The "modern day" plot of Assassin's Creed is embarrassing

[JarlFrank]

Worst history rape was still what they did to Byzantines in Revelations. SUPERTOLERANT PROGRESSIVE MULTICULTURAL OTTOMAN EMPIRE VS REACTIONARY CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN EUROPEAN OPPRESSORS

 

[taxalot]

I am actually going through the entire series right now, and I have started on AC3.

The modern day plot isn't actually THAT terrible if you stop and think about it, in a "good for what it is" fashion. Compared to other games, it's pretty much on par in terms of silliness and amateurish conspiracy fanfiction.
It actually reminds me a lot of a french novel called "La fin des Temps" (The end of times, translated into 'The Ice People' for some weirdass reason). The novel has : an ancient civilization which when rediscovered warns the protagonist against imminent destruction, two warring factions fighting over artifacts (NATO, USSR), and most of the story is being told thanks to a tool that allows to view the ancient ones' memories. In a way, you can say that AC's plot is somewhat consistent with the history of french science fiction. I know, it's a bullshit argument, but I somehow feel like that counts.

I'm "interested" in seeing where that all leads. It's not unbearable. I don't mind it.

But it's still a stupid mistake : the fact that it's not as terrible as what people make it to be does not change the fact that the game would be a lot better without it. It would indeed be also a lot better without the templars being in every game, although I actually don't mind that bit about as much. They have a goldmine of settings, and they limit themselves with that framework. That is a real shame if you consider games need to explore more different and unique settings, like AC is doing. Yet, it seemed like Ubi Soft "feared" this was too much originality and they had to tackle a cliche and stereotypical story over the whole thing, so as not to lose the players. Or maybe this is a trick to get them to buy every episode ?

You just wait until they connect it to the Watch Dogs universe. You know it's going to happen.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'd prefer the story of the series if it was just about being an assassin dude (or even assassin chick, you know they'll do that in one of the games one of these days) running through historical cities and killing people. I don't even give a fuck about the story, this is basically historical GTA with a pretend-stealth theme (cuz there's no actual stealth lul), and my impression is that most people play it for the same reason - parkour through cool historical locations, kill people, be badass assassin. Renaissance GTA.

 

[Puukko]

I played ACIV recently and actually really enjoyed it, sailing with your bros was fun, upgrading your ship and so on. It still had the stupid tailing missions though, but at least the story was fairly interesting and they went quite light on the modern day stuff.

The multiplayer is where the meat is anyway. I'm shamelessly grinding to buy those prestige costumes.

 

[baturinsky]

I'd prefer the story of the series if it was just about being an assassin dude (or even assassin chick, you know they'll do that in one of the games one of these days) running through historical cities and killing people. I don't even give a fuck about the story, this is basically historical GTA with a pretend-stealth theme (cuz there's no actual stealth lul), and my impression is that most people play it for the same reason - parkour through cool historical locations, kill people, be badass assassin. Renaissance GTA.

AC Liberation has chick protagonist. But it's also probably most boring game in series, because most of time you spend slogging through Louisiana swamps.
Also, she is half black.

 

[Beastro]

In 1, the crusaders were actual, historical bad guys

Hahahaha.

Yeah, right.

 

[Beastro]

Worst history rape was still what they did to Byzantines in Revelations. SUPERTOLERANT PROGRESSIVE MULTICULTURAL OTTOMAN EMPIRE VS REACTIONARY CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN EUROPEAN OPPRESSORS

I was turned off the the first game by its base premise, glad I've kept ignoring the series since then.

 

[Edward The Mediocre]

Assassin's Creed Syndicate takes a leap towards inclusivity with the series' first transgender character

https://archive.is/MS24q

Spoiler

Assassin's Creed Syndicate takes a leap towards inclusivity with the series' first transgender character
Ubisoft also updates the series' standard opening text.

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By Tom Phillips Published 24/09/2015
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate will include the long-running series' first transgender character.

It's about time: the last AAA game to feature a trans character was last year's Dragon Age: Inquisition.
A trans male, Ned Wynert is one of several supporting characters that act as quest givers for Syndicate's protagonists, Jacob and Evie Fry.
Ubisoft has also updated Assassin's Creed's standard opening statement, present since the series' inception, which explains that each game was "designed, developed and produced by a multicultural team of various religious faiths and beliefs."
Syndicate now opens with the text: "Inspired by historical events and characters, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team of various beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities."
Ubisoft's decision marks a leap forward for inclusivity in the Assassin's Creed series. Syndicate is also the first game in the franchise to allow players a choice between male and female main characters for many of its missions.
The changes come a year after Assassin's Creed: Unity suffered intense criticism for not including a female character option in the game's co-op mode, despite one initially having been in development.
"Inclusiveness is something that's super important for us as a team," Assassin's Creed Syndicate creative director Marc-Alexis Côté told Eurogamer. "We've made a good push towards diversity and how we approach different subjects in the game."
It would be easy to assume that the inclusion of a transgender character was a quick reaction to last year's PR troubles, that the character was created just to tick a box.
But from the two sequences of Syndicate's story that were available to play, it's important to note that Wynert's story does not involve his gender and, in the scenes we saw, is not even remarked upon. Wynert has also not featured in any marketing to date.

Dragon Age: Inquisition's Krem was portrayed by Mass Effect and BioShock Infinite voice actress Jennifer Hale, and reappeared in the game's Trespasser DLC.
Asked about the series' changed opening statement, Côté said that the move to update it had come "from a discussion with the team".
"It felt like when we first wrote that for AC1 it was something that was very inclusive. But I've had the chance to work with more than 12 different writers on Syndicate. At one point, one approached me and said that we were not embracing diversity fully enough.
"I had reviewed all our crowd dialogue, I was happy with our two protagonists, but they were talking about the statement at the beginning of the game - that it was exclusive of some people. So I asked for them to propose a new statement," Côté explained.
As for the character of Wynert, Côté added that he wanted players to meet the character and form an opinion themselves, but that he was an accurate reflection of "the Victorian era".
Indeed, Syndicate's 1868 setting is two years prior to the high profile trial of Thomas Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park. The pair were put on trial for 'conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offence' after being discovered with Boulton's lover Lord Arthur Clinton while both dressed as women.
Boulton and Park performed under the names Stella Clinton and Fanny Winifred Park as part of a music hall double act, although also lived as women away from the stage. To friends of Lord Clinton and Stella, the couple had lived together until the trial as husband and wife. Boulton and Park were both eventually acquitted, but Lord Clinton died shortly after being charged, and is widely believed to have committed suicide.
Apart from confirming what Côté had said, Ubisoft told Eurogamer that it wanted the game to speak for itself.

 

[deuxhero]

After over 13 "main" games, the disaster that was the last one and the not that great install base for Xbone and PS4, this shit can't possibly sell well enough to make back its now even higher budget.

They're doing this to have an excuse ready.

 

[Trash]

Doesn't explain why they cream themselves over 2 so much though...

AC 2 had a straightforward revenge story and a satisfying list of baddies that you would work through to get at your goal. It just worked and didn't feel as far fetched or stupid as the usual AC fare. It also was a pretty glorious virtual tourism simulator and expanded the gameplay. Best game in the series. Replayed AC 1 for a bit recently and was amazed at how badly it has aged. Did like the story, walking around old Jerusalem and grabbing people and using them to soak up arrows but otherwise the gameplay was shit.

What surprises me is how many people enjoy Black Flag. It felt like Just Another Ubisoft Cookie Cutter Open World Game to me. Though the naval part and the setting where fun for a bit. More surprising is how everyone who loves Black Flag never mentions Rogue. It's pretty much the same in colder climates and actually improves and expands on Black Flag's gameplay gimmick.

EDIT: Massive lol at the transgender character. Victorian England was indeed very much known for their transsexuals and open sexual values. I honestly don't care about any character in any story as long as that character is added for artistic reasons. This one is not. It's just added because there is a 'demand.' Fuck that as it triggers every part of the indicators of artistic bankruptcy: homogeneity, fear, self-censorship, trend pursuit, relevance consideration and concern for the audience.

 

[vonAchdorf]

EDIT: Massive lol at the transgender character. Victorian England was indeed very much known for their transsexuals and open sexual values. I honestly don't care about any character in any story as long as that character is added for artistic reasons. This one is not. It's just added because there is a 'demand.' Fuck that as it triggers every part of the indicators of artistic bankruptcy: homogeneity, fear, self-censorship, trend pursuit, relevance consideration and concern for the audience.

They really could have done something interesting with it, but it's such a shameless marketing push. Made worse by their "it's totally not a marketing push".

But from the two sequences of Syndicate's story that were available to play, it's important to note that Wynert's story does not involve his gender and, in the scenes we saw, is not even remarked upon. Wynert has also not featured in any marketing to date.

"We don't want to make a fuzz about it because it's totally normal. BUT HELLO, DID YOU NOTICE THAT WE HAVE A TRANGENDER CHARACTER IN OUR GAME!!!."

Even more retarded is their changed disclaimer:

"designed, developed and produced by a multicultural team of various religious faiths and beliefs."

"Inspired by historical events and characters, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team of various beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities."

Might as well add "with various tastes in ice cream, party allegations, natural and dyed hair, liking, hating or ignoring ice hockey".

Identity politics is really a vile and disgusting ideology.

 

[Jick Magger]

Replayed AC 1 for a bit recently and was amazed at how badly it has aged. Did like the story, walking around old Jerusalem and grabbing people and using them to soak up arrows but otherwise the gameplay was shit.

They only really got the hang of their cookie-cutter open world formula with Assassin's Creed 2. Assassin's Creed 1, along with Far Cry 2, were made in those awkward years between the release of FC1 and AC2, where they were still basically just throwing ideas at the wall to see what stuck., which is why the latter felt so bare-bones and repetitive content-wise.

 

[taxalot]

I am really out of touch with those issues, but can anyone remind me how exactly people switched genders in the 19th centuries ?

 

[Trash]

Brick, razor. Seriously though, mostly through drag and subterfuge.

 

[Meaning of Karma]

I am really out of touch with those issues, but can anyone remind me how exactly people switched genders in the 19th centuries ?

Here is an neat thread on askhistorians that I found. None of the answers talk about the Victorian period, and the question asked is different, but it's interesting nonetheless.

This was especially important to early Americans. At this time, the difference between male and female was more social (gender) than biological (sex). Women's genitals were seen as simply inverted forms of males' genitals. If a woman portrayed masculine traits too often, her genitals could fall out as a penis. Men's penes could likewise go back into their bodies if they were too feminine. The case of Thomas/ine Hall shows this -- because Virginians were unable to determine Hall's sex, they reinforced the sexual ambiguity through clothing.

While I don't have much to offer in the realm of historical information that others could not provide, I do want to warn against the error of presentism, as well as Euro-Centrism when approaching this topic.

Much in the same way we have cautioned over and over and over again in this sub when it comes to gender roles as well as homosexual relationships, you have to remember that the modern concepts of transgenderism only goes back to the 1920's and was created by Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany. Since then men such as Harry Benjamin have furthered the modern understanding of transgendered people.

With this in mind, do not read into past accounts of people who did not subscribe to normal gender roles or dress through the same framework you would today. Even the Fa'afafine who exist today in American Samoa are not to be framed through Western concepts with complete accuracy.

Understand the time periods expectations of gender and sexuality before you start pointing at eunuchs or others in the past and proclaim them transgender.

 

[Edward The Mediocre]

you have to remember that the modern concepts of transgenderism only goes back to the 1920's and was created by Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany.

Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany.

Magnus Hirschfeld

Magnus Hirschfeld

(14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a Jewish physician and sexologist educated primarily in Germany

Jewish physician

Jew

 

[Pirata Alma Negra]

isn't there a trans chick in black flag?

 

[baturinsky]

Worst history rape was still what they did to Byzantines in Revelations. SUPERTOLERANT PROGRESSIVE MULTICULTURAL OTTOMAN EMPIRE VS REACTIONARY CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN EUROPEAN OPPRESSORS

Haven't played the game, but Ottomans at the time were indeed more multi-cultural and multi-confessional than Europe. And more tolerant because of that. Otherwise all of Balkans would be Muslim now, instead of patches here and there.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Best thing about the Assassin's Creed series is the costume design. They are usually unusually detailed for a video game in designing, not just the main characters' clothing, but also the NPC's. Costume design is an overlooked artform in video games, probably just because it wasn't until the past decade that technology was good enough to bother.

I don't really like the AC series as games, but they usually have one or two really good looking sequences. The Opera House at the beginning of AC3, for example, was gorgeous looking, especially when combined with its hundreds of well dressed NPCs. The level itself served no gameplay purpose other than forcing you to wander through it. Even though its scope and scale were mostly smoke and mirrors (you couldn't wander onto the main floor), it still impressed me at the time.

That's generally how I feel about AC. It's momentarily fun to wander through the historical locations, to see the diorama approximations of history, but they get boring as games pretty quickly. That said, I know more about the Victorian England than probably any other historical era, so I'm actually looking forward to AC5 (or whatever number the next will be).

 

[JarlFrank]

Haven't played the game, but Ottomans at the time were indeed more multi-cultural and multi-confessional than Europe. And more tolerant because of that. Otherwise all of Balkans would be Muslim now, instead of patches here and there.

That doesn't mean there weren't any forced conversions, and the Ottomans weren't the peace-loving super-progressive guys shown in the game, while the heir to the Byzantine empire, last of the Komnenoi, is a evil scheming bad guy who is also a templar. It's so goddamn fucking ridiculous.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Pity more: I actually did a 100% playthrough of unity... OCD stupidity maxed out.

I %100 ed em all (well only one of them was 98-9 because of a bug) OCD is a helluva sickness.

 

[Beastro]

That doesn't mean there weren't any forced conversions, and the Ottomans weren't the peace-loving super-progressive guys shown in the game, while the heir to the Byzantine empire, last of the Komnenoi, is a evil scheming bad guy who is also a templar. It's so goddamn fucking ridiculous.

All the more so because the Ottomans pretty much just copied the Byzantine's system of Empire which they'd been developing for centuries (remember they were the original Roman Empire). From how multi ethnic their army was to "Islamic" Crescent (A symbol in Anatolia since time immemorial), so much is borrowed from what the Ottoman's replaced.

 

[Jick Magger]

I primarily cast Assassins Creed under the same net as shit like Vikings and Spartacus, i.e. historical fiction designed for stupid people who don't know much about history. Though the latter two at least have the excuse that they cover people that we don't have any first-hand historical records of, so the writers are able to be a bit liberal with their personalities.

 

[taxalot]

So AC is to history what the politics forum is to actual politics ? Interesting point of view.

 

[Beastro]

I primarily cast Assassins Creed under the same net as shit like Vikings and Spartacus, i.e. historical fiction designed for stupid people who don't know much about history. Though the latter two at least have the excuse that they cover people that we don't have any first-hand historical records of, so the writers are able to be a bit liberal with their personalities.

And in the latter case, liberal with a capital L.

It's why I can't stand Kubricks movie. Having the shit spewing out Sparts mouth, a rebellious slave with zero education is BS wish fulfilment, but I can't stand most "historical" movies because of that intrusive modern mindset shoved into the brains of your average protagonist.