There have been allegations of “subtle racism” in the games industry and amongst games journalists regarding Japanese games and developers.
Assassin’s Creed series creative director Alex Hutchinson had a few things to say about this during a recent interview with CVG. Some of the memorable quotes:
When asked why he thought companies like Nintendo could release a new game in the same franchise every year (I’m talking games like the myriad of Mario based games) Mr. Hutchinson replied with:
“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.”
Basically saying that these games and developers are held to a different standard because they are Japanese. He drove that point of view home when he added:
“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 patronising to say, “oh those Japanese stories, they don’t really mean what they’re doing.”
Mr. Hutchinson ended his comments on this alleged racism with:
“I just think the simple question should be; is the story any good?”
That is a fine question to ask when you have a game based around a serious story and narrative like Assassin’s Creed, but when your game is about how many turtles you can kick off a spinning island to collect a star with a pair of eyes on it, so you can obtain glory and victory over a strange anthropomorphic mushroom man… story has less to do with it than one might think.
The real question should be: Is your game any good?
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