(NSFW) Assassin's Creed: Unisexity

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Why do all of Desmond's assassin ancestors have to be male anyway? History has had its share of covert women too.

 

[The Grim Ace]

For the love of...It's one guy. ONE GUY. THERE IS NO FEMALE CHOICE BECAUSE IT'S ONE CHARACTER! ADDING A FEMALE PLAYER CHARACTER WOULD MEAN ADDING A SECOND PROTAGONIST.

Sorry. It's just that every thread and every single comic and every single video ignores this fact. It's not that they hate women, it's that they didn't want a second protagonist.

People just don't understand! Replacing one of the male support, throwaway characters, that play no role in the plot with a female character would cause such an incredible disturbance to the force. It would be like millions of voices cried out "Back to the kitchen!" and were suddenly silenced.

So you're saying you'd basically enjoy looking at a female playable character? Because here's a newsflash: even if they were in the game you still wouldn't be able to play as them. There is only one main character. Everyone sees themselves as that main character and all the other players as their entourage.

So, basically, people are fighting and screaming for the right to... be able to look at a female assassin do stuff.

Remind me, why can't they just throw in a few strong female NPCs if that's the case? You'd not be able to play as a female anyways. Besides if they did try forcing Ubisoft to implement a main female character to play as, it would be double the work. Not only adding a new "look" or new animations, but completely changing the scipt and hiring a brand new VA, unless of course the female instantly transforms into a man for the cutscenes (yes, even the quick ones using the in-game engine) at which point you'd have people whining about "unrepresentation" of the female character.

This complaining is arguably the most uninformed, foolish stuff ever. Why pick on assassin's creed of all things? One of the most diverse game series around? Why not scream at Murdered: Soul Suspect? You're playing as a white man in that too. Isn't that more of a sign of the "evil patriarchy" than freaking assassin's creed?

Sifting through all that straw in your post, the main controversy seems to be a mix a) Ubisoft's laughably lazy excuse and b) that a playable female character in the multiplayer mode (not the protagonist) is not even an option. Ubisoft has the resources, has the staff, and probably even has the models, there's no reason why they can't.

As for why targeting Ubisoft, I'm guessing that's just taking aim at one of the better known companies? Honestly, unless the story is specifically written with the gender of the protagonist stated in some way, there's no reason why there shouldn't be options in player character gender choice.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Don't you play as a female assassin in Assassin's Creed III: Liberation?

Also didn't black flag have a gender bending assassin pirate chick who I seem to recall using all the player animations for her various in game action scenes and cut scenes?

To be fair she was posing as a male, so naturally she would act as much as her fellow man-pirates as possible. It still doesn't explain why Ubisoft couldn't re-use Aveline from Assassin's Creed III... Bonnie from AC IV for that matter... or hell even what's her name from the very first game...

Maria?

Don't forget all those female assassins that Ezio's club had in both Brotherhood and Revelation

It's not like Ubisoft creates new animations, they're practically still recycling Altair's.
(Some proper Sabre fighting animations would be appreciated though)

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Why does everyone think "resources" mean money instead of time? I've rambled on about this on the forums enough but I guess every journalist out there knows way more about how easy it is to make games than the people who actually make them.

I've yet to see anyone call out the argument as bullshit on the assumption they are only referring to money. The fact is, this company that spits out one of these games every year has enough resources (time included) to animate every blade of HD grass as well as create a living community of hundreds of people, lads and ladies alike, are claiming it would be too much work to reskin one of their multiplayer assassins as a female.

 

[The Grim Ace]

Why does everyone think "resources" mean money instead of time? I've rambled on about this on the forums enough but I guess every journalist out there knows way more about how easy it is to make games than the people who actually make them.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/11/5800466/assassins-creed-unity-women-animation

Then again, that might not be entirely accurate. That's just the opinion of one person actually making them.

 

[Klagermeister]

What I'd like to believe happened:
-Co-op characters are the only ones who would receive the unique female animations, but the player himself is always seen as Arno
-Ubisoft couldn't make it so the co-op characters use the female animations while also making their user appear to be using Arno's male animations, so they are scrapped.
-PR team does a shitty job defending this decision, and making the dev team appear sexist when there were technical limitations

But whatever, use your lame hashtags to call Ubisoft sexist and make knee-jerk reactions to something that likely could not have been helped

 

[Legion]

Why does everyone think "resources" mean money instead of time? I've rambled on about this on the forums enough but I guess every journalist out there knows way more about how easy it is to make games than the people who actually make them.

A valid point, but nobody is forcing them to make the games yearly. The vast majority of other games are not done so and it is normally considered to be a bad thing if they. Nobody likes their games to be rushed at the expense of quality. Even COD alternates teams when they do it so they have two years to make the games.

If they really wanted to make female leads they could stop churning out yearly games or delay this one to include them. I am not saying that they should if they don't want to, but at the same time they really ought to stop pretending the reason is that their hands are tied. It's the pretence which is angering people more than anything else.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Dem tags XD

Everyone knows women can't be assassins, their boobs are adverse to violence. Ever seen an angry boob?

The Council or Uteri would have a field day!

Angry boobs.
Well, time to make a new smartphone game. It will be a huge hit!

More OT: I'm out of the look as far as AssCreed goes but what's the reason for no female assassins? I read it was "too hard" but that makes no sense.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Of course they can't afford to put in females, they blew all their money on cocaine and hookers.

Well, that's one more sign the video game industry is trying to emulate the movie one!

OT: I'm sure there will be an in-story reason Arno's teammates in the co-op missions are all dudes. Maybe they're not part of the main story mode. I was going to say this in the comments of the latest Jimquisition, but if nothing else, maybe all this bitching will convince Ubisoft to include female assassins in SOME capacity, like recruiting apprentices/trainees.
Isn't there also some hullabaloo about not enough RACIAL diversity in Unity? That everybody in the Revolutionary France setting is too white, or something?

 

[Weaver]

Why does everyone think "resources" mean money instead of time? I've rambled on about this on the forums enough but I guess every journalist out there knows way more about how easy it is to make games than the people who actually make them.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/11/5800466/assassins-creed-unity-women-animation

Then again, that might not be entirely accurate. That's just the opinion of one person actually making them.

Because once the model is animated it's done and ready to be put into the game?

Where is the time for the concept artists to create the character, the modelers to create and rig the skeleton, the texture artists to texture it, the programmers to change implement climbing with a different skeleton and translating that to co-op? Where is the time for QA to then test the character with and co-op interaction, and for the devs to then fix all the bugs it caused? Where is the time alloted for voice actresses to come in and record in every language the game is in? And for the sound guys to do the proper lip syncing? Where is the time for the build team to make sure it's in the RTM release? Where is the time then to change and redistribute all global marketing material to include the new character?


All of this, of course, has to be perfect so your game gets above an 85% on metacritic or else you just forgo a 20% bonus for the game you just spent 2 years of overtime and weekends working on.

 

[byte4554_v1legacy]

What I'd like to believe happened:
-Co-op characters are the only ones who would receive the unique female animations, but the player himself is always seen as Arno
-Ubisoft couldn't make it so the co-op characters use the female animations while also making their user appear to be using Arno's male animations, so they are scrapped.
-PR team does a shitty job defending this decision, and making the dev team appear sexist when there were technical limitations

But whatever, use your lame hashtags to call Ubisoft sexist and make knee-jerk reactions to something that likely could not have been helped

Thank you. So much. This pretty much sums it up. Good reasoning, bad PR, away they go.

 

[Brian Tams]

Solution: Take the basic female character model of Anne from AC IV, reskin it to fit the time period. Pull one of your female interns off the floor to record some dialogue.

Boom. Female character on the cheap.

Fuck off, Ubisoft.

 

[infinity_turtles]

Sifting through all that straw in your post, the main controversy seems to be a mix a) Ubisoft's laughably lazy excuse and b) that a playable female character in the multiplayer mode (not the protagonist) is not even an option. Ubisoft has the resources, has the staff, and probably even has the models, there's no reason why they can't.

The multi-player mode is everyone playing as the protagonist. There is only the one character. It's co-op through the main story, where everyone plays the same character. I don't know how many times people need to say this. One. Set. playable. Character. In the entire game. Just the one.

 

[PirateRose]

The multi-player mode is everyone playing as the protagonist. There is only the one character. It's co-op through the main story, where everyone plays the same character. I don't know how many times people need to say this. One. Set. playable. Character. In the entire game. Just the one.

So if I am understanding you correctly, all four of those men are all the same white, probably straight, dude? Absolutely no creativity at all and player limiting to the extreme. That whole thing on the Ubisoft website about being able to customize the characters are just so people don't get confused since they are all playing the same white, straight dude?

I mean, really what's the point of co-op if everyone is playing the exact same white, straight dude? What's the lore behind it? Did the assassins secretly figure out cloning? Are they from four different dimensions? Do they all somehow have the exact same personality so that they don't disturb the over arching story meant for a single protagonist.

This game is sounding worse and worse the more people try to explain and defend it. The reason people love co-op such as in Gears of War and Left for Dead is because there are various personalities and people to pick from.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

xD I see what you did there.

Spoiler: Last panel.

[http://s105.photobucket.com/user/ihatephotob1/media/french-revolution_zpsc38a2ba2.jpg.html]

Yeah, the excuse really rings hollow. Jim did a good job of covering why, and the laugh this comic gives us about the whole thing is very welcome.

Thanks for that.

 

[Inuprince]

I think, if they want four frenchmen as the group, let them have it, it's fine it's their game.
Would it have been better if the group had more diversity, making them look like a much more interesting bunch of characters who are together for a good cause? Certainly.
They decided to play it safe, maybe if they would have created a diverted group including female assassins, they could have attracted a bigger segment of customers so it's their loss.

You know what kind of diversity I would like? How about diversity in some of the title's, and the franchises ...

How about we complain that we don't need a new Assassins Creed every bloody year, and rather then turn 8 studios into an AC Factory just so they can publish one each year, how about we ask that they finally get working on Beyond Good and Evil 2 (since everyone seems to want it and you would have a great female lead right there) or another Prince of Persia. Since it's been 4 years since Forgotten Sands - which was basically thrown together because of the movie, but it was good at least. And 6 years since the reboot which was clearly ment to have a sequel or two but never materialized ... because Ubisoft could apperantly iron out flaws from AC 1 so we could get a much better AC 2, but that couldn't be done with PoP 2008 (damn I hate calling it that)
Or how about a new innovative title, you know something fresh with interesting ideas and mechanincs, with new approaches to story telling or gameplay ... no?
Of course not, this is the problem with AC becoming this yearly franchise just like COD, and NFS, these games despite coming out every year are never of poor quality, even if they don't live up to the hype, but this just means that the industry is really more about money than the games themselves. Ubisoft owns a lot of franchises, but they choose to focus 8 whole studios for just one franchise, rather than dividing up those studios so they could work on 3 different games rather than one, and always that same one ...

 

[w00tage]

For the love of...It's one guy. ONE GUY. THERE IS NO FEMALE CHOICE BECAUSE IT'S ONE CHARACTER! ADDING A FEMALE PLAYER CHARACTER WOULD MEAN ADDING A SECOND PROTAGONIST.

Sorry. It's just that every thread and every single comic and every single video ignores this fact. It's not that they hate women, it's that they didn't want a second protagonist.

So? Rule 63 dat shit for co-op. It isn't like they didn't go and create 4 different character models for co-op anyway, so why not make one (or even two! GASP SHOCK!) of those extra character models a woman? EDIT: And if you did, the fans would eat that shit up. So... Not really seeing a downside?

There is a downside.

Consider your average FPS. In this case, you are, at a minimum, doubling the amount of character art you need. You need meshes for both genders for all outfits and pieces of armor not to mention textures for each version. There is some hope though - one can likely get away with only having a single set of animations.

Then consider a game that takes place in third person with a focus on melee. Suddenly you need all that double art but you also have to make new animations. The cause for this additional step is because you have characters interacting in close proximity and if you want the various stabbings and slashings to look believable, that means you'll need to actually go through and animate things different when dealing with a character who is likely shorter, lighter and generally speaking shaped differently in a variety of ways.

In either case, you'll also need to hire voice actors for the task which could be fairly costly and time consuming if you want the playable character in the main game to be female. You might also need to include lots of writing changes to the story to allow for a female character and lots of additional recording of lots of bits of dialog. He must be changed to She at the very least and given the series attempts to at least nod to the history of the moment it would stand to reason people would react very differently to a female assassin than a male one.

By contrast, adding a bit of DLC that gives a new outfit or weapon only requires a fraction of the work - a new model and a new texture and whatever game files govern the behavior of that item. Moreover, adding lots of DLC offers additional avenues for revenue where adding female characters offers precisely nothing tangible. Thus, if pressed for time, which do you think will be cut? The easy DLC that might net a hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars or female playable characters?

This sounds perfectly logical, if it weren't for all of the other game studios that do exactly this as a matter of course. Creating a female character and having them share the animations n'stuff is absolutely commonplace and it's BS that they said "waaahh we don't have enough money".

News flash to game developers, if players WANT something, and you want the player's MONEY, you GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT. That is the secret to making money versus losing money, Ubisoft. Trying to cheap out =/= making money, it == saving money. But you kind of have to prioritize making it in the first place, know what I'm saying?

 

[verdant monkai]

I honestly think Ubisoft are being brave! forget women! not one of those French guys is black! admittedly there weren't many black people in France at the time. But Ubisoft just avoided a load of token black guy jokes.

Spoiler

 

[andago]

Remind me, why can't they just throw in a few strong female NPCs if that's the case?

Why not ask Ubisoft? As far as we know they're not even willing to do that.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/06/ubisoft-responds-to-assassins-creed-female-character-controversy/

In particular, "We look forward to introducing you to some of the strong female characters in Assassin?s Creed Unity." Whether or not you believe it is personal prerogative, but I for me I doubt there will be 0 female characters in the game. In fact isn't it possible Charlotte Corday is actually in the game. Maybe we should wait until after playing the game to judge the strength of the entire cast of characters.

Not having a playable female assassin in the coop is, however, a seperate somewhat bewildering issue.