4 ms·

This is a pretty high effort article, let's take a deep breath. I enjoyed it because it uses Assassin's Creed as a lense to teach us a bit about history. No c

This is a pretty high effort article, let's take a deep breath. I enjoyed it because it uses Assassin's Creed as a lense to teach us a bit about history. No culture war related baggage is required for admission into this article IMO; the narrative compromises necessary to make a playable game out of a 9th century setting are kind of hilarious, and this article helped me process the cognitive dissonance that comes from playing such games. The bit about christian churches being decorated like abandoned shacks, with all the gold in a chest in the middle, I thought was funny. Making game worlds that feel 'used' by their inhabitants is a really interesting one. idk, games are different things to different people; they're escapism and we don't all escape the same way. Some of us enjoy pillaging inaccurate churches, and some of us like chortling about how silly it is while we do it.

trey-jones 6y ago
My biggest takeaway: this question of how to be truthful about history and simultaneously sensitive to people who are traumatized by the memory, or have a unique or minority perspective - it is neither and easy question to answer, nor an easy problem to solve. Parties who would debate the question would do well to respect the problem and others who would offer solutions. I lean more towards honesty and accuracy, and if you can't handle the truth then go read something else, but my perspective is probably closer to one of decadence, rather than persecution. Also, I haven't played the game but I thought the article was a good read regardless.
megameter 6y ago
This kind of sensitivity/accuracy issue and how it relates to culture broadly is one of those things inherent to fiction that isn't necessarily obvious when you experience it, but looms ever-larger as you get deeper into crafting it. At first you're OK with putting throwaway stereotypes in your work, and then you start thinking, "well, why?" Because if you don't take the question head-on, you aren't going to craft something coherent and directed towards a point or a purpose. And asking that that can lead you towards an elaborate justification, to some kind of critique, or to a nihilistic dismissal. And while that can feed into culture wars issues, and popular works often arrive at the right time to be a lightning rod for them, it's equally often a case of "the real point being made is going to be esoteric anyway and only a fraction of the audience will work at understanding it properly." Especially with big productions like AAA video games, the prioritization is on rushing to produce big spectacles, and a majority of the production effort goes to the technical part of that, while the concept is kept to something easily described in blunt shorthand: "you get to play as a Viking and pillage the British." And it's like, oh, okay, gotta live up to the audience expectations here, make it a fun thrill ride with a happy ending, let's ignore the implications. The novel stuff and minority views usually can't get represented in such productions for structural reasons.
hobby-coder-guy 6y ago
What is chortling?
JimTheMan 6y ago
Red dead redemption II made the looting part feel a bit more real, albeit painstakingly slow.

trey-jones 6y ago

My biggest takeaway: this question of how to be truthful about history and simultaneously sensitive to people who are traumatized by the memory, or have a unique or minority perspective - it is neither and easy question to answer, nor an easy problem to solve. Parties who would debate the question would do well to respect the problem and others who would offer solutions. I lean more towards honesty and accuracy, and if you can't handle the truth then go read something else, but my perspective is probably closer to one of decadence, rather than persecution. Also, I haven't played the game but I thought the article was a good read regardless.

megameter 6y ago

This kind of sensitivity/accuracy issue and how it relates to culture broadly is one of those things inherent to fiction that isn't necessarily obvious when you experience it, but looms ever-larger as you get deeper into crafting it. At first you're OK with putting throwaway stereotypes in your work, and then you start thinking, "well, why?" Because if you don't take the question head-on, you aren't going to craft something coherent and directed towards a point or a purpose. And asking that that can lead you towards an elaborate justification, to some kind of critique, or to a nihilistic dismissal. And while that can feed into culture wars issues, and popular works often arrive at the right time to be a lightning rod for them, it's equally often a case of "the real point being made is going to be esoteric anyway and only a fraction of the audience will work at understanding it properly." Especially with big productions like AAA video games, the prioritization is on rushing to produce big spectacles, and a majority of the production effort goes to the technical part of that, while the concept is kept to something easily described in blunt shorthand: "you get to play as a Viking and pillage the British." And it's like, oh, okay, gotta live up to the audience expectations here, make it a fun thrill ride with a happy ending, let's ignore the implications. The novel stuff and minority views usually can't get represented in such productions for structural reasons.

hobby-coder-guy 6y ago

What is chortling?

JimTheMan 6y ago

Red dead redemption II made the looting part feel a bit more real, albeit painstakingly slow.