Board Thread:Series general discussion/@comment-5088097-20151219195318/@comment-18014300-20180424072155

Ignacionoel1000 wrote: Wow, you are wrong in so many levels...

Firts of all: Tell me one mainstream game outside of Red Dead that takes place in the Wild West. C'mon, I dare you. That's because there isn't. Yeah, there are some little know ones like Call of Juarez, but those aren't mainstream. The Wild West is almost underrated in video game industrie. 

2nd: Eurocentric/americano-centric trend? Dude, there's millions of games that take places in Asia. Mostly China and Japan. There's houndreds of games about Ninjas, Samurais and even in modern day ones like the Yakuza or Sleeping Dogs. Japan is one of the neuralgic points in the videogame industrie, I can assure you there is a lot of eastern games.

3th: The Wild West has no culture? That's maybe the most racist thing I ever hear. You have a lot of entnical diversity: Mexicans, Natives (differents of Connor because there was haundreds of native american tribes) and (guess whats) Asians. Everyone of this group bring someting to the table to enriches a culture underrated by people like you who can't see outside the stereotype.

Ignacio, before I address your points, I should remind you to please maintain a civil, respectful, and receptive attitude in the face of opposing views. No matter how strongly you feel about your opinion, there is no need to be incensed.

So clarify my points.

A setting that's never been done

You are right that there are not that many games set in the Wild West, and so it's far from being over-represented in the video game industry. However, the reason why I called it mainstream in my second point, not my first, is that I believe it is so in Western media in general relative to all cultures around the world which I will further elaborate on in the second point as appropriate. That is to say, any American setting would be mainstream, not the Wild West in itself. By replying as though my first point is that the setting is too mainstream, you seemed to have missed that.

I do not believe that the Wild West setting appears too commonly in video games at all, but it has appeared already in a magnificently crafted open-world game, Red Dead Redemption. Taking this into account, along with another principal point I already mentioned which is that every year Ubisoft spends on one setting is another year they could've spent on a setting which has literally never appeared in video games before, I personally think that the "quota" for a high-quality, open-world video game set in the Wild West has already been filled.

This is why my point is that Ubisoft should ideally be taking us to a setting that's never been done, not a setting that has been done even once.

Representation of other cultures

I know you were using hyperbole, but if you wanted to effectively correct me, you should have used an accurate statistic. There are not millions of video games set in Asia, but more importantly, you are missing the fact that we're talking about a (a) historical (b) open-world game of (c) high qualiity (d) set in other cultures, not even necessarily East Asia, but South Asia, Latin America, etc. within (e) Western media. For one thing, most video games set in East Asia have fantasy settings and are entirely a-historical. Games like Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors, while technically historical fiction, can hardly be said to be games where you realistically explore the Sengoku and Three Kingdoms periods respectively. A dark fantasy game such as Nioh also does not count, and none of these are even open-world games where you actually freely explore the setting. The Tekken series is a fighting game. Sleeping Dogs does fit the criteria mostly, but it does not count as historical fiction, and aside from that, it has a wildly inaccurate depiction of Hong Kong. I cannot name even one fairly realistic, open-world, historical fiction video game of Assassin's Creed quality without overly fantastic elements common to anime set in East Asia. I am referring to a game where you can explore the setting to the extent of Assassin's Creed games and which are highly historically accurate aside from the occasional sci-fi elements here and there.

And even having said all that, remember that my point isn't only about East Asia but South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, even sub-Sahara Africa as well. I have no issues with a game set in a European or American setting in and of itself. I am still extremely excited for the possibility of a game set during the Hundred Years' War if possible, but my point hinges on a relative comparison and balance of cultural representation within the series and within the wider industry itself. Within the series, how many games have been set in a non-Western setting? It's about balance. If 65% of the series has been set in East Asia, I would make the parallel criticism that we should explore some more Western settings.

Comparison with other cultures

Of course, technically the Wild West has a culture; every society by definition has a culture, and there are indigenous ethnicities, African Americans, Mexicans, and Chinese laborers present in this setting, but once more, my point hinges on a comparison with any other alternative setting. Every setting has a culture, but which is more rich? What magnificent architecture does the Wild West have? What grand cities, art, social customs did it promote? And if it did have these things, can it compare with France during the Belle Époque? Can it compare with Persia during the Islamic Golden Age? Can it compare with India at the height of the Gupta? Can it compare with China at its peak under the Tang dynasty? Can it compare with the Aztecs just before the Spanish invasion, or even at least Argentina during its war of independence? Can it compare with Cambodia under the Khmer Empire? Can it compare with the splendor of Samarkand when the Mongol Empire stimulated trade along the Silk Road like never before? Can it compare with the glory of the Roman Empire? Is it a setting as never before seen in video games as the Mali Empire? And even with the presence of the Apache and Comanche and the inflow of Chinese laborers during the Gold Rush, is the Wild West still as diverse as any of these settings?

Can you honestly say that the Wild West can compare with any of these settings? Because that is my point. If the Wild West has no contenders as a setting, then I would be thrilled for Assassin's Creed to be set in it. But the Wild West setting has practically unlimited competitors, of which, if compared to, makes the Wild West, with what culture it does have, seem like a frontier wildland, a cultural backwater, at best because that's what it literally was. That's why it was the Wild West.