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From the creators of "Mechanical Apartheid", comes...
- Thread starter Odrion
- Start date
EvilKatarn
Member
You mean mechanical apartheid.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
the "S" in augs seems unnecessary
also, fuck Eidos Montreal
also, fuck Eidos Montreal
gigantor21
Member
What we've seen of this game's approach to social commentary has been a ham-fisted shit show. I'm dreading how it will play out in the final product as a whole. -_-
TC McQueen
Member
Seems like a pretty obvious case of scifi commenting on real life issues. Can't be any worse than the shit we've seen in stuff like Star Trek into Darkness.
Revolutionary
Member
It's called concept art for a reason. If it's actually in the game, then that's another case entirely.
And_Gignac
Member
"Augs" sounds like a would-be pejorative slur.
I hope you didn't value your account.
Diprosalic
Banned
"augs lives matters"
i'm not a native english speaker but aren't there too many "s" in this?
i'm not a native english speaker but aren't there too many "s" in this?
Whoops, if a mod could fix this that'd be great.
Human Revolution was ham-fisted anyway, and I'm sure Mankind Divided will be the same. The whole idea that people would be aggressively prejudiced against people with mechanical limbs is just stupid to begin with, and it's only made worse that literally every character you meet is obsessed with talking about augmentations every second of the day. Even the fucking cereal in the games world has something do with augmentations - it was like a toy world.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Broken Joystick
At least you can talk. Who are you?
I get some people might be upset because it's close to the "all lives matter" bullshit but it's not as if they haven't set a precedent for doing this. It's social commentary, the quality of which is to be determined.
Yep.....not to mention how it started in Mankind Divided is the incident where tons of Augmented people went crazy and killed....I don't know, thousands (tens or hundreds of)? Comparisons need to be cautious to situations that aren't remotely the same in real life.
Yeah, that's how this works. One artist makes something and no one else on the team is aware of it.
Not really.
But yeah, twitter is already losing their minds. It's... Ridiculous.
Nice concept art that draws real world parallels and references, if not almost spotlights, an important real-world movement. Oh deary, let's be offended.
I mean... Jebus.
It's concept art - I wouldn't have released it, but the main thing has to be is it in the game, or marketing materials really.
I would figure concept art sometimes contains some shit to set the vibe - not necessarily tastefully, but create the vibe for designers and stuff to go off of.
Pretty lazy though.
I would figure concept art sometimes contains some shit to set the vibe - not necessarily tastefully, but create the vibe for designers and stuff to go off of.
Pretty lazy though.
Piston Hyundai
Member
you mean "Augs Lives Matters" which is some fantastic language
If they were allowed to post it, then it's been endorsed by the company.
I think the reason people are upset is that there are actual dead people who led to the development of the Black Lives Matter movement.
It's weak and lazy writing. Even if you are not bothered by it's insensitive nature (and some players likely will be), there are better ways to communicate the ideas they're talking about.
I'll reserve final judgement until I've played the game, but it is awkward and insensitive to explicitly reference recent historical events like apartheid and BLM instead of just alluding to them.
Sci-fi and fiction is a wonderful device for exploring ideas related to real world events. It's best done without explicitly stating that's what you're doing, especially when it's around such heated subjects as the ones DXMD is casually throwing around.
Edit: Haha wow, people saying it's "just concept art" by "one artist". It's official marketing materials released by Square-Enix.
I doubt you'd have the entire development team partaking in a piece of concept art.
... I like the piece overall, mind. And am not personally offended, but people can be offended about what they want.
What do I know?
I'm just a man wearing a diaper. ¯\_(ツ
_/¯
Again, it's one piece of concept art. It has absolutely nothing to do with writing in any way whatsoever. The conclusions being drawn are... Somewhat nuts.
On one hand I wonder if we are so conditioned to video games actively avoiding any and all forms of current-event controversy that we now deem it to be gauche when it does pop up, even if we don't really have a sense of whether it will be used intelligently in game.
On the other hand, my gut feeling tells me that I would have known better if I were the team in charge of putting this out, and I personally wouldn't have presented this image in its current form.
On the other hand, my gut feeling tells me that I would have known better if I were the team in charge of putting this out, and I personally wouldn't have presented this image in its current form.
mullet2000
Member
So, genuine question here:
I've never really seen the issue with the term "mechanical apartheid", and I'm also having trouble seeing the issue here. Can someone explain it to me?
From what I've seen of Deus Ex they haven't really misused the terms, or used them in a way meant to mock their present day counterparts. The words have history to them, yes, but I'm struggling to see why that makes them in "poor taste" to use at all. Mechanical Apartheid seems pretty descriptive of what they're trying to convey, honestly. One of sci-fi's biggest strengths is portraying modern day issues in a different setting. It's a bit straight forward to the point of being cheesy, yeah. But I don't think the potentially cheesy part what people are taking issue with.
To be perfectly honest it feels like a situation where if I saw one of these terms in a sci-fi novel no one would bat an eyelash, but for some reason it being in a AAA game is opening it up to additional criticism.
I've never really seen the issue with the term "mechanical apartheid", and I'm also having trouble seeing the issue here. Can someone explain it to me?
From what I've seen of Deus Ex they haven't really misused the terms, or used them in a way meant to mock their present day counterparts. The words have history to them, yes, but I'm struggling to see why that makes them in "poor taste" to use at all. Mechanical Apartheid seems pretty descriptive of what they're trying to convey, honestly. One of sci-fi's biggest strengths is portraying modern day issues in a different setting. It's a bit straight forward to the point of being cheesy, yeah. But I don't think the potentially cheesy part what people are taking issue with.
To be perfectly honest it feels like a situation where if I saw one of these terms in a sci-fi novel no one would bat an eyelash, but for some reason it being in a AAA game is opening it up to additional criticism.
Drawing "real world parallels" doesn't magically absolve writing and world building as being shit.
lightskintwin
Banned
I don't know, the idea is actually interesting. If they actually pursue that in the game, I hope they go all way in exploring those issues and themes rather than using it as merely a cool backdrop for the protagonist to mindlessly kill people.
Ninja Scooter
Member
I'll say the same thing when they did their "mechanical apartheid/bionic holocaust" thing last time around to the preemptive "backlash to the backlash" already starting in this thread, you can think this is a really stupid and tacky move without being "offended!". That is possible you know. Not everyone who thinks this is dumb is part of "outrage culture"
Yes. And thus reminding people of said movement... Is a bad thing? I mean bloody hell we should all be reminded that black lives matter at a constant basis. Because all lives matter. Even augs'!
(I think?)
chaobreaker
Member
Man, and I thought the digital apartheid stuff was in bad taste.
To be honest, if Eidos Montreal depicted these allegories of real life discrimination and subjugation as anything more background dressing to their third-person shooter stealth action game, then I would respect them more. In Human Revolution, it just came off as really tacky and provocative in the same way Banksy graffiti art is.
Augs Lives Matter is stupidly tone-deaf.
To be honest, if Eidos Montreal depicted these allegories of real life discrimination and subjugation as anything more background dressing to their third-person shooter stealth action game, then I would respect them more. In Human Revolution, it just came off as really tacky and provocative in the same way Banksy graffiti art is.
Augs Lives Matter is stupidly tone-deaf.
QuantumBro
Banned
Game's out in less than a month, just wait until then so we can judge it fairly.
I'd rather have more games attempt to deal with these real world issues and fail miserably at it, then to ignore them completely. Especially in an RPG.
I'd rather have more games attempt to deal with these real world issues and fail miserably at it, then to ignore them completely. Especially in an RPG.
Woof. I wish you the best of luck figuring this out.
Yeah but it's concept art - not necessarily in the game.
If it is, yeah that's over the line considering people died and are still dying, but as a kind of shorthand for an idea from one co-worker to another, a purely internal thing it's...well, it's effective at least.
Phrozenflame500
Member
I'm not really against the concept of using real world terminology to describe fictional social conflicts, but the augmented/black people parallel just isn't very good. A big part of modern-day racism is historical precedent; black people are de facto poor and segregated because historically they were legally poor and segregated.
In the case of augments, the augmented should have been the *privileged* in a society, considering the material cost of acquiring and maintaining augments in this universe. Combined with the fact that augs aren't intergenerational the comparison isn't really the same and isn't really valid. I'm not really offended, but it does smack of lazy writing to me.
In the case of augments, the augmented should have been the *privileged* in a society, considering the material cost of acquiring and maintaining augments in this universe. Combined with the fact that augs aren't intergenerational the comparison isn't really the same and isn't really valid. I'm not really offended, but it does smack of lazy writing to me.
Inferno313
Banned
It's still being released by Eidos as official marketing for the game. If they value inclusivity and black lives as a company than this is, like Digital Apartheid, a poor showing.
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