Ben-DutkaObviously, people are never going to shut up about this. But don't worry, Ubisoft, I've got good news: The fix couldn't be simpler.
Just put a female character in Assassin's Creed: Unity . See? Wasn't so hard.
Doesn't have to be a major character. You could even add it via DLC later on but it better be free, or people will go positively apesh**. Look, I will never believe that artists should be forced to do something in the interest of political or so-called social correctness; that's just another form of control and censorship, as far as I'm concerned. But my thoughts on the issue are irrelevant; Ubisoft is facing is a PR issue here and unfortunately, there's only one way to deal with it.
You won't win this one, guys. When it comes to such issues, you never will. Just bite the bullet and give everyone what they want, so everyone can start feeling all warm and fuzzy again. Personally, if Crystal Dynamics made the next Tomb Raider and didn't offer any playable male avatars in the multiplayer portion, I wouldn't blink an eye. Sure, great, fine, don't care one way or the other. As far as the inclusion of female characters in video game narratives: If she fits, put 'er in. If not, don't. It's really that simple in my eyes.
But you can't win this war, Ubisoft. It doesn't help that you had sort of a lame reply when people called you out on it, so just make everyone happy. Oh, I know, you can't make everyone happy, but at least you can appease the extremely vocal attackers out there.
If they put a female character in cause of people's crying I'll lose all respect for Ubisoft. Giving in to whining and crying is why the internet is the way it is right now. You know how many petitions started when Bloodborne was shown to be exclusive? People want what they want when they want it because there hasn't been any parental guidance on the internet. People come on here and whine and want what they want and if these big corporations keep allowing themselves to get bullied into doing what the loud, and pardon my language but, the loud bitches want, the internet will always be ruled by them. Learn to put up a middle finger and do what you feel is right and not what THEY think is right.
I could say the Mona Lisa is sexist cause there isn't a male in it, but how stupid would that sound? It's complete BS when people try and tell someone how their game and story is to be created like their some sort of freaking godsend who is best at everything and everything they say is the word of law. Freedom of speach is allowed, not freedom of telling an artist how to create. If someone doesn't want to get involved into the female assassin, they shouldn't have too. That time period involved REAL female assassins using their sexuality to kill men after seducing them. That issue would spark an even bigger issue than anything else. And since Ubisoft tends to make the Assassin Creed games historically accurate…
Seriously, learn to kick the whiners and crybabies back down to size. They don't own the internet, they don't own you or I and they don't own everything they disagree with. If anyone has a right to cry its the companies who have to deal with this every freaking game they release.
There's nothing right about a sausage party.
Well Knightzane, the thing is that the AssCreed games aren't exactly trying to imitate reality faithfully. It's historical fiction at its finest.
So when you got time-traveling wizards & ancient civilizations that pre-date humanity included in the game, you'll have a hard time explaining why female assassins would be just be "too much" or unrealistic for the series. And we already had a game with a female assassin (Assassin's Creed III: Liberation).
I think the real problem you have with this issue (and it's pretty obvious from your post) is the possibility that Ubisoft 'surrenders' to the pressure of the Social Justice Warriors of the world.
But you see, they have no choice. They gave up that choice the moment they went big with this IP and decided to branch out to reach mainstream consumers.
You can't possibly think big and at the same time ignore 50% of the population (women). That's not how it works.
Shareholders within Ubisoft demand more and more profits every single fiscal year. And they will not settle with the same old users who are playing AssCreed now. They want to reach more people.
And there just isn't an infinite amount of white males in the world who actually like playing TV games. Eventually they'll hit a wall. And they'll have to cater to some other group. In this case, women.
So I suggest you just continue playing these games and forget about all the battles that occur outside of the games. Because it's gonna happen. Female avatars / characters will be added to these games as main protagonists.
It's only a matter of time.
Bonampak: Nobody actually thinks more women would play Assassin's Creed just because there's a female protagonist, do they?
What percentage of people playing Tomb Raider were female? Seriously? What percentage of people who bought Liberation were female? What, 1%? Maybe?
Assassin's Creed is a core gaming franchise. Regardless of the outrageously misleading "50 percent of gamers are female statistic," the bottom line is that the vast majority of the CORE gaming public is still male. This is due to the inherent nature of gaming, I believe, and putting a bunch of female protagonists out there hasn't changed anything.
Women will play whatever games they want, as will men. Men don't care about the gender of the person they control, and to assume that women do is insulting to women…that's essentially calling them sexist, is it not?
Women gamers I've talked to tell me they would prefer to control a woman when possible.
@Ben – You just mentioned what the problem is.
Ubisoft has been stuck with the same old crowd for ages. And women indeed make up a small percentage of those that play AssCreed.
And that's the real problem. And what is going to eventually motivate Ubi to change.
And they won't change because the social justice warriors are telling them to change. But because internally, their shareholders will demand it. They already have.
In their last financial report, Ubisoft mentioned that the profits from the core gamer base had slowed down to a crawl. Not making as much money as they used to make in the previous years. And if it wasn't because they were able to pick up the SOUTH PARK game from THQ, the loses would've been devastatingly worse.
They also don't have the Wii for support anymore. Last gen they were able to finance their AAA game output by way of the profits they earned on the Wii. With mega hits like the JUST DANCE franchise. If you remember, that IP was at the top of the charts for almost the entire generation. They don't have that now.
I dunno if you watched JIM STERLING's take on this issue. But he pretty much explains pretty well the problem that Ubisoft is facing.
On the one hand, they want to branch out and reach out to more people. And yet they refuse to make it palatable to them. By adding characters that they can identify with.
But again, the real problem for Ubi is that they've been hitting a wall. And if they expect to grow, they'll have to climb that wall. To reach a vast sea of humanity that has yet to be tapped.
Ubi's shareholders (more than the SJW's) will make sure that they do just that. It's all about following the money, dude. Women have some of that green stuff too. They just have to cater to their needs in order to get to it. 😉
I prefer playing as a woman every single time. Femshep, FFXIV… give me the choice, and I'll pick staring at a tightly woven rear end over a muscle bound moron any day.
To put it into Latin terms,
Tightae gluteus maximus = gameus experientius maximus
No, the problem is that we desperately want to believe that every last hobby on the face of the planet appeals equally to every individual on the face of the earth.
It's too stupid to even discuss, honestly. Assassin's Creed will forever appeal more to males than females.
Trying to believe they can sell more copies by instituting a female protagonist is completely illogical, and it wouldn't work. Not in a million years.
World: Of course every woman is going to say that. The fact is, this hasn't been reflected in the industry. Like I said, how many females bought Tomb Raider, as opposed to males?
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 7/19/2014 9:18:29 PM
@Ben – I think we both started gaming around the same time (SNES era). And we've come a long way since home console videogames were considered exclusively for kids. Of the male variety.
We just went through a long generation were pretty much everyone could play videogames. More than ever before.
Last gen, people of every gender and age could finally play games and not feel guilty about it.
Even those who had trouble holding a traditional controller because of a disability, were given the option to play games. By way of the Kinect, The Move or the Wiimote.
Now I think that we all want videogames to be accepted as a legitimate form of entertainment for the general population. Just like the film or music business are.
And a sure way to achieve that, is to make videogames inclusive to everybody.
Like I said before, Ubisoft has no choice but to branch out. To reach out to new segments of the population. Reminding them of the great influence they hold as consumers. Because as always, money talks. And almost everyone with a pulse has some of it.
If they manage to pull that off, we won't be talking about AssCreed having few female gamers for much time longer.
Last edited by Bonampak on 7/20/2014 2:29:30 AM
@Bonampak,Your second post
Ubisoft is not losing core gamers. Assassins creed have been increasing in sales in every major release. This fiscal year was an exception because ps4 was released and right before watch dog releases in may. Ps3 versions took a hit and ps4 market is too small to make up the sales. It happens to all games, CoD, Need for Speed, Fifa etc. Not just ubisoft.
Next year, when the userbase of ps4 grows, ubisoft will say the core gamers return. Its misleading to say core gaming market is shrinking during a transition year.
Last edited by godsman on 7/20/2014 8:52:57 AM
Only a dipsh*t company wouldn't put one in there for a supermultimillion dollar seller with lots of female fans in the first place.
I find it hilarious the irrelevant crap that gamers will whine about. It's not an issue that Sony has provided nothing but 'remasters' and indie trash for their $400 super console with more remasters on the way for 2015, at this point I'm 90% sure Uncharted 4 won't come out in 2015 but it will be ok because we'll get a 'remastered' trilogy or whatever nonsense. That's not an issue at all. But a company daring not to put a female character in a game, what a crime against gamers. Give me a damn break.
For once i agree with gamer46, not a single gamer is looking at the issue at hand which is this (remastered) bull$hit, in fact everyone on this website is ok with it but i guess they all (and me) paid 400 to play old washed up ps3 games. But god forbid we dont have a girl assassin in a game and the whole damn world falls apart, bunch of cry babies…
When Mark Cerny spoke of a gaming renaissance I thought he meant an explosion of innovative ideas and pushing the envelope of gaming. Now I know he meant we should relive the ps3 era again…
Last edited by n/a on 7/19/2014 6:28:34 AM
I was wondering… does PS4 really have that many remasters coming out for it?
2006
Resistance fall of man & Genji days of the blade
2007
Haze(3rd party) Heavenly sword(3rd party) & Uncharted
2013
Killzone shadowfall & Knack
2014
Infamous second son,Driveclub & Little big planet 3(cross gen)
Seems more or less the same as any other console launch from sony,Great games take TIME to make and sony does'nt pressure their devs.
Well, LC there was also Warhawk, Ratchet & Clank, Motorstorm, Folklore, and for better or worse, Lair in 2007 too there, so I'm not getting why apologists choose to ignore facts when it's convenient.
Underdog, there's only one, so I see where you are coming from. lol. But when there are only two next gen games coming from Sony it definitely seems like alot, especially when it's more hyped than the other two games.
Argh!
Ok forgot motorstorm
scratch out haze & heavenly sword as their 3rd party and whack in warhawk & folklore which i though were 2008 titles
Don't remind me of lair please
technically insomniac games is an indie developer
I knew this would happen so i'm holding off buying a ps4 untill 2016.
And i dont apologise
I'm a little confused about which two you're referring to. Driveclub and LBP3, I'm guessing? Are we limiting ourselves only to exclusives coming directly from Sony studios between now and Christmas? (And of AAA quality, I'm assuming)
That's fine, but I'm pretty sure in that case, MS only has Sunset Overdrive.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 7/20/2014 1:42:58 AM
Who cares about pertinent social issues when we don't have enough games to play!?
Didn't they put in a female in the Assassins Creed series through Liberation? Pretty sure the main character was a female descendant of Connor from AC3. People just didn't pay enough notice to the game cause of the platform it was released for.
LOL @ myself…. I read that word in the article as "Apesh" and then looked lower to see what the double asterisks were going to explain about the word or quote.
Ah well… It's early. I give myself a pass on that one.
As a socially out of touch white male I, too, am confused as to why some people complain about representation in media. Everywhere I look I see white men, to the point where it's like I don't even notice anymore. I'm adequately, if not overly, represented in media, so I don't get why anyone ELSE would have a problem.
No female character and no politically correct, thanks. What is the sense to have a female in the game? If they made a game that doesn't have a woman you claim that they have to be forced to put one on it? I say no.
politically correct bullshit. I bet Ubisoft buckle and introduce a gay hermaphrodite alien to keep everyone happy.
Yeah, acknowledging half the world's population in media really is the same thing as homosexual aliens, I see where you're coming from here. This is exactly why we shouldn't let gay people marry; because if we do, then soon we'll all be forced to marry our dogs to zombie pineapples and really, who needs that shit?
we've already had one in Assassin's Creed liberation. So this post is pointless.
cottage cheese flappers can't be badasses.
Honestly, I'd prefer that they stick to their guns and tell people, "No, that's not how we're making the game," and let that be the end of it.
This endless whining from gamers over every little issue, demanding that every company bow to their will, over a piece of *creative entertainment* is getting completely out of hand. It's not YOUR game, it's UBISOFT's game. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Make your own game if you want to have everything done your way.
If I were making a game and a bunch of whiny forum-goers who had never done anything creative in their life started telling me how I should conduct my affairs, I'd tell them to piss off.
LoL! Can't people buy Tomb Raider, if they want to play with a female character?
I mean, give me a break, some people seriously need to get a life, a job, or focus on studying, depending on age.
These kind of bitchiness is just plain stOOpid..
the point that everyone needs to understand is, the story that ubisoft is trying to tell is not about a female assassin at this time. stop complaining about not being represented fairly. Shit, I'm Mexican and to be honest the first Mexican lead I can recall playing as is Nick in Dead Rising 3, but i am not throwing a tantrum because i could careless as long as i like the story and gameplay. Should i start an internet petition because there's no Mexican representation in at least 90% of games? And please do not comment about how sex and race are two different topics or how there weren't Mexicans in France, but women were, doesn't matter because I'm am positive there are more Mexicans playing videogames than women.
Anyways Rant over and besides there will no doubt be a woman in the multiplayer, unless the 4-player coop is replacing multiplayer.
If half the world were Mexican, you'd have a point. However…