Eivor was a foreigner (and an invader) for everything outside the beginning of the game, so was Kassandra/Alexios (also invaders), they just had the same skin tone as the place they’re foreign in. There’s a big difference between “native characters with understated culture” and just “not foreign.” Those are totally different arguments, and it seems like you’re trying to make both. Again, why not have an interesting character from history be explored like this. Acting as if past characters are these nebulous “local” individuals when they’re often the direct children or relatives of prominent, real, historical figures, if fictional ones, seems silly. This is totally in line with past stories they’ve told. I really don’t see a valid reason a non-local character is “problematic” in an AC game. We’ve done it a bunch of times. We’ve played a Welsh guy in the Caribbean, a Viking in Britain, and a Spartan in Greece, just to name a few. I’m sure I’m forgetting other valid examples.
It does sound more racist, because it is. Why not Yasuke? Just because he’s black? Why any of the other AC protagonists? Why choose a Spartan, a highly unethical culture filled with slavery and abuse? Why choose a Welsh pirate instead of a Caribbean native? These are all pointless questions, because the answer is all the same. That’s the story they wanted to tell. Maybe they wanted to highlight the historical outlier at an important time in history. We could speculate on any number of different reasons, but “DEI” doesn’t make any damn sense, considering they knew how gamers would react beforehand and even went out of their way to make a statement about it.
They wanted to tell this story. If you want a different one, play a different game. There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing Yasuke as a protagonist. The series has consistently demonstrated that they don’t really mind telling the stories of historical outliers, repeatedly. They shouldn’t have to specifically avoid (because that is what your argument has shifted to) Yasuke for fears of “DEI.” The “anti-woke” are ridiculous.
Fair but if they did a random Japanese samurai and not Yasuke this would’ve gone over a lot better for them.
This aside, until Ubisoft expresses gamers should own games I won’t buy or play any Ubisoft titles on principle and I don’t think anyone else should either. That the people who’d play this anyway and defend Ubisoft are just supporting a company whose death would benefit all gamers.
Eivor was a foreigner (and an invader) for everything outside the beginning of the game, so was Kassandra/Alexios (also invaders), they just had the same skin tone as the place they’re foreign in. There’s a big difference between “native characters with understated culture” and just “not foreign.” Those are totally different arguments, and it seems like you’re trying to make both. Again, why not have an interesting character from history be explored like this. Acting as if past characters are these nebulous “local” individuals when they’re often the direct children or relatives of prominent, real, historical figures, if fictional ones, seems silly. This is totally in line with past stories they’ve told. I really don’t see a valid reason a non-local character is “problematic” in an AC game. We’ve done it a bunch of times. We’ve played a Welsh guy in the Caribbean, a Viking in Britain, and a Spartan in Greece, just to name a few. I’m sure I’m forgetting other valid examples.
Then why Yasuke and not Musashi or someone who was more interesting and significant to Japanese history? They couldn’t have chosen a more DEI Samurai.
That said, putting it that way does feel more racist than I like even though it’s a funny way to put it.
It does sound more racist, because it is. Why not Yasuke? Just because he’s black? Why any of the other AC protagonists? Why choose a Spartan, a highly unethical culture filled with slavery and abuse? Why choose a Welsh pirate instead of a Caribbean native? These are all pointless questions, because the answer is all the same. That’s the story they wanted to tell. Maybe they wanted to highlight the historical outlier at an important time in history. We could speculate on any number of different reasons, but “DEI” doesn’t make any damn sense, considering they knew how gamers would react beforehand and even went out of their way to make a statement about it.
They wanted to tell this story. If you want a different one, play a different game. There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing Yasuke as a protagonist. The series has consistently demonstrated that they don’t really mind telling the stories of historical outliers, repeatedly. They shouldn’t have to specifically avoid (because that is what your argument has shifted to) Yasuke for fears of “DEI.” The “anti-woke” are ridiculous.
Fair but if they did a random Japanese samurai and not Yasuke this would’ve gone over a lot better for them. This aside, until Ubisoft expresses gamers should own games I won’t buy or play any Ubisoft titles on principle and I don’t think anyone else should either. That the people who’d play this anyway and defend Ubisoft are just supporting a company whose death would benefit all gamers.