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INTEREST: Fate/Grand Order Game's New Event Set in 1945 Stirs Controversy

I cannot agree with the practice of preemptively judging an unpublished work guilty of any offense.

Your example of the portrayal of historical figures is also poorly chosen, because we already know that no person who was alive during or in any way associated with WWII or 20th century Japanese colonialism will even be in the event as major characters (or probably at all).

If you want a relevant pattern of FGO dodging history, you should instead point to the fact that there has never been a story or event scenario in which the player travels to the time and place of a historical conflict and finds the historical participants in that conflicts present.

They go to the Hundred Years War and find both the France and England routed by dragons. They go to North America during the American Revolutionary War and find that both the American and British forces already wiped out by the ancient Celts. They go to the area around Jerusalem at the height of the Third Crusade and find both the crusader and Muslim forces already wiped out by the ancient Egyptians and the Knights of the Round Table.

Based on that precedent, I expect this upcoming event to not feature any controversial figure and possibly not even to feature WWII (that map of Tokyo is at night, but it doesn't appear to show any damage from bombing, nor were there any military elements in the trailer).

So, if your argument is that any work set in this time period that doesn't specifically focus on wartime and colonial atrocities is offensive, then this event will probably be offensive because FGO has never to my recollection stopped to remember a historical atrocity not committed by the US against native Americans.

When it comes to portrayals of Japan's role leading up to and during WWII, however, we will have to wait and see what the event story actually contains before it will be possible to criticize with any credibility.

OtherSideofSky wrote:

I cannot agree with the practice of preemptively judging an unpublished work guilty of any offense.

So you buy every game you see the trailer for regardless of how you feel about it? Because if not, you are preemptively judging a game based on how it is marketed. This is the same thing.

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Your example of the portrayal of historical figures is also poorly chosen, because we already know that no person who was alive during or in any way associated with WWII or 20th century Japanese colonialism will even be in the event as major characters (or probably at all).

So? They can still whitewash the historical event itself depending on how they write it, and they typically feature elements from the time period in some way. So what if the Japanese army or these grail-seeking nazi-group is lead by some 19th century samurai instead of a 20th century general? If they portray their goals sympathetically then they are still whitewashing their colonial history.

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If you want a relevant pattern of FGO dodging history, you should instead point to the fact that there has never been a story or event scenario in which the player travels to the time and place of a historical conflict and finds the historical participants in that conflicts present.

That's...blatantly untrue. We meet Gilles the Reilles in France, Jack the Ripper in London and Nero in ancient Rome.

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They go to the Hundred Years War and find both the France and England routed by dragons. They go to North America during the American Revolutionary War and find that both the American and British forces already wiped out by the ancient Celts. They go to the area around Jerusalem at the height of the Third Crusade and find both the crusader and Muslim forces already wiped out by the ancient Egyptians and the Knights of the Round Table.

You are shifting goalposts. Messing it all up with fantasy elements is not the same thing as not featuring any of the principal elements from the event in question. They can also do plenty of whitewashing of the history even without any of the central players involved, as I pointed out before. It is all in the writing, not in the selection of servants.

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Based on that precedent, I expect this upcoming event to not feature any controversial figure and possibly not even to feature WWII (that map of Tokyo is at night, but it doesn't appear to show any damage from bombing, nor were there any military elements in the trailer).

Again, irrelevant. Just the fact that they have chosen that time and place for the setting already guarantees that they will have something to say about it, even if it is only in the dialogue. If they simply chose that time and place as a backdrop and plan to completely ignore any discussion or mention about the factions that actually fought the war (which they won't because we already know that there is a group of nazis trying to build a grail-bomb or something in the mix) then that in itself would be a form of whitewashing.

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So, if your argument is that any work set in this time period that doesn't specifically focus on wartime and colonial atrocities is offensive, then this event will probably be offensive because FGO has never to my recollection stopped to remember a historical atrocity not committed by the US against native Americans.

That's kind of my point, remember? FGO doesn't have a great track-record of treating history with much respect and when we are talking about an event that is so recent and majorly influential on current politics, that is a much bigger problem than usual. Hence the current controversy.

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When it comes to portrayals of Japan's role leading up to and during WWII, however, we will have to wait and see what the event story actually contains before it will be possible to criticize with any credibility.

Not really. All of the "criticism" so far just amounts to people being sceptical about FGO's ability to handle a sensitive topic with the respect and responsibility it deseves based on how it is marketed so far. I would love to be proven wrong here, but it wouldn't really make the current criticism any less valid.

Oh please, there's ton of games, movies and books about WWII - this is not something to be insensitive about. It would be another story if author would somehow offend Koreans in plot, but right now there's no point to complain. I mean, they probably would even mention anything about koreans - right now it looks like a battle between imperial army, nazis, chaldea team and... dunno, aliens

omg nobody cares when this series parodies events in history. My god are both of you dolts.One of you Seriously getting offended over a game and the other not putting the simple argument that this series is known for parodies of history. [expletive] hell grow the fudge up.

#TheGreatestP4P wrote:

omg nobody cares when this series parodies events in history. My god are both of you dolts.One of you Seriously getting offended over a game and the other not putting the simple argument that this series is known for parodies of history. [expletive] hell grow the fudge up.

Pretty sure this thread wouldn't exist if nobody cared. Get lost if you think it is such a stupid topic. You are not adding anything of substance.

johan.eriksson.9003 wrote:

#TheGreatestP4P wrote: omg nobody cares when this series parodies events in history. My god are both of you dolts.One of you Seriously getting offended over a game and the other not putting the simple argument that this series is known for parodies of history. [expletive] hell grow the fudge up. Pretty sure this thread wouldn't exist if nobody cared. Get lost if you think it is such a stupid topic. You are not adding anything of substance.

The message above yours otherwise shows why this is such a stupid argument to get mad over. And once again; really nobody cares except critically dumb people who take this ww2 thing way to seriously like if they never played a ww2 game.

#TheGreatestP4P wrote:

johan.eriksson.9003 wrote: #TheGreatestP4P wrote: omg nobody cares when this series parodies events in history. My god are both of you dolts.One of you Seriously getting offended over a game and the other not putting the simple argument that this series is known for parodies of history. [expletive] hell grow the fudge up. Pretty sure this thread wouldn't exist if nobody cared. Get lost if you think it is such a stupid topic. You are not adding anything of substance. The message above yours otherwise shows why this is such a stupid argument to get mad over. And once again; really nobody cares except critically dumb people who take this ww2 thing way to seriously like if they never played a ww2 game.

Question: Have you ever seen a mainstream WWII game where you are play as and sympathize with the nazis? Because I guarantee you that there would be just as much if not more controversy over that.


Also, apparently "critically dumb" means "thinks about anything critically".

johan.eriksson.9003 wrote:

#TheGreatestP4P wrote: johan.eriksson.9003 wrote: #TheGreatestP4P wrote: omg nobody cares when this series parodies events in history. My god are both of you dolts.One of you Seriously getting offended over a game and the other not putting the simple argument that this series is known for parodies of history. [expletive] hell grow the fudge up. Pretty sure this thread wouldn't exist if nobody cared. Get lost if you think it is such a stupid topic. You are not adding anything of substance. The message above yours otherwise shows why this is such a stupid argument to get mad over. And once again; really nobody cares except critically dumb people who take this ww2 thing way to seriously like if they never played a ww2 game. Question: Have you ever seen a mainstream WWII game where you are play as and sympathize with the nazis? Because I guarantee you that there would be just as much if not more controversy over that. Also, apparently "critically dumb" means "thinks about anything critically".

Yes and even better imma describe the event. Ww2 Japan trying to make nukes only to be stopped by you omg revelating. I mean going against imperial japan to fix the timeline and stopping them omg so much sympathizing. God do your research before you try to act smart.

OK, where are people getting this "nukes" thing from? I've seen multiple people post about it in this topic, but I've seen no evidence of it in the actual game.

I'll admit that I haven't finished the event story yet, but everything so far has been about trying to escape a weird pocket of space-time where only imperial Tokyo exists.

Already addressed this in previous comments. Not repeating myself. Try to keep up or please stop talking to me.

johan.eriksson.9003 wrote:

Already addressed this in previous comments. Not repeating myself. Try to keep up or please stop talking to me.

how freaking hypocritical for you to say "please don't talk to me" as if HE approached you. no sir, YOU approached him, YOU have to deal with what you started. don't try to act like he started treading on your waters because he didn't.