Weaver said:
Please take the time to read this. I'm really tired of non-developers telling everyone how they're so lazy and sexist and don't know how to do their job from people who have never written a line of code in their life.
http://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/27ut97/distinct_lack_of_female_characters_due_to/ci5z8i7
Long story short "I could animate a character in a few days" does not mean "I can ship the game with that character in it in a few days". We're talking like 25 - 30 days to add a character like this.
And by "interesting design" I mean artistically interesting, I avoided writing all together.
Yes, and Desmond isn't artistically interesting. The fact that I said "in any way" was supposed to indicate that.
And the rest doesn't change anything I've said. At best, you've put words in my mouth. And maybe in the mouths of others. I'm not sure anyone's saying that three days is all it would take to actually make the game work. At the same time, you're seeing all sorts of people pointing out that the overall effect is trivial (edit-with relationship to the whole).
I do find it interesting that they've been able to animate, voice, and even make playable women before, but I'm not sure that's particularly here nor there (with respect to this).
Reasonable Atheist said:
What are you talking about? I am not defending ubisoft, my entire standpoint is that they do not need to explain their artistic decisions to anyone, including myself. No defense necessary, they can make WHATEVER THEY WANT.
And my point was that this decision had more to do with the constraints externally than their artistic vision. Remember the part where they claim that they totes had planned to include a female playable character?
The idea that they need to explain why their creation does not cater to someone's aesthetic or political taste, is completely ridiculous in my opinion.
I'm neither contesting that, nor do I particularly care. Had you not brought "art" and artistic determination into this, I wouldn't have even taken note. These guys were on a commercial deadline.
Assuming, of course, their excuse is true, but I'll take it at face value.
But no, for the record. They're not obligated to offer an excuse. They're not obligated to be nice. They're not obligated to do anything, really. And that has nothing to do with the intro of "games are art."
Halyah said:
I don't hear it here in Norway at least, but I might just be hanging out in the wrong circles I suppose. We have enough countrymen bringing us shame as it is. So we don't need this kind of stupidity too.
Yeah, I can't speak for Norway. I see it in British and US news (the Brits often being a better source for US news), and I hear about it from Australia sometimes (I don't know how widespread it is). There are other regions, too (McCerebreus pointed this out), but I'm just not as familiar with them.
I live in a country where a sitting Congressman just called veteran's care an unnecessary entitlement and we've currently got issues with whether or not the right to vote should even be protected (often in the name of non-existent fraud), though, so it's muuuuuuuuch easier for me to see.