Assassin's Creed Devs Don't Hate the British

[ChildishLegacy]

To be fair, though, you were kind of the bad guys.

Whats that? I can't hear you over the sound of my puppy fueled death ray making its hourly shot at cute endangered species.

 

[T'Generalissimo]

Well, the feeling's not mutual, I definetly hate you, Ubisoft.

 

[wooty]

I think the problem most people have is there hasn't really been any "Templars vs Assassins" imagery in the trailers or gameplay vids. It mostly has been a lot, almost entire British armies, being wiped out by one lone American patriot while the words "freedom", "liberty", "justice" are being spoken over it.

I guess hindsight is a funny thing though seeing as most people now moan about the US being too corrupt, too greedy or censoring too much.

But history should remain where it belongs, which is in the past. I don't really mind killing my own random computer generated non-living unfeeling fellow geographical representative avatars countrymen, as long as its done tastefully and not rated PG (Patriotic Garbage).

 

[Hero in a half shell]

They keep saying "Oh, the British aren't depicted as the bad guys" but I really don't see any of that coming through in their trailers, so far the headcount of the Assassin is about a billion English redcoats and not a single Revolutionary. Someone else said maybe it's a plotpoint-y twist. Hmm, that would be interesting.

 

[Gabanuka]

I dont mind. My Mums side is Hungarian and my dads side didnt go to the colonys as fr as I know.

To be fair, though, you were kind of the bad guys.

How very dare you! Fisty cuffs! I demand satisfaction!

 

[ReservoirAngel]

In all seriousness, this is actually an interesting thought. We have a great many readers from the various parts of Great Britain - do you feel that Assassin's Creed III is unfairly targeting you? Is it going to be odd playing a character who stalks and kills your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers?

Nope. I think "too soon" is not something that can apply to a war that happened in the 1700's. I don't much care, really. It'd be like a whole bunch of people still whining they lost a rebellion and still waving the flag their side used... *looks at the American Deep South* oh...

I'm utterly detached from the whole Revolutionary War in every possible way. Frankly I'm glad America won it. You're your own problem now.

To be fair, though, you were kind of the bad guys.

To be even more fair, both sides were kind of dicks in equal measure. Sure we were arseholes but the kicker is that the Americans were arseholes too. There's a Cracked article about this somewhere I cannot be arsed to find and link to, but it basically points out that the "oppressive taxes" issue really wasn't that much of an issue, since most colonists barely paid them anyway and the crown didn't really give much of a shit to begin with.

Plus because we were an ocean away and the guy in charge to reporting shit to us loved us to begin with and wasn't exactly in touch with what the everyday colonists were feeling about the whole situation, we didn't even really know people were pissed off over taxes they weren't even paying. Plus you guys dragged us into a war we had no fucking reason to be fighting and then threw a *****-fit when we suggested you maybe shoulder some of the cost of said war.

So really, let's call it a wash and move on. People are still trying to convince the Americans that they weren't the lone patriotic heroes during World War 2 that liberated Europe by themselves, do we really still need to be arguing about the very first war you guys ever fought?

To cut a long story short: I don't give a fuck about murdering virtual old-timey British people. Though I do have some reservations about getting blood and bullet-holes in those fabulous coats.

The Russians bit the bullet for a while as the main antagonists, so why not step it up a notch to the best nation on the planet?

A while? They're still doing that. And will be until America gets into it's next proper war (those little bullet-filled excursions into developing nations don't count) so it can find someone fresh to demonise for the sake of flag-waving bullshit and patriotic hooting.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

To be fair, though, you were kind of the bad guys.

And you needed the french to win.

We'd rather lose than ally with them.

World War one and two say otherwise.

 

[Pandalisk]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think for a minute anyone thought the guys on the dev team thought "y'know what?" "what?" "Fuck the british!" "yeaaaaaaaaah!".

whats more important here is when do i get my Assassins Creed: Rise of the Shogunate?

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

As a Brit. I feel tampted to apologise for the apparent squeemishness (not to mention hypocricy) of my other countrymen at this point. The CoD: Modern Warfare franchise (the most popular gaming franchise of the generation) features 2 British chaps as the series main good-guys, cutting down wave after wave of one-dimensional Russians, Arabs, and even at one point Americans... and no-one bats an eye.

But then this one game appears that has the gall to show some British imperialists getting slit up and suddenly we all start losing our shit. Really guys? I mean really? That's not even mentioning the accusations of this being because the US audience is too hung up on nationalism, which in this context makes my irony detectors explode under the pressure.

I get that the War of Independence was more complicated than good colonists versus evil imperials. All wars are more complicated than that, and if Ubisoft go against what they're saying here and dilute the issue for the sake of appealing to the US audience I will be a little disappointed sure. But, if that happens (which I think is unlikely given their track record so far) I will resolve to deal with it and not act like a baby because this happened one bloody time! You think this is unfair representation before the game has even come out? Go ask a Russian or Iranian how they feel right now.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

I like being part navajo.

It means I get to be angry with both of you and neither of you guys can say a thing

(I like to think that I'm The closest thing to desmond IRL, I live in england but My mum is half arabic, half Navajo/american, and my dad is Italian/Irish. If the next Ac is set in Ireland, I am Desmond Miles)

 

[Terramax]

I don't think there's anything anti-British about this game. However, it would be a nice change to have a few more games where we're fighting against the evil American army who invade any and every country they feel like.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

To be fair, though, you were kind of the bad guys.

And you needed the french to win.

We'd rather lose than ally with them.

World War one and two say otherwise.

World War 1 we technically went in to try and liberate Belgium. If the Germans had decided to invade through the Franco-German border instead, rather than go through Belgium to avoid it we probably would have kept our noses out.

World War 2 the French just surrendered. We only went in because we knew it would be us next if we didn't do something.

 

[MarsProbe]

Well, I'm British (well there's a rare ocassion outside of completing a form where I actually state my nationality as British) and so far, this hasn't really bothered me.

Anyway, it's not all bad, the principal character of AC3 is half-British after all.

The old tea-drinking stereotype though being applied to the British as a whole though does bug me a bit. Seems more of a resolutely "English" thing to me really...

 

[Kinguendo]

I wasnt aware any British people took offence in the first place... and if they did, I am guessing they didnt know about the American Revolution ever happening. Although, given the whole thing was mostly about taxation I would hardly call Britain the "bad guys" as America was hardly morally superior. Pretty much every country were "bad guys" back then.

Anyway, back to the main problem which is the tea... WHY BOSTON, WHY?! Seriously, Boston sucks.

 

[antipunt]

You should see the other threads >_>;
The butthurt is unimaginable.

I'm actually pro-UK b/c of my religious standings, but I was amazed at the reactions this game was getting from a certain cohort of UK-ers. There is no black/white good or evil, humans all over the globe have been scumbags for generations. I'm not sure where all the animosity is coming from, unless there's some sort of deep rooted old-wound that hasn't healed yet that I am oblivious to. In contrast, honestly, I LIKE it when the US are 'bad guys'. Heck, I even revel in it!!

As a Brit. I feel tampted to apologise for the apparent squeemishness (not to mention hypocricy) of my other countrymen at this point. The CoD: Modern Warfare franchise (the most popular gaming franchise of the generation) features 2 British chaps as the series main good-guys, cutting down wave after wave of one-dimensional Russians, Arabs, and even at one point Americans... and no-one bats an eye.

But then this one game appears that has the gall to show some British imperialists getting slit up and suddenly we all start losing our shit. Really guys? I mean really? That's not even mentioning the accusations of this being because the US audience is too hung up on nationalism, which in this context makes my irony detectors explode under the pressure.

Thanks for this post. It reminds me of the aspects I love about the UK. *glares at a few select individuals*, GO AWAY! let me remember the open-mindedness and progressive thinking that I admired D:

edit: My favorite Brit

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons."

 

[Badassassin]

Wait, are people actually mad about this? I can't tell how seriously I should be taking this. But, in the case that this is an actual issue to some people, my only advice would be this: Cry about it.

Seriously, you know how many world war 2 games there are? German people don't seem all that upset about that. Not to mention the hammering Russia has been getting in video games recently. But really, the fact that it has gotten to the point where Ubisoft has needed to make comments about it to placate butthurt British people is a little ridiculous.

 

[mariofan1000]

Joke all you like, but DON'T FUCK WITH THE FRENCH.

Seriously.

Anyway, i'm british and I don't find it racist at all.

 

[Hollyday]

To be fair, though, you were kind of the bad guys.

HA! We're ALWAYS the bad guys! It's fun being scum.

There should definitely be more games where the British are the bad guys. Films have got the right idea: british accent + probably played by Sean Bean = bad guy. Games are definitely lagging behind.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I hope so, all the trailers so far have shown only brits getting a native hair cut and scenes in which the word freedom is used while the American flag is raised which does have me worried that it will be us=good brits=bad. Although Ubisoft generally do good research on each Assassins Creed game so I imagine that my worries will be proved wrong once we know more of the story elements; I trust the French Canadians won't be sore losers. Otherwise I might just go round killing minutemen in the game out of protest

I'm calling now that the story will involve a twist where both the colonists and British are ultimately controlled by the templars who are involved in a internal struggle for power and decide to use the Assassins as a pawn to give one side the edge over the other. You heard it here first.

Are the trailers really that bad though? I see what you mean about the general picture but they keep dropping hints that things will be more complex than that, certain lines such as "I will fight the enemy regardless of their allegiance" and "They speak of freedom, liberty, but for who?". Also, while all the fighting so far has been against Redcoats, Connor certainly doesn't look like he likes the Patriots that much either. In the CG trailer his only interaction with them is shoving them out of the way all like 'Screw you guys, I'm doing this on my own' and then stealing their horse; and in the gameplay demo he's not exactly chummy with the guy he talks to.

 

[r_Chance]

To be fair, though, you were kind of the bad guys.

And you needed the french to win.

We'd rather lose than ally with them.

See? Latent historical resentment. I knew it!

If we really wanted to keep America, we would have

Wasn't worth the loses though.

And here I thought you guys did want it back. You know that whole...incident in 1812. Then you guys realized it just wasn't worth it with the whole Napoleon thing.

The British didn't start the War of 1812. We, that is the Americans, did. Sorry if you didn't know that. It was pretty much a land grab for Canada. It failed. The British were nice enough to let us call it a draw though. The war ended after Napoleon lost (the first time - 1814) because the British were lining up their first rate troops for a trip to America (which is why a lot of them missed Napoleon's return engagement in 1815). If the British had put their full military might into it you'd probably be singing God Save the Queen. Fortunately, for you I guess, after 25 years of conflict in Europe they weren't interested.