Ubisoft faces backlash over \u201ctone-deaf\u201d Tom Clancy\u2019s Elite Squad trailer UbisoftUbisoft is, once again, at the center of social justice controversy as the gaming company\u2019s latest mobile game, Tom Clancy\u2019s Elite Squad, has drawn the ire of social media following imagery and messaging shown in its intro video and trailer. There is a fine line between video games providing a break from the real world and actually tackling some of its issues virtually. Ubisoft is no stranger to that line, but has once again seemingly toed the wrong side of it as social media is reacting very strongly to raised fist imagery being coupled with the bad guys in Tom Clancy\u2019s Elite Squad. This controversy has become mightily amplified. https:\/\/twitter.com\/JUSTINtime4aLAF\/status\/1299783482256879617 The new Ubisoft game is a whole new level of ignorance\u2014which is what makes me doubt it was just naivety. Using the BLM movement as a cover up for a terrorist organization causing civil unrest, and having YOU play as the cops to shut this down. That\u2019s pretty sinister. \u2014 SON M. (@bogboogie) August 29, 2020 Ubisoft what have you done\u2026 This is potentially your most tone deaf move yet. How did this get through so many people to eventually make it onto the market? Holy shit. pic.twitter.com\/Be7vY4biYu \u2014 James (@ItsLazBoi) August 29, 2020 The new game\u2019s intro explains that you, the player, are expected to help thwart a violent, evil movement spurred by a sinister \u201cUMBRA\u201d group that is capitalizing on a gullible base of civil unrest to create a \u201cnew world order.\u201d Using terrorism and social media to turn the protesting masses into willing co-conspirators, UMBRA desires to \u201cdiscredit world leaders\u201d in a \u201ccampaign of chaos.\u201d Already a touchy subject that would need to be approached with much nuance and care given the current sociopolitical climate, Ubisoft painted this picture a little too boldly by using the raised fist as UMBRA\u2019s logo \u2014 a direct parallel to the imagery used by the Black Lives Matter movement. https:\/\/twitter.com\/BestJakeYoung\/status\/1298986820235964420 In response to the upsurge of backlash, Ubisoft has attempted to make amends by removing raised fist from its intro sequence. As they explained, it \u201cwas insensitive and harmful in both its inclusion and how it was portrayed.\u201d An update regarding Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad: pic.twitter.com\/G6Hb1SO7Gx \u2014 Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) August 29, 2020 But that hasn\u2019t been enough for critics, who maintain that removing the imagery doesn\u2019t fix the underlying tones of the game. By equating UMBRA with a protest movement and asking the player to eliminate them, people believe Ubisoft has legitimized anti-BLM rhetoric and created a virtual playground for those sentiments to be embraced upon. Further, the game\u2019s writers have joined in disapproval of the imagery associated with their writing. https:\/\/twitter.com\/chetfaliszek\/status\/1299784299554549760 Angry about the use of the black power fist here. I worked on the character bios and was informed that UMBRA is supposed to be a James Bond villain organisation, not something that looks like what the q conspiracy people think is happening. Irresponsibly bad optics. https:\/\/t.co\/7Vi6Crry19 \u2014 Brenden is @ cohost, gamedev.place, bluesky (@BrendenGibbons) August 29, 2020 As of yet, Ubisoft has not clarified exactly how it expects the game\u2019s narrative to be received once it is fleshed out at a deeper level than the intro sequence. It would feel entirely possible for this reflection of the real world to provide an interesting, nuanced storyline, but it appears that all confidence has been lost in the title following the brunt imagery of its intro sequence. For now, all we know is that the raised fist imagery is being removed. Although likely a positive step, the rest of the game now faces an uphill battle as overwhelming consensus finds the new title\u2019s themes to have been poorly articulated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ubisoft faces backlash over \u201ctone-deaf\u201d Tom Clancy\u2019s Elite Squad trailer UbisoftUbisoft is, once again, at the center of social justice controversy as the gaming company\u2019s latest mobile game, Tom Clancy\u2019s Elite Squad, has drawn the ire of social media following imagery and messaging shown in its intro video and trailer. There is a fine line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}