Ubisoft’s reveal of Assassin’s Creed Shadows marks a bold departure by featuring a real-life historical figure as a playable protagonist for the first time, who happens to be a Black man in feudal Japan.
The announcement has been met with distain and outrage across social media as such a choice serves no purpose beyond historical revisionism and as a means to deflect criticism as acts of racism while gaining ESG points.
Additionally, it has been discovered that the game’s senior writer holds anti-White prejudices, coming as a shock to nobody.
We’ve already touched on the reveal of the next installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, titled “Shadows,” set during Japan’s Sengoku period. The game features Yasuke, a historical figure with scant documentation, as a playable protagonist.
Ubisoft’s progressive writers aim to rewrite history by portraying Yasuke as the world’s first Black samurai, despite lacking substantial evidence. The game’s reveal even sparked an edit war on Wikipedia, with attempts to falsify history to support the narrative of Yasuke as a foreign-born samurai warrior akin to Jan Joosten or William Adams.
This is a blatant attempt to impose a narrative of diversity and inclusion on Japan’s most infamous historical period by merging historical figures with fanfiction. Yasuke, a figure with sparse documentation, is believed to have been a retainer or slave who served under Oda Nobunaga.
While this background could create an interesting side character or unique plot point, the demand for “equality” and the push to rewrite history mean that isn’t enough. Instead, he is being portrayed as a high-ranking samurai, despite the lack of substantial evidence supporting such a claim.
You cannot take one of the most significant and well-documented periods in Japanese history, particularly one associated with Oda Nobunaga, the most documented man of that era, and ignore the relatively minor role Yasuke played.
His historical insignificance cannot be overlooked in an attempt to fit a modern narrative.
But alas, Ubisoft previously stated in a company-issued email that “Diversity” and “Equality” are in their DNA, and they are staying true to that claim. For their next Assassin’s Creed game, they have chosen to focus on Yasuke and a female ninja. Instead of revolving around a shinobi, a figure traditionally associated with traits of the series such as stealth, espionage, infiltration, and assassination the series will instead center on a samurai warrior.
Ubisoft has long been a champion of diversity in video gaming. The French giant is particularly known for franchises like “Prince of Persia” and for setting “Far Cry 2,” arguably one of their most technologically advanced games, in a fictional African country engulfed in civil war. Its sequel, “Far Cry 3,” while seen as a technological step back, is set on a native tribal Pacific island.
The “Assassin’s Creed” franchise has always embraced diversity, taking players to various historical settings: Italy as an Italian, France as a Frenchman, Norway as a Norseman, Greece as a Greek, and even Baghdad as an Islamic character.
However, Ubisoft did face similar controversy over their attempt to “blackwash” Egypt in Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Nobody ever had any qualms regarding the settings and portrayals of Ubisoft’s longstanding diverse games beforehand, because such settings and designs were always by their own creative design, they didn’t feel forced or weren’t actually offensively invoking agendas upon the player. Now that diversity and equality is more or less a mandated affair with modern game design, perpetrated by the likes of Vanguard and BlackRock to acquire social standing and financial investments, it becomes an agenda, it becomes deliberate and forced.
With ESG and DEI at the helm, with activists and propagandists employed to make the game itself, they simply cannot see anything besides skin color, race, gender and ethnicity. They are fixated on it, and it shows in their products.
All the other Assassin’s Creed games depicted the nationalities of their protagonists in line with the settings of their respective location. But NOW suddenly we’re playing as a real life historic figure for the first time ever, who just so happens to be a Black man in Japan.
Their desire for “representation” comes off as forced and shallow, Yasuke’s portrayal as a leading role and one that effectively creates new history for the figure is simply washing Japan’s history with embellished fanfiction.
Ubisoft does not deserve your money. The vast majority of people voicing their outrage online likely haven’t purchased any of Ubisoft’s subpar, repetitive offerings in years.
The “Assassin’s Creed” franchise has been on the decline for nearly a decade, with the most recent titles being particularly egregious. These games not only highlight Ubisoft’s ongoing anti-consumer business practices but are also heavily laden with monetization schemes.
Ubisoft intends to charge consumers upwards of $130 for this game. Perhaps that’s why they’ve chosen to leverage Yasuke as a shield against criticism. This is the same company that proclaimed consumers need to “get over the idea of owning your games” before removing copies of “The Crew” from customers’ digital libraries.
They are now trying to charge $110 for the game with a “season pass” and $130 for the “Ultimate Edition.” Pre-ordering the game will include a bonus quest entitled “Thrown to the Dogs.”
This is precisely what online propagandists are defending, an egregious ESG puppet that claims gamers shouldn’t own their games, while actively removing titles from their libraries.
They defend a $130 rehashed slopfest that aims to culturally colonize Japan’s history, complete with EXP boosts and microtransactions in a single-player game. To get all the cosmetic packages, you’ll need the season pass, ensuring the game will be flooded with DLC expansions and the desire to pay more as a bonus. A hundred and thirty dollars.
Given the context and nature of what could have been an exciting game, it’s disappointing to see it aim to undermine Japan’s pristine heritage. In comparison, “Ghost of Tsushima” stands out for its authentic portrayal of Japan.
With that in mind, would it be surprising to learn that the game’s writers are progressives with anti-White prejudices?
We’ve already mentioned the game’s lead writer, Alissa Ralph, who prominently displays her pronouns in her Twitter bio. She was “beaming with pride” about the game’s reveal, quickly aligning herself and her black fragility agenda with the project. Following backlash, she has since set her Twitter account to private.
However, there was one detail we missed earlier. Before setting her account to private, individuals discovered that Alissa Ralph was following the official Sweet Baby Inc Twitter account.
While this could mean many things due to corporate collusions, it’s notable because Sweet Baby Inc, an infamous ESG/DEI consultancy, was founded by ex-Ubisoft employees.
Sweet Baby Inc employees have previously shown disdain for consumers criticizing the games they’ve worked on, such as “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” and “The Crew Motorfest.” It’s likely that “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” is yet another product of their influence, with such collaboration yet to be confirmed.
However one more writer that seemingly slipped through the net was Giles Armstrong, the senior writer for this slopfest.
Armstrong announced he was a Senior Writer on “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” following the debut of the game’s trailer. However, it has come to light that Giles made some rather incriminating tweets several years ago. In 2018, he quote-tweeted a video of actor Chadwick Boseman surprising “Black Panther” fans, declaring that “everyone wants to see a positive version of themselves on screen.”
While this sentiment is understandable, his tweet took a controversial turn as he expressed a negative view toward White people, adding, “There are more than enough games out there with White men as the only playable characters.” He concluded the tweet with, “Let’s do better.”
Armstrong also shared in 2020 that he believes straight White men are privileged within the gaming industry, especially given that the predominant consumer demographic for video games has largely been straight men, many of whom are White.
This isn’t to say there aren’t gamers from diverse backgrounds and genders.
However, the claim that women make up half of all gamers often includes mobile games in the mix, whereas traditional gaming has primarily been a male-dominated venture, both in terms of development (shocking) but also the consumer as well. Males making products that pander to other males.
Giles Armstrong commented on the “Game Devs of Color Expo” that game writing is a tough field. This is ironic, considering that modern game development often involves an entire committee of writers debating the narrative direction.
In contrast, iconic and memorable games of the past were often the creative works of just one or a few individuals. Perhaps today’s writers lack the same level of creativity and talent as those who came before them?
The reason modern game writers have it tough is obviously because of privilege. If Giles Armstrong were Asian, Black or other, some might argue that he’d be a better writer. However, being a cis White man, his writing talents, or lack thereof will forever be shit.
Game writing is tough due to privilege, and as a cis White male, Giles Armstrong acknowledges the severity of the issue. There’s a notable lack of Black game writers in the field. Armstrong’s portfolio includes several “Assassin’s Creed” games, such as Mirage, Valhalla alongside Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Horizon Forbidden West among others.
Many of these titles lack memorable narratives, indicating a lack of talent on Armstrong’s part. This raises concerns about him occupying space in the industry that could be used to elevate a Black game writer instead.
Giles and others like him often fail to recognize the distinction between Asians and White Caucasians, this ignorance is reflected in their actions, which contribute to the decline of modern gaming. Companies like Ubisoft, creators of the world’s first “AAAA” flop, advocate against consumers owning their games are simultaneously attempting to appropriate Japan’s most rich historical and sacred era.
Modern game developers are more activist than creator. Alissa’s feminist views and Giles Armstrong’s White guilt may contribute to their inability to differentiate between Whites and Asians, despite their fixation on race and skin color evident in their products and sentiments.
It’s truly startling to witness individuals who profess to champion inclusivity and diversity demonstrate more racism than those they condemn, all while casual consumers of diverse backgrounds can easily discern their blatant agenda and prejudices from a mile away.
