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Ubisoft says games have 'No Soul'

Thiagosc777

Member


I was not sure about this one. So I decided to create it in the off-topic forum, because it is not related to any game in particular.

Basically it's just Razorfist commenting on what a Ubisoft boss said in an interview, something that might help explain their game design decisions lately. Also, it refers to the industry as a whole, not only Ubisoft.
 
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Pagusas

Elden Member
Design by committee usually leads to that. We see it in mass-produced films for the masses too.
 
gaming is not about entertainment, it's about learning.

That statement is correct.

“Some board games and card games have higher benefits than video games because when you play the board game you are analyzing people’s faces. Do I want to cooperate? Do I want to believe in you when you are in character?

“This knowledge – gained while you are having fun – is very beneficial for your life because it will improve the way you read people's faces. We have to understand how we can change games and the rules to have this kind of benefit.“

Also correct - this is one of the main functions of play.

There's nothing wrong with his statements. This is about giving the players more agency, more tools and more freedom, a recent mandate which was detailed at GDC and is what made Origins and Odyssey so open and systemic. People only read the title and take it as "Ubisoft wants to rewrite history".
 

hecatomb

Banned
No soul, lol. Compared to what, your company making 100 assassin creed games and like nothing else.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
I don't really get why he's getting so mad. But maybe someone who goes by "The Rageaholic" just needs things to pretend to be outraged about.
 

oagboghi2

Member
I don't really get why he's getting so mad. But maybe someone who goes by "The Rageaholic" just needs things to pretend to be outraged about.
Did you actually watch the video, or did you see his name, and then came running gown to inform us of that fact
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Most people aren't looking for a spiritual experience, just some glitzy lights and explosions and recognizable voice-actors. Ubisoft is more than happy to grind developers beneath their plowshares to meet that end.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
Did you actually watch the video, or did you see his name, and then came running gown to inform us of that fact

Yeh I watched it. He spent a lot of the time making jokes and not a lot of time making real points. I get that rants are a popular form of entertainment for people on youtube but it's never really done much for me.
 

Thiagosc777

Member
Seeing how most games from now on will be "Games as a service" openworld loot games with social justice tacked on, I can see myself dedicating my time more to retro gaming. Maybe I can play some games I may have missed on older systems, etc.

Think about it, they turned Assassin's Creed into a slot machine. The same thing happened with Ghost Recon earlier. I am pretty sure that if they made a Splinter Cell sequel it'd be in the same style (openworld/loot focused RPG).
 
Ubisoft is biggest existing game manufacture. Of course for them games have no souls and it shows in products they release.
 
When Ubisoft wanted to they could turn out an emotional gem every once in a while. Valiant Hearts was one of the most emotional games they've ever released and shows that if they really wanted to, they could put out some special stuff.



I think they still have it in them to release a Prince of Persia Sands of Time quality level game if the teams were given a chance. Plus Mario+Rabids was actually a pretty good game with a lot of charm.
 
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nemiroff

Gold Member
I don't really get why he's getting so mad. But maybe someone who goes by "The Rageaholic" just needs things to pretend to be outraged about.

He's not mad or outraged per se. The no bs metal energy, clear direct articulation and humour is his shtick, And not the least he usually have some damn fine points, which you conveniently keep ignoring because you dont like..his shtick.

But I digress.. i fear Ubisoft is long gone and lost in trendy politics, and It's just going to get worse from here.
 

Lunk

Member
Any company that is too big will make soulless content that are too big and risky so they have to follow trends to secure success.
Any company that is too small will make pretentious indie games where they're in over their heads with a novel concept that stretches the game thin.

Come back AA :(
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
He's not mad or outraged per se. The no bs metal energy, clear direct articulation and humour is his shtick, And not the least he usually have some damn fine points, which you conveniently keep ignoring because you dont like..his shtick.

EDIT: Actually, it's dumb of me to start and argument over this. Apologies for that.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
The reality is that its all about the presence (or absence) of an authorial voice; which is of course anathema to companies like Ubi who largely specialize in huge projects that have to be designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Singular viewpoints provide the most distinctive result, and distinctiveness is often connoted with divisiveness. Look at Kojima's stuff for example, much as the mechanical design of his games is as frictionless and mass-market appealing as any other AAA product, his peculiar directorial sensibilities tend to overshadow that.

Personally I think that's great, which is why I'll give his stuff a shot anytime, whereas I haven't bought a UBI game in over a decade.
 
Ah Razorfist, bringing down the hammer in his always alluring alliterative assonant attitude. Godspeed you glorious wrangler of words.

The notion that education should always be 'fun' is a misguided illness of our modern society that is heavily orientated towards enjoyment. Nobody who takes his education seriously is concerned with the fun aspect of learning. Generating knowledge is a long and oftentimes tedious process that is often shunned by those who'd rather remain in their blissful ignorance. Adapting your own convictions and views in order to accommodate new information is a very difficult process, otherwise we wouldn't have millions of people living in their own intellectual bubbles struggling to adopt the truth.

When it finally dawned on Einstein that he had lost the argument against Bohr and Heisenberg he was thrown into a long period of depression and intellectual recession. Such is the sacrifice of education. Sure, sometimes learning can be fun too, but in most cases it is not and it is certainly no necessary condition for learning. Hascoet is either a fool for suggesting otherwise or simply delusional for thinking that the little nuggets of cursory knowledge that his games convey represent the core business of education.

I've seen less lockstep in a Nazi line-dance.

maxresdefault.jpg
 
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Sygma

Member
Ubisoft is biggest existing game manufacture. Of course for them games have no souls and it shows in products they release.

I mean between Rayman, Mario + Rabbids, their insane new iteration of Trials going on and to an extent their adherence to the weird / extreme kind of pop culture, there's quite a point to be made on the opposite end heh ?

Watch Dogs 2 had plenty of personality, but inbetween we're getting Far Cry and whatnot so yeah

Speaking about games with a bit of soul, I'd like getting a new EA Big kinda studio. Bring back SSX / Freekstyle etc
 
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Ballthyrm

Member
By "No soul" he means "things that only the video game medium can deliver".

I tend to agree, most video games don't utilize the medium at all. There is no link between the medium and the message. IMHO, the language of game is interactivity, a player action get a game reaction, sorry but most games are deaf to player inputs.

Games that do interactivity well are usually unique and games we remember.

It doesn't have to be fun, it doesn't have to be for every body, but please attack the argument which the video doesn't do in the slightest.
 

Roni

Gold Member
Seeing how most games from now on will be "Games as a service" openworld loot games with social justice tacked on, I can see myself dedicating my time more to retro gaming. Maybe I can play some games I may have missed on older systems, etc.

Think about it, they turned Assassin's Creed into a slot machine. The same thing happened with Ghost Recon earlier. I am pretty sure that if they made a Splinter Cell sequel it'd be in the same style (openworld/loot focused RPG).

Different strokes for different folks. I, for one, can't wait for the new Splinter Cell. It will probably feature all of the recent innovations Ubisoft made to their core design and I can't wait to sneak through an open world all by myself being a bad ass.
 

Fbh

Member
This is how I imagine the room looks like where all big budget Ubisoft games are designed:
1.jpg


They go over graphs about focus testing results, trends and social media while the guy on the left with his computer makes sure every bland and generic feature on his "open world formula" checkbox gets checked
 

Grimmrobe

Member
Ubisoft best dev/pub working today.

Siege, Wildlands, For Honor: all masterpieces.

Division, Far Cry: cool af.

All soul top to bottom. Pure art.

People who hate them are communist hippies.
 
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Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
Holy shit, the irony.

An entertaining statement coming from Ubisoft because if I could sum them up, I’d say Ubisoft is the Michael Bay of developers — their games are shiny and pretty and flashy with huge budgets and are puked out to the imbecilic masses who blindly consume them but have zero heart and soul and are the furthest thing from meaningful art that is humanly possible. I’ve felt more from Pixel-Art indie games than I have from any of Ubisofts nonsense, and I HATE PIXEL ART Indie games.

Shut the fuck up Ubisoft, you social justice pandering, overly focus tested, creatively bankrupt, greedy assclowns.
 
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A.Romero

Member
Isn't Asscreed popular right now?

I've never seen what is the issue with Ubi games. If anything I'm glad they were able to escape the acquisition.
 

sublimit

Banned
Jesus Christ i watched 10 seconds of that video and almost got a migraine.

As for the thread's topic i couldn't dissagree more. I've played plenty of games this gen that had a lot of soul. Ironically none of them were Ubisoft games though.
 

Dthomp

Member
I mean I'd probably agree with the sentiment, however it shouldn't be UBI saying it since their games have lacked any soul or depth for a very very long time.
 
I mean between Rayman, Mario + Rabbids, their insane new iteration of Trials going on and to an extent their adherence to the weird / extreme kind of pop culture, there's quite a point to be made on the opposite end heh ?

Watch Dogs 2 had plenty of personality, but inbetween we're getting Far Cry and whatnot so yeah

Speaking about games with a bit of soul, I'd like getting a new EA Big kinda studio. Bring back SSX / Freekstyle etc

Can You please remind me when was last Rayman game released?

Well let me check - 2013 that's 5 years ago - since that time only thing they did with it is port it to new platforms.
There are also token signs of creativity in Tales of Valour and Child of Light which are always mentioned by Ubi defenders and which also lie forgotten.

But anyway all examples of creative Ubi games are smaller productions made on the side meanwhile core of their bussiness is their assembly line of Assassins Creed/Watchodogs , Farcry and their GaAS games and let's not forget about all those studios changed into manufacturers where they work on another version of Trials, Anno, Settlers.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
ubi said that?

man if you want the most generic ass dead fish cookie cutter soulless prefab rehashed cow milked excel sheet shit game

go for ubi .
they are far worse then EA
compared to ubi ea is mother theresa
 
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Skyr

Member
Ubisoft open world games incarnate everything I hate about today’s game designe choices. They are the very definition of soulless games.
 
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wipeout364

Member
I think they are pretty solid. I would put Bethesda, square and Ubisoft on the same level. I’m not gonna say everything they do is gold, but I genuinely look forward a lot of games they put out. I think the art label has always been problematic, companies should make things that they want to and that they think people would want to play ; if it gets deemed as art in retrospect great if not who cares.
 

SonicSleuth

Member
I don't know who is more stupid, the original ranting moron or the people who assumed he was accurate in his quote. Here's the entire interview, you dullards: https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/1...e-future-of-assassins-creed-and-splinter-cell

"You know what is missing in this industry? A soul. Video games are about gaming, and gaming is not about entertainment, it's about learning. When you learn, you have fun. But when we are just entertainment we are losing something. I question the team about what real benefits the player will take away from the game for their real life. Right now, we don’t do enough in this area. This is what excites me, how to make something that lets you have the most fun while also having something beneficial for your life."
 

Raven117

Gold Member
I disagree. They aren't soulless, they are safe. Any risks taken are calculated as a result of focus testing or other gaming trends.

I have enjoyed my time with almost every Ubisoft offering since The Division, and it does not seem to be slowing down. Do I LOVE any of them? No. Are they good video games? Yes.
 
Jesus Christ i watched 10 seconds of that video and almost got a migraine.

I feel like hes seen alot of cocaine.

Anyways I have my select few Ubisoft series I gravitate towards, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed and the South Park games, For Honor was decent. Assassin's Creed not so much lately until playing Odyssey which has felt like abit of the best of everything and a bunch of influence from Black Flag but set in Greece, definitely a step in the right direction for the series and paced actually decently for the story. I didn't enjoy Watch Dogs, I wont care about The Division or Rainbow Siege.
 

Sygma

Member
Can You please remind me when was last Rayman game released?

Well let me check - 2013 that's 5 years ago - since that time only thing they did with it is port it to new platforms.
There are also token signs of creativity in Tales of Valour and Child of Light which are always mentioned by Ubi defenders and which also lie forgotten.

But anyway all examples of creative Ubi games are smaller productions made on the side meanwhile core of their bussiness is their assembly line of Assassins Creed/Watchodogs , Farcry and their GaAS games and let's not forget about all those studios changed into manufacturers where they work on another version of Trials, Anno, Settlers.

Yeah, and the rayman team is on BGE 2 anyway, might have a comeback but its doubtful unless its something something rabbids. On that end mario / donkey kong rabbids is simply amazing tho. Cant say that the game is bland
 
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brian0057

Banned
UbiArt > AAA Ubisoft.
Valiant Hearts, Child of Light, Rayman: Origins and Legends are the best games Ubisoft has made in recent memory.

Blood Dragon is the last AAA Ubisoft game I've ever enjoyed.
 
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