Assassin's Creed Unity: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:13, 6 October 2014

Revision as of 10:29, 7 October 2014

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This caused dissatisfaction in some video game community outlets. Brenna Hillier of [[VG247]] noted how there were nine development teams working on the game, and said "Ubisoft has here trotted out a tired, stupid, constantly refuted excuse for why it has perpetuated the cycle of sexism and under-representation in the games industry."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vg247.com/2014/06/11/ubisoft-attempts-to-explain-why-assassins-creed-unitys-co-op-has-no-playable-women/|title=Ubisoft attempts to explain why Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s co-op has no playable women|last=Hillier|first=Brenna|publisher=VG247|date=June 11, 2014|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref> Tim Clark of [[PC Gamer]] made note "that previous ''Assassin's Creed'' games have had playable women as part of the multiplayer component, [and] that ''Brotherhood'' had you supported by on-call assassins, many of whom were female, so it’s hardly like it can’t be done." Clark also looked to the way Amancio and Therien answered the question and felt how they referenced "how much the team wanted to include playable female characters suggests... that this is probably a decision which hasn’t gone down well internally."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/06/11/ac-op-ed/|title=The lack of playable female characters in Assassin's Creed Unity is more than just "unfortunate"|last=Clark|first=Tim|publisher=PC Gamer|date=June 11, 2014|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref> Former ''Assassin's Creed'' designer Jonathan Cooper responded by saying, "In my educated opinion, I would estimate this to be a day or two's work. Not a replacement of 8,000 animations." He also revealed that [[Aveline de Grandpré]], the female protagonist of ''[[Assassin's Creed III: Liberation]]'', "shares more of [[Connor Kenway]]'s animations than [[Edward Kenway]] does."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/11/5800466/assassins-creed-unity-women-animation/|title=Animating women should take 'days,' says Assassin's Creed 3 animation director|last=Farokhmanesh|first=Megan|publisher=Polygon|date=June 11, 2014|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref> Fans also created petitions urging Ubisoft to change their stance.<ref name="EurogamerControversy" />

Former ''Assassin's Creed'' game designer [[Patrice Désilets]] weighed in as well, sayingcommented that Amancio's reasoning was valid, but that Ubisoft should put in the effort to let players have gender options.<ref>{{cite web|title=Desilets: Assassin's Creed Unity with four women would have been awesome |url= http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/13/5805510/assassins-creed-unity-patrice-desilets-ubisoft |last=McWhertor |first=Michael |publisher=Polygon|date=June 13, 2014 |accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Escapist (magazine)|The Escapist]]''{{'}}s Shamus Young wrote that reworking ''Assassin's Creed''{{'}}s wide array of complex animations for a female character model would take considerable work, but concluded that "This has nothing to do with how hard or easy it is to put females in the game, or how much it would cost, or how difficult it is to do mo-cap these days. Ubisoft doesn't want to put females in their games, they have no idea if it's something the audience wants, and they are avoiding any move that might shed some light on the subject."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/experienced-points/11750-Ubisoft-Straighter-Whiter-Duder|title=Ubisoft: Straighter. Whiter. Duder.|last=Young|first=Shamus|work=The Escapist|date=June 16, 2014|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref> Conversely, Michelle Starr of CNet made note of the valid technical challenges a female character would present, such as their different skeleton structure and the environmental factors, such as how NPCs would interact with them, and said, "the issue is not that Ubisoft is lying about how much work it would require to add a female player character – it's that the idea was considered unworthy of those resources in the first place."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnet.com/news/assassins-creed-unity-female-characters-take-a-lot-more-work/|title=Assassin's Creed Unity: Female characters do take a lot more work|last=Starr|first=Michelle|publisher=CNet|date=June 12, 2014|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref>

Amancio attempted to clear up any confusion, by stating, "I understand the issue, I understand the cause, and it is a noble one, but I don't think it's relevant in the case of ''Unity''. In ''Unity'' you play this character called Arno, and when you're playing co-op you're also playing Arno – everybody is. It's like Aiden Pearce in ''[[Watch Dogs]]''... Arno has different skills - you select skill points in the game, there are gear elements that have an impact and all these weapons that make the character you make your own. But you're always playing Arno... The reason we're just changing the face and keeping the bodies is we want people to show off the gear that they pick up in the game through exploration. That's why we kept that."<ref name="EurogamerControversy">{{cite web|url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-12-i-understand-the-issue-but-its-not-relevant-in-assassins-creed-unity|title=I understand the issue, but it's not relevant in Assassin's Creed Unity|last=Robinson|first=Martin|publisher=Eurogamer|date=June 12, 2014|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref>