Ha ha! Racist.

[maninahat]

I don't know if you've seen it yet, but the new trailer for Far Cry 3 is now out and it is...well, a little problematic. See here (NSFW):

I'm one of the few people who actually liked Far Cry 2, and this one seems to be shaping up quite nicely. One of the things I liked about FC2 was the Heart of Darkness references, but the content of that novel seems to have been utterly forgotten in the making of FC3. This trailer is an amalgamation every exploitation, pulp fiction and colonialist cliche possible.

Let me get this straight: a sexy "exotic" priestess asks you (a white westerner who only turned up the other day) to use her magic and lead her tribe of chanting natives (the kind with tattoos, bones and loincloths, naturally) against some evil, modernised corperate types? Oh yes indeed. It's only a trailer, so perhaps this won't turn out to be Dances with the Last Avatar 2.

But then again... discuss.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

It didn't seem that bad to me. The depiction of the tribe may be a little... stereotypical. But I wouldn't call it insulting.

 

[Montezuma's Lawyer]

How exactly is this nameless pacific island tribe racist?

Seems fine to me.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I think you may be blowing this a little out of proportion here. Doesn't seem to be racist at all. Perhaps playing towards the tribal stereotype, but I wouldn't call it racist.

 

[WoW Killer]

I can see two problems with your title. First, this does not appear to be racist. Second, if this was racist then why would it be funny?

 

[BeeGeenie]

Those guys in the "loincloths" looked pretty white to me.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Oh dears...

If that's supposed to be an island in the south pacific somewhere then it's woefully ignorant.

 

[GoaThief]

Well, they got the right style of tattoos for Pacific Islanders at least... although a bit of a African/Caribbean influence there to proceedings too though, which is weird.

Saying that I've not heard much about this game and neither do I particularly want to after watching the trailer, it doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Zhukov]

Are those guys actually supposed to be native? They're pretty pasty lookin'.

When I saw them in another trailer I thought they were supposed to be white guys who had gone feral.

 

[DoPo]

*votes for not racist*

Meh, it's not some sort of brilliant trailer, either. I'll also side with the people who think the natives look too white-y. I dunno, I think they could have at least had slightly more tan. And one more thing - what is that accent? I'm pretty sure I heard in in Red Alert 2 (or maybe Yuri's Revenge) which definitely isn't set in a pacific island or nowhere near. Namely, it would have been passed off as Russian.

 

[aba1]

Shamefully, racist and sexist seem to be thrown around a lot lately. The Hitman Absolution trailer was not sexist, and this trailer is not racist. They are not specifically portraying a culture, it is nonspecific tribal. It is rather lazy story-telling, maybe a bit ignorant of that general area if it indeed is supposed to be a general area of the world, but still nonspecific.

Thank you!

Nobody seems to get that sometimes I feel like I am going crazy when I hear people crying over things like this.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Oh you do love to be offended don't you, well we can hardly stop you in your daily pleasures.

As for the trailer, it is depiction of a fantasy story and while plenty of cliche can be found it is no more offensive then your socks... if we ignore the odor obviously.
And looking at it closer things seem to be not so straight forward, an awful lot of those tribesmen look like plain old white guys possibly "persuaded" to do someones dirty work, then again this is the Far Cry team so maybe it's really not a story thing but rather some lazy model work.

 

[DugMachine]

What exactly was supposed to be racist here? The island tribe stereotype?

 

[soh45400]

This is probably covering for the actual story. Has everyone already forgotten the "Definition of insanity" trailer. Either the main character or the islanders or both are not in the right mind.

 

[maninahat]

Oh you do love to be offended don't you, well we can hardly stop you in your daily pleasures.

Oh, did I say I was offended? I don't need to be offended to see something is wrong.

What exactly was supposed to be racist here? The island tribe stereotype?

Besides the stereotyping (which is a by the numbers caricature of tribals), there is also the whole colonial aspect of a westerner coming along and appropriating someone else's culture, becoming their leader/savior because they are apparently too primitive/weak to fend for themselves. That's when a stereotype moves from being silly, to being a form of cultural condescension, carrying an accidental, pro-colonialist message.

Hence why I bring up the Heart of Darkness references from the previous game. Far Cry 2 was very clear on the evils of foreigners coming along, trying to dominate a local culture for their own gain. That message seems to have been forgotten though - as far as the trailer shows, you become some kind of champion of the locals in Far Cry 3, a "warrior to defeat them all". That's really the worst part of all of this.

 

[maninahat]

Racism is a buzzword people use when they can't think of a compelling argument as to whether or not a game is good.

I did say the game was looking good. Anyway, it seems odd to hear a dismissal of racism from a guy with an Al Jolson avatar.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Them crazy Mayans used them Spaniards pretty well in their own petty little wars while the white man took their gold and cities. Is it racist? Hell no.

 

[anthony87]

That's about the same level of racism that was prevalent in Resi 4 or Resi 5.