Jade Raymond: “It’s time for our medium to grow up”

Ubisoft Toronto managing director Jade Raymond believes it’s about time games grew up and more actively explored ideas that can get players thinking or feel inspired.

[tigertron]

Jade Raymond eh? is it 2006 again? :P

[SilentNegotiator]

Grow up, eh? Okay, let's start by firing everyone hired or promoted for their sex appeal......Oh, right....well, Jade, this is awkward....

Edit:
Never said they couldn't be. Just that Jade is in her position for mainly one reason.

[MmaFan-Qc]

and who said a cute girl can't be competent?

grow up indeed sir.

[kaveti6616]

"Never said they couldn't be. Just that Jade is in her position for mainly one reason."

Prove it. You're making a claim that she's incompetent, and yet the Assassin's Creed series has been very successful under her leadership.

If the MAIN REASON why she was hired was for her looks alone, the production would have crumbled at the onset of the series in 2008. Either she's doing an excellent job, or she's a puppet and someone else is running the show. But you'd have to prove that that was the case. Since you haven't, shut up.

[MAJ0R]

I thought she was just a promoter and someone who does all of the PR and media stuff, so why would she be responsible for AC success other than with advertising and promoting it?

[Nimblest-Assassin]

@MAJOR

She is not PR, she was the producer of AC 1 and the executive producer of AC2.

I actually met her at the Fanexpo here in Toronto, and she is actually very knowledagble with the design and story's of games.

People who think a girl in gaming must be ugly but smart, or pretty but a complete airhead need to get their heads checked.

Before the medium can grow up,gamers need to grow up first.

Just look at all the comments here about erections... its absolutely appaling

Edit: Love how I got a disagree for stating a fact http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[The_Nameless_One]

@Nimblest-Assassin
Well have you noticed where you are trying to bring logic? You'll get disagrees on N4G by saying that the earth is round. Most of the times the people that disagree with you won't even explain themselves because they know they are wrong but they'll click that "Disagree" button anyways. Get used to it. N4G is a hair away from being /v/ so just don't even try trying to bring logic into your arguments. It's useless.

[dcbronco]

Or they disagree because you said something negative about the console they like even though what you said was true. Unfortunately that is the world we live in. I understand moving to more adult themes. But if you're looking for more "adult" behavior, you'll have a hard time finding that in the human race.

Animals do things that make little sense because of instinct. Humans do things that make little sense because we're stupid.

[tigertron]

@ SilentNegotiator

Me grow up? I just pointed out the whole Jade Raymond thing back at the beginning of this gen. I never said anything about firing women for their sex appeal. What the hell are you smoking?

[lsujester]

I just disagreed with Nameless and Dcbronco because they are right.

[coolbeans]

I suppose there's a lot of growing up to do in the community as well.

[cyborg6971]

You should stay silent, cause everything you say is utter crap.

And judging by these comments, I think what she ment was the gaming " community " needs to grow up.

[Hayabusa 117]

The Earth is round.

[crxss]

some people fail to realize that she's talking about the industry needing to grow up, not gamers. there's plenty of garbage games out there that give video games a "childish" image. i actually think the industry is growing up, just look at the evolution of stories within games.

still, i agree they developers need to tap into more important topics with a greater focus on story that get people to really think (more games like the MGS series) and less games that JUST appeal to competitive multiplayer (not saying that it's bad but it's not great for the industry's image). a perfect game will have the best of both worlds, which hasn't happened yet... at least for me. i wonder if there's ever been a game that got an award for best story AND best multiplayer

[Hayabusa 117]

HA! It worked!

[Jazz4108]

If we all grow up then who's going to buy Call of Duty anymore?

[ThichQuangDuck]

Bring out your misogynistic gamers..... Who insult the genre itself. Jade Raymond went quiet after the launch of Assassins Creed when a bukkake comic was made after her which is completely disgusting and says somehting about some people. She is back and has been working on Splinter Cell 6. Please do not disgrace the name of Tigertron with lack of knowledge

[GrumpyVeteran]

I remember her from 2008 when she was talking about that game called "I Am Alive"

lmao, good times.

[SephirothX21]

Idiotic sexists here should be ashamed. Firstly, Jade has a degree in computer science, as do I. Secondly, she has worked as a programmer for Sony, Microsoft and EA and was producer for Assassin's Creed. Yes it has been proven. You can be a pretty girl and be a nerd simultaneously. I think I'm going to publish a paper on this discovery.

[SnakeCQC]

i agree video games have such potential we need quantic dream to churn out more awesome games and ubisoft have an awesome story when it comes to ac but it will be interesting to see how the next plays out more devs to take more risks

[Ethereal]

I agree.

[from the beach]

Good games have always been able to inspire, as well as making players think, strategise and develop skills!

[Crap_Turtle]

she needs to shut up

assasins creed is milked boring and generic

[Baka-akaB]

Love when guys like you call stuff that arent truly available elsewhere "generic" .

[Crap_Turtle]

you mean an open world action game? no where can I get that.........

[Baka-akaB]

Yeah play dumb all you want , and pretend open world games arent different one franchise to another .

But please by all mean , show us anything similar to assassin creed among open world games , not named assassin creed .

[glennco]

thats the point though... too many assasins creed's yet we are only just coming up to AC3? it has been a little milked but i haven't played anything after AC2 so i'm good.

and most games, including skyrim, are just becoming a boring chore to play. they feel like an actual day job. go here, do this, rinse and repeat. there needs to be new creative ideas in the delivery of the quests or something.

[Cosmo811]

@glennco if you haven't played anything past ACII then your opinion is invalid.

[dcbronco]

I don't think a game like Assassin's Creed can be called out for being milked when CoD, Mario and a couple of dozen other franchises are well into the double digits on iterations.

[Nimblest-Assassin]

@Crap_turtle

Generic?

Please list another game that lets you roam freely in places back in time, that are crafted to be historically accurate?
Please list a game that actually prides itself with attempting to use history as their playground?
Please list a game where the idea of exploring the memories embeded in our DNA is used?
Please list another game that uses the idea of first civilizations, and is attempting to tie itself with real world events?

Can you? No you can't... so if anyone here is to shut up... it should be you.

@Glenco

AC1-2007
AC2-2009
ACB-2010
ACR-2011
AC3-2012

The whole story revolves around the 2012 phenomena.Also, when would a milked franchise have a new graphics engine, scraps the gameplay features of the old games, completely bends the expectations of people, and gets them this excited for the game.

People were fatigued in 2011 with revelations, but now, everyone is excited for 3.

And 3 was in development after they finished 2. The fact that they still made meaty games with Brotherhood and Revelations, as well as adding an unique multiplayer component is an incredible feat.

People do not understand how the AC games sell. Its actually really easy, there are no other games quite like it. No one can name a game that Assassins Creed is like. People will say your game is like Assassins Creed. Prototype 1, changed Mercers look because he looked like Altair. The games are that polarizing.

THESE GUYS MADE VIDEO GAME PARKOUR POPULAR!

Although I will agree with you that Skyrim is like doing chores, you feel zero accomplishment after each quest... Im actually amazed that one of the VGA predictors said that and was excited, because a game was giving her chores.

[sjaakiejj]

Boring and generic is nothing more than your opinion. The milking of the franchise has nothing to do with Jade, as far as I know she was only involved with AC1 and AC2.

[Hayabusa 117]

Ever consider that maybe the reason she's saying games need to explore new ideas is BECAUSE she's been making the same generic boring stuff the last couple of years? [Disclaimer: Not saying AC series is boring and generic, just trying to make a point to Carp_Turtle.]

[Nac]

Good to see other people in the medium say this, I agree 100%

[Nac]

Looks like Jaffe disagrees...

[Cosmo811]

And you gamers wonder why you're considered misogynists. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. A woman who runs a major Ubisoft studio can't make a statement without the rest of you neckbeard virgins making comments about her appearance? Seriously? Talk about the f*****g news and not how hard your tiny erection is.

Anyway, I thoroughly agree with her. I hope Assassins Creed 3 will do this, as it seems to be aiming to.

[SnakeCQC]

agreed this posts here show the state of n4g and gaming consumers who in turn shape gaming :(

[SilentNegotiator]

Oh hit the brakes. They're jokes in response to the controversy surrounding Jade.

[Cosmo811]

The fact that they're jokes makes absolutely no difference. The moment gamers see a female, out come the jokes and prods about sex. The sickening behaviour not only on this site but almost every single gaming platform or discussion site on the internet reinforces the notion that gaming is an anti-woman environment; and it reinforces that because it's true. Many women I know do not publicly disclose the fact that they're women, and completely avoid voice chat, because they know when they do use it that they'll be ridiculed. I'm aware that these here are just jokes, but they're symptomatic of a wider problem in the gaming community, and I'm sick of it being accepted. /rant

[Nimblest-Assassin]

Oh... your talking about the swimsuit nonsense we have no proof of? The fact that those Kotaku writers only talked about Jade, rather than Assassin's Creed itself?

Get the F*** over it. Back in 07, the gaming consumer was a horny idiot who could not comprehend that a pretty woman was making them video games. I mean, really its great knowing that people assume this, and that she knows nothing about video games. She graduated from f**ing MCgill. Thats one of Canada's top university's. She knows how to make video games.

And even if she is eye candy.. lets face it its a brilliant strategy. What are you going to say that it is wrong and immoral that she is working in the industry? A majority of male gamers are horny teenagers who want to bone every pretty girl on the internet. If you are stupid enough to buy a video game because a pretty girl told you to like that moron VonBraunschweigg up there, then you prove my point. Go load up an episode of IGN's dailly fix and read the comments. Sure Naomi is knowledgable, but why not use Daemon? Because they realized that the gaming public clicks with their d**** rather than with their heads.

Where as people laugh at Jade, it proves how f**king pathetic male gamers still are. I actually feel embarrassed that I am a gamer because I get associated with these people.

Back in 07 the male gamer was a horny idiot, in 012... he still is.
http://n4g.com/news/81597/j...

also at cologothelengend

gaming is a male thing? Thats cute, you want to see naked women? Go to pornhub.

Seriously.. its weird that most of these horny kids, have no clue what internet porn is..

[Romudeth]

Gamers need to mature first judging by all of these stupid comments directed toward Jade. You guys are the reason the gaming industry is becoming more dumbed down by the day.

Grow up!

[Valorous_Entity]

As a female I'm rather disgusted by the comments on here.
And I'm no female activist either, you guys are just being assholes.

[Convas]

Welcome to the internet, where sexual deviancy abounds.

Seriously, this is NEW4GAMERS. Read that again. Realize that there are people here who spend more time trolling and arguing than actually playing games.

Did you really expect anything more?

[TheRealHeisenberg]

"Seriously, this is NEW4GAMERS. Read that again. Realize that there are people here who spend more time trolling and arguing than actually playing games.

Did you really expect anything more?"

+1 for you.

[Hicken]

Actually, it's NEW[S]FORGAMERS.

And it's not at all unreasonable to expect that a group that has generally been depicted negatively might try to avoid doing that same thing to others.

Now, if you had said "This is the INTERNET," I might have been able to agree with you; the internet is the perfect place for people to show how ugly they are. Whether or not the person is a gamer is irrelevant.

[Cosmo811]

The fact that our standards have slipped so low that serious misogyny has become acceptable does not mean that our standards are acceptable. We need to raise the bar, N4G.

[No FanS Land]

Yes we did expect something more back in 2007-2008, and even 2009, then it seems everyone under 12 subscribed to N4G to defend their ignorance and the PS3.

I like my PS3, but this site was better when it was more of a 360 fansite. It became a PS3 fansite when gears2 was near lunching. R2 VS Gears2, it all went downhill starting from here, and that includes the metacritic controversy where user scores were artificially rated down (R2, GoW2, Fable2 and others.)

[Christopher]

***Did you really expect anything more?***

Yes. Regardless of the status of many users on N4G, I always expect that people should be mature and discuss the topics at hand rather than make lewd comments towards a woman who happens to be good looking.

[Dee_91]

it all started when N4G got rid of the troll commenting section(joke .I just recently started to realize just how many kids trolls and immature people are on heree.Which is why my commenting went fron daily to weekly.I dont even try anymore.

[colugothelegend]

as a male gamer.

you know who developers actually sell too...
piss off!!!
jade is hot.
her opinions on games are worthless though.

[Frankfurt]

Considering she's responsible for Assassin's Creed, a series that mentions concepts haphazardly without any idea of what they actually mean (to the point of being offensive to anyone with a brain)... I would tell Jade herself to grow up before she opens her mouth.

[Nimblest-Assassin]

So.. you get insulted by fiction, eh?

Im sorry, but their stories and ideas are a work of fiction. Everyone who plays the games know it is fiction, I can't find a Roman Catholic insulted by the themes of AC2.

If you get offened by the concepts in Asassins Creed, you actually don't have a brain. It fully says the games are developed by multiple people of different religious faiths etc.

You completely ignored this, or have no idea how to read.

The games actually are fully aware that they can be insulting, which is why they warn people at the beginning of the game. You act like their stories act like those mindless teenagers who scream Jay-Z is a member of the illuminati.

If you feel offended I don't smyphatize with you.. I think you are completely ignorant.

Grow up

[Bimkoblerutso]

Her statement seems humorously relevant to the comments being made here...

[psyxon]

Indeed.

[mochachino]

Judging from the comments, games are already way to mature for most people.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

The medium 'needs' to grow out,not necessarily up.
first.
The medium 'needs' to embrace outside thinking not upward fixations.

The medium 'needs' to forget or ignore the bulk of the mediums lesser minds,present here as per usual....yet somewhat amusing

[sarshelyam]

1) Flower
2) Journey
3) Heavy Rain

There are 3 examples of what Jade is speaking to...apparently she hasn't heard, nor played them considering they bolster the argument she's presenting the industry with.

[ClimateKaren]

We need to start pushing the boundaries of our medium everyone!!

*makes another Assassin's Creed game*

[GTRrocker]

Ha exactly!

[Christopher]

Even though she only worked on the first Assassin's Creed...

[GTRrocker]

The assassins creed games are boring....

Great another splinter cell game....

How about a new ip to help prop up your soapbox jade?

[soundslike]

Splinter Cell already died with Conviction, now shes going to exhume the body and take a sh** all over it.

Fire this woman. Have her go ruin a game that isn't known for its GAMEPLAY

[hazelamy]

if these responses are any indication, it's not just the industry that needs to mature.

[madjedi]

Lord idiots making sexist comments and the morally superior "mature" citizens who demean or attack the idiots joking around. Proclaiming your a perfect example as to why blah blah blah.

Making occasional dumbass jokes or suggestive comments/thoughts about one gender is not a sign of a lack of maturity. It could just be joking around. Because i will bet if all the morally offended people here, judged themselves as strictly they do others, there would be less "good citizens" denouncing others actions/words.

I have to wonder how many females that found the comments degrading to women or sexist ect. Didn't do the exact same thing(disregard every aspect other than looks), when insert buff male actor was topless or in a outfit that showed off his muscles.

Thor and captain america, being recent examples. But people aren't possibly hypocritical at times, are they? I just love the good citizen responses don't you.

So apparently only gamers act this way, for the rest of society this type of behavior is completely beneath them and would never act or think this way. Lol right, every hobby or organization has people like this on both genders, always has always will.

[sjaakiejj]

It's objectification, and sexist regardless of whether it's about a male or a female. Comments such as these are degrading to the person receiving them, and calling people who make them "immature" is not proclaiming to be a perfect example, but rather a way of saying "grow the fuck up, that's a person you're talking about".

[Christopher]

***Making occasional dumbass jokes or suggestive comments/thoughts about one gender is not a sign of a lack of maturity.***

Actually, it is. Especially when the topic at hand isn't about such things. You can go make jokes and suggestive comments in the 'Jokes and Suggestive Comments' news submission, not in one talking about the gaming industry.

***So apparently only gamers act this way, for the rest of society this type of behavior is completely beneath them and would never act or think this way.***

No one said that. If a teacher said her 4th period class needed to improve their test scores, she's not saying that those are the only kids that need that. She's specifying based on the subject at hand and her personal knowledge. It doesn't mean other classes, schools, or the like don't need to improve either.

[-Gespenst-]

Assassin's Creed has a mature story, but it's ultimately a very immature game. It treats violence in a very immature way for instance. We play as the "hero", only he's a complete psychopath, (I'm thinking of that execution move where he just needlessly stabs enemies like 10 times in the stomach). Violence in the AC series is made out to look really badass and cool, but that's just totally immature, and totally incongruous with the apparently "noble" protagonist on whose side we're supposed to be. It's things like this that plague games and make them impossible to take seriously (if their aim is to be taken seriously that is)

As for Quantic Dream, people need to snap out of thinking that those guys make intelligent, mature games. They don't. The stories are just so immature. Origami Killer? That's the most ridiculous thing of all time. It treats the whole murder mystery thing like it were a comic book story when it's obviously trying to be taken seriously. And have you played Fahrenheit? Most self-indlugent juvenile BS I've ever seen towards the end. I for one don't want Quantic Dream spearheading any "mature revolution" in games, it'll just be an embarrassment.

[cm_]

I agree with her ,we need GOOD exciting games for mature audiences and start looking at other industries like the movies as influence for bringing more potential to games.

[FarCryLover182]

Please make a good SPlinter Cell. PLEASEE

[ritsuka666]

Ugly girl... SHM.