Assassin’s Creed III creative director accuses game critics of “subtle racism”
By Alice Lynton on August 18, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Assassin’s Creed III’s Australian creative director Alex Hutchinson has caused a bit of a furor among our English colleagues by saying games critics are a little bit racist in their approach to review scores. CVG asked Hutchinson why Nintendo can release the same Mario game every year and receive nothing but praise, while Ubisoft Montreal has been heavily criticised for three annual releases.
“I think there’s a subtle racism in the business, especially on the journalists’ side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do. I think it’s condescending to do this,” the developer replied.
“Just think about how many Japanese games are released where their stories are literally gibberish. Literally gibberish. There’s no way you could write it with a straight face, and the journalists say ‘oh it is brilliant’. Then Gears of War comes out and apparently it’s the worst written narrative in a game ever. I’ll take Gears of War over Bayonetta any time.
“It’s patronising to say, ‘oh those Japanese stories, they don’t really mean what they’re doing’. I just think the simple question should be; is the story any good?”
Assassin’s Creed III is due on consoles in late October and on PC in late November; it will be the fourth entry in the series to release in as many years.
Source: CVG
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Nice try pal. He’s misinterpreted things and shows his general ignorance towards the differences between Japanese and Western narratives.
And I hasten to add Assassin’s Creed storyline wasn’t exactly that cohesive either.
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Why must you open that can of worm Alex… why…
Ubisofts PR alarms were going off because AC3 hadn’t been mentioned on every news site for a few days hence the random, pointless comment.
I do believe that many in the West over celebrate Japanese culture in it’s entertainment forms. That’s why the colloquial term weaboo exists I suppose.
However Gears of War and Assassin’s Creed for example, were not special in any way.
In terms of story I mean, rather weak actually.
There definitely is alot of pro-discrimination in professional reviews however.
There are heaps of cases where crap games get decent scores, due to being from another culture so ‘understandably confusing’, or simply being ‘indie’ which seems to just equal + 30% to review scores now.
A game is good if its good. No special circumstances change that, and reviews should stop excusing bad features due to pro-discrimination.
The AC3 comments are alot more palatable if you consider them from the direction that many games should recieve lower scores, not that Assasins Creed should score higher.
I agree about mario and disagree about Japanese games having a advantages, as some of these games truly have mind-blowing innovation and art direction then western games don’t have. Dark souls, Shadow of colossus, Ico, Resident Evil, Metal Gear, final fantasy and etc
The use of hype blurs the line between actual quality and the marketed quality is very notably and can cause overrating but this EVERY GAME. Assassin’s creed is not a very story base game in the first place only games such as Mass effect or Heavy Rain really does this story factor right. COD is overrated I rest my case.
“but this EVERY GAME” * i meant this happens to EVERY GAME. There is no edit button……
i dont know if hes right about racism or not, though nintendo have released the same crap every yr, in the form mario kart, starfox, etc etc, each time they do it with the smallest amount of innovation ever. ill take GOW too. but then again i refuse to play mp games because of hacks, so story is kinda important. and gameplay.
Interesting, accuses critics of racism and then proceeds to bag out the gaming products from a race he has chosen to single out for his rant o_O
Yeah Nintendo bash out the same old crap year after year just on a new platform or take massive innovations like making a twin for Mario, tantalisingly, with green overalls instead of red!
At least the Mario series is likeable though, unlike the tedium of Assassins Creed.
Every poster is double posting? Come on GON, give us our edit feature back!
Back on topic, Japanese writing is of completely different style, usually with some underlying morals and themes, rather than shoot em up USA Vs the world or conspiracy theories *cough* templars *cough*
Mario likeable? I’m so over it I’m begging Nintendo for something really new. Not just the same game with a new type of controller.
As someone who loves a lot of things about Japanese culture, I still can’t do anything but facepalm when confronted by many Japanese game narratives. I’m someone who considers a well written and coherent narrative to be a very important thing in a story driven game so consequently I don’t really play JRPG’s to save my blood pressure.
That said the, Japanese game industry does not have a monopoly on this. I do think Gears of War was a horrendously derivative and intellectually hobbled quasi-narrative. I also find it hilarious that the criticism is coming from someone associated with Assassins Creed, which I gave up on as a series after half of the first game due to excessive facepalm syndrome (EFS).
I’m just basically waiting for a JRPG that has the gravitas and psychological interest of something like Ghost In The Shell, still one of my favourite sci-fi movies of all time. In some sense I feel like Japanese gaming is still waiting for its ‘Deus Ex’ or maybe its all being lost in translation. The problem is that after trying to play Human Revolution, even Deus Ex isn’t Deus Ex anymore.
This is a long way of saying I call “Pot Racially Abuses Kettle” on this.
I’m also not touching Nintendo releasing the same game over and over again, my friends already hate me enough for ranting at them about it every time I see them playing any Mario product.
Thank christ for emergent narrative, because I can go over here and create my own narrative, with blackjack and hookers. Wait, forget about the narrative and the blackjack…
The thing about Nintendo is that their big games are simply a joy to play. People might say “oh, so its a platform game with Mario… *yawn*” but for something so similar, it somehow manages to throw up an enormous amount of variety, and importantly more of what we love. Same applies to the entire Zelda series.
Nintendo are the only company who have ever released games that not only made me feel compelled to complete them, but left me salivating for more by the time it was all over.
As for this creative director, he’s certainly creatively stupid. I only lasted about two assassinations in the first Assassins Creed before I was bored to death.
Indeed. Comparing a game like the Mario platformers which encourage exploration to a linear cover shooter like Gears which relies on story to keep the player going. I think somebody is grasping at straws. Strangely not all games require a story to keep the player hooked and it has nothing to do with nationality. If a game’s repetitive and boring of course players will start hoping the story is good. <_<