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Notes -
Morning Chestnut Problem
After two delays Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, the latest installment in Ubisoft’s hit and award-winning series, has been released.
Several months ago when the latest installment in Assassin’s Creed video game franchise was announced to have a person named “Yasuke” as a protagonist, it was in the English-speaking discourse to proclaim he is a beloved in Japan and considered an important historical figure by the Japanese and that any negative opinion of this peculiar choice was coming from gaijin. It wasn’t only the English-speaking internet masses who promoted this conjecture, a powerful member of this community and even New York Times (although as this article contained no information that wasn’t known at the time, it may have been written just to launder the Hirayama’s tweet that Yasuke was a samurai, into something citable on wikipedia) did too. Introducing one “Kazuma Hashimoto”, whose knowledge of the Japanese language is unknown, who in his twitter bio used to identify as half-Japanese, as “a Japanese consultant”, despite the fact that he belongs to the California geographical and cultural milieu, thus a very non-central example of a Japanese person! After his deception was discovered he laid low, until surfacing after the release to peddle the same distortions, speaking over a native people.—
I suspect the reason why such a person was cited, is that even gaijin working on matters related to Japan, think that the knowledge of English language is sufficient to obtain all necessary information and as “Kazuma Hashimoto” has chosen a Japanese name, but has the knowledge of English of the American he is, he is the perfect source to lend credibility to conjectures about Japan some journalist might have. If one wants a starting point for researching some topic related to Japanese people, searching for it on X, Google, or YouTube by its Japanese, not English name: “弥助” not “Yasuke”, “アサクリ” or “アサシン クリード” not “Assassin’s Creed”, “問題” not “controversy”. Doing so, one finds some comprehensive overviews of issues some Japanese have with Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Even if you do not know Japanese, using Google Translate and Deepl on a Japanese text written by a Japanese person will get you closer to their perspective, than asking a monolingual American who got his opinion from a monolingual American who got his opinion from a monolingual American who misunderstood a bilingual westernized Japanese.—
But he is just one man. His influence would in the English-speaking be negligible, if he didn’t have fellows (1) working towards the same goal of minimizing Japanese perspectives, and interpreting them to suit their agenda, combined with the general attitude that whatever is created in Japanese, must first pass through a native English speaker in order to gain value or credibility.—
This incident makes it clear that anyone unaffected by Gell-Mann Amnesia should be wary of foreign authors writing about Japan. No matter how minor the topic, many non-Japanese writers seem to consistently prefer English sources over foreign-language ones. For example, the English Wikipedia page on Yasuke uses citations from historical fiction, non-peer-reviewed articles written by tendentious gaijin, and recent news. The reliance on news is especially strange-why should a journalist's opinion, who doesn’t have any specific expertise, be considered more important than anyone else's? One might draw a parallel to the hypothetical situation where mathematical wikipedia articles would be based not on rigorous academic papers but upon the distorted misinterpretations, such as those presented in popular science journalism. The reality is that these English-language texts, simply by virtue of being written in a familiar language, are favored over more authoritative sources. The authentic primary sources and meticulous research conducted by Japanese historians is overlooked in favor of easily accessible, yet not rigorous, English sources.— (2)
EoPs set the null hypothesis about foreign countries. Given the affinity that Americans feel towards Blacks, this naturally leads them to imagine every Black person as much greater and more important than they really were. So they write, picking and choosing among the already scant sources available in English, to craft a narrative. As it is written in English, it is considered the default, and the native experts have to prove a negative. In English, of course, you can’t expect EoP historians of other countries to learn another language.—
Now, you could say this is what people say online; maybe that is a biased sample, and perhaps only the 'antis' are vocal, while the majority loves it. A not absurd objection; one should search for objective sources. Luckily, in the case of Japan and video games, we have that: every week it is published how many physical sales of games and consoles were made there. One would expect that if, in a long-running franchise, an entry would be released this time set in Japan, it would sell better in Japan than previous entries set in foreign locales. People are narcissistic; they like being talked about and are interested in what others think of them. Ghost of Tsushima, an AC game in all but name, which was set in Japan, sold more copies in Japan than any AC game. With the added bonus of featuring the allegedly popular-in-Japan protagonist Yasuke, sales would surely increase compared to previous installments.—
Data:
Opening week physical sales in Japan for AC games and GoT, ordered chronologically:
name [platform of the best selling version] release date, opening week sales on that platform (opening week sales across all platforms)
Shadows [PS5] R7-03-20, 17701
Mirage [PS5] R5-10-06, 20407 (28436)
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS5] R3-08-20, 13745 (23969)
Valhalla [PS4] R2-11-10, 45055 (49282)
Ghost of Tsushima [PS4] R2-07-17, 212915
Odyssey [PS4] H30-10-05, 50173
Origins [PS4] H29-10-27, 53716
Syndicate [PS4] H27-11-12, 39858
Rogue [PS3] H26-12-11, 19496
Unity [PS4] H26-11-20, 43838
IV: Black Flag [PS3] H25-11-28, 50032 (65910)
III [PS3] H24-11-15, 85918 (97991)
III: Liberation [PSV] H24-11-15, 22110
Revelations [PS3] H23-12-01, 40440 (47602)
Brotherhood [PS3] H22-12-09, 39198 (50964)
Bloodlines [PSP] H21-12-23, 16221
II [PS3] H21-12-03, 55789 (83874)
I [PS3] H20-01-31, 36898 (70952)
Week 2, ordered chronologically:
Shadows [PS5] R7-03-20, 5565
Mirage [PS5] R5-10-05, 3402
Mirage [PS4] R5-10-05, 1890
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS4] R3-08-20, 4154
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS5] R3-08-20, 3526
Valhalla [PS4] R2-11-10, 6918
Valhalla [PS5] R2-11-10, <2265
Ghost of Tsushima [PS4] R2-07-17, 53387
Sales totals after two weeks, ordered by sales totals:
Ghost of Tsushima [PS4] R2-07-17, 266302
Valhalla [PS4] R2-11-10, 51973
Mirage [PS5] R5-10-05, 23809
Shadows [PS5] R7-03-20, 23266
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS5] R3-08-20, 17271
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS4] R3-08-20, 14378
Mirage [PS4] R5-10-05, 9919
Valhalla [PS5] R2-11-10, >=4227&<=6491
Interpretation: It has been almost a year since details about Assassin’s Creed: Red were announced, and only slightly less since English-language game journalists started lying about the reception the game had in Japan to their English-speaking audience. The latter is blameless, for it is too much to ask the masses to actively research an issue which is at best tangential to their lives. The former is blameworthy, as a journalist which leaves the reader with a worse model of the world than he started with is worse than a monkey with a typewriter. At least chimp’s writings won’t worsen the reader’s perception of the world.—
Shadows had the second worst first week sales out of all non-re-releases of Assassin’s Creed games. Only Bloodlines on the PSP sold worse, and even that only slightly.—
This can be said to be the end of a significant phase of a scandal. Unsurprisingly, gaijin Assassin’s Creed fans who considered it big news that Shadows was for a brief moment in the top 5 games by revenue on Steam in Japan, or in the top 10 best-selling games on Amazon Japan, either ignored these Famitsu numbers from ignorance or embarrassment, or downplayed them saying gaijin games don’t sell in Japan. A statement disproven by the success of Ghost of Tsushima and Shadows‘ sales being even lower than of previous entries.—
In the interest of intellectual honesty I must also be open about evidence I discovered which goes against my thesis. There exists a website which scrapes Steam reviews by language. For Odyssey, .32% of reviews are in Japanese, Valhalla, .53% of reviews are in Japanese, Mirage, .31% of reviews are in Japanese, Shadows, .71% of reviews are in Japanese. This could imply the Assassin’s Creed audience in Japan moved to Steam, thus consumer sales do not tell the whole story.—
(1)Such as one Jeffrey J. Hall.(1.1) Unlike other gaijin who report on Japan, he cannot plead ignorance about. For you see one aspect of the Morning Chestnut Problem which reached even the PM of Japan was ingame destruction of shrines. Politically it started with one member of the prefectural assembly conducting an interview with the head priest of the shrine depicted in the viral video showing the African protagonist marauding through it. I noticed this interview early on, but so did Jeffrey. Ever willing to discredit indigenous people(1.2), the man who holds a position equivalent to a state senator. The next day the local politician uploaded another video, showing he brought the issue to a member of Japan's Upper House, conveniently adding English subtitles. It was the latter man who spoke a day before the games release in Japan’s Diet about this issue and to whom Ishiba, Japan’s PM replied. The attention shrine vandalism was too great to ignore and Ubisoft issued a silent Day 1 patch, which only partially limited it but continues to refence the real shrine by name, but has yet to issue a formal response to protests from the Hyougo Shrine Association.(1.3)—
(1.1)To put it in terms Americans would better understand, Jeffrey (and Kazuma, if he didn’t also pretend to be Japanese) is to Japan what people like Claas Relotius, are to the US. In that both distort the countries they proclaim to be experts about, in order to reinforce the pre-existing perpectives of their audiences.—
(1.2)This wasn’t the first time this game caught the attention of a Japanese politician. Before the events I describe above, a member of the Party to Protect the People from NHK, had asked the National Diet Library for all materials it possessed that pertain to Yasuke. Jeffrey made hay of the fact this party is a minor, non-coalition one. The politicians I describe above belong to the perpetually-in-power Jimin-tou.—
(2)The wikipedia editor most responsible for the current sorry state of the English wikipedia article on Yasuke, ‘Symphony Regalia’, was on R6-11-13 topic-banned from Yasuke for a year on English wikipedia. This sanction follows a permanent suspension of that editor on Japanese wikipedia for sockpuppeting which occured on R6-08-31. The vandalism he inflicted was fixed in the Japanese, but not in the English language article. I think this is because I think wikipedia works by establishing a consensus. Early on, before this happens, one can slant and selectively interpret and pick sources to push a POV, without restrictions. Then one can use this history as evidence that a consensus is clear. And if one is successful, this POV is determined to be the truth, indisputable unless a great number of Reliable Sources, in English of course, disagree plainly.—
Sources: https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/, sales for week of R2-07-20 to R2-07-26, sales for week of R2-11-16 to R2-11-22, sales for week of R3-08-23 to R3-08-29, sales for week of R5-10-09 to R5-10-15, sales for week of R7-03-24 to R7-03-30
The state of video games in the year of our lord 2025 continues to astound me. I continue to wonder when the inflection point was, between the ascending art form, and it's degenerate form we see today. Insane stories nobody wants to hear, ugly unlikable worlds, artless current year lampshading, technical issues out the wazoo, "gameplay" that seems to revolve around trying to hook into as many addiction centers as possible and draping casual-tier game mechanics over top of it as a fig leaf. it's a disgrace.
An obvious flashpoint was Gamergate, and that's been beat to death. But before Gamergate, Bioshock Infinite killed the AAA title as it was understood up until that point.
Arguably, Bioshock Infinite was the perfect game. Gamers loved it, reviewers loved it, it was philosophical with something for everyone (except a few wokies who got upset that it depicted both sides as capable of great evil), and most importantly it sold gangbusters. And it still couldn't earn it's money back (allegedly1), the developers basically closed down, reducing in size to a mere skeleton crew that never released another game. I'm struggling to find good sources for it, but I recall this sent shockwaves through the industry. I remember panicked headlines on Gamasutra which I had been reading at the time for some fucking reason. Suddenly everyone was shitting their pants afraid that they'd been shoveling money into a business model (big budget AAA singleplayer games) that would lose them money. And to my memory, this is when the changes began.
Publishers were desperate to do anything but a AAA singleplayer game which would lose money even if it succeeded because it cost so damned much. You saw more games as a service, more DLC, more online requirements, more courting of controversy to make up for obvious lack of quality. Or maybe the woke shit was just a convenient hack to get free publicity and better reviews from a gaming press that Ziff Davis had centralized in San Francisco and then abandoned. Who's to say.
I'm obsessive. I keep a spreadsheet of all the retrogames I aspire to play again, the year they came out, the issue of Computer Gaming World they got reviewed in, which of my stable of retro PCs I should play them on, etc. Around 2015 the list stops. The last game on it is Rebel Galaxy. The last big budget AAA game on it is Borderlands 2 from 2012. I didn't stop at that date because the games weren't retro enough. I stopped because as I was perusing lists of top reviewed or most popular games year by year, that was roughly the time upwards of 80% of them became Games as a Service. Either always online DRM, a multiplayer focus, or even 10 years of perpetual updates chasing "engagement" made them unsuitable for a list oriented towards posterity and nostalgia. Which once again, is more or less right around the time Bioshock Infinite and it's disastrous aftermath was rippling through the industry.
Arguably, Ubisoft has been fighting the good fight. I make fun of Ubislop titles, and their super generic, open world, casual action adventure mechanics. But they are still ostensibly offline big budget single player games. Which really only leaves woke-baiting as a tactic to try to punch above their weight. Alas.
In the 2000's I think it was, Nintendo announced they were no longer going to devalue their games by reducing their prices. It was customary to release $20 versions of games that had sold a bunch. It was easy in the back half of a consoles life to stock up on all the classics pretty cheap, and brand new to boot. Nintendo argued this created a race to the bottom, and quit doing it. People were upset, accused them of being greedy. Gamer entitlement is quite the sight to see. But in the meantime, I think Nintendo was largely vindicated. The first party games that released for the Switch were all 1000% worth the money, especially when compared to the GaaS titles Xbox or Sony were pushing. One again Nintendo is pissing gamers off raising prices. Switch 2 games look to cost $70 or $80, and the console itself is priced at $450. This could be greed. Or like in the early 00's it's Nintendo insisting on being paid what they are worth. Unless you want them to start whoring it up on the corner of Woke & GaaS.
It was Mass Effect 3. Or the point between it and Andromeda.
You are welcome.
Some time around 2010 seems like the inflection point, yeah.
With BioWare in particular it's shocking how well that cut off-works. You have Baldur's Gate II (2000), Neverwinter Nights (2002), Knights of the Old Republic (2003), Jade Empire (2005), Mass Effect (2007), Dragon Age: Origins (2009), and Mass Effect 2 (2010), all of which are excellent. (I'd accept a quibble on NWN, but even so, the standard is very high.) But once you get past 2010, you have Dragon Age 2 (2011), The Old Republic (2011), Mass Effect 3 (2012), Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017), Anthem (2019), and Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024). The decline in quality is both large and rapid.
Development runs mainly before vs after GFC + OWS being dismantled with identity politics... Is that pure coincidence?
Possible? It's difficult to date exactly when BioWare 'went woke', and it probably depends on how you define 'woke', but I'd say it's probably the early 2010s when they started to get aggressively preachy about it. KotOR and Jade Empire start to dip their toe into the idea of same-sex romance, but very little. DA:O and ME1 have some in the way of social commentary, with ME1 noticeably in favour of liberal humanitarian and cosmopolitan norms (the pretense that Renegade is not the evil path was never very convincing, even in 2007), but DA:O is surprisingly nuanced and fair.
I think DA2 and ME3 are probably where it gets bad, with DA2's ham-fisted approach to social strife, and ME3 was the one that, with Cortez, started directly preaching about marriage. (I note that ME2 and TOR were BioWare's last games to contain exclusively straight romances.) In general ME3 is noticeably more morally simplistic than its predecessors - where in ME2 the genophage was a complicated, ambivalent issue with Mordin making a persuasive defence of it, in ME3 Mordin has switched sides between games, so now all the good guys are on the one side and the pro-genophage camp is just evil. Likewise ME3 is just pro-geth in a way that strips out any kind of nuance from the issue. The writing has noticeably gotten worse. And then DA:I obviously has a couple of preaching scenes, and Veilguard is a dumpster fire.
I always thought the change in the genophage attitudes was strange. Here's a hyper expansionary, brutal race of beasts who previously wreaked havoc on all their neighboring planets. A solution was found. And suddenly the solution is evil just because they're killing each other instead of killing everyone else? And if they get a female leader they're supposed to become peaceful while multiplying like rabbits?
It frustrated me a great deal because ME1 goes to some effort to show us the disaster of the genophage for the krogan through Wrex's eyes - we see what the effects of this were through a sympathetic, beloved character. Then ME2 shows us the other side of the story - we see the case for the genophage through the eyes of another sympathetic, beloved character. Mordin is obviously very humane and cherishes life, and argues for the necessity of the genophage out of what seems like genuine concern for the krogan. Without the genophage, the krogan would either overrun everyone else, or provoke such a brutal reaction that they would be exterminated.
That seems like it's setting up a confrontation between the two of them in ME3, where the player, after having investigated the genophage deeply in the first two games, now has to make a final call on it - and no matter which call you make, a character you probably like, trust, and want to help is going to feel profoundly betrayed. That's excellent.
But BioWare cop out at the last minute, Mordin changes sides, and oops, his old position is now evil. It's lazy and undermines all their previous work.
Tali and Legion are the same issue - two brilliantly sympathetic, beloved characters, each serving as the face of one side of a genuinely challenging conflict, and once again BioWare swerve at the last minute. I find ME3's writing pretty cowardly.
They really bungled the landing with ME3. :/ It could have been epic and could have become known as a work of art. The fan made indoctrination theory would have helped a lot.
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