When racism and video games combine, their meeting is usually in the subtext: the offensive personality of a character, the sociocultural dynamic of a setting, the ethos of an enemy. Sure, the voice-chat transmissions of online gaming’s grade school population aren’t much to aspire to – on racial-tolerance and many other grounds – but rarely is racism equated to any widespread game-industry agenda.
Assassin’s Creed III creative director Alex Hutchinson, however, believes a “subtle racism” lies within the business of games journalism.
Speaking very candidly to CVG, Hutchinson draws the distinction based upon the critical treatment given to Japanese games. The director had already expressed his vision for turning Assassin’s Creed into an ongoing franchise – “like Mario or Resident Evil” – and he ventured an explanation for why Nintendo was so successful in constantly renewing its flagship titles:“You want my real answer? I think there’s a subtle racism in the business, especially on the journalists’ side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do. I think it’s condescending to do this.”
Particularly, Hutchinson objects to the way Japanese stories are interpreted by industry journalists – he believes they get preferential treatment.
“Just think about how many Japanese games are released where their stories are literally gibberish. Literally gibberish. There’s no way you could write it with a straight face, and the journalists say ‘oh it is brilliant’.”
“Then Gears of War comes out and apparently it’s the worst written narrative in a game ever. I’ll take Gears of War over Bayonetta any time.”
“It’s patronizing to say, ‘oh those Japanese stories, they don’t really mean what they’re doing.’”
That Japanese games exist within their own realm of storytelling unique to the Western world is no secret. That American and European games exist within their own realm of storytelling unique to the Japanese market is also a given. Pointing out the differences would produce a list as wide as the Asian landmass/Pacific Ocean between the two.
What Hutchinson is alluding to is how the media weighs these cultural/racial differences with its cultural/racial expectations. Are we being subconsciously biased when we don’t hold Mario‘s mythology to the standard of Assassin’s Creed? When we mention celebrated Japanese storytellers, like Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto, by noting their peculiar eccentricity in same breath as their ability to create engaging, articulate and compelling narratives? Is our resulting praise masking an underlying underestimation?
Clearly there are standards for what makes a good game, what comprises a good story or entertaining gameplay. But as with any art form, they’re relatively loose. Where one opinion sees consistent quality in a franchise, another sees repetitive laziness (a perennial debate with Call of Duty). Where one reviewer can note a flaw, another can excuse it as a cultural divide.
Hutchinson deduces a racial element from this arbitrary chemistry – and some may agree. But is he right in extending the criticism to games journalism as a whole?
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There’s a grain of truth in that, the same happens in film journalism. When a western journalist reviews a foreign film, even if it has some fundamental narrative or character problems, they’ll give it much more of a pass than they would a western film doing the same, since they put such problems in the foreign film down to cultural differences. Cultural differences only go so far to explain certain eccentricities, at a certain point you have to admit that they did something wrong when they clearly did something wrong.
^ What this guy said.
Yep, well said.
I don’t know if I’m reading this wrong but did Alex Hutchinson seriously explain why Nintendo was so successful at selling their franchises because of journalistic racism or am I reading this wrong.
Hmm… interesting point, that the story typs are completly different.
My take on the matter is that the more than just cultural eastern games typical have a whole different style to them, and a journalist who likes that style more will forgive their flaws more easily. So, I don’t believe it’s necessarily east games vs west reviewers so much as it is those who like western style games vs those who like eastern style games.
No there is no, people just want there to be racism so they see it where there is none just so they can make a big fuss out of nothing
Yeah, I can agree with what he is saying. I enjoy Japanese games, RPG’s especially but the plots are nonsense and the dialogue is usually inane beyond belief. Take the recent Kingdom Hearts on the 3DS. Great little game, I really enjoyed it, but I don’t have a clue what the story is about, simply can’t follow it, and the script is bizarre and cringeworthy. But this is rarely mentioned in reviews.
Like the guy says, he mentions Gears of War, a franchise that I have at times, particularly in the third installment, to be quite emotional and touching. There is a divide, a chasm between western and Japanese games. It is partly because they don’t translate well every single time, and it is also unfair to say they are all weirdly plotted, Final Fantasy (7-10) can tell wonderful stories. As can Nintendo with the Zelda series,although they have fairly basic to understand plots.
Assassin’s Creed has a somewhat strange narrative, the individual stories of the assassins themselves have been excellent but explaining what is occurring during the more modern segments can sometimes be lacking. But there is a fantastic story in there with some genuinely wonderful characters.
More importantly, if Alex Hutchinson feels this is a big issue, he should absolutely speak up about it.
I used to work with a guy who LOVED Japanese Anime Cartoons, If he missed an episode he was TICKED, and so one day I gave it a shot, and literally I had a faith moment. Not religious, but faith like “I’m gonna just have to trust that Tim is not TOTALLY nuts and does not really need to be institutionalised” kinda momnet because it made NO sense to me.
I wonder if Alex is possibly hiding behind the racial card here though, because Japanese producers get more preferential treatment from the game industry than all the come along laters, they were among the first, Nintendo was THE first mass console (not like there was not Atari, but who still seriously plays the Atari titles?) and so their story and history is almost legendary. But all good things come to an end, and if the progenetors have begun to lean on their status in the community in order to work less hard and still reap benefits than it might be time to close shop….or bring in fresh ideas. But if new blood is brought, keep in mind that having Nintendos creative director and staff being American might just make a shell out of a great story firm, after all, its their unique (to us) approach to storys that appealed to us in the forst place.
Also, if you pay attention to the movies that get Oscars, vs those that do NOT, you will notice a real lack of sense to the whole thing. Utter crap (like Babel) can get Oscar nominated, while far more engaging stories (The Hunger Games) can be set aside. There is NO rational to it, even though a system of rating a story is touted none is EVER explained. And no matter how good a system of storytelling is researched and understood there must be the realization that we are an evolving culture, our ability to grasp concepts HAS expanded!
That blame lands square in the lap of antiquated standards for storytelling, kinda like the “accepted” forms for prose and poetry. The old ones want their old world, even though the world has moved on, and the young ones in their haste to move on will cast aside anything that resists change to fit the moment.
I would agree that games journalism gives Japanese games a LOT of passes (see FF13), however I don’t think it has anything to do with race and everything to do with how many games journalists exist at all because of Japan.
But do you accept the originators progressivly weaker titles on gratitude for having a job, even when the weaker titles damage the industry reputation? Or do you ask them to move aside for the good of the many?
You know, I have to say, this was really well explained, and it makes sense. I have often thought the same myself. He makes his point in a calm, reasonable, and definitive way, and is stepping out against the grain, simply to speak his mind, and for all of that, noone can say he’s really wrong.
Props.
Props because he managed to not ruffle feathers while making his point or props because he ruffled feathers that had no defence or justification for their continued existence? (by feathers I mean the journalism pass on Japanese games)
I thought he managed pretty well to make his point without ruffling to many feathers.
And props not just for that, but because he said it. Alot of people today are to afraid of being politically incorrect to actually speak their mind.
Thanks for the clarification, I agree, there are WAY to many people who don’t want to step on toes and call spades spades. Seems like he struck a good middle ground balance with this one. Hopefully it will result in something good…
What is it with the (mostly US) obsession with race and racism? Moreover why does anyone else care?