Comments on: Mature teaser: no penis

By: Ciro Continisio

Ciro Continisio — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:59:14 +0000

This made me laugh: “Answer after the cut.”

By: Ars Ludica » Blog Archive » Il pisello scomparso dall’uomo di Vitruvio di Leonardo

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:53:38 +0000

[...] dal blog dei Tale of Tales (quelli di The Path e The Graveyard, per intenderci) una notizia di poco conto ma indicativa di un [...]

By: Mc_GayveR80

Mc_GayveR80 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:04:09 +0000

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/secrets-of-the-assassins-creed-2-teaser-trailer-revealed/a-20090407103047781052

in here if you pay attention to ubi’s v-man it has also assasination glove on his left hand…. also it’s announced that we (the character know Da Vinci).. So it may be over a censor, may be it is a thing about what we change in game…

By the way before i read the article i thought there’s something strange about v-man.. that’s it they even castrated the v-man..

By: Michaël Samyn

Michaël Samyn — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:57:27 +0000

Haha. They just relesed a new teaser video today. With a brief flash of the Vitruvian Man at the end. But his penis has not grown back. :(

By: sean

sean — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:22:44 +0000

Hi Michael. I made a post about this on Neoseeker’s sister site here:

http://gamegrep.com/news/19701-asassins_creed_ii_teaser_site_censors_classic_nude_art_rated_18/

So now there’s a giant picture of a penis on our front page. :)

Send me an e-mail when you’re up for that post-mortem look at The Path!

By: Michaël Samyn

Michaël Samyn — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:12:10 +0000

I do blame Ubisoft. Who else will change this reactionary tide but forward looking people? If we just give in to the biggots, things will only get worse. It is exactly companies like Ubisoft who can and should resist.

And if they’re shy, then they just should not use that image at all. How about that? There’s plenty of games that advertise themselves without penises and without drawings of Da Vinci. There’s no reason why Ubisoft cannot do the same.

By the way, for some people (probably more than we are willing to imagine within the industry) the very fact that Ubisoft is using artwork by Da Vinci to promote a videogame is insulting. If they are willing to take that risk, they might as well take the other.

By: Xanadu

Xanadu — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:57:38 +0000

Certainly its bad. At this level, there is no reason to cover up the nudity. But don’t blame Ubisoft on this. The culture is overly conservative, and has lost its priorities. Ubisoft has just adapted to the cultural necessity. Is it reasonable to assume that a large company like Ubisoft would be willing to take on a full frontal assault from angry right-wing groups legal actions and boycotts, and crazies like Jack Thomson, and put the distribution of there beloved game at risk so the games advertisement can make an artistic point? From pictures, it looks like the game itself will be uncensored. Don’t blame the developers.

By: Michaël Samyn

Michaël Samyn — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 06:56:49 +0000

Culture comes from everywhere! If we give in to this kind of hypocritical bigottery, there’s no end to it. Especially considering that using this kind of imagery did not used to be a problem. We’re going backwards in time. If we don’t watch out, we will start burning books again and chopping heads off of statues in churches.

We have to resist this! As artists, as creative people, it is our duty to educate, not to give in to some reactionary tendencies in the audience.

I say hypocritical because of this. Even Google’s “Strict SafeSearch” setting does not remove Da Vinci’s penis. So everyone everywhere has already seen this image! Ubisoft’s move implies more conservatism than is necessary. And each such exaggerated step takes us back further than we need to go.

Let’s be proud of being human! Do we really need to teach ourselves all over again that there is no shame in the naked body??

By: Xanadu

Xanadu — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:07:42 +0000

Alright, calm down. The game is 18+. The ADVERTISEMENT needs to be totally family friendly. Game developers have gotten sued before because they released a game, and then a person altered the game in a mod to include nudity. Mass Effect showed a bare ass once in 40+ hours, and got accused of being an orgy simulator. That’s about as crazy as suing a paper company because someone used the paper to write a ransom note. Game developers have to deal with some serious stupidity. Can you really blame them for not showing a Penis in the ad? Blame the culture, not the designers, there just doing what they have to do.

By: Leonardo ocenzurowany « Altergranie

Leonardo ocenzurowany « Altergranie — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:02:30 +0000

[...] Michaël Samyn ze studia Tale of Tales zauważył na swoim blogu ciekawą rzecz. Choć może lepiej pasowałoby słowo: kuriozalną. Otóż niedawno [...]

By: Zach

Zach — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:06:33 +0000

The game has a site with some hidden images. One of them is the picture with the penis. Gamesradar has an article mentioning it:

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/secrets-of-the-assassins-creed-2-teaser-trailer-revealed/a-20090407103047781052

By: Ilia Chentsov

Ilia Chentsov — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:37:14 +0000

“Answer after the cut” sounds wondrously ambiguous in context. Michaёl, you are back in “industry defamation” mode! Glad to see it!

By: dieubussy

dieubussy — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:16:39 +0000

What do you expect from a pig but a grunt?

By: Monty

Monty — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:54:15 +0000

Perhaps it’s a clue to the narrative of the game.

X wakes up to find that after a lifetime of having a penis, he no longer does. X pursues the cocknappers in a frenzy of rage and ends up as an assassin. Armed with a weapon that is in no way phallic X finally regains his prize and lives happily ever after.

Hats off to Ubisoft.

By: Michal Bayerl

Michal Bayerl — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:48:02 +0000

Maybe that the missing penis is kind of a puzzle to solve :-). I don’t know but it’s ridiculous. Is it even legal or moral to alter an master piece of art in favour of creating a game? I’m against it.

By: Auriea

Auriea — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:38:52 +0000

personally i think they should have taken their ‘artistic license’ and added a mech attachment there, like they did for the arm ;)

By: Emriss

Emriss — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:28:11 +0000

Well, that’s ridiculous. If it was presented erotically, I’d understand, but it’s just anatomy!

What’s that game the makers of Pathologic are working on? The Void or sumthin? There are female breasts in the previews, some in a very erotic context…

Am I missing some sort of cultural barrier here?

By: Softbagel

Softbagel — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:06:12 +0000

amen to that

By: djkid

djkid — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:20:48 +0000

To be fair, there is an Adult only rating that means 18+.
Mature only requires 17+.

http://img.engadget.com/common/images/5719485415193684.JPG?0.6481665814041725

By: Michaël Samyn

Michaël Samyn — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:53:54 +0000

My question is to the meaning of the “18plus” label. If “18plus” is not mature enough to see a penis drawn by the world’s most well known artist, what is? Do we need a new label?

We will most probably make an extremely expansive post-mortem of The Path. But we’re not ready to start on that just yet.

By: Kyle Barrett

Kyle Barrett — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:07:56 +0000

To be fair many famous pieces of Da Vinci’s work are defaced in it. It’s not like they stayed true to the rest and then just whipped out the wang at the last minute.

You two get to create games with challenging concepts and weird and wonderful design decisions, and Ubisoft Montreal get to create a game with a budget that caters to 2mil plus sales, but minus genitals and forced democratic creative direction. Something about having a cake and eating it too.

By the way, I asked about more interviews from the site, but more importantly, will either of you be doing any post-mortems?

Thanks,

Kyle

By: Auriea

Auriea — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:48:49 +0000

I applaud this post.