, but... why? Surely someone at Ubisoft understands this is not good faith critique like the maps being too big or a boss being too hard. Ubisoft put a Black person in a game, some people said a lot of racist things about it, and Ubisoft said 'we respect your feedback'.

This is not good enough for gaming today. Ubisoft's statement does not address any of the actual issues around 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin's Creed Shadows, and thus has🔜 little reason to exist. Corporations need to learn that these people do not want to be in your community, they just want to create havoc. Appealing to them costs you other players and makes life worse for everyone. This statement alone probably doesn't move the needle, because normal people don't care much about four page statements from video game developers, but studios and publishers need to be better at tackling this sort of outrage in the future.