Yay! Future Assassin’s Creed games to allow for a choice of gender

[NyteWytch]

Ubisoft Wants All Future Assassin’s Creed Games to Allow for a Choice of Gender

For the most part, the Assassin’s Creed series has been dominated by male protagonists, but starting with Odyssey, Ubisoft says it wants the choice between male and female to be the new norm.

It certainly seems as if Ubisoft has come a long way after a 2014 blunder in which one developer tried to justify the lack of playable female avatars in Assassin’s Creed Unity by essentially saying that implementing female models would require too much extra work (despite the fact that earlier Assassin’s Creed games had already featured playable female characters).

I can't believe this has to be applauded in 2018. I am glad that Ubi is listening and giving gamers choice to enjoy games and feel represented.

 

[Isabeau]

I can't believe this has to be applauded in 2018.

This.

I'm tired about being deliriously happy about finally getting really ordinary things, you know what I mean?

So, Woot, but without an exclamation point.

 

[Jorus Xi]

That’s good but frankly no pirate ship no sale.

 

[WolfEyes]

Too little, too late.

 

[Cristiano]

I agree it's a good thing. However, it's different when you are talking about an online environment (like what the Unity thing refers to - it was the multiplayer side) vs a single player game where you are playing a specific character. Should Tomb Raider also have a male char to play?

 

[NyteWytch]

I agree it's a good thing. However, it's different when you are talking about an online environment (like what the Unity thing refers to - it was the multiplayer side) vs a single player game where you are playing a specific character. Should Tomb Raider also have a male char to play?

It does Nathan Drake in Uncharted.

 

[Isabeau]

Are you saying that it was the same specific character in all Ass Creeds?

 

[Cristiano]

No, what I am saying is that the criticism in Unity was about the multiplayer mode not having female chars you could play. Two AC games have had female lead chars (Liberation and Syndicate).

 

[Cristiano]

I would love to see more varied choice in lead chars in games. I just don't think it is realistic to expect every single game to have you be able to choose multiple chars to play. As I said, it is different in a multiplayer game where you are making your own char.

 

[NyteWytch]

Yet...you said you were planning to play the female version in Odyssey. I think tke AC games are a good platform for this. No one is saying all games ever have to offer both but Ubisoft is saying they want to offer that going forward. Good for them and good for gamers!

 

[Cristiano]

I never said I was playing the female char in Odyssey. Like I said, I think it is a good thing - I just don't think every single game should be expected to have multiple playable characters.

 

[Jorus Xi]

TBH for open world games like asscreed/gta etc there's really no good excuse to not just give the main character a fairly gender neutral name to simplify some of the voice stuff and let the players go to town.

 

[Jorus Xi]

Hell the battletech game let you pick your pronoun (The lead developer being very much trans probably helped that along). Watching nerds get upset about that was the highlight of my year.

 

[NyteWytch]

Right. For well established characters I would understand (Lara Croft, Geralt, Spiderman, etc) but for an open world RPG...why not let your players decide who they are?

 

[Ghost Pepper]

 

[Lianne Marten]

They've said that Kassandra is the canonical protagonist, even though you can play as that other dude if you want to.

 

[Cristiano]

Right. For well established characters I would understand (Lara Croft, Geralt, Spiderman, etc) but for an open world RPG...why not let your players decide who they are?

It gets trickier in open world games where the main protagonist is fully voice acted and have a storyline. It would require double the amount of recorded dialog. It's doable, obviously, it just doesn't work for every single game, open world or otherwise.

 

[Lianne Marten]

On the other hand, if every character is voiced then it's just one more voice actor for just the protagonist's lines. Space isn't really a concern nowadays, for audio files especially, and what's paying 25 voice actors instead of 24?

 

[NyteWytch]

FFS Cristiano. And no one is saying every game, every publisher to the end of times. ;p

 

[Cristiano]

FFS Cristiano. And no one is saying every game, every publisher to the end of times. ;p

You yourself said that for open world games without an established IP, why not let people choose who they are. I was just saying that just because it is not established IP, it is still more work involved to have multiple playable protagonists, whatever gender they may be.