Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of production'

[JarodRussell]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Female characters in the past AC games would have led to entirely different storylines. I really don't want to spend my time with a feministic tale about how bad it was for women in this or that century, because, let's face it, it was horrible for women in the AC time frames.
Let's say Connor was not only native, but also female. That would have been dramatic overkill, in my opinion. When you make Kenway a woman, you have to deal with the reactions of all other characters to her actions (what was that Geena Davis Pirate movie disaster). Make Ezio a woman, not only need you change her entire Barney Stinson routine, you need to spend a story on her become pregnant while she is still able to (and can't tell Revelations in the same way).
You can't just switch gender and be done with it.

 

[FPAlpha]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Why does a female character need to have specific gender orientated storylines?

I'm currently playing AC4 - Black Flag and am at the point where Kenway gets his base of operations and so far i haven't seen a single thing that would have to changed for a female character.

This is a strawman argument because there doesn't have to be gender specific storylines. Women can be as macho as men (sometimes they have to be when they live in an overly macho world like Pirates) and as capable. I don't see the need to define them through their relationship with men.

I've mentioned this before.. there have been many kickass female characters in gaming and film that were perfectly fine. New Lara Croft, basically any female in Mass Effect (laughed out lout when that reporter socked Shepard in the mouth for being too frisky in ME3), Ripley in Aliens, Sarah Connor, nuBSG Starbuck etc.

Problem is that it's easier for mostly male writers to write guys because they know how to (being guys themselves) and they still assume it's mostly male gamers that play their games. Once that circle gets broken we might see more interesting games with a female lead.

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Why does a female character need to have specific gender orientated storylines?

I'm currently playing AC4 - Black Flag and am at the point where Kenway gets his base of operations and so far i haven't seen a single thing that would have to changed for a female character.

Aside from his entire backstory.

Maybe you haven't gotten there yet, and I'm not going to spoil it just in case, but Kenway being a man is kind of necessary considering who he turns out to be.

I mean, I suppose they could have re-written the story to make him a woman, but doing so would also have changed the nature of the relationships he has, which I felt were fairly important to the character (and to the greater AC mythos).

 

[Reverend]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

I think we're talking at cross purposes here. The point isn't that Ubisoft could have re-written their existing characters to be female, it's that for their new co-op game it never even *occurred* to them to make even one of the four new player avatars female AND that their stated excuse is that it'd be too difficult to animate...which I think we can all agree is the most ridiculous statement ever and a poor excuse that does little to disguise their thoughtless laziness. I mean for a franchise of this magnitude, there's no way "budgetary limitations" was the real reason. As a number of game other developers have since come out with, it's really not all that difficult and hardly makes *any* difference to the animation budget.

 

[FPAlpha]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Why does a female character need to have specific gender orientated storylines?

I'm currently playing AC4 - Black Flag and am at the point where Kenway gets his base of operations and so far i haven't seen a single thing that would have to changed for a female character.

Aside from his entire backstory.

Maybe you haven't gotten there yet, and I'm not going to spoil it just in case, but Kenway being a man is kind of necessary considering who he turns out to be.

I mean, I suppose they could have re-written the story to make him a woman, but doing so would also have changed the nature of the relationships he has, which I felt were fairly important to the character (and to the greater AC mythos).

I've got no problem with a story that deals with a man and needs to tell the story of a male person or it would not work. Gender equality can also go too far.

It becomes a problem when you write generic stories and still only stick to male leads because you believe your target demographic consists of only guys (which is also wrong).

 

[SPCTRE]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

I think we're talking at cross purposes here. The point isn't that Ubisoft could have re-written their existing characters to be female, it's that for their new co-op game it never even *occurred* to them to make even one of the four new player avatars female AND that their stated excuse is that it'd be too difficult to animate...which I think we can all agree is the most ridiculous statement ever and a poor excuse that does little to disguise their thoughtless laziness.

Exactly. Even though most people outside the industry severely underestimate how expensive game development is, this should not distract us from the actual issue of their super-flimsy excuse.

 

[JarodRussell]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Realistic female characters do need a whole new set of animations. Male and female walk cycles are different, for example. Fight animations are extremely complex. So additional weeks of motion capture with female performers. That's very expensive.

 

[Kelthaz]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

I'm really not sure why everyone is getting up in arms about Assassin's Creed not having gender diversity. Assassin's Creed is the Transformers of video games. Nobody cares when Transformers is racist or sexist because you know it's a dumb shlockly action movie -- you accept it for what it is and roll your eyes. You save your expectations of higher standards for the better films from better companies. Well, you should do the same for Assassin's Creed.

Assassin's Creed is a shlocky action movie. Lower your expectations accordingly. Save your higher expectations for games such as, oh, I dunno, Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Age.

 

[Reverend]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Realistic female characters do need a whole new set of animations. Male and female walk cycles are different, for example. Fight animations are extremely complex. So additional weeks of motion capture with female performers. That's very expensive.

Apparently not. I forget where I saw it, but some devs from other studios have basically called bullshit on this claim. I remember that one said it took them all of an afternoon to add a new set of animations into their game.

Even if that were the case, AssCreed is a HUGELY successful franchise and Ubi practically throw money at it. So when they plead poverty as the reason they can't do what the likes of Saints Row and Dragon Age have been doing for years...it rings a little hollow.


...Also, unless I'm mistaken, up-until this point all of the AssCreed games have had fully animated female NPCs, Plus the game they already made with a female NPC so...

 

[firehawk12]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

I'm really not sure why everyone is getting up in arms about Assassin's Creed not having gender diversity. Assassin's Creed is the Transformers of video games. Nobody cares when Transformers is racist or sexist because you know it's a dumb shlockly action movie -- you accept it for what it is and roll your eyes. You save your expectations of higher standards for the better films from better companies. Well, you should do the same for Assassin's Creed.

Assassin's Creed is a shlocky action movie. Lower your expectations accordingly. Save your higher expectations for games such as, oh, I dunno, Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Age.

To be fair, people do care when Transformers objectifies women and whatnot. It's just that people go watch the movies anyway.

Of course it's funny to see Ubisoft respond with "bursting to the gills" with women in Far Cry 4. Binders full of women, the video game.

 

[Reverend]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Well to be even more fair, Michael Bay films typically objectify *everything* in the frame....even actual inanimate objects, which is quit a feat if you think about it. So it's not as if women are singled out or anything. It's an equal opportunities brand of shallow stupidity.

 

[SPCTRE]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Ha! Okay, that's pretty awesome.

 

[Showdown]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

I like it when the developers give players options on what type character(s) to play, male, female, white, black, etc. But not every game need to have that option. Take Baldur's Gate DA and Champions of Norrath. I played both with my brother, both are very fun. In Baldur's, we play specific characters, in Champions we play custom characters. In Champions, we can choose class, gender, race, skin color, and hair style. I think there is room for both games like Mass Effect, Borderlands, Skyrim, Fallout 3; and games like Uncharted, God of War, Tomb Raider, Gears of War, Call of Duty, etc. We honestly don't care if we are playing a male or female characters in a game, but for some people, it really matters.

I didn't complain that GTA5 have 3 male characters and 0 females, while Saints Row 4 allows us to customize our character. As stated earlier, Assassin's Creed Unity does not have 4 different male characters, but 4 players play the main character, so nobody's playing the sidekick or partner. There have been games like this before, like Halo and Duke Nukem 64.

The developers say it takes much more time to add a female character. I think it's different for different games. Games like Borderlands, developers have to add animations like running, jumping, shooting, melee and death animations. In Assassin's Creed, it's running, jumping, climbing, diving, stabbing, sneeking, fighting melee combat with lots of moves. I'm not a developer, so I don't know their schedule. For all I know, they are starting from scratch, with a new game engine, and much is built from the ground up. Maybe it's like Batman Arkham games. The first one has a male character. The second one, they just take all the animations from the first, and have time to develop a female playable character like Catwoman. Limited time with lots of money at stake, developers will make choices to maximize profits.

I remember in New Super Mario Bros Wii, I posted the only thing I would change, is add an option to play the Princess instead of another generic Toad character. That way, every character can be unique, the Princess won't need to be saved yet again, and Super Mario 2 won't stick out like a sore thumb... as much. I never intended my post to attack Nintendo or call them sexist in any way. I did read there are many who requested her playable as well. Super Mario 3D World, she is. Instead of attacking Ubisoft, a lot of requests will bring us a playable female character. A lot of them will listen. I think the anger from this particular instance, is because there are playable female characters in Assassin's Creed before. And if games both male and female playable characters begin to sell much, much more than games that only feature male leads, developers will add that option more.

 

[martok2112]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Well, being a dude, it's a good thing I'm all for having hot chicks in video games.
My philosophy....if I have to play a third person shooter/action adventure/RPG game...she might as well be a chick, and she might as well have a nice face, a great rack, nice legs, and a cute butt to match the "strong, intelligent, capable female role".

Thank you, Core/Crystal Dynamics/Eidos, for Lara Croft. Squeenix's take needs a bit more work...especially on the sexy side.

Thank you, Volition, for allowing us to customize our characters in Saints' Row 2 and onward as hottie gangsta chicks. Girls'n'guns all the way, I say!

Thank you, Squeenix, for making Yuna actually sexy (girls, guns, and hotpants...hell yeah) in Final Fantasy X-2! (Although I didn't care for what you did with Tifa Lockhart in the movie Final Fantasy Advent Children.)

Thank you, BioWare, for the FemShep option! Yes! (And for the optional hot girl on girl action! There...see....I support gay relationships too, as long as both chicks are really hot! )

Now, somebody bring on a third person/open world shooter RPG based on the anime "Black Lagoon" so I can use Revy (makes Lara Croft look like an addled schoolgirl in combat!)

 

[Roshi]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Well, being a creepy dude, it's a good thing I'm all for having hot chicks in video games.
My philosophy....if I have to play a third person shooter/action adventure/RPG game...she might as well be a chick, and she might as well have a nice face, a great rack, nice legs, and a cute butt to match the "strong, intelligent, capable female role".

Thank you, Core/Crystal Dynamics/Eidos, for Lara Croft. Squeenix's take needs a bit more work...especially on the sexy side.

Thank you, Volition, for allowing us to customize our characters in Saints' Row 2 and onward as hottie gangsta chicks. Girls'n'guns all the way, I say!

Thank you, Squeenix, for making Yuna actually sexy (girls, guns, and hotpants...hell yeah) in Final Fantasy X-2! (Although I didn't care for what you did with Tifa Lockhart in the movie Final Fantasy Advent Children.)

Thank you, BioWare, for the FemShep option! Yes! (And for the optional hot girl on girl action! There...see....I support gay relationships too, as long as both chicks are really hot! )

Now, somebody bring on a third person/open world shooter RPG based on the anime "Black Lagoon" so I can use Revy (makes Lara Croft look like an addled schoolgirl in combat!)

FTFY

 

[{ Emilia }]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Stay classy, martok...

 

[martok2112]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Well, being a creepy dude, it's a good thing I'm all for having hot chicks in video games.
My philosophy....if I have to play a third person shooter/action adventure/RPG game...she might as well be a chick, and she might as well have a nice face, a great rack, nice legs, and a cute butt to match the "strong, intelligent, capable female role".

Thank you, Core/Crystal Dynamics/Eidos, for Lara Croft. Squeenix's take needs a bit more work...especially on the sexy side.

Thank you, Volition, for allowing us to customize our characters in Saints' Row 2 and onward as hottie gangsta chicks. Girls'n'guns all the way, I say!

Thank you, Squeenix, for making Yuna actually sexy (girls, guns, and hotpants...hell yeah) in Final Fantasy X-2! (Although I didn't care for what you did with Tifa Lockhart in the movie Final Fantasy Advent Children.)

Thank you, BioWare, for the FemShep option! Yes! (And for the optional hot girl on girl action! There...see....I support gay relationships too, as long as both chicks are really hot! )

Now, somebody bring on a third person/open world shooter RPG based on the anime "Black Lagoon" so I can use Revy (makes Lara Croft look like an addled schoolgirl in combat!)

FTFY

So, I simply state a harmless opinion, and this poster launches a personal attack on me by altering my quote. (after investigating your profile, Mutenroshi, I can safely say you hardly have room to cast the first stone)

Stay classy, martok...

says the person with the bondage fetish.... . (no malice intended)

 

[Gov Kodos]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

Well, being a creepy dude, it's a good thing I'm all for having hot chicks in video games.
My philosophy....if I have to play a third person shooter/action adventure/RPG game...she might as well be a chick, and she might as well have a nice face, a great rack, nice legs, and a cute butt to match the "strong, intelligent, capable female role".

Thank you, Core/Crystal Dynamics/Eidos, for Lara Croft. Squeenix's take needs a bit more work...especially on the sexy side.

Thank you, Volition, for allowing us to customize our characters in Saints' Row 2 and onward as hottie gangsta chicks. Girls'n'guns all the way, I say!

Thank you, Squeenix, for making Yuna actually sexy (girls, guns, and hotpants...hell yeah) in Final Fantasy X-2! (Although I didn't care for what you did with Tifa Lockhart in the movie Final Fantasy Advent Children.)

Thank you, BioWare, for the FemShep option! Yes! (And for the optional hot girl on girl action! There...see....I support gay relationships too, as long as both chicks are really hot! )

Now, somebody bring on a third person/open world shooter RPG based on the anime "Black Lagoon" so I can use Revy (makes Lara Croft look like an addled schoolgirl in combat!)

FTFY

So, I simply state a harmless opinion, and this poster launches a personal attack on me by altering my quote. (after investigating your profile, Mutenroshi, I can safely say you hardly have room to cast the first stone)

You stated a sexist opinion none the less.

Stay classy, martok...

says the person with the bondage fetish.... . (no malice intended)

Trying to shame others to shut them up, classy.

 

[Melakon]

Re: Lack of female assassins in Assassin's Creed? 'Reality of producti

says the person with the bondage fetish.... . (no malice intended)

Not cool at all, dude. I was able to treat your "Thank yous" as a possible joke, but this seems over the line.