E3 2012 - OMG L337 BBQ

[Locke cole]

Sometimes, I forget just how many freaking DS carts I have. Seriously. A whole freaking lot of them. Have yet to even begin approaching that with 3DS titles.

[Solid Snake]

Okay, okay, okay.

I'm sorry to pull a Liz...
No, wait.
I'm not sorry.
Everyone should be pulling a Liz over this.

Why the fuck has Square Enix of all companies descended into such completely ludicrous overt racism.

I know I was supposed to just be wowed by the technical prowess of that demo but instead I'm just offended. And really upset that Square now has this poll out asking people if they want this to be the next Final Fantasy, and if they found the main female character 'sufficiently attractive.'
OH NOES GUYS WHAT IF OUR HEROINE ISN'T PRETTY ENOUGH

They didn't even bother to give the brown-skinned bad guys a unique aesthetic appearance or weapons that actually fit the sci-fi or fantasy genres. They are carbon-copy cutouts of Al Qaeda operatives wielding AK-47s in a world with dragons.

Oh and the heroes? The heroes are all Caucasian.
Of course!

[Locke cole]

The "heroes" are also performing strange rituals for a demon lord.

I thought the AK guys were our heroes until Hooded Cultist #4 pulled off her hood.

Aside from that, I don't really feel like giving much thought to the thing.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Locke cole

The "heroes" are also performing strange rituals for a demon lord.

I thought the AK guys were our heroes until Hooded Cultist #4 pulled off her hood.

I think you're inferring far too much into a tech demo that was apparently created simply to sate the desires of Call of Duty fans to show dem brown-skinned terrorists who's boss.

[Locke cole]

I'm just saying, if this were a full game, I'd fully expect for Miss Cultist to find out halfway through the game that Agni is evil, and her oh-so-beloved Grandmaster was trying to take over the world or kill all humans or something.

...I liked the direwolf serum.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Locke cole

I'm just saying, if this were a full game, I'd fully expect for Miss Cultist to find out halfway through the game that Agni is evil, and her oh-so-beloved Grandmaster was trying to take over the world or kill all humans or something.

Yeah, you might be right.

...The problem is that what we've just seen was a tech demo for a product that (most likely) will not be released as a full game.

And in the context of this being released as a demo, we shouldn't be asking ourselves "What deeper narrative shenanigans might be going on here?", as there really aren't any. The tech demo is a stand-alone work; we can only judge it based on what we can actually see and what intent Square Enix possessed in showing us what they have shown us.

And even if this was a full game, there's still all kinds of questions like: Why not design a unique or original, fantasy or science fiction aesthetic for the Middle East terrorists lookalikes? Why give them AK-47s instead of fantastical laser guns, lightsabers, or otherworldly weapons? Why cover the faces of the 'terrorist' faction -- essentially dehumanizing them, with stereotypical 'Arabic' garb no less -- while only allowing the 'heroes' (who are all Caucasian) emotional depth in moments that expose their feelings through facial tics?

Like, there are so many creative ways you can just remove the racism outright from the equation. Have both sides, or neither side, appear ethnically Arabic. Simply use the fantastical world setting as an excuse to ditch any ethnic stereotype whatsoever and have people of different races appear. At the very least, have the 'terrorists' appear in genre-appropriate clothing and resist the urge to have them appear to be Call of Duty villain clones.

The fact that Square Enix chose this exact approach, when they didn't have to, in the context of a standalone tech demo, suggests that Square Enix just wanted to get people's blood boiling in anticipation of a new snazzy graphics engine.
And what better way to manipulate the average American videogamer into really diggin' your fictitious two minute storyline than by superimposing a "attractive white heroine VS Osama bin Laden's cronies" element of overt racism?

...In other words, Square Enix faced a problem: How do you really invest the average American E3 visitor into remembering your tech demo when you're trying to tell the tech demo's story in a mere matter of minutes? Square Enix's goal is for the tech demo to make a positive, lasting impression.

One way to do so is with by piggybacking off a storyline everyone's already familiar with. They did just that with the FFVII demo. Everyone loves FFVII, so it's easy enough to create very short material within the context of that world and expect people to intuitively follow along because they're already connected to the characters and the world.

Another way to do so? Base your villains on a character design you know that the audience will intuitively respond with hatred against. You want to evoke an immediate negative response. You want the audience to intuitively like the hero (hence in this case, she's an attractive Caucasian woman who gets to emote) and intuitively dislike the villains (hence in this case, they're fuckin' Arabs in Arabic clothing because fuck dem Arabs.)

The whole tech demo's success therefore hinges on racism. It's piggybacking off of racist stereotypes to tell its story within limited temporal constraints. If the villains had original aesthetic motifs, if you could see their faces and if they had real personalities, you might struggle in a mere few moments to accurately identify them as villains or to become invested in rooting for their defeat. But if they look like Al Qaeda operatives? Fuck, man. The average American already wants them dead! Right?!?!?

[Arcanum]

I'm with Locke on this one. The entire time I got the impression that the cultists were the bad folks. Actually, my thoughts (nearly) verbatim were "what the fuck is snake talking about, the roles in this trailer are completely reversed from the stereotypical norm."

Also I'm not surprised about the poll and the "is our chick hot enough" option because Squeenix has always been about catering to the nerdboner demographic*.



*this is based off my very limited knowledge of squeenix games and having seen a good share of final fantasy trailers.

[Bells]

*raises hand* Uhhhn.... what are you guys talking about? I feel like there is a page missing in this thread or something...

[Regulus Tera]

There are better things to bash Square for regarding that Final Fantasy tech demo than the "racism" or whatever card you are trying to play here. Mainly: the dudebroing going on and the fact that they built and entire new engine for next-gen after they only used the engine they spent years fixing for only three or four games this gen.

Square Enix is an incompetently managed company and you should be glad you will only see the results of that tech demo in 2016 at the earliest.

[Bells]

And if you want to rage abou Squeenix doing something, well, why not this game they are making for tablets then...? That's probably Rageable