Cool that he's at least moving on on his own terms, and hopefully doing what he wants. Good luck.
The countless comments attacking N'Gai or attacking anyone who disagrees are really disappointing, though. First, no one has to agree or like his views/opinions, but turning that into personal attacks, saying shit like "good riddance" is just pathetic and unnecessary. Second, those commenters who are so eager to defend N'Gai for any perceived slight/disagreement, and/or call anyone who didn't agree with N'Gai's take on RE5 "stupid", "ignorant", otherwise less intelligent, or as that snobby Dubious Quality blog people have posted here stated: "ignorant dickheads", you lot are no better. At least Totilo and a few others were able to be civil about it...
It's entirely possible to have read what N'Gai wrote, watched the trailer, and still not agree with his view. I think, given my background, experiences, and not knowing what it is to be a black man in the US, I see and understand what N'Gai was pointing out, and he's right developers do have to be careful about that stuff if they want to be PC and please everyone. There's nothing wrong with seeing that trailer and maybe thinking of America's past with slavery, or worrying where they might be going with the game/trailer. That's reasonable. He's right that the trailer could definitely be misunderstood by someone who wasn't familiar with the RE games, or hadn't seen anything else about the game.
But in the end slave thing isn't there. They're black people in a fictional African country. Oh noes. And yes a white guy is killing them. But it's still not really racist as I see it. They aren't just normal black people. I've never seen a black person walk around like they do(like...zombies?), attack people that way, bleed from their eyes, etc. Maybe I just haven't met these people yet... They are zombies, and zombies exist to be killed in games/movies. Would it be racist if the protagonist were African? If the zombies were white? And yes, I've read countless times that "it's not about their race", etc. But to me that does play a factor. If the natives weren't black in skin color, I doubt N'Gai would've reacted the way he did.
If you can't handle N'Gai expressing his opinion on a game, or someone not agreeing just because it's safe and trendy to side with him, GTFO. Simple as that.
I met Croal at Pax (also met Crecente as well). We chatted a bit about his article on the racial implication of the RE5 trailer. I'm glad to see him go on to bigger things, though I will miss his NW column.
He already started "helping" developers in 2007 when he smashed Resident Evil 5 for being racist. He is indirectly responsible for the chinese guys in the african villages of RE 5 and the existence of Sheva Alomar. lol
Although, I agree with not having time to play anymore, it´s kinda hard now to find the time.
At the risk of sounding like a girlfriend too proud to admit she is bothered by a break-up, I really hope this works out well for him, and he finds what he's looking for.
On one hand, I'm glad that he'll still be writing. On the other, I'm worried about the state of games journalism and criticism. Between the recent death of EGM and subsequent contraction of 1UP and the tendency of games journalists to move into the development side of the industry, it seems as though games writing may never develop into criticism, rather than the current combination of news, previews, and reviews.
There's nothing wrong with the writing as it stands; many, including Kotaku, are working toward its next evolution. But with a shrinking industry, the higher-ups want guarantees, not experimentation. Losing so many quality journalists can't be helping.
Losing writers to development is in some ways the worst. During the '50s and '60s, when film was coming into its own as an art form, anyone who moved from writing to production was still able to offer honest criticism about other films. With games, NDAs and the appearance of conflict of interest make that nigh impossible. How can a former journalist who is now employed by Sony ever offer a transparently fair critique of an XBox game? He can't, of course. Even if he were somehow contractually allowed to publish his thoughts, they'd be ignored by the audience if he had anything even remotely negative to say.
I am happy for N'Gai and all the journalists who have taken the step he has, but I hope that we can continue to move forward even with all these changes.
Calling Resident Evil 5 Racist totally discredited him as a journalist in my eyes. But ya know... Killin Spaniards in Resident Evil 4 was A-OK, an not racist...
@Nickj360: Nick, sorry to pick on you at random, but I can't help myself. Lots of people comment on things without checking with the source material. This happened a lot with the N'Gai-RE5 thing. Disagreeing with the guy is fine, but it really pays to determine what you're disagreeing with. He never said RE5 was racist. And, in his very first comments about the game's trailer, he talked about how and why his reaction to the RE5 trailer was different than his reaction to RE4 and its Spanish setting. You still may think he's out of his mind, but I urge you to check in on what he actually said.
i'm about ready to gladly quit my big corporate game development job to move more toward the bitching about games side. at the end of the day, i reckon you get more done complaining about shit in public than you get complaining about it to the people on the inside :-/
People really need to let the RE 5 thing go for christ sakes. It's not like he insulted your mom or something.It should be pretty easy for someone with even a small amount of functioning grey matter to just say "I don't agree" and just be done with it and move on.
N'Gai was one of the most intelligent writers out there. I didn't always agree with him, but I always respected the fact that he tried to keep his writing was above dick jokes and snarky bullshit.
03/04/09
03/04/09
The countless comments attacking N'Gai or attacking anyone who disagrees are really disappointing, though. First, no one has to agree or like his views/opinions, but turning that into personal attacks, saying shit like "good riddance" is just pathetic and unnecessary. Second, those commenters who are so eager to defend N'Gai for any perceived slight/disagreement, and/or call anyone who didn't agree with N'Gai's take on RE5 "stupid", "ignorant", otherwise less intelligent, or as that snobby Dubious Quality blog people have posted here stated: "ignorant dickheads", you lot are no better. At least Totilo and a few others were able to be civil about it...
It's entirely possible to have read what N'Gai wrote, watched the trailer, and still not agree with his view. I think, given my background, experiences, and not knowing what it is to be a black man in the US, I see and understand what N'Gai was pointing out, and he's right developers do have to be careful about that stuff if they want to be PC and please everyone. There's nothing wrong with seeing that trailer and maybe thinking of America's past with slavery, or worrying where they might be going with the game/trailer. That's reasonable. He's right that the trailer could definitely be misunderstood by someone who wasn't familiar with the RE games, or hadn't seen anything else about the game.
But in the end slave thing isn't there. They're black people in a fictional African country. Oh noes. And yes a white guy is killing them. But it's still not really racist as I see it. They aren't just normal black people. I've never seen a black person walk around like they do(like...zombies?), attack people that way, bleed from their eyes, etc. Maybe I just haven't met these people yet... They are zombies, and zombies exist to be killed in games/movies. Would it be racist if the protagonist were African? If the zombies were white? And yes, I've read countless times that "it's not about their race", etc. But to me that does play a factor. If the natives weren't black in skin color, I doubt N'Gai would've reacted the way he did.
If you can't handle N'Gai expressing his opinion on a game, or someone not agreeing just because it's safe and trendy to side with him, GTFO. Simple as that.
03/04/09
03/04/09
Although, I agree with not having time to play anymore, it´s kinda hard now to find the time.
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
There's nothing wrong with the writing as it stands; many, including Kotaku, are working toward its next evolution. But with a shrinking industry, the higher-ups want guarantees, not experimentation. Losing so many quality journalists can't be helping.
Losing writers to development is in some ways the worst. During the '50s and '60s, when film was coming into its own as an art form, anyone who moved from writing to production was still able to offer honest criticism about other films. With games, NDAs and the appearance of conflict of interest make that nigh impossible. How can a former journalist who is now employed by Sony ever offer a transparently fair critique of an XBox game? He can't, of course. Even if he were somehow contractually allowed to publish his thoughts, they'd be ignored by the audience if he had anything even remotely negative to say.
I am happy for N'Gai and all the journalists who have taken the step he has, but I hope that we can continue to move forward even with all these changes.
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
i'm about ready to gladly quit my big corporate game development job to move more toward the bitching about games side. at the end of the day, i reckon you get more done complaining about shit in public than you get complaining about it to the people on the inside :-/
03/04/09
The prayers of the people who demand more from games journalism than flowery words hath been answered. Sadly, the cretinous pine in their droves.
03/04/09
I hope that jounalisms loss is developments gain and that he is as able to stimulate the mind with his games as well as he did with his articles.
03/04/09
03/04/09
03/04/09
Peace.
03/04/09
03/04/09
Your post is completely pointless and I'm sure no one gives a shit.
Just saying.