Far Cry 3 was a great game, but it came in for something of a roasting in how it depicted other cultures, not least for a white frat boy showing the villagers how it’s done right after he gets a tattoo. So, they’re taking steps to avoid that, including actually visiting the culture they’re semi-depicting this time.
Honestly, good for Ubisoft. True, nobody can depict a culture quite like those who’ve grown up inside it, and tackling difficult subjects like the bloody, decade-long Nepalese Civil War is tricky for any type of art form. On the other hand, they’re actually making an effort to properly reflect the realities on the ground, which is more than you can say for quite a few shooters.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the Internet without some mindless outrage, and some people are already getting upset that Ubisoft’s representatives would go to a religious ritual that involves animal sacrifice. It’s worth noting that “animal sacrifice” is something we’d better understand as “meat processing” or “barbecue;” Hinduism in Nepal uses the practice of jhatka, with the idea that you behead the animal in one strike to limit suffering.
It’s actually pretty controversial in the area itself, not least because many Hindus interpret meat processing as contrary to the doctrine of ahimsa, or “To not injure.” It’s largely an aspect of Shaktism and folk Hinduism, and that makes the issue as messy as you’d expect religious arguments to get. Something which, considering the stated goal is to better understand the culture, you’d think would come up instead of the host saying, essentially, DUDE WE SAW THEM KILL A GOAT like five times.
But anyway. The video itself is fairly fascinating, and we’ll be curious to see the rest of it, if for no other reason than to see what else they learn.