It's really because of money, but the fact that they're basically saying "both sides" is adding fucking insult to injury.
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Ubisoft Exec Talks About Why The Company's Games Don't Want To Take Political Stances
- Thread starter vestan
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Christ, what a shame that game companies with this amount of influence and audience waste it all being such cowards. Guess I'll go on never spending a dollar on their products, and I wish more people would do the same.
To be fair, UBI seems to be the only company that has this stance. Which is why it's so strange.
Are they? We had EA out there a couple days ago saying that their depiction of WW2 in the newest Battlefield game wasn't political, and that a German officer was in fact not a Nazi, just a "German soldier" like it was some kind of moral gray area.
Ubi are the worst offenders for sure but I think there's plenty of cowardice to go around.
I hadn't seen the Battlefield quote. But that's a big WTF. I know they're trying to save their ass from the embarrassment of the whole situation, but there are so many better ways to go about that. Like not labeling a Nazi as just a German soldier.
This doesn't make sense. Art is inherently political. Ubisoft's games are overtly political despite the massive efforts they undertake to water it down. They just take nothing by prominently political imagery and try to water it down because they don't want to more overtly dunk on whatever right wing terrorists they're trying to leverage. They're just cowards.
Of course it would be the publisher with some of the most overtly political games on the market who would most constantly insist otherwise.
What if I told you that attempting to disengage from politics is itself a political stance?
There's one in every thread...
What if I told you that attempting to disengage from politics is itself a political stance?
Am I supposed to stop playing their games I'm passionate about just to send a message?
At the end of the day this is entertainment, so do what makes you happy. I don't begrudge anyone their leisure time with video games. I just personally wish that more people would push back on this ridiculous stance - both because it is ridiculous but also because their games could be so much more interesting.
Why does someone else making a decision on ethical grounds mean that you have to do it? Has anyone actually asked this of you?
How do you release multiple series under the Tom Clancy brand, which originates from an author who was a vocal critic of Democrats and staunch supporter of impartial darlings of the middle like Reagan, and say you're not taking a political stance? The more they gaslight the public about how non-political they are, the less likely I am to buy anything they release in the future.
They're putting something up to point to when they get questions about Watch Dogs 3's politics so they don't repeat "Our games are apolitical" in every interview.
I spent like 20 minutes trying find my account for this site just to post how much I agree with this.
Everyone is throwing a tantrum acting like Ubisoft is "PANDERING TO THE RIGHT WUNGERS :((((" are people being serious or is this some sort of inside joke lol? I don't really know what people were able to take away from the Ubisoft exec, was really just a word fart of nothing imo.
honestly that's the thing
their games are obviously, de facto, making political statements. You can't possibly use such heavily politically charged imagery like Washington in ruins or advertise a game as being about the post-Brexit surveillance state without saying at least something about politics.
It's just weird that they insist that they're not political. It's like someone selling you a football essay they wrote but insisting they have no views on sports. It's utterly bizarre
your right but I think the guy was talking about people who are like "omg Ubisoft support *REPUBLICANS* >:(" when A LOT of their games have an obvious political message and quite frankly, those messages are pretty "liberal"
Yep, the dancing around is what's agitating. It'd be so much better if he shat up. Just shut up Ubisoft. We know the huge, huge piles of money are really important to you and that you're spineless. You don't have to worry about losing any money or revealing your invertebrate nature any more if you just shut the fuck up.
This doesn't make any sense, their games don't even make statements strong or clear enough that it'd make you think or see a different viewpoint.
Where's that Life is Strange 2 gif of Brody saying, "Sean, everything's political." before driving off?
They incentivize you to shoot someone who's speaking out against killing. Please tell me that you're kidding
This is literally a thing that happens. The boss yells that she knows when the Division leaves, she'll just be "another black body on the pile." Killing her completes the mission and awards you legendaries. This is done completely and utterly uncritically.
The idea that Ubisoft's games aren't political is a complete farce and blatant commentary on how Ubi execs perceive the intelligence of their audience.
Wait, she talks about RACE too? I thought it was bad enough when you were rewarded for shooting someone who's angry about prisoner mistreatment. Fuck Ubisoft for not shutting that shit down.
While I can understand their position from a company perspective, it also explains why many of their game stories still feel rather flat despite their real-world historical or contemporary settings. In the end, games that are too big seem to avoid any risks, and taking political statements seems to be considered as one such risk. Just trying to make sense of what Ubisoft says, not defending it.
It still baffels me that UBI thinks that they in some strange way are making apolitical games. I mean come on?
This is the character in question: https://thedivision.fandom.com/wiki/Larae_Barrett
The info on the wiki there is taken from the lore book which I have too.
The quote is "Just another number, huh? Just more black blood that you accept."— Larae coming out to fight the JTF and Division agents"
User Banned (5 Days): Inflammatory generalisation.
Ubisoft know that most people who buy their games are alt-right nazis; they aren't going to want to piss them off.
You want to disprove that? Well that's on you to take a stance then.
You want to disprove that? Well that's on you to take a stance then.
Exactly this.
And if London is going to be this run down city in the game, maybe, just maybe you're saying that Brexit is a bad thing
"ryckertian". Man, I'd love for that to gain traction as a term and enter general usage!
I very rarely if ever see people talking about the political messaging of Ubisoft games and what they mean. And yeah they definitely use political backgrounds and themes in their games a lot (which they're not denying), but I really don't think they are saying much. I feel their games definitely are "games first", so to speak. The games are easy to play without thinking any real life parallels and interacting with politics, they're not quite on the nose like "Aug lives matter" in Deus Ex in example. Maybe some people here are getting clear statements from their games, but I definitely fail to see how that message could be "nazis could be right". Of course their games can spark a political discussion and Ubi isn't at all against that. Like is said in the blog this article is about.
Yeah it reminds me a bit of Youtube comments I read two days ago that left me baffled, I wasn't sure if it was some inside joke or troll campaign. While listening to the Doom Sigil soundtrack by Buckethead, I started reading the comments and I saw someone be shocked that Buckethead is satan worshipper now. They thought he is because of the Doom Sigil cover art with baphomet and numbers 666 on it. To the first comment I just chuckled, but then scrolling down there was like 10 similar comments. I couldn't comprehend how the cover art was enough to convince people that he's a satan worshipper or a satanist and they would stop listening Buckethead because of it. Why do they take the cover art as some message or endorsement of satan. Can't one just use such imagery without telling people to worship satan or meaning that they do? Similarly I think it's entirely possible to make a game with political background without really saying much with it. To present the scenario and let people draw their own conclusions if they so wish. If people think that's a waste of the political setting and themes and Ubi could be doing more with that, then sure I'd probably agree. But jumping to
I have hard time believing person like this would work at Ubisoft Massive if the studio/publisher was empathetic to nazis in any way. And this person probably knows more about Ubi and their values than any of we do. Neither do you have a black transgender character in your game if you want to pander to nazis/alt-right/gg. Everyone knows that the simple inclusion of characters like that will cause some outrage from assholes, Ubi does know too yet they still included the character.
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I'm someone who's generally sympathetic to 'shootybang as catharsis', but Ubisoft really, really has to stop digging themselves deeper on this topic. When Game Informer of all places is questioning the practicality of your stance you have to wonder if you've bet on the wrong horse here. This is really getting to the point of 'the lady doth protest too much' territory.