It's a pity that this essay starts off so unbelievably good and then loses itself in addressing two misguided critiques. Cherry picking user comments on Reddit, letting a trivial controversy ruin your experience, all while adding an overly ominous soundtrack... KCD proves its beating, humane heart time and time again, you said so yourself. Having different opinions on how to address historical accuracy vs representation is not a strong enough argument for framing people - or a work of art - as Darth Vader, I would say. Wildly exaggerated. And then, it's not the game that loses sight of Henry's humanity as you progress through the story: it's the player - and Henry himself - that is burdened with the task of not letting power corrupt him. When you start acting good out of good will and not from necessity: this is when true good happens. What Henry does with being powerful is the true moral test, it's the same as in real life. When the guards approach you, will you just intimidate since now you can? The mechanics don't disappoint or alienate, they enrich your moral choices. It seems to me that your Henry was quite changed by having power: good, this is what a true RPG does, it leaves you questioning your choices and explore their ramifications in a safe game-world. I like the rest of the points, and also your writing and editing. Hope to see you treat KCD 2!
@@rocketbird1 hey, I appreciate the response. Don't know if I land the same way in regards to how I feel about the developers here and their intentions, I think Daniel Vavra's response is what it is, and it affected my experience of this game. However, I'm still curious to see what KCD: II does and how it ends up fitting into the current gaming landscape given its seemingly more AAA budget. Glad you watched the video, even if we don't necessarily agree 100% here.
I nearly ragequit after struggling so fucking much at the beginning with swordsmanship and lockpicking, and jesus-fucking-christ archery. But goddamn, im so glad I stuck with it because this is now one of my all time favorite games
The conflicted humanity? My Henry is a certified psychopath and alcoholic. It's not the way I intended to play, but the game makes it absolutely too easy and inconsequential to steal anything that you want and kill anyone that's alone.
I'm from Czechia and I do agree that some of Vávra's tweets were pretty bad but it really wouldn't make any sense for that specific time frame and place to have people of colour. There were very little black people in Europe at that time and there surely wouldn't be any at the location KCD takes place in since you only move around a few small villages. It would make more sense to see some in KCD 2 maybe, since Kuttenberg was and still is a bigger and richer city. I loved your video but your information about our history is just false.
Hey, really appreciate the response. I think where I stand is that Vávra's reaction to the controversy, and his unwillingness to engage with any kind of real conversation on the subject matter of representation in a historical context, is what was of real concern, not necessarily how representation is handled within the game itself, if that makes sense. Excited to see how ethnic minority groups might represented within KCD II, though.
@@teddy_lastname there will be Germans, Poles, probably Jews and Hungarians. There could be some Roma people theoretically. Bohemia was a landlocked country so we didn't have nearly as much diversity as there was in the port cities like Venice.
Good video the whole race thing was a little silly and not really of concern. Was there black or brown people in Europe at the time, sure, did it look like today no. So why complain about it?
I think the complaint is less about if there was or wasn't people of color within medieval Europe and more that the devs were touting the game as historically accurate while having it whitewashed rather than accurate
What is whitewashed about it? In medieval bohemia, you might find a handful of mediteranean people, e.g. greek, turkisch, middle eastern... In a big city like e.g. Kuttenberg. In rural areas, chances were nearly 0. I understand the need for representation in other settings. But i don't get this criticism andyour "whitewashed" comment.
@@WaechterDerNacht literally in this statement, you kinda helped point out the whitewashing in the acknowledgement that there would be more than just white people in medieval Bohemia. The claim, which I am pointing out more than actually stating, is there while we have no official records of someone of color living in medieval Bohemia, to claim that no one, Turkish, Mediterranean, or anyone who would be considered not white being there is a bit presumptuous. This is not including the fact that in the devs attempt to make a historically accurate game, they still added things into the game that have zero historical presidents or is just a modern concept brought into the game for making it a game. So if the devs are willing to bend the rules of realism to establish that the game is a video game, which would break the realism of the game, why is it impossible to have people of color within the game? This is also not helped by the dev of the game then flipping out about the whole thing instead of either just taking the criticism on the cheek or just in post added a couple of people of color into the game. Even if all they are are just people who wander the known world or were merchants from far away lands trading in Bohemian would have been something.
@@JadedHeathen8213 i think we don't understand the same under the term "whitewashed". For me, "whitewashing something" is removing people from non-european decent (I include americans with european decent in "european") from things where they should be. I'm thinking of instances like e.g. removing people as authors from research papers due to their skincolour. Not acknowledging that certain music genres were created by POC etc. Since this isn't the case in KCD i don't agree with the term "whitewashed". With the setting of KCD i personally don't think, when talking about the game - not Vavras tweets, this discussion on this level is reasonable. The explanation was in my previous comment, based on which i would consider it a possible concious choice to invest in additional character models. If one does this, it would only make sense if those are at least relevant in a quest in some form. Since in KCD2 we have the city of Kuttenberg, this could be the case. For KCD1, i think this discussion was not reasonable. As a european myself, it also is nice to get a game that isn't set in an north american setting or as an American "saviour of everything good guy" destroying everything on an island. Why are there not more games like e.g. GTA set in Asia, South America, Africa or Europe. Most games which are set in a real place (or built along a real place) are set in the US. Or the US is depicted as "the good" like in CODMW which clearly tries to defend a war which was based on lies. There are other games where i think there is no excuse for more representation (pseudo-medieval fantasy RPGs, more modern setting sandbox games etc.). Then there are games where they clearly were so focused on it that they stepped over the goal / sensible way (e.g. AC Shadows). I would like to see a game where e.g. you play in a Western setting or early US-setting as a Native American and fight against the Brits and the French colonial forces. Or as a native against the Dutch in Kongo etc. Why are the bad guys in movies more often POC than the good guys?
It's a pity that this essay starts off so unbelievably good and then loses itself in addressing two misguided critiques.
Cherry picking user comments on Reddit, letting a trivial controversy ruin your experience, all while adding an overly ominous soundtrack... KCD proves its beating, humane heart time and time again, you said so yourself. Having different opinions on how to address historical accuracy vs representation is not a strong enough argument for framing people - or a work of art - as Darth Vader, I would say. Wildly exaggerated.
And then, it's not the game that loses sight of Henry's humanity as you progress through the story: it's the player - and Henry himself - that is burdened with the task of not letting power corrupt him. When you start acting good out of good will and not from necessity: this is when true good happens. What Henry does with being powerful is the true moral test, it's the same as in real life.
When the guards approach you, will you just intimidate since now you can? The mechanics don't disappoint or alienate, they enrich your moral choices.
It seems to me that your Henry was quite changed by having power: good, this is what a true RPG does, it leaves you questioning your choices and explore their ramifications in a safe game-world.
I like the rest of the points, and also your writing and editing. Hope to see you treat KCD 2!
@@rocketbird1 hey, I appreciate the response. Don't know if I land the same way in regards to how I feel about the developers here and their intentions, I think Daniel Vavra's response is what it is, and it affected my experience of this game. However, I'm still curious to see what KCD: II does and how it ends up fitting into the current gaming landscape given its seemingly more AAA budget. Glad you watched the video, even if we don't necessarily agree 100% here.
15:14 Lol I remember this from the AVGN episode on the game
I nearly ragequit after struggling so fucking much at the beginning with swordsmanship and lockpicking, and jesus-fucking-christ archery. But goddamn, im so glad I stuck with it because this is now one of my all time favorite games
every single accomplishment feels very well earned. Great game. KCD2 is looking very awesome right now...
The conflicted humanity? My Henry is a certified psychopath and alcoholic. It's not the way I intended to play, but the game makes it absolutely too easy and inconsequential to steal anything that you want and kill anyone that's alone.
I'm from Czechia and I do agree that some of Vávra's tweets were pretty bad but it really wouldn't make any sense for that specific time frame and place to have people of colour. There were very little black people in Europe at that time and there surely wouldn't be any at the location KCD takes place in since you only move around a few small villages. It would make more sense to see some in KCD 2 maybe, since Kuttenberg was and still is a bigger and richer city. I loved your video but your information about our history is just false.
Hey, really appreciate the response. I think where I stand is that Vávra's reaction to the controversy, and his unwillingness to engage with any kind of real conversation on the subject matter of representation in a historical context, is what was of real concern, not necessarily how representation is handled within the game itself, if that makes sense. Excited to see how ethnic minority groups might represented within KCD II, though.
@@teddy_lastname there will be Germans, Poles, probably Jews and Hungarians. There could be some Roma people theoretically.
Bohemia was a landlocked country so we didn't have nearly as much diversity as there was in the port cities like Venice.
Good video the whole race thing was a little silly and not really of concern. Was there black or brown people in Europe at the time, sure, did it look like today no. So why complain about it?
I think the complaint is less about if there was or wasn't people of color within medieval Europe and more that the devs were touting the game as historically accurate while having it whitewashed rather than accurate
What is whitewashed about it?
In medieval bohemia, you might find a handful of mediteranean people, e.g. greek, turkisch, middle eastern... In a big city like e.g. Kuttenberg. In rural areas, chances were nearly 0.
I understand the need for representation in other settings. But i don't get this criticism andyour "whitewashed" comment.
@@WaechterDerNacht literally in this statement, you kinda helped point out the whitewashing in the acknowledgement that there would be more than just white people in medieval Bohemia. The claim, which I am pointing out more than actually stating, is there while we have no official records of someone of color living in medieval Bohemia, to claim that no one, Turkish, Mediterranean, or anyone who would be considered not white being there is a bit presumptuous. This is not including the fact that in the devs attempt to make a historically accurate game, they still added things into the game that have zero historical presidents or is just a modern concept brought into the game for making it a game. So if the devs are willing to bend the rules of realism to establish that the game is a video game, which would break the realism of the game, why is it impossible to have people of color within the game? This is also not helped by the dev of the game then flipping out about the whole thing instead of either just taking the criticism on the cheek or just in post added a couple of people of color into the game. Even if all they are are just people who wander the known world or were merchants from far away lands trading in Bohemian would have been something.
@@JadedHeathen8213 i think we don't understand the same under the term "whitewashed".
For me, "whitewashing something" is removing people from non-european decent (I include americans with european decent in "european") from things where they should be. I'm thinking of instances like e.g. removing people as authors from research papers due to their skincolour. Not acknowledging that certain music genres were created by POC etc.
Since this isn't the case in KCD i don't agree with the term "whitewashed".
With the setting of KCD i personally don't think, when talking about the game - not Vavras tweets, this discussion on this level is reasonable. The explanation was in my previous comment, based on which i would consider it a possible concious choice to invest in additional character models. If one does this, it would only make sense if those are at least relevant in a quest in some form. Since in KCD2 we have the city of Kuttenberg, this could be the case.
For KCD1, i think this discussion was not reasonable.
As a european myself, it also is nice to get a game that isn't set in an north american setting or as an American "saviour of everything good guy" destroying everything on an island. Why are there not more games like e.g. GTA set in Asia, South America, Africa or Europe. Most games which are set in a real place (or built along a real place) are set in the US. Or the US is depicted as "the good" like in CODMW which clearly tries to defend a war which was based on lies.
There are other games where i think there is no excuse for more representation (pseudo-medieval fantasy RPGs, more modern setting sandbox games etc.). Then there are games where they clearly were so focused on it that they stepped over the goal / sensible way (e.g. AC Shadows).
I would like to see a game where e.g. you play in a Western setting or early US-setting as a Native American and fight against the Brits and the French colonial forces. Or as a native against the Dutch in Kongo etc.
Why are the bad guys in movies more often POC than the good guys?
Damn man this is epic 👏 your an awesome story teller
Really glad you enjoyed the video, I appreciate it!
Nice editing and writing! Keep it up! Subscribed. I’ll be expecting more
as a person who loves this game this is a great video
@@Laghater23 thank you, I really appreciate that. 😌
Good video!
Big jacob geller influence
@@kaspar9869 if I could write half as good as that dude I would die happy.