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So lately there has been an issue with Far Cry 5’s announcement, and the “issue” has been geared towards the antagonists and theme of the game. You see, the game takes place in a rural town in Montana (a bit of a far cry from your typical Far Cry game), and the antagonists are a part of an extreme right-wing cult (this can easily be seen in the promotional image of the antagonists sitting at a table à La “The Last Supper”).

Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem. I mean, the redneck cult trope is a bit old hat and has been beaten to the point of just being boring. Nevertheless, it could still be your typical yearly Ubisoft sandbox game, and it’d be okay at least. However, quite a few people are jumping on the opportunity to capitalize on the game from a political standpoint. I wouldn’t want to say the game itself is trying to push an agenda, at the same time, given that Ubisoft’s previous Game Designer and Writer, CJ Kershner, has said in the past that “If you are against social justice, you are going to hate some of the things we wrote for Far Cry 4”, it leads me to believe that on some level, they make their choices due to the political climate. So this doesn’t help the very anti-conservative environment one can see day-to-day.

Nevertheless, I’m not one to make assumptions without some bit of evidence based on what’s been shown from “Far Cry 5” uptil now. So for now, I’m just going to pretend that Ubisoft just chose a generic trope for their villain and focus on the present day. Even so, that sure didn’t stop everyone’s favorite Literally Who, Anita Sarkeesian from trying to make the game about white supremacy. Ms. Sarkeesian is curious if FC5 critically engages the white supremacy in militia movements and not just using it as a backdrop. Later, she goes on to state that white supremacy is maintained by violence. Well, in all fairness, it’s kind of hard to imagine a game critiquing something which you win by being better at violence, right?

“You mean like war related games?” Yes, and there are plenty of war-like games on the market, and technically you win a war by being better at violence (along with a number of other things, of course). Nevertheless, aside from that glaring contradiction, Anita failed to give us any evidence that white supremacy is inherent in militia groups. While it is a fact that most militia groups are right-wing, that doesn’t make them inherently white supremacist. It just feels as though this is another attack on the right-wing by a political figure-head because making everything you don’t like the most extreme version of your enemy is easier than just shrugging and saying “It’s not for me, but go for it”.

Hell, even Game Informer didn’t try to make Far Cry 5’s announcement about identity politics. Furthermore, one of their writers (David Milner) posted saying that he loves how “racist edgelords” are upset because the antagonists are white and want more diversity. Maybe I’m just out of the loop, but I haven’t seen that. What I have seen is people who are bored with the trope and that people see this as a blatant attack on a political group that Ubisoft disagrees with (given their employees past statements about previous games).

Anyways, Ubisoft’s trailer for “Far Cry 5” dropped about two days ago. Well, I watched it and it seems alright (in my opinion), to say the least. Just generic, given how often I’ve seen people use the Christian redneck cult theme. Frankly, the theme was old before Outlast II dropped, and I’ve just grown exhausted in it. I’m no fan of Far Cry, but I don’t hate it either. We’ll just have to wait for the release (or for Ubisoft’s employees to say something ridiculous) before we start talking about the political overtones the game has. Maybe it won’t be so bad. I just hope it does something to fix the genericism of the Christian redneck trope by doing something new with it.

And with that said, what’s your take on this matter? And what do you think about “Far Cry 5” so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Source:

Ubisoft

Feminist Frequency

David Milner

Supperdude 9

Ian Miles Cheong

Game informer

Credit:

Robin Ek – Editor



***Disclaimer***

This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers’ (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

***Disclosure***

I do not identify as right-wing. I do not necessarily clash personally with Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5. I am not a fan of Far Cry but do not hate it either.



Justin Easler

Senior editor

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @masterjayshay

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Tags: Dan Hay, Far Cry, Far Cry 5, PC games, PS4, SJWs, Ubisoft, Xbox One