Watch Dogs 2: Hype and Hate

I was once told that two things are certain.  Death and taxes.  I'd like to add a third to that adage. Ubisoft will make a sequel.  A couple days ago, that's exactly what happened.  They unveiled Watch Dogs 2.  No one was really surprised.  After all, this is the first year in many years Ubisoft would not be releasing an Assassin's Creed, so they would need something to fill that holiday void.  

Now, anyone who has followed the original Watch Dogs has keep their excitement at bay, and for good reason.  The first Watch Dogs was hyped to all hell no thanks in part to extremely impressive graphics that weren't even delivered at the PC level.  Many game features that were promised were also scrapped leaving Watch Dogs as a rather disappointing game for many.  

I've never played Watch Dogs myself, so I can't say.  I will say that I was turned off by the game when I heard about the lackluster reviews, how the graphics of the final product did not hold up to what was shown at a prior E3.  Some people said it was just another typical Ubisoft open world game.  I deemed it not worth my 60 dollars, so I passed.  With the Watch Dogs 2 unveiling and a release date of November 15th, 2016, it's beginning to arouse my interest to acquire the game on the cheap and give it a spin. 

What I think is interesting is the timing of this unveiling.  The announcement of the game and the release date have fallen in the same year meaning that quite a bit of work has already been done on the game. This means we're not going to get a year and a half's worth of constant hype surrounding this game.  Six months to talk about it is all we're going to get.  Ubisoft knows what it's bringing and is ready to give everything they've been showing.  Or... are we looking at a rushed game to get this out in time for the holiday season to fill the gap that Assassin's Creed's absence has created?  I honestly hope it's the former.  

Remember the first Assassin's Creed?  It was a fun game, but it was far from amazing.  What it was was a new IP that tested new ideas.  Ubisoft expanded upon the first AC exponentially with the second game.  Watch Dogs 2 could be to Watch Dogs what AC2 was to AC.  We may get everything that's promised. We might find the world vastly improved and the gameplay much more satisfying.  Honestly, though, once bitten twice shy.  Only time will tell.  

And time is telling a rather nasty story right now. It's a story about racism unfortunately.  Watch Dogs 2's newest character Marcus Holloway just so happens to be black, and some people have lost their minds.  I was linked to Jim Sterling's article about this. In a world where the term gamer carries with it the connotation of the angry sexist manchild Gamergater,  these bigots do nothing to help the image.  Personally, though, I take pride in labeling myself as gamer, because I love what I do.  I am a gamer.  I'm not "those gamers".  But I digress.

Highlighting one of the comments Mr. Sterling plucked out, it goes on to say:

"Im gonna start of by saying im not a Racist

Do we really need a black Main character. just as much as a female protagonist?
what’s your thoughs about this?

like more realistically the story should be about a big fat white guy who never leaves his chair or an Asian…."

Usually, when you start off by saying "I'm not racist", you're at least somewhat.  It's not a matter of needing a black character.  It's just a matter of accepting it when one occurs,  We certainly are not seeing black characters pop up in every game theses days.  Rest assured, you'll still have plenty of generic white male characters to play as.  The last part of this quote, I don't even know how to address that... 

What gets me about people being upset over the ethnicity of Marcus is where was the rage in other games when they introduced black main characters?  GTA: San Andreas was one where no one seemed to have a problem with (well, there was the group of black people who felt CJ was a living stereotype, regardless of how well written the character was).  The lead for Prototype 2 was black as another example.  No outrage.  Why pick now to be upset over a black person being the new lead in Watch Dogs 2?  Shouldn't it be very easy to understand that with a new location comes a new character? Aiden Pearce stays in Chicago so San Francisco can have its own hero.  

But people blame SJWs for this apparently.  They feel that Marcus Holloway had to be black to check off a box on some SJW checklist.  How conveniently do we forget that Ubisoft has already displayed a history of diversity with its Assassin's Creed franchise.  Altair was Arab.  Ezio was Italian (ok, so he's white, but European white, not plain American white).  Assassin's Creed III's Ratonhnhake:ton was Native American and its spin off title Liberation featured Aveline de Grandpre, a woman who was also half French and African.  Syndicate also had another playable character who was female.  

Diversity has been happening in Ubisoft's games for a while now, so it makes NO SENSE to be complaining about a black guy in Watch Dogs 2.  It only paints you as a racist should you be complaining about it.  Don't view me as some kind of SJW for saying that, though.  It's just simple fucking human decency that you should be able to accept the fact that a lead doesn't have to be white all the time.