Ubisoft’s Homophobia-Driven Narrative Angers Assassin’s Creed Players

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Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series has seen better days. Formerly enthusiastic players, myself included, became bored with the series. It seemed to lose sight of what the game could be. Portions of the game occurring in the past were less exciting than the ongoing battle between Templars and Assassins in the modern world. The games became repetitive, with boring and tedious missions.

That wasn’t Ubisoft’s only controversy. The company also famously featured few women. Even once they had an online mode and character customization, all the characters were male. Ubisoft gave the infamously sexist excuse that women were more difficult to animate than men.

Enter Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was supposed to change all that. The characters in the past had their blood preserved through time, and advancements to the in game-technology, the Animus, meant anyone could view the lives of someone else from the past. This did take some of the magic away from the original game premise, but it also opened it up to new possibilities. Now, characters in the past were free to be anyone. Their histories weren’t as written in stone.

This gave the player a whole new freedom, something completely unique to the series. Ubisoft marketed Odyssey as the game players would write through their decisions and actions. Plus, players could play as a male or female character, with no change to the story. Finally, it seemed, Ubisoft had learned their lesson. They had a new, unique game, they gave players choice, and they allowed women to take a lead role. They even allowed same-sex pairings in the game, making it extremely popular among LGBTQ players.

I was all set to make Assassin’s Creed Odyssey my first Assassin’s Creed game since Black Flag, released in 2013. Then Ubisoft released an update that forced players, even if they were playing gay or lesbian characters, into a heterosexual relationship, one that forced the female players into pregnancy.

Fans of the game, women, and LGBTQ people were, understandably, unhappy, yet Ubisoft’s response only addressed how they had disappointed gamers with false marketing.

Obviously, spoilers to follow.

Why this is Problematic

Games have stories all the time. Plenty of games have a story that offers the player little to no choices. Uncharted’s Nathan Drake ends up with the girl, Mario rescues the princess, Spider-Man winds up with Mary Jane, and so forth. There are many game characters that have set plotlines and end up in a heterosexual relationship. Why would anyone be upset now? What makes this game special?

As it turns out, Ubisoft did. Ubisoft marketed this as a game that gave players unprecedented levels of control over their characters. It allowed players to imprint themselves on their character and play out their own wishes. Finally, LGBTQ players were able to see themselves in a character, something we’re not used to getting. Women loved being able to play as a realistic character, full of bravery, strength, and their own faults and choices. Furthermore, all gamers loved having such fine-tuned control over the narrative. It was a huge selling point for the game, and the reason many people bought it. It’s why I had it on my “buy when it goes on sale” list. But Ubisoft broke their promise.

… For All Gamers

For cisgender, heterosexual male gamers, there might not be a huge problem here. Many of them may see no issue with Ubisoft’s decision to force their character into a heterosexual relationship and parenthood. But they might not like what it does to the story. Furthermore, they may be annoyed that Ubisoft took choice away from them, the primary reason they decided to play this game.

“Our goal was to let players choose between a utilitarian view of ensuring your bloodline lived on or forming a romantic relationship. We attempted to distinguish between the two but could have done this more carefully as we were walking a narrow line between role-play choices and story, and the clarity and motivation for this decision was poorly executed.”

– Jonathan Durmont, Odyssey Creative Director

These are the people Ubisoft addressed their apology to. The people upset that the story took their narrative and drove it into a one-option story. That’s why the apology contained the promise that the only thing they had no control over was the child. They told players they don’t have to worry about a romantic relationship. Their character could go on, without needing to worry about the child they left behind.

No, really, that’s how Ubisoft decided to comfort these gamers: child abandonment.

… For Women

https://twitter.com/SpongeMariian/status/1085239397098889217

For women, there’s the issue of the pregnancy. Of course, Ubisoft didn’t force players with a female character to actually play as a pregnant woman for 9 months, they fast-forward to a year later. But it still feels reminiscent of a struggle we still have in the United States and many other nations all over the world: the right to choose. In the U.S., conservatives have attacked women’s right to choose abortion over pregnancy for decades. Furthermore, women in the south and other conservative states often find that, while they have the right to an abortion, it can still be incredibly difficult if not too expensive to get one.

Ubisoft forcing motherhood on a character that women molded to resemble themselves is somewhat triggering and deeply problematic. Any woman in a position of power on Ubisoft’s team would have pointed out the delicacy of this topic. Clearly Ubisoft, the company that said women would be too much work to animate, still has a woman problem.

… For LGBTQ People, Especially Lesbians

LGBTQ people were excited about Odyssey. Ancient Greece with period-accurate views on sexuality? Huzzah! The game would actually allow us to play characters who weren’t held back by society’s views on homosexuality. For many of us who grew up in conservative households and areas of the world, it’s a breath of fresh air. A chance to be accepted. We could finally see ourselves in a character.

Then Ubisoft forced these players into a heterosexual relationship. The game even gives you a chance to pursue romance with the opposite-sex character. If you choose not to, you still are forced into having a child with them. Your character, as it would seem, has gone straight.

This is a dangerous narrative, especially for lesbians. Don’t get me wrong, implying that homosexuality is a phase is dangerous for both genders, but women face harassment, assault, and rape more frequently from men looking to “correct” a lesbian’s sexuality. I cannot tell you how many times guys have continued to harass me, even after I told them I was gay. Furthermore, I had one man actually threaten to rape me straight. These are things we actually hear commonly. Even “woke” friends may point out that “everyone is a little bi,” pushing a guy towards a lesbian friend. Men’s sexuality is rarely encroached upon in this way, but it does happen to them as well. No one is safe from heteronormativity.

“Growing Up”

To make matters worse, what trophy did Ubisoft give to players for having a heterosexual relationship and producing offspring? “Growing Up.” That’s what they called the trophy, furthering the idea that we just have to “grow out of” our sexuality.

Ubisoft, to their credit, has stated they made a mistake here and would change the title. Of course, if they had anyone from the LGBTQ community in a position to speak up about this sooner, the mistake never would have been made.

 

… For the Child-Free

Many people do not want or cannot have children. The idea that they need to have a child in order to “grow up” or that parents are somehow more of adults than child-free adults is preposterous and insulting. Many people—especially millennials,—have chosen to not have children. It’s plain to see why. Economic anxiety, high rates of inflation with staggering wages, a monumental growth in the wage gap between the super wealthy and the middle class, and increased real estate prices make having a child downright foolish. Children are a luxury we cannot afford. Others simply would rather have pets, long hours spent with friends or significant others, and the freedom that going child-free enables. Of course, most homosexual relationships cannot produce children on their own either.

Living a child-free life is no less valid than continuing your lineage. But Ubisoft clearly made it seem like having a kid is “growing up.”

Could it Have Gone Another Way?

This is the point that will get a little spoiler-y. You may want to skip to the next section.

Your character eventually finds out that their true parent has become the ageless guardian of Atlantis. Their final task in life is to pass this role on to an heir. The game ends with the person you play as in the present finding the character you played as in the past, in Atlantis, and accepting the role to protect the city. You are not, at least as it would seem, a blood relative of the person from the past. In fact, your character was able to relive the past thanks to a DNA sample, not from ancestor DNA. This means there was no need to produce offspring.

Furthermore, even if the person did have to be a part of your bloodline, your character from the past has a sibling. They could have had other family members that they needed to discover, they could have had cousins, or there could have been a situation involving a clone or some other alien tech (this is, after all, a story of a highly advanced civilization’s leftover technology). There were many ways to write around a forced heterosexual relationship and forced pregnancy for Ubisoft’s gay or female players. They did not need to force this on the player.

What can Ubisoft Do?

Ubisoft has not yet apologized specifically to their female or LGBTQ players. That’s the first step. They need to promise to work on their culture of toxicity, one that sees homosexual relationships as lesser than heterosexual relationships. Surely, one of the developers would have stopped the company from forcing players into a same-sex relationship. They would never dream of forcing our sexuality onto straight players. However, the fact that they were okay with the inverse shows that they think less of us. Ubisoft employees have some unconscious bias against LGBTQ people that they need to work on. One of the ways to do this is to surround themselves with more diverse people. Women and LGBTQ people in the creative process in positions of power would have stopped this controversy before it happened. Instead, the company has found itself on many LGBTQ people’s boycott list.

There’s a sort of irony here. The story of Assassin’s Creed is that of the Templars versus the Assassins. The Templars, the antagonists of the story, wish to use the ancient alien technology to rule over humanity with an iron fist. They would remove choice, remove individuality, and create a world where there is no war, strife, classism, art, hopes, or dreams. The Assassins oppose this goal. In the end, Ubisoft took their game about choice, a core theme of the Assassins, and instead forced players into situations they did not choose. Ubisoft became the Templars.

This hearkens back to the namesake of the series, the Assassin’s Creed, their motto, “Nothing is true, everything is permitted…” except being gay and childless, apparently.

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Sources:

• Shabana Arif, IGN
• Owen S. Good, Polygon
• Mey, Autostraddle
• Chelsea Steiner, The Mary Sue
• Stephen Totilo, Kotaku
• Zhiqing Wan, Twinfinite