I've walked away from/deleted Server/deleted accounts, for so many gamer spaces because exactly that, there's no need to have these arguments, none of them are engaging in good faith and your energy is better spent on anything else. Just walk away.
I'm not particularly interested in playing a new Assassin's Creed game, but I do appreciate its existence as a handy filter to help me quickly and easily identify racist idiots!
It says something that the only Ubi games I'm excited to play one day are either supposed remakes (Black Flag, Splinter Cell), or indie-esque darlings (both Prince of Persia games)
I'm pretty much out $100 on Skull & Bones, since I preordered over a year ago like a dumbass and never noticed that they'd hidden "online subscription needed to play" in the small print. Not all of us like co-op gaming, thanks!
Is it confirmed that they’re doing a remastered Black Flag? Far and away my favorite of the franchise thus far, though I have a soft spot for III as well.
Highly rumored; nothing confirmed as of yet. It was one of the best received of the series; so from a sales perspective it makes a lot of sense to do. That and they don't have an attitude towards risk, like most AAA devs don't nowadays. A remake if done well is a safe bet.
Same. And ANOTHER Assassin’s Creed game? Can they just let that series die please? It’s not even Assassin’s Creed anymore. The recent games just share the name.
I’d be far more interested in an “Assassin’s Creed like game with its own story.”
Terrific piece. Something it took me a long while to realise, and I still haven't fully let go of, is that a subconscious level I think that the right form of words in this conversation will cause someone to go 'oh right, he is in fact a human being too', when it obviously won't.
"I thought I could engage with them in constructive conversations but what came my way was just horrible. There were people who just hate black people.”
And as someone who's part of the same sect of Islam as the founders of Al-Hashashin and in the community that practices their religion to this day, that would honestly be better
I refuse to go look at the comments in the first place. My loyalty to my team would make me snap (And I won't beat the drums for my employer - I am not a corporate cheerleader).
I guess we were ALL expecting that disgusting shit.
also cant wait for them to get board of this part the the other character is a female ninja. 'why is teh ninja a girl!!!! girsl whernt ninjas and why cant i see her boobs!!!! i cant jerk it to that' its just idots screaming over nothing again
Agreed. Chuds in general have a serious problem: facing up to reality as it exists and existed. Stripped of every weird embellishment of modern media the fact does exist a tall black dude served Nobunaga as a samurai and retainer.
Oh, please. Don't you get it? There can't be Black samurais, just like there can't be Black mermaids, because SCIENCE. Or because HISTORY! Or because MATH!
I want to play this game. And I do know the historical context Yasuke is in there. Am very excited to see it. I know it sounded like I was rambling, and I'm sorry for that.
I did the googles and it included Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor, both of which I’ve played.
And, yeah, a game like that based on John Brown will rock. Especially if you have a timeline where he can “win” at Harper’s Ferry and send Col. Lee to an early grave.
really punishing settings like that with really intricate level design definitely evoke the john brown vibe of being "the only sane man in an insane world." i wish my pipe dream had a snowball's chance in hell of becoming a reality.
Yasuke. Not sure if he was technically a Samurai or not, but he was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, one of the most prominent warlords of the Sengoku era in Japan. He made his way to Japan with the Jesuits, I believe.
He served directly under Oda Nobunaga and was by all accounts, samurai. He was given land and a house and fought for him, as well as shared meals and company with him. He was well-known (for obvious reasons) but also well-respected
What better way to explore the shadows of a time in history than a person whose historical presence is equally in the shadows?
There's so much potential! For example, I'd love to play a campaign about Yasuke uncovering Akechi Mitsuhide's plot to assassinate Oda Nobunaga with a climax at Honno-ji.
Oh shit I didn't know that about the new assassin's Creed game cause it's 2024 and an assassin's Creed game, but that rules. I totally would have played it just due to the leads before I ruined those games for myself but 100%ing Valhalla with the DLC.
The best tjing about video games is you don't have to play them when they release. Heck if you wait even 6 months you'll be able to find it for a pretty good price, I wager
I played that game to story completion twice (once at launch and once last summer because I realised I never knew who the big bad was). I still don't rightly know why I did that, because I wasn't having any fun.
NO MAN'S SKY was my depressed pandemic game, here.
A game about exploration and loneliness? And feeling compassion for a broken god? I did not expect to love it.
I played Tropico and watched Bon Appetit YouTube videos with my ex during quarantine before realizing there was horrible Bon Appetit drama and my ex had a psychotic break. Tropico remains my strongest quarantine choice
My favorite memory of that game is getting to 97% of it and gettting a glitch that ruined that platinum. It was my cosmic punishment for trying to do that.
Man, I need "Racism isn’t a logical position, so you cannot defeat it with logic." playing in my ears at all times, I *need* to realize that reactionaries don't operate on facts or logic
I do feel like there can be a usefulness in dismantling their arguments, but not to reach *them* - they're clearly idiots, there's no point. People watching, though, might benefit from it
That said, it's also important not to look like you're just "debating" - it helps legitimize their argument
Sadly ogic doesn't imply righteousness or correctness, just cogent connections. The history of science is one of racism, exploitation and erasure backed by intelligently crafted logic. A cruel and discriminatory algorithm follows logic. A lot of cruelty is logical via mathematical profitability.
If you follow the chains of logic in your examples, they all lead to an illogical premise: that one person or group is more deserving than another. Logic tells us we're all equal. So the problem is not *enough* logic.
No doubt, I just mean more that it's pointless to argue with racists, or with antivaxxers, or climate change deniers with facts and logic. Their views aren't based in any kind of material reality
I've heard there's some research showing there's a brief window of time before a bad idea solidifies into an identity where people can be reached or swayed by facts, but after that's it damn near impossible as you say.
He's a side character in a few games, Nioh was a recent prominent example, and they made an anime series about him! If you're interested in additional fiction featuring him, there's quite a bit to see and play!
The only people who respond to facts, logic etc. are people relatively close to you on the political spectrum. For everyone else it's a matter of social pressure. (I learned this "debating" with a Constitutional Conservative about McConnell's embargo of Garland's SC nomination. He responded with -
"haha one less lib on the court!" At which point I realized it was more effective to make him feel bad about being a dick than persuade him he was one.
this is the way. In the words of someone (I forgot who) "sometimes you need a dick to fuck up an asshole." Bully the bullies. You can't logic someone out of something they didn't logic their way into. When someone's doing mental gymnastics, throw things at them and it'll get harder to keep it up
i feel like the only appropriate answer to racist dorks asking why x marginalized person is in y setting in any story is “because i fucking said so” lmao.
And no one talking about how Ubisoft are still charging an arm and a leg, still want Always Online for a fecking Single Player game, AND haven't rowed back "Players need to get used to not owning games".
The only effective way I've ever engaged with racists (and by effective I mean it pisses them off) is act embarrassed for them and not let them have the last word, and the angrier they get, the shorter and more dismissive my replies get. Including their name does something too "Ok [name]"
They feel too exposed when you use their name. It's supposed to be a game because they're not a demographic that has things to lose, so making them feel singled out and pathetic can be pretty effective.
Okay I don't know where else to post this but one of the lines in the article reminded me: Did IGN host an article that was pretty much "Black people don't belong in Dragon Age and then being there is just pandering" ? I swear I remember reading it there
As someone in my mid-50s, I have to say that these changes to games that finally recognize historical figures are great. Let also remember the amount of women snipers that hit their mark during ALL wars. Women can be bad ass.
The amount of bullshit arguments around Battlefield V because it had the audacity to have a LADY with a DISABILITY on the cover.. the more things change the more they stay the same.
“In case you haven’t been paying attention for the last ten or twenty years, video game culture tends to be a repository for the most tedious people on Earth.”
OMG gonna make a poster of this and hang it on the wall
It sucks though that the wikipedia article for Yasuke got locked after some racist backlash additions got added to it (i.e. before it could be removed) today.
Oh it's about HIM?
That's awesome
I heard about that guy a few years ago
I hope it's good I am replaying the Ezio collection right now and never played anything after 2012 except 45 minutes of the one with Egypt
I’ve seen the same thing so many times at almost 50 years old my ass is tired. The first time I ever got death threats was for writing an editorial in the student paper saying country fans should try rap, rap fans should try metal, and metal fans should try country. It didn’t fly in rural Iowa.
Yes but I also had to unplug my phone for a week because the calls came all day and night. I felt like I +was+ cooked instead of doing the cooking. I transferred to a land grant institution not long after that. It wasn’t safe to be who I was, where I was, and I knew it.
BLACKTHORNE: We are a but humble gamers whose goal is ensuring historical accuracy in a video game series built around the ancient aliens hypothesis and people who can telepathically control eagles.
the one thing I'd like to know is how much of the decision to have these protagonists was based on "the bean counters said we can ignore the stupid rascist gamers" or "the designers really wanted to piss off the rascist gamers". Not that I have much faith in Ubisoft but it would be funny.
Once I saw trailer, I knew a very specific type of white male nerd would be all "ACTUALLY..." in most racist fucking way possible b/c these bigots cannot think or comprehend anything that would center someone other than themselves.
Great essay Gita! Keep up the great writing and fuck these haters.
Comments
https://bsky.app/profile/ontariothemans.bsky.social/post/3krcnj6hbpc2k
PIRATES AND NINJAS IN SOLIDARITY
If I had a quarter for every time I witnessed Honnouji burn down I'd have like fifty bucks.
I'm still pretty hesitant about Ubisoft stuff at this point, though.
I’d be far more interested in an “Assassin’s Creed like game with its own story.”
"I thought I could engage with them in constructive conversations but what came my way was just horrible. There were people who just hate black people.”
“I was overwhelmed by online racist abuse - Hewitt”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cp9g94zx9eko
I guess we were ALL expecting that disgusting shit.
Don't argue with me, I've got ____ on my side!
RACISM - it's the OTHER white meat.
And, yeah, a game like that based on John Brown will rock. Especially if you have a timeline where he can “win” at Harper’s Ferry and send Col. Lee to an early grave.
"This will save us all a lot of trouble later"
vision
Fuck that's just Wolfenstein but John Brown. Which would also be acceptable
I oughta cross-stitch that onto a pillow or something.
*gets shot*
There's so much potential! For example, I'd love to play a campaign about Yasuke uncovering Akechi Mitsuhide's plot to assassinate Oda Nobunaga with a climax at Honno-ji.
Also you could only do transmog at one place and it cost money, which made it much more tedious to play pretty viking dressup.
it's good , I learned that Ireland has Druids and they so much hatred for Englands, so much blooded land
A game about exploration and loneliness? And feeling compassion for a broken god? I did not expect to love it.
But Mirage made it better. And it was small enough to be manageable.
their blind rage at the mere sight of a black person is enough to bend the fabric of reality
That said, it's also important not to look like you're just "debating" - it helps legitimize their argument
like why make a big deal about the "true story of the black samurai" and then add a talking robot and a russian werewolf in a red leather catsuit
Shame it took that many games for him to appear, but still.
I'd straight up say that it's almost entirely a problem with reactionaries (ie. What Americans call "conservatives".. actual conservatives are okay)
Like yeah there's bad faith actors everywhere, but they're the only ones who deny reality as a group
Man, fuck Ubisoft.
Like telling them "hush the adults are talking" etc
Theyre racist and adult, theyre choosing to be stupid after all. Theyre beneath you.
My wife: oh god, what, are they mad he isn’t white?
OMG gonna make a poster of this and hang it on the wall
That's awesome
I heard about that guy a few years ago
I hope it's good I am replaying the Ezio collection right now and never played anything after 2012 except 45 minutes of the one with Egypt
It's just my inability to remember the name I just read in the article
MARIKO: The Anjin hates black people.
Great essay Gita! Keep up the great writing and fuck these haters.