It's really because of money, but the fact that they're basically saying "both sides" is adding fucking insult to injury.
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.
Totally agree.I agree with this. At the end of the day people play games to have fun, not to be engaged in politics.
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.
There's one in every thread...I agree with this. At the end of the day people play games to have fun, not to be engaged in politics.
Oprah's smart, she'd understand what I said.
You can make a point while doing justice to all viewpoints (which entails acknowledging that some/most/all viewpoints are flawed in certain ways but usually right in some others), but that sort of nuance and backbone seems to be lost on Ubisoft's writing and direction staff.
God I hope they don't try to write a game about Nazis.
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.
Am I supposed to stop playing their games I'm passionate about just to send a message?
Why does someone else making a decision on ethical grounds mean that you have to do it? Has anyone actually asked this of you?Am I supposed to stop playing their games I'm passionate about just to send a message?
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 totally understand why they want to be evasive when asked these questions, but their entire communication strategy is irrevocably doomed to failure currently.
I think the strategy they should adopt is to simply say the games speak for themselves.
I spent like 20 minutes trying find my account for this site just to post how much I agree with this.I'm bit lost why Ubisoft raises this agression from people here. I don't think their games generally are problematic at all, though maybe I'm missing something. Sure the AC Odyssey DLC stuff was definitely a blunder, but atleast they adressed it and tried to fix that a bit. Their games have rather great minority and female representation (in context of AAA games atleast), not sure why we have people saying they're pandering to nazis or alt-right. Seems really stupid and come out of nowhere. Why the fuck people think Ubi games or the people at the helm would be saying "maybe nazis are right" or some shit, it's such a stretch that it hurts. The GG-types keep raging how Ubi panders to SJW:s and Era-types keep shouting how Ubi panders to nazis. It's wild.
I'm bit lost why Ubisoft raises this agression from people here. I don't think their games generally are problematic at all, though maybe I'm missing something. Sure the AC Odyssey DLC stuff was definitely a blunder, but atleast they adressed it and tried to fix that a bit. Their games have rather great minority and female representation (in context of AAA games atleast), not sure why we have people saying they're pandering to nazis or alt-right. Seems really stupid and come out of nowhere. Why the fuck people think Ubi games or the people at the helm would be saying "maybe nazis are right" or some shit, it's such a stretch that it hurts. The GG-types keep raging how Ubi panders to SJW:s and Era-types keep shouting how Ubi panders to nazis. It's wild.
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
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.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
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.Rather than pointing to this limited section from Game Informer's site, you should like to the actual full interview, which is Ubisoft posted on their own website.
I'm still reading it so I'm not going to excerpt too much. But they're definitely aware of what they're doing.
They incentivize you to shoot someone who's speaking out against killing. Please tell me that you're kiddingI remember Division 1 where your completely unrestrained militarized police force murders a bunch of escaped prisoners after one black woman gives a speech about law enforcement violence and the lack of social value placed on their lives. The one who gives the speech has a high chance of dropping legendaries.
Thank you, Ubi, for bringing us this attempted objectivity. It truly broadened my horizons.
They incentivize you to shoot someone who's speaking out against killing. Please tell me that you're kidding
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.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.
My thoughts exactly.You can make a point while doing justice to all viewpoints (which entails acknowledging that some/most/all viewpoints are flawed in certain ways but usually right in some others), but that sort of nuance and backbone seems to be lost on Ubisoft's writing and direction staff.
Lol.I remember Division 1 where your completely unrestrained militarized police force murders a bunch of escaped prisoners after one black woman gives a speech about law enforcement violence and the lack of social value placed on their lives. The one who gives the speech has a high chance of dropping legendaries.
Thank you, Ubi, for bringing us this attempted objectivity. It truly broadened my horizons.
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.
This is the character in question: https://thedivision.fandom.com/wiki/Larae_BarrettWait, 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.
Exactly this.If you're going to avoid politics, don't set your big 2019 release in a 'post-brexit' future.
There's a real Ryckert-ian understanding of politics going on here, I think.
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.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
To clarify, what we want players to get out of these games is an education, or at least an experience of different ideologies, different worlds, different environments, different experiences, so that they can then formulate their own ideas, and then bring those with them, and interact with real world people with those ideas and those experiences. Would you say that's correct?
TF: That's correct. We don't want them to be apolitical. We want them to be include multiple political themes so players can experience multiple points of view, learn from them, educate, and share.
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 toI 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.