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If you question the historical accuracy of AC shadows or the black samurai, you are a hidden racist, according to TheGamer

LectureMaster

Gold Member



In the latest gameplay showcase for Assassin's Creed Shadows, we see Yasuke walking through a market. To his left, there is a cart of watermelons - a pretty common sight in Japan. In the background, a smattering of cherry blossoms decorate the horizons in full bloom - again, another common sight. For some, this has become the latest in a long line of reasons why Assassin's Creed Shadows will be the worst game of all time.

The reason for this is because watermelon season is late-April to mid-August, while cherry blossoms bloom through March and into early-April. They don't have any strict crossover, though nature does not work to our specific Gregorian time scales. More to the point, watermelons had not yet arrived in Japan, and so the presence of both is an anachronistic goof. Of course, this in itself is not the reason that people believe Assassin's Creed Shadows will be the worst game of all time, it's just what they're saying right now. Why they actually think that is because Yasuke is Black.

This has been the whole story all along. At first it was endless debates about the historical accuracy of Yasuke, despite many historical texts of him existing and the general dramatic flair Assassin's Creed has shown previously, like when you had a fistfight with the Pope under the Vatican. Though there are legitimate concerns about Shadows' overall quality to be aired, so much of the general discourse is either wrapped up in people who are hiding their racism behind disingenuous complaints or simply aren't hiding it at all.



yasuke-with-watermelons-in-assassins-creed-shadows.jpg
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Hey I'm not racist, I played a black dude in Path of Exile 2 and had the time of my life.

I also believe having Yasuke as the main character is dumb and even kinda racist (positive racism is still racism) and they deserve all the scolding they are getting online.
 

Saber

Member
Does this historical accuracy includes Yasuke killing innocent people as well? I saw a video where he could literally decapitate an innocent woman.
Also, why almost every tree is a cherry blossom? Is this the only tree they could find in google?
Btw, Black Flag DLC has a black guy in case they never played.
 
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I'm 100% sure their thought process was in the west popular media are usually starring white and black people and that's where their audience was. They didn't want to have the first AAA AC games staring only Japanese people. So how they determined AC Shadows protagonists and plotline was racism against Asian/Japanese. Like if you're talking under-representation based on population in western coutries, I'm pretty sure Asian people are a lot more underrepresented than black people. And Asian men more than Asian women. That the female is asian but the male is telling sign that AC Shadows is racist
 
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Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
This is why I do not buy from a lot of these companies anymore. I’ve been called every damn thing from a racist, a bigot, a Nazi, etc of I don’t like a particular video game.

My older sons show me these game managers, devs, corporate managers on twitters and they straight up call people racists and Anything else they can call you. and still want those same folks to buy a product from them.

Nah, son, I’m no bitch that owes any corporation, especially after they call us what they have been for a decade now.

I truly believe in their heads if they call people racists and bigots it will scare some into buying it and others will buy it to virtue signal.
 
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pudel

Member
Okaay Ok GIF by MOODMAN


I am really thinking of buying this game, just because it gave me already so much of good pre-release entertainment. (y) (and I wanna know what this AssCreed Hexe game is about)
 

Hookshot

Member
Isn’t watermelon a racial slur against black people? Adding them to the wrong time period just so they can feature with Yasuke seems a little iffy to me. Maybe this game is racist against black people as much as it’s racist against Asians and disliked by racist whites.

Solving racism by offending everyone!
 

Guilty_AI

Gold Member
Isn’t watermelon a racial slur against black people? Adding them to the wrong time period just so they can feature with Yasuke seems a little iffy to me. Maybe this game is racist against black people as much as it’s racist against Asians and disliked by racist whites.

Solving racism by offending everyone!
And they play hip hop when yasuke is fighting!
 

Durin

Member
It just comes down to Ubisoft wanting to have their cake and eat it too, saying their game respects history with dedicated research, and then falling back to it's liberties-strewn fantasy when people find out they did a bad job representing the time period. I do think some of the response has been hyperbolic and stupid, but Ubisoft do this to themselves, on top of releasing broken unfinished product like Star Wars Outlaws.

This has been the whole story all along. At first it was endless debates about the historical accuracy of Yasuke, despite many historical texts of him

Journalists are such corpo bootlickers though, given there has been only one "prominent" book about Yasuke this all came from, written by a dude who edited his own wiki entries to gain more traction for his fanfic he's trying to pass off as real history. Or their researcher lady who wrote about man boy relationships in Japanese history...for some reason the world needed to know more about that. Incredible sources next to the Chinese architecture in older shots of the games because the artists likely just google searched shit for reference.

Instead of having the balls to just call Ubisoft out for pandering with a token character, journos will just yell muh racism, even as Japanese people voice complaints. I miss the Ubisoft that made Rainbow Six Vegas, Prince of Persia - Sands of Time, and helped publish cool games in the 2000s.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God



In the latest gameplay showcase for Assassin's Creed Shadows, we see Yasuke walking through a market. To his left, there is a cart of watermelons - a pretty common sight in Japan. In the background, a smattering of cherry blossoms decorate the horizons in full bloom - again, another common sight. For some, this has become the latest in a long line of reasons why Assassin's Creed Shadows will be the worst game of all time.

The reason for this is because watermelon season is late-April to mid-August, while cherry blossoms bloom through March and into early-April. They don't have any strict crossover, though nature does not work to our specific Gregorian time scales. More to the point, watermelons had not yet arrived in Japan, and so the presence of both is an anachronistic goof. Of course, this in itself is not the reason that people believe Assassin's Creed Shadows will be the worst game of all time, it's just what they're saying right now. Why they actually think that is because Yasuke is Black.

This has been the whole story all along. At first it was endless debates about the historical accuracy of Yasuke, despite many historical texts of him existing and the general dramatic flair Assassin's Creed has shown previously, like when you had a fistfight with the Pope under the Vatican. Though there are legitimate concerns about Shadows' overall quality to be aired, so much of the general discourse is either wrapped up in people who are hiding their racism behind disingenuous complaints or simply aren't hiding it at all.



yasuke-with-watermelons-in-assassins-creed-shadows.jpg
Not all of them, but always one of them
 

Braag

Member
Articles like these do so much damage to a game's reputation. This makes it seem like Shadows has actually taken a firm stance in the whole culture war, whether it did or didn't doesn't really matter at this point.
If I was a dev and someone wrote an article like that on my game's behalf, I'd be furious, cause it definitely deters some potential customers from buying the game.
 
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