Third Post: Ezio’s Assassin’s Creed Trilogy is not Any Old Spinoff

To those few readers that actually kept up with this blog, I do apologize for not updating it. Finals were really bothersome and I’m glad to be over that for now. I know that E3 recently passed and that I should comment on that, but I’ll leave that to my next post. One thing from E3 that did stand out to me that I wanted to talk about was the unveiling of Assassin’s Creed Revelations, the third and final installment of the Ezio Storyline. This game is also the final installment for Altair’s storyline, as all of the main protagonists’, including Desmond’s, storylines converge in this last spinoff. When AC Brotherhood came out, most people were talking a storm about how Ubisoft is now cashing in on something that once was just a big creative gamble that looked like a Prince of Persia clone. Putting in a multiplayer for this game that was supposed to be a unique escape from multiplayer shooters like MW2 and Battlefield BC 2 made it seem even more tacked on. However, I felt differently about Ubisoft’s maneuver. I actually thought that it was a smart move and a well calculated gamble on the part of Ubisoft. I cited the spinoff trilogy as a smart move for two main reasons: 1) Developing-wise, this is a creative way to “beta” new ideas to add and perfect for the final installment, and 2) The smart marketing person in me would have the AC3 game (the final installment) come out in or around the time it would take place...on December 21, 2012....

Now, onto my first point. Knowing the way business tends to go with successful game franchises, big game companies want more. It was kind of inevitable that the spinoff, AC Brotherhood, was announced to the expected groaning by fans armed with the assumption that a great franchise was going to be milked to death. Ubisoft was smart in deciding to at least go with a character we liked and in spending the time and money to fund this spinoff and trying to make this cool. Instead of utilizing the same formula to just advance a mediocre story, the dev team decided to improve upon and take cautious risks.  I applaud Ubisoft for taking the risks, for example, with the multiplayer system. I’ve grown tired over the years of multiplayer shooters and I have longed for more interesting gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I initially was hesitant about the multiplayer because I thought it may divert away from the storyline, but the dev team and writers at Ubisoft managed to not only make one of the most unique and interesting multiplayer games of that year, it also managed to integrate the overarching plot along with it – namely that everyone that uses the multiplayer system is a Templar agent training through the Animus to learn Assassin moves without losing an eye…or a finger in a “Inception” type function (referencing the promo ads talking about the function of the “dream machine” in Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”). Ultimately, the multiplayer ended up being a huge success mainly for its unique gameplay, but I posit that it was also successful because it did not feel tacked on. Even upon playing it, I realized that the multiplayer provided a foreboding foreshadow to the eventual AC3 – I realized that Desmond’s enemies are getting stronger. In previous AC games, run-ins with the modern day Templars happened during important portions of the game, but they are never really seen face-to-face. In AC1, a squad of Assassins fail to rescue you (and Lucy) and are gunned down by Templar forces. In AC2, you have a minor run-in with the Templar security agents in the beginning and end of the game but they are relatively easy to take down. Upon playing the multiplayer, you come to realize that the Templar have elite personnel that may be as experienced and well-trained as Desmond really is.

Another example of the beta-potential of the AC spinoff series is the implementation of the new combat system in AC Brotherhood. In the previous AC games, the combat system has been the most widely criticized part of the games, mainly for it being insanely boring, repetitive, and unforgiving, at times. I feel that utilizing new ideas in the spinoff was a good idea because it provided a testing ground for the improved version in the inevitable AC3 game, by adopting the combo styled fighting seen in Batman: Arkham Asylum. I believe this is a good idea because they could see how the community reacts to the new system before releasing their “final draft” in the form of the combat in AC3. In retrospect, this happened to be a success due to the overwhelming response from the community. Among the few critiques of the combat system was that it was too easy with the added bonus of additional companions from your handpicked Brotherhood. The addition of an improved combat system also lended itself well to the narrative that Ezio is improving with age and practice. With the new combat system in place, Ezio is able to prove his expertise as a Master of Assassins while Desmond can “flash-learn” Ezio’s moves as well.

Another point is the notion that, in terms of marketing, December 2012 would be the perfect time to release the upcoming AC3 game. With a two year mark between AC2 and said date, one would be wise to keep Ezio in the picture since he was 1) well-liked and 2) the most recent figurehead of the game. If marketing and sales would want to keep the AC3 date at around December 2012, then the next obvious question would be “why Ezio and not Desmond, the main protagonist of the entire series?” The simple answer would be that I believe that Desmond channels a lot of his character development through the other characters. While people have criticized Desmond for being flatter than a piece of paper, I have always believed that Desmond is living vicariously through the other protagonists: Altair and Ezio, because he is learning their thoughts, mind-sets, and move-sets. Also, the game AC Brotherhood and AC2 have done a great job in developing Ezio as an almost tragic character from his perfect teenage life to his revenge-filled experiences as a novice Assassin to his exploits as an almost Zen-like Master Assassin. AC Revelations will also help to flesh out his experiences of him going through his “mid-life crisis” when he thinks about what he has done and whether he accepts or regrets his fate as a man who lives by the sword.

These spinoff stories do turn to focus on the events that will unfold in the plot of AC3. AC Brotherhood reveals that those who lived before could prove to be a third party in the epic struggle between the Assassins and Templars while AC Revelations slates itself as the concluding game for both Altair and Ezio as their worlds, and in the process Desmond’s, collide. Along with the gameplay improvements and plot implications, the AC spinoff series prove to be more than mere spinoffs in the eyes of this VG blogger.

Over and Out.

Second Post: Mirror's Edge: Faith as a Revolutionary Character

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I'm busy with finals....Here's one from my DeviantArt that I was meaning to put into a blog like this.

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In the past, console video games were scrutinized as being a male-only kind of activity, with game characters like Lara Croft in the “Tomb Raider” series and Ivy from the “Soul Calibur” series representing what game developers thought of their gaming consumer audience: mostly male players. The existing male-only stereotype and the overly enticing and exotic female character design models produced a cycle that pushed and discouraged many women gamers into a minority population among the gamer population. Like overly muscle-developed men, really enticing women characters became a norm in video games. However, the introduction of Faith Connors, the main player/protagonist of the video game Mirror’s Edge, challenges this norm. Faith is a revolutionary female character in the video game world and this can be attributed to her appeal as a strong willed and independent character, her more realistic body curvature, and growing new social trends that dignify women more.

The character of Faith in Mirror’s Edge is described in the instruction manual as “Tough and self-reliant.” She is an individual, one who cherishes independence and despises total control. Faith scorns the city she lives and works in, as it is a totalitarian state. Faith describes the state as a “mirror” because of its apparent gloss, which is further emphasized in the numerous polished skyscrapers seen in the game. Faith works as a runner, a person who delivers classified goods to rebel groups and clients deemed enemies of the state. Faith describes this work as “running along the edge of the mirror,” as she accesses the less polished and grittier portions of the city in order to avoid the watchful eye of the police forces. The game “Mirror’s Edge” derives its name from the work that Faith does, and also describes Faith’s character as a free-thinking, unconventional, and radical individual. Faith is a very complex character, and although one could say that this is due to her lifestyle as a runner, much of her complexity attributes itself mostly to her past and current family situations. She dealt with the loss of her parents to a protest that turned violent and has to take care of her twin sister, Kate, who works as a police officer for the city Faith despises the most. Faith’s ties are very strained, as she must fight against the city and relieve it from its totalitarian control but look after the only family that she has, her twin sister Kate. Faith’s conflict in the storyline of “Mirror’s Edge” is the fact that she must juggle her life, her sister’s life, and her values through a city that seems to want all three of these needs to disappear. Unlike characters like Ivy and Lara Croft, who seek to find something glorious or powerful, Faith’s needs are more simplistic and achieving these needs require less glory and power and more underdog-like qualities. These simplistic, but overly complex (due to the controls of the state) desires make Faith a more ordinary character. Faith is revolutionary female character because the audience can identify with her more than Lara Croft or Ivy.

Let’s face it: Faith is not the archetypal big chested, hourglass shaped, and extremely proportioned model found in most video games with female character leads. However, this “setback” (for lack of better terms) actually fits Faith perfectly. Faith’s body structure as depicted in the game is more realistic for her talent: running. Faith’s body shape is a revolutionary leap in video gaming because her form fits her function. Her body type is perfect for her ability to run, leap, crawl, roll, and claw her way out of potentially hairy and risky situations. Unlike her counterparts Lara Croft and Ivy, Faith’s model type does not make gamers ask themselves, “How can she perform these kinds of actions with her bust size?” Faith was not made to be sexy. In fact, the game’s producer Tom Farrer verified this by saying that they “wanted her to be attractive, but [they] didn’t want her to be a supermodel. [They] wanted her to be approachable and far more real.” By editing her body type, they did in fact make her more approachable and more attractive. Unlike other characters that do almost the same kind of physical work, Faith’s body structure is more believable and approachable than the others. Lara Croft, for example, does a lot of the same things that Faith does, but it is difficult to eliminate any kind of erotic thoughts of her due to the fact that she has a big bust size and hour-glass figure. These thoughts eliminate any kind of “dignified” thoughts of her because Lara Croft would be (and is) hailed as a sex symbol. Ivy from Soul Calibur also faces this issue due to her classic costume. Her classic costume, along with her model-like body makes her look like a dominatrix. Faith is not like Lara or Ivy mainly because of her body structure. She is more approachable because of her body structure. Although people dignify and ogle at Sex symbols such as Lara Croft or Ivy, many people who look like those sex symbols are actually quite nervous and almost scared of meeting people who are about as attractive as Lara Croft or Ivy because sex symbols like Lara Croft or Ivy are placed on a pedestal. Faith is different. Faith’s body was not used as a marketing ploy to attract more customers.

The social atmosphere of the United States has changed significantly in the past decade. The perfect body is being redefined in the social scene. Plus-sized models are starting to appear more on television. More and more people are becoming more aware of the shallowness of just wanting a hot woman. Sophisticated and strong women are becoming more and more idolized as the new “hot.” Faith embodies this growing acceptance. Video game industries also know that men are not just the majority of the consumers in the market now. A growing number of women gamers have more publicly entered the fray. Video game producers of Mirror’s Edge probably wanted to appeal to that growing crowd by creating the strong character known as Faith. Ivy and Lara Croft were often target examples for women who took offense to video game. Faith redefines the image of the attractive woman by adding less physicality and more character.

Faith is a rebel. Faith defies the controlling state she lives under by running and transporting precious cargo to her clients. Faith is also a rebel to our society as well. Her character is attempting to redefine the “attractive video game woman.” The makers of Mirror’s Edge have made Faith as revolutionary as the video game that she is the protagonist in. This revolution has opened more women into gaming and has told the world that the hottest women do not have to have the most perfect body. Faith’s rebellion against both her society and ours will earn her a place as one of the most influential female video game characters in the beginning of this century.

References:
“Faith’s Bio” <http://wiki.on-mirrors-edge.com/index.php?title=Faith>
“Faith’s character design”<http://kotaku.com/5099050/faith-is-not-a-12-year+old-with-a-boob-job>

First Post: The Rise of Video Game Narrative Story-Telling

Welcome to my first post. I am Francis and I hope to impart some of my opinions on video game politics, business, etc. I hope to gain a good set of readers to hopefully have people in the industry hear my (as well as your) voice so that we can better affect the industry in a positive way. My goal as a gamer first and blogger second is to take video games as an entertainment medium and transform it into the art form that it truly deserves to be.

We're currently, in my opinion, witnessing the rise of epic story-telling in video games. As a form of entertainment, games have undergone a rapid transformation in the mid to late-1990s in the form of improved and almost photo-realistic visual graphics and intense sound. Before then, stories in video games were limited by the graphics of the current game engine and the amount of pixels that can be generated on a screen at one time. With the big focus on graphics engines and improvements, video game writing was neglected due to the amount of resources and time that each development team needed in order to create better, more photo-realistic outfits. Writing was left in the dust and that and that ended up biting them in the butt.

However, that was in the past and I believe that the rise of story-telling in games came slowly as the graphics of video games became more cinematic. One of the biggest factors in gaming was the adoption of real-time cinematic cut-scenes and the abandoning of pre-rendered cut scenes. By making the cut scenes similar to the actual gameplay graphics, this kept the player immersed in the game. As graphics got better and more photo-realistic, cut scenes began to be cinematic and more movie-like. Writing began to improve as developer teams grew in size and resources. At this point, more resources could be poured into making games with relatively good narrative and writing without sacrificing resources for more realistic and cinematic cut-scenes. With games like Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Fallout, and Mass Effect hitting the fray, games began to resemble high-budget films and started to require development teams that began to resemble high budget movie making teams.

The underlying problem is that video games still bear a stigma that was present with early movies, music, and visual media (paintings, drawings, etc): it is the notion that video games are not art and do not have proper narrative. Video Games, especially, get this kind of treatment due to the assumed notion that games are toys made for children (a false one, at best) and the notion that gamers are anti-social dorks or nerds who seek to be successful in their virtual life in order to compensate for a lack of a real one (not really true). This needs to be changed. These notions may have borne fruit in the past, but gaming has since evolved into a more mature state that has been generally accepted by the general public (much to the chagrin of hardcore gamers and people who believed the assumptions mentioned earlier in this paragraph). Video Games are not as alienating as they once were, and the general notions of "the gamer" are starting to lose their meaning (girl gamers, for example, are starting to rise in population, much to the disbelief of pre-pubescent aged and behaviored gamers...immature pricks).

However, for every bad news, there is good news. The good news is that the games industry is just getting started. Games like L.A. Noire are pushing the boundaries of video game writing and presentation, and, in the case of L.A. Noire, have been recognized by the Tribecca Film Festival, a big monumental leap for games as an art style (and a subsequent "F*%k you" to Roger Ebert). Narrative story-telling is beginning to rise and gaming as an art form will benefit from this. I feel that as narrative writing in video games gains more traction, the gamer, all in all, will benefit from this. Games with great narrative have influenced my thinking of the world and have made me question my thoughts and beliefs in numerous ways. Mass Effect 1, for example, made me think about whether or not I should execute a sapient race that, in the past, threatened some of the civilizations to the point where they needed to be taken out. On one hand, releasing the "queen" of this species could do just that: exact revenge on the galactic civilization for almost wiping her kind. However, on the other hand, I could take the queen's word and let her live a life of prosperity and peace to recuperate and repopulate. This kind of scenario forces the player (me) to put forth a moral question: Do we hold people accountable for their merits and demerits in the past, or judge them by their present intentions? This kind of questioning was faced by the victors of WWII who questioned what they should do with the Germans and the Japanese. Because of this, the Japanese only have a defense force and no sizeable military to this day for offensive capabilities. Imagine, if proper, well-developed narrative can influence this kind of thinking, what would become of gamers in the future? I believe that gamers will be well-informed and better thinking individuals because of gaming.

Over and out.

Links:
L.A. Noire recognized by Tribeca Film Festival (Reaction): Click Here
A show I recommend: Extra Credits (the guy here is better at talking about this kind of subject than I am): Extra Credits