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“The quality of health of my morning shit had a bigger impact on my thought process today than you being upset that there’s a Black guy in Assassin’s Creed.”
Earlier this week, a video game livestreamer and content creator was playing Assassin’s Creed Shadows. And just a few minutes into his stream, some folks in chat started sharing racist comments and complaints about Shadows and one of the game’s main characters, the Black samurai Yasuke. The streamer’s response? A wonderful two-and-a-half-minute rant that has gone viral online as many people relate to his frustration with the ongoing culture war surrounding every new game.
If you’ve been on the internet in the last year or so, you’ve likely encountered the vocal and very angry group of gamers online who are upset that Ubisoft included a real life historical figure, Black samurai Yasuke, in its latest alt-history open-world RPG, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It’s far from the first time that angry gamers have complained about people of color in a video game, and during a March 18 stream, content creator FightinCowboy became frustrated by the racists in his chat and paused the game to directly confront them.
“Listen, I can already tell people in chat are getting a little feisty,” said FightinCowboy. “Bro, stop. Stop. We’re going to put you in timeout for like a day. There’s no reason to be making comments like that.”
“I’m going to make this clear. If you’re just coming here to get into this weird fucking race shit about a historical figure that existed in Japanese history, I’m just gonna remove you. And guess what? That means you ain’t gonna be around for Kazan, or Night Reign, or AI Limit, or any of that shit. I don’t give a fuck what your opinion is of this game. I don’t care. Your opinion is worthless to me. The quality of health of my morning shit had a bigger impact on my thought process today than you being upset that there’s a Black guy in Assassin’s Creed. So shut the fuck up. Alright?”
At this point, FightinCowboy becomes visibly and audibly frustrated as he speaks. Here’s the rest of his viral rant:
We’re not doing this shit. It’s a fucking video game. If you are upset that there’s a Black guy in a video game, fuck off. I don’t want you here. I don’t care. Stop. I’m not doing this fucking argument.
Every goddamn game these days. “Oh, it’s woke. Oh, there’s a Black guy. Oh, there’s a trans person.” Shut the fuck up. Either play the game or go the fuck outside, bro. It’s not that hard. God damn! I’ve been on this earth 37 fucking years! When I was a kid, guess what? If a game came out and I didn’t want to get involved with it, I didn’t fucking play with it. I didn’t go on the internet and cry like an entitled little child, “wah wah wah the game doesn’t have stuff that I want!” So shut the fuck up and leave, bro!
Are you that much of a fucking loser that you’re seeking out streams of a game you don’t like just to be like, “Wahh, I don’t like this! There’s a Black guy!” Shut the fuck up! Nobody cares. Nobody cares! That’s all. This is the only rant. I’m getting this shit out of the way now. Stop. Because any comment, any fucking comment, I’m just going to ban you. I don’t care. I’m just going to fucking ban you. I don’t care. I don’t have time for it, bro.
I’m here to play a fucking game, not listen to you cry about a Black dude that existed in history that was brought over to Japan as a slave and then taken on by Nobunaga and made a fucking retainer, all right? If that upsets you, if that makes you not feel like you’re in your special place that’s not my fucking problem—go talk to your therapist about it!
There’s too much drama in video games
I reached out to FightinCowboy via email and asked him about the moment and if this rant was a reaction to the reality that nearly every big game has an army of angry gamers attacking it for being woke, progressive, or diverse.
“It’s definitely something that’s been on my mind,” FightinCowboy told Kotaku.
“I consider myself a variety creator and will typically cover 20-30 games per year, including most AAA releases and it feels like nearly every game in the last yearly cycle has some type of manufactured drama surrounding it.”
The streamer, who has over 1 million followers on YouTube, tells me that most of his non-gamer or online friends have no idea about all of this “drama” but that as a video game creator, he’s “subjected to it 24/7.”
“Personally, I just reached my breaking point with it,” he explained. “After the Stellar Blade drama last year I had mentally clocked out from most of it and I think the back to back drama with Veilguard, Avowed, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and then it culminating with Assassins’ Creed Shadows was enough to where I had to get it off my chest.”
As for whether he’s surprised by the positive reaction to his rant online, he says that while he didn’t expect it to go viral, he’s not shocked that others feel the same way he does.
“As someone that just wants to enjoy games, the conversation constantly devolving into drama is exhausting. I’m not sure why people insist on engaging with things they’re not interested in just to proliferate hate, either buy it or not and move on with your life,” said FightinCowboy.
“I’ve never been a fan of baseball but that doesn’t mean I’ll suddenly go to baseball stadiums and throw insults at the attendees and audience. That’s deranged behavior and I feel the same way about these people invading gaming spaces to stir up drama.”
According to the creator, after his rant earlier this week chat cooled down and he mostly had no issues as everyone was on the same page. He plans to return to Shadows eventually after he wraps up some other games he’s currently playing for review.
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Kurt Indovina
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