Ultimately the far-right loves to bring up examples of well-known flops and box office bombs and then perform mental gymnastics to blame “wokeness” or “DEI” for their failure. Though in most cases, their failure can easily explained due to different factors.
As an example: Sony’s infamous flop “Concord”, a game which attempted to do some representation in the character design (in itself a bad imitation of what “Apex Legends” had done previously), but “Concord” was terrible from start to finish and overall just another live-service game nobody asked for.
Or take Bioware’s “Dragon Age: Veilguard”: The far-right loves to insist that it was “wokeness” that killed the game - something that is in itself already a preposterous claim due to Bioware’s solid track record of being an inclusive and queer-friendly company. But “DA:V” was doomed right from the start: As Bioware’s corporate overlord EA meddled with the production, firing people, restarting the game several times, turning it into a live-service game, then forcing Bioware to strip that out again and finally pushing a badly compromised “DA:V” out of the door after a fruitless 9 years of stop-and-go development.
I agree with you. However, I won’t even engage with whether this assassin’s creed game is “woke”.
Instead, I’m focusing on the fact that Ubisoft, among many other games publishers and development studios, have a serious and systemic problem with sexual harassment, assaults, and discrimination based on gender (these places are often referred to as “boys’ clubs”).
To be clear: Ubisoft is absolutely not the only game publisher wherein male employees are alleged to have sexually harassed and/or assaulted female employees. Rockstar is another example off the top of my head. Activision/Blizzard is a third.
There is something absolutely rotten in the gaming industry. Abusing women seems to be part of the way these companies operate, for some reason, and no matter what games they put out, no matter what messages those games do or don’t have, I would not want my money going to support the companies that do this.
I find it interesting, and concerning, that this shareholder is wringing their hands about some interpretation about the content of this video game, ignoring the fact that three executive level employees of the company they hold shares in have just this month been convicted of sexual and psychological harassment.
Oh without doubt: Ubisoft is a terrible company and I am glad that - at least - some of the perpetrators have ended up in court.
My comment was meant to provide examples of how the far-right employs “Go woke, go broke” and how they twist the stories of failed games to fit their deliberately misleading narratives. Unfortunately there are people who fall for those…
I totally agree with what you’re saying, the very very simplistic and juvenile “go woke go broke” narrative often overlooks actual things that cause products to fail in the market.
As an aside, I found the character designs in Concord, at least the ones I’ve seen, actually really cool personally. Reminded me a lot of a sort of Kim Jung Gi street/comic style, and wasn’t as cliche as all the rest.
“Concord”'s character designs were definitely the least of the game’s problems, but - of course - it was what the far-right latched onto. After all, they rarely ever engage with anything beyond the mere surface level.
Ultimately the far-right loves to bring up examples of well-known flops and box office bombs and then perform mental gymnastics to blame “wokeness” or “DEI” for their failure. Though in most cases, their failure can easily explained due to different factors.
As an example: Sony’s infamous flop “Concord”, a game which attempted to do some representation in the character design (in itself a bad imitation of what “Apex Legends” had done previously), but “Concord” was terrible from start to finish and overall just another live-service game nobody asked for.
Or take Bioware’s “Dragon Age: Veilguard”: The far-right loves to insist that it was “wokeness” that killed the game - something that is in itself already a preposterous claim due to Bioware’s solid track record of being an inclusive and queer-friendly company. But “DA:V” was doomed right from the start: As Bioware’s corporate overlord EA meddled with the production, firing people, restarting the game several times, turning it into a live-service game, then forcing Bioware to strip that out again and finally pushing a badly compromised “DA:V” out of the door after a fruitless 9 years of stop-and-go development.
I agree with you. However, I won’t even engage with whether this assassin’s creed game is “woke”.
Instead, I’m focusing on the fact that Ubisoft, among many other games publishers and development studios, have a serious and systemic problem with sexual harassment, assaults, and discrimination based on gender (these places are often referred to as “boys’ clubs”).
To be clear: Ubisoft is absolutely not the only game publisher wherein male employees are alleged to have sexually harassed and/or assaulted female employees. Rockstar is another example off the top of my head. Activision/Blizzard is a third.
There is something absolutely rotten in the gaming industry. Abusing women seems to be part of the way these companies operate, for some reason, and no matter what games they put out, no matter what messages those games do or don’t have, I would not want my money going to support the companies that do this.
I find it interesting, and concerning, that this shareholder is wringing their hands about some interpretation about the content of this video game, ignoring the fact that three executive level employees of the company they hold shares in have just this month been convicted of sexual and psychological harassment.
Oh without doubt: Ubisoft is a terrible company and I am glad that - at least - some of the perpetrators have ended up in court.
My comment was meant to provide examples of how the far-right employs “Go woke, go broke” and how they twist the stories of failed games to fit their deliberately misleading narratives. Unfortunately there are people who fall for those…
I totally agree with what you’re saying, the very very simplistic and juvenile “go woke go broke” narrative often overlooks actual things that cause products to fail in the market.
As an aside, I found the character designs in Concord, at least the ones I’ve seen, actually really cool personally. Reminded me a lot of a sort of Kim Jung Gi street/comic style, and wasn’t as cliche as all the rest.
“Concord”'s character designs were definitely the least of the game’s problems, but - of course - it was what the far-right latched onto. After all, they rarely ever engage with anything beyond the mere surface level.