Ubisoft apologizes for ableist language in Assassin's Creed Valhalla

A description of a character who was badly burned as a child will be changed in an update.

[potatoseal]

STOP pandering to these people and stick with your original vision. The game is set in Vikings times, I'm sure back then they didn't worry about how they referred to peoples disabilities or facial deformities. Imagine if Medieval fiction writers changed everything in their books to cater to a modern audience and political correctness? It would be trash.

[ecchiless]

lmao, ppl is so sensitive... fk this ppl, how much until breathing is offensive?

[RgR]

Not far off.
I'm sure breathing is already offensive if you believe things they don't like.

But hey...I'll use the decade old silly argument...they ain't hurting anybody.

[abstractel]

Completely don't understand why they have to apologize and patch that description. I can even relate to a very small degree.

[frostypants]

You joke but extreme critical theory ideology could indeed be used to argue that breathing is offensive. I can even imagine the argument they'd make. It's a cult of lunatics.

[No Way]

What do you mean, ecchiless? It already is. People be like "That bitch doesn't deserve to breathe the same air that I do!" Or, blah blah blah.

[ClayRules2012]

What’s next, the decapitations are too much for some people, mixed with the blood, so that’ll be completely removed with an update? Although I think you can turn off decapitations in the menu settings, I could be wrong.

As excited as I am for the Next Generation, this is something to consider, those out their crying and hurt over the stories these studios want to make because their feelings were hurt and they’ve been offended now. We must stand up (like so many do nowadays) which I think many do to make themselves look important/purposeful in the public eye.

It really sucks and is disappointing when game developers cater to this nonsense, it just oozes into the one place I don’t want it too, the hobby of gaming we all enjoy so much.

Damn...

[MrBlais]

Yeah, like when everyone on N4G was bitching about The Last of Us Part II and its “SWJ Agenda”?

It’s a great game and story. Get your shit together. 🙄

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Ubisoft shouldn't have changed the game but excessive political correctness goes both ways though. This was just a single person on Twitter whose profession is "accessibility" in media and Ubisoft should have just ignored it. They may have even worked with this person before.

100,000s of people subscribed to Youtubers like TheQuartering were extremely offended by The Last Of Us Part II (he made at least 60+ videos) and were part of a huge movement to attack the game and its director and staff. TLOU2 is the biggest example of people being irrationally offended by a video-game and may be never be topped, especially since the Game Of The Year awards are just around the corner. They were so offended that they send death threats to the voice actors, used spam bots here on N4G, etc.

[annoyedgamer]

And TLOU2 remains as intended by its creators and this game is getting censored. So clearly the PC only goes one way.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

@annoyedgamer

Ubisoft just changed a text file in the game, dude. It required almost no effort. For Naughty Dog to appease the morons who were complaining about the TLOU2 they'd need to delete the game off the PS Store. haha

[cerpintaxt44]

thequartering is a tool, him making 60 videos about it isnt something to praise. its sad

[RememberThe357]

The problem I always see in these arguments is there's never any room for nuance. Everyone is just trying to prove how right they are and how wrong the other people are.

Far be it for you to see why burn victims would take issue and at the same time realize it's not actually be a big deal. Resentment of empathy seem more a symptom of a stunted social development than a true morality. While the opposite, over empathizing, seems to be a symptom of the same thing. How hard is it really to realize that something morally wrong could be functionally positive. A husband leaving the wife who hates him works for all parties, but the moralist would scream of sin. In the same way, the use of this word to demean and minimize an actual burn victims is morally and functionally wrong - a healthy society has health people physically, mentally, and emotionally so anything that diminishes any of those is suboptimal. But how can something with no real impact (the insult is in a game - apart of a narrative) be morally wrong? Are they araid of popularizing insulting burn victims? If that's the standard, why can I still murder and steal? Is Ubisofts moral position that you can murder and steal from people as long as you don't insult their social identity?

If Ubisoft has a real morality they need to stand on it. This reeks of appeasement and a lack of any real moral compass.

[ScootaKuH]

It's political correctness gone mad. They actually want to rewrite history to make out as though certain things never occurred or people never behaved in a certain way.

This pandering needs to stop

[ClayRules2012]

@Kranark

That actually sounds hilarious. I wouldn’t mind that as a glitch!😂🤪that was a good one, bud.

[camel_toad]

Ubisoft is just nailing the Viking nature. Well known fact that it was SO Viking to be apologetic after every slaughter.

[TheLigX]

This is NOT ok. When will Ubisoft realize that the majority of people absolutely hate this? Wrong pronoun, fuck you, Mean to fat people, fuck you, Insensitive to peoples faces, fuuuuuckkkk youuuu!

[himdeel]

LMAO, no apology for mass murdering! But what is said, that they wrote, gives them pause. This shit doesn't belong in my games UNLESS they want to add some additional content like a dev diary, separate from the game, to give some context.

[savedsynner]

Reminds me of the people who complained that Sekiro didn't have an easy mode. Did these players ever play a game made before 2012? They wouldn't survive the NES and Genesis generation of games that were REALLY hard.

[KingofBandits]

Well Ubi did join that beta ass gaming consortium for all manners of social justice crap. So I'm not sure why this would shock anyone. People you need to grow up pull up your big boy pants and stop letting cancel culture rule everything. Life does not function with trigger warnings. get over it and move on, because all this is doing is leading to censorship

[East76lands]

Thank you Ubisoft, when I woke up this morning I wasn't sure what to be offended by but you've given my day purpose again. #DownWithThisSortOfThing #CarefulNow

[staticall]

Good. Viking are known to be well mannered and politically correct. They never used ableist language when they were pillaging, murdering, raping and kidnapping people. Right?

[Bathyj]

Ableist? Wtf is that?
Someone explain it to me so I can be offended.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

This is obviously an example of someone getting irrationally offended at a plot point which isn't itself ableist at all, (it's just a story) but ableism can be a problem in real life.

"Ableism is discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities or who are perceived to have disabilities"

So, let's say you have a physical disability (mobility issue - can't walk properly so you use a wheelchair) - it would be discriminatory to not hire you as an accountant based on that since you can still do the job. New buildings should also be designed with wheelchair access (it's the just the decent thing to do).

Don't let someone overreacting on Twitter make you think ableism in real life is acceptable. Ableism was a big part of Nazism - eugenics is an example of ableism.

[I_am_Batman]

There is reasonable and unreasonable discrimitation. Building wheelchair access is a reasonable form of discrimination. Having separate restrooms for men and women is another example of reasonable discrimination.

Changing a line of text in a video game, because you want to minimize offense is an unreasonable form of discrimination, because it assumes that the concerning category of people is unable to deal with a line of text and needs to be protected.

Another example is the topic of difficulty modes that's often presented as an accessibility discussion. Offering different controllers/input devices and giving people the option to customize button mappings and HUD options is reasonable discrimination. Demanding an easy mode based on the assumption that disabled people can't deal with the challenge is unreasonable discrimination.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

@I_am_Batman

You're using the word "discrimination" in a very peculiar way but I get what you're trying to say. It doesn't seem like we're actually disagreeing with each other.

As I said, this was an example of someone overreacting and I completely disagree with it. Ubisoft should have just ignored it. I don't agree with this line being changed or games that are designed around difficulty like Dark Souls, Hotline Miami, etc needing an easy difficulty. That doesn't change the fact that actual ableism, like in the example I gave above, does exist.

Thinking that it's not acceptable for someone to not give another person a job based on a physical disability (e.g. wheelchair) when the job isn't a labor job is just common sense.

[I_am_Batman]

I prefer the neutral definition of the word, because I think it makes it easier to separate an objective statement from my subjective opinion and have a productive discussion this way. But yeah, I didn't necessarily disagree with your first comment either. Just wanted to give my two cents on the topic. Seems like we're mostly on the same page.

[Inverno]

rewriting history so that it's up to par with today's politically correct standards. Ya know eventually history will be warped to the point where it'll all be inaccurate. That's when we will no longer be able to look back to it, and we'll start to repeat the same mistakes.
But ya knows at least now it's not triggering someone and that's what truly matters

[Eamon]

Never knew that "disfigured" is now considered ableist.

I mean, it appears the character was burnt in a childhood accident, and it's not affecting their "ability" at all. This is purely a scar. Why the hell is it wrong to describe it as "disfigured." What's next, we're no longer allowed to call anything ugly?

I remember when someone was upset that Thor was fat in Avengers Endgame and how it was offensive to people suffering from obesity.

[Rachel_Alucard]

People got offended by a Cyberpunk interview just because they referred to a character as "unclean" as in full of cybernetics. Apparently, creating anything not pleasent always corelates to supporting it irl to these forum hermits.

[I_am_Batman]

This is laughable. If the word "disfigured" is offensive enough to warrant changes in a viking game they might as well not make a viking game at all. They're setting a bad precedent with this one. It only took 6 hours from the complaint to the official commitment to comply with the demand to change it. They have to realize that there are potentially hundreds of demands like this waiting around the corner. Are they going to treat them all equally, or are they going to discriminate? That's a slippery slope if I've ever seen one.

[anast]

for f' sake

[victorMaje]

Stupidism.
If anything they should apologize for the MT store.

[Welshy]

Oh fuck right off. Not even censoring or apologising for my language on this one.

[RedDeadLB]

I'd rather they make better games instead of this pandering.

[jackymoved]

Next gen consoles are held back, not by current gen, but all the bs like this.

[sourOG]

Her face is burned so she tries to hide it. What’s wrong with this exactly and wtf is ableism? These people are mental.

[CrimsonWing69]

LOL

While you’re at it apologize to me for pandering to crybabies. You have offended my sensibilities!

[SSmoke]

Holy fuck, what next replace the axes with teddy bears and give out random hugs? if you don’t like it don’t play it, why ruin it for everyone else..

[Challengerscatpack]

If you’re this big of a cry baby, just lock yourself in a secluded, padded room and let the rest of us enjoy our lives. I hate people.

[gold_drake]

i mean sure, but the more u give in to peoples conplaints about "language", the more u lose your original intentions of your characters.

[Samus707]

I love living in clown world. Articles/events like this are almost as good as a Carlin bit.

[Hitman007]

This Truly is a Pussy Generation let me tell U what I think people can look at Anything nowadays and be offended its Just Stupidity anymore 🤜🤜🤜
29308;🤜👋

[papaStuds]

FFS... It's an historical game about the Viking/Norse time period. These SJW and sensitive snowflakes can go pound sand.

[FBNS]

Holy fucking shit... Go kick rocks and grow a set

[oof6781]

It's almost as if characters aren't allowed to be tools anymore.

[neomahi]

Ubisoft, what a bunch of hippies.

[OMNlPOTENT]

It says her face is disfigured from an accident, how the hell is that offensive? Someone gonna sue a hospital when they use terms like that after an accident?

[traumadisaster]

In history weren’t we all slaves and beaten down, stolen from from one group or another at some point, it’s called real life history.

If they take the gruesome out of games, movies I’ll not be able to show my kids how far we have come.

[AnotherGamer]

They do know is the viking era right?

[Popsicle]

This is dumb.

[JonTheGod]

I'm sorry, WHAT?? Are people getting offended by the word "disfigured" now? Am I missing something?

[Rachel_Alucard]

These people clearly never have any hardships in their life, so they go out of their way to create them. They don't know what it's like to deal with bad people without a block button and adults protecting them.

[Chexs1990]

"Ableism" isn't a thing, stop pandering to these morons. Being disfigured is just that. Being handicapped is just that. God damn it -_-

[X-23]

Good lord, when will this time of stuff just end. I feel like me saying "no one cares" is just me being shallow at this point, but the reality is that there are a certain kind of people who do, trying to throw a blanket over certain things because they make you or someone else feel "uncomfortable?" how is this even art anymore? No freedom of expression, you can't just do what you feel or what you deem necessary to create something memorable or fantastic for ages to come, it is all about making people feel comfortable and appeasing them or else nowadays and that is truly said that even in something as free-flowing as FICTION this could still be considerable "problematic" , again ... when will this crap end? It's not enough for people to just take a stand on the matter any more, they also need to be supported and rewarded for their efforts to keep creativity and freedom of expression alive no matter what.

[Pughski]

Still bothers me how assassin's creed games all speak perfect english. Like damn it I want to hear some vikings speaking Old Norse with english subtitles

[potatoseal]

Ubisoft are too pussy to do anything that cool, or even give us the option.

[Pughski]

How cool would it be to play this game with the Nordic tongue?! Its so odd playing assassin's creed game and everyone talks english lol

[potatoseal]

Oh man, the immersion factor would be off the charts

[Skate-AK]

That was one of the really cool things about Far Cry Primal.

[Pughski]

That's the only farcry game I haven't played, I'll have to check that out since it's always on sale for a good price

[Skate-AK]

I say give it a shot. I have all the modern Far Cry platinums and it was my favorite.

[Knightofelemia]

People get so easily offended now a days If you do like what they are saying the tv has a mute button or go to the bathroom until the offending scene is done then come back to the game.

[Firebird360]

I cant wait till woke liberalism eats itself.
These people are offended by everything, soon they'll turn on each other for not being woke enough.

[Dirtnapstor]

So sick of this pathetic nonsense, to the point of not wanting include myself in conversations pertaining to cancel culture and garbage wokenss.
Ubi has made multiple series' with many a badass character. Seemingly the female versions are tough enough to have balls... Ubi need to grow a pair liken to the characters their devs design.
Stop. Pandering.
They won't stop until you (or whoever the target) are obliterated from the surface of the earth.

[Limitedtimestruggle]

So sick of all these snowflakes. How the hell did it end up like this?

[DirtyBollix]

Look at the state of the freak was offended by it. Yikes. Talk about a stereotype lol.

[No Way]

So they changed Legion, removing some 'radio talent' because people complained - and now they are removing stuff from Vahalla, because people complained.

Can we start complaining that they are removing original content, and maybe they will listen?

[Spenok]

So... calling someone with a disfigurement disfigured is... wrong?

F me. I guess I can no longer say the sky is blue, that I have 2 feet, or that we eat to survive.

Good God, this has gotten down right ridiculous.