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The character design for The Order: 1886 is so good.

Scrabble

Member
This also features characters who are able to live for however long they want and futuristic weapons that never existed during the time. If non-white people had never existed prior to the time the game is set, then you may have a slight point (though, again, they use futuristic technology as weapons) but there were non-whites living during this time.

It is hilarious that a black/asian/latino/whatever character starring in the game would be a stretch but a group of people who sip a magical potion to live forever and fight werewolves with future guns is just par for the course.

Is it really that funny? Yes it's a work of fiction, but it's still trying to have a basis of reality and remain authentic to capturing early industrial london. It's easy to rationalize werewolves and high tech weapons being in this universe because these facets are different from our reality and we can accept them. It's less easy to separate why there would be an abundantly multi ethnic and racial background of characters, in what is otherwise a faithful artistic interpretation of early industrial london.

Look at AC Unity. It features fantastical moments and feats that no one would ever mistake as attempting to accurately portray reality. Given your logic, english accents shouldn't be a problem, but because accents are easily relatable we feel a disconnect when we hear them in a French setting.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Well, they are historically accurate. Why include minorities in this game? Lol...

Disclaimer: I am a minority irl.

The designs look nice. I don't see the Assassins Creed comparisons at all but to each their own.

Can't get more generic than this for sure:

assassins-creed-characters.jpg


Alternate costumers and all that...
Calling AC character designs generic while also touting "why include minorities in this game" with a picture of past AC characters, three of which happen to be minorities in time periods that take place before this game seems a bit ridiculous. The costume design is fine but the faces of these characters aren't very special of noticeable at all. Nothing about Galahad really screams "main protagonist" to me.
 

jtan

Member
I don't understand what everyone complaining is looking for. If you have something against the design why not elaborate on what you'd want to see and why?

I think it's great, and I don't know how some of you say you can't tell them apart...
 

jmood88

Member
Is it really that funny? Yes it's a work of fiction, but it's still trying to have a basis of reality and remain authentic to capturing early industrial london. It's easy to rationalize werewolves and high tech weapons being in this universe because these facets are different from our reality and we can accept them. It's less easy to separate why there would be an abundantly multi ethnic and racial background of characters, in what is otherwise a faithful artistic interpretation of early industrial london.
Yes, it's funny because the argument makes absolutely no sense and rather than get angry about it, I choose to laugh. Again, it's not as if non-whites didn't exist during this time period so I fail to see how it would somehow be more outlandish to have someone other than a white person star in an already outrageous game. But, given what you seem to believe about the demographics during the time period, you should feel the same about a possible non-white character that you feel about the futuristic weapons (unless I'm incorrectly understanding what you're saying).

Look at AC Unity. It features fantastical moments and feats that no one would ever mistake as attempting to accurately portray reality. Given your logic, english accents shouldn't be a problem, but because accents are easily relatable we feel a disconnect when we hear them in a French setting.
English accents aren't a problem for me since I play the game in French but that choice can be justified since the character in the game isn't actually living in the time in which the game is set, he is in a computer program that is simulating the time period and location. I have absolutely no problem with English accents in that game.
 

Oppo

Member
yeah I really like how this looks. so somber.

they are supposed to be Arthurian Knights, right? you can't make them multi ethnic, that would just look like blatant tokenism.

always surprised at the doubt around this game, Ready At Dawn was killing it on PSP.
 

Scrabble

Member
One uniform. One. That's it. The rest are just rehashes for every damn character. I mean I get that is their uniform... but still.

Sticking with the tenants of what an Assassin should resemble in the universe constitutes as "rehashing"? Each assassian, especially from AC1-3 given the time gaps, has a very distinct look representative of the period. Despite both Altair, Ezio, and Connor ostensibly being just "guys in hoods" I can very quickly tell them apart and get a sense of where they are from, the time period, etc.
 

jmood88

Member
yeah I really like how this looks. so somber.

they are supposed to be Arthurian Knights, right? you can't make them multi ethnic, that would just look like blatant tokenism.

always surprised at the doubt around this game, Ready At Dawn was killing it on PSP.

Is having a woman in there not "tokenism", as well?
 
In his 30's!? He must have had a hard life then.
It's the 1800s. Where making it to 30 was considered exceptional.

Is it really that funny? Yes it's a work of fiction, but it's still trying to have a basis of reality and remain authentic to capturing early industrial london. It's easy to rationalize werewolves and high tech weapons being in this universe because these facets are different from our reality and we can accept them. It's less easy to separate why there would be an abundantly multi ethnic and racial background of characters, in what is otherwise a faithful artistic interpretation of early industrial london.

Look at AC Unity. It features fantastical moments and feats that no one would ever mistake as attempting to accurately portray reality. Given your logic, english accents shouldn't be a problem, but because accents are easily relatable we feel a disconnect when we hear them in a French setting.

So werewolves, which don't exist, can be placed in a fictional work that's only going for quasi historical accuracy, and that's believable, but putting in a few people of darken skin tones, who actually exist, in the same work that only goes for quasi historical accuracy, isn't believable? Do you even know that there were minorities in London during the 1800s? Which is the time period this game takes place in, not the 1200s or such?

No one's even saying every other character has to be a different ethnicity, but is it that unbelievable to have a black guy there running a small shop or an asian guy there as a trades merchant, which are actually historically verified for the period? It's not a stretch, I mean you're already working with werewolves and portable RPGs for goodness sake!

Not that it bothers me much any, just that your complaints only make sense if the work is striving for actual 1:1 historical accuracy, and even in this particular case, your complaint kind of falls flat. The Order is "historically accurate" in theme only, so there's lots of room for liberties in other areas.
 

Scrabble

Member
Yes, it's funny because the argument makes absolutely no sense and rather than get angry about it, I choose to laugh. Again, it's not as if non-whites didn't exist during this time period so I fail to see how it would somehow be more outlandish to have someone other than a white person star in an already outrageous game. But, given what you seem to believe about the demographics during the time period, you should feel the same about a possible non-white character that you feel about the futuristic weapons (unless I'm incorrectly understanding what you're saying).


English accents aren't a problem for me since I play the game in French but that choice can be justified since the character in the game isn't actually living in the time in which the game is set, he is in a computer program that is simulating the time period and location. I have absolutely no problem with English accents in that game.

Because the outlandish elements you are referring to are easily discerned as being pure fiction, not meant to accurately portray reality. No one playing the Order would look at werewolves and steam punk weaponry and criticize these elements as not being faithful to reality because NO SHIT, it's fiction. Seeing a diverse multi racial and ethinic group make up what is supposed to be the knights order from King Arthur would be incredibly off putting and generate dissonance from the otherwise faithful artistic interpretation of industrial london. How can you not see the difference?
 

OsirisBlack

Banned
What? Some of the AC character designs are iconic. Ezio is instantly recognisable to anybody with a passing knowledge in videogames. No idea how anyone could claim that they're 'generic'.

I like the assassins creed games never liked the outfits always seemed very counterproductive to wear an all white robe as an assassin. Especially when everyone else is dressed appropriately for the setting in which the games take place. The AC uniform always seemed like a rip off of Jedi/Sith garb.

Someone ask the owner of Ready At Dawn where all the minorities are at...

weerasuriya_ruomexv.jpg

Handsome fellow.

Seems worse, she is looking even more white now.

STHAP
 

jmood88

Member
Because the outlandish elements you are referring to are easily discerned as being pure fiction, not meant to accurately portray reality. No one playing the Order would look at werewolves and steam punk weaponry and criticize these elements as not being faithful to reality because NO SHIT, it's fiction. Seeing a diverse multi racial and ethinic group make up what is supposed to be the knights order from King Arthur would be incredibly off putting and generate dissonance from the otherwise faithful artistic interpretation of industrial london. How can you not see the difference?

I can't see the difference because if all the other unrealistic and ahistorical nonsense is in the game, then there is absolutely no reason to be upset that there's someone of a different ethnicity in the group. In fact, there could even be an interesting story behind it if they wanted to get into that. But no, we're stuck with yet another game where people will defend the fact the main thrust of the game is completely unrealistic but bring up the possibility of a non-white character and all of sudden it's "whoa, slow down there, that would never happen".
 

Naudi

Banned
I hope we can explore the city a bit. Seems like all that atmospehere would be wasted if it's just corridors.
 
But no, we're stuck with yet another game where people will defend the fact the main thrust of the game is completely unrealistic but bring up the possibility of a non-white character and all of sudden it's "whoa, slow down there, that would never happen".

Yeah, that is the annoying part. If a work is striving for hard historical accuracy, I don't mind a mono-ethnic approach whatsoever, that's what I come to expect in that scenario. But most work that has historical ties, are only using those ties very loosely, generally just in terms of theme and basic aesthetic. Otherwise you can take those stories, do a different paint job and have about the same story regardless.

It's actually rather disturbing that there are people who, even in works w/ the most loose of "historical accuracy" would sooner accept the idea of otherworldly alien creatures that don't exist in any way, than people just like them in every way except skin color. Separating fantasy from reality in the most extreme and damaging ways, those ones.

Any blame in that happening here falls directly on gamers who take up that line of thinking; there's only but so much developers can do to get grown adults to think rationally.
 

Naudi

Banned
Is this the first order thread to dissolve into a race debate? Lol...every thread gets derailed so quick it's crazy.
 
If you've never played Assassin's Creed then yeah, it looks amazing.
I've played Assassins Creed and The Order: 1886.
You?
Looking at these characters I couldn't tell you a damn thing about them. Nothing about their design communicates their personality, background, profession, nothing. This is an example of really poor character design.
Makes no sense at all. Good job.
So what does "good charachter design" need?
White hair, 10ft long sword and a scar in his face?
Yeah, it says he is totally badass and a former soldier or warrior = Great character design, meng!

What nonsense.
Like your cartoony character designs.
But it doesn't mean it's a superior design.
 

GnawtyDog

Banned
What? Some of the AC character designs are iconic. Ezio is instantly recognisable to anybody with a passing knowledge in videogames. No idea how anyone could claim that they're 'generic'.

Well, I guess we hit a wall here on what I or others consider generic. Every-time I look at an Assassins Creed character I'm reminded of how out of place they're given their surrounding environments and NPC's. The facade wears thin after you play the third, or fourth entry in the series... (specially the hoodie).

If not for the clothing, A'Creed characters are as generic as they can be - (character faces hidden in a hoodie majority of the time a player has character control helps lessen the impact). And as I have previously mentioned, even their clothing designs can be off-putting in the context in which they are presented the majority of the time.... of course, gamers at large are not as picky about this but in some genre's it can affect its presentation - at least for me it does.
 

GnawtyDog

Banned
They all look rather distinguished and like they have lived a little, I like it.

Well that isn't really historically accurate to not include minorities in London during the 1800's especially if it goes to port areas such as Canning Town. Documentation of minorities in the British isles goes back to the Romans, during the 19th century in London you would have wealthy students and migrants from across the world as well as displaced soldiers and seamen due to the Nepolianic wars. In Britain the larger movement of people of different nationalities really started to happen on mass from the 1500's though it was primarily only around port cities such as Liverpool.

Knights of the Round Table included minorities in lore? In the majority of all takes on the lore they were mostly, if not all, anglo-saxon. That's what this game is loosely based off and draws inspirations from. I am aware of minorities existence in almost all confines of the world - immigration is a byproduct of human travel after all.

I am pretty sure "the Order" (a loose interpretation of the lore as it's) could include "Knights" from other parts of the world (minorities) and that would be nice to see. However, their lack thereof does not hinder its presentation.
 
Well, it's always going to be easier with cartoony characters.

I don't think people would struggle to ID silhouettes of Solid Snake, Spiderman, Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, Iron Man, Sam Fisher, Dante, Chris Redfield & Jill Valentine, Bayonetta, The Gears of War crew, Kratos, The Master Chief, Kazuya or Heihachi, Ryu & Ken, Commander Shepherd, any of the AC protagonists (as at least belonging to that series), Scorpion/Sub-zero, Batman, Darth Vader, adult Link, Lara Croft, or the Helghast.

When people speak of "generic" character designs, they generally mean you could swap out any number of people and insert them and no one would notice the difference. Most videogame protagonists are generic by design, allowing the player to fill in the blanks. I doubt there's much fan art dedicated to Nathan Hale, that guy from Far Cry 3, or Wii Fit girl.
 

dofry

That's "Dr." dofry to you.
I can understand the focus on basic british protagonists as it's UK in the 1800 with a fantasy twist. Maybe what I could expect would be some asians here and there but mostly I expect white folks. When I think about it the newer Sherlock movies didn't have any token black characters as far as I can recall? Kinda the same setting.

Regarding Assassins Creed, I think the first assassins design was good but they should have changed the next iterations. He's supposed to be an assassins and to blend in the environment, not stand out too much. There's some broken logic there even though he looks cool in a hood. Also I cant separate the different assassins except the PSVita girl as she looks more the part. Could blend more ino the crowd.
 
Is having a woman in there not "tokenism", as well?

No. The game is based on Arthurian legend. She's Lady Igraine, an established character in legend. Plenty of women in England at the time had positions of power - class came before gender in terms of status. Putting in a minority just because you feel like the game needs one when it doesn't fit the theme of high-class British warriors working for the king is ridiculous. You will find few people who are stronger proponents of increased diversity in games than me, but that does not mean every game needs a rainbow-colored cast. Insisting they be there just to increase diversity (especially when it clashes with the setting) is tokenism. Your argument that because the setting has some fantastical aspects that there is no need to follow the other rules of the time is nonsense.

The werewolves and futuristic weapons are the defining features of the setting, not afterthoughts shoved in for no reason. They perfectly fit the game's internal logic. What you are proposing does not. The world is well thought out, so adding minorities to a group of immortal upper class English warriors would require massive changes to the lore that alter the purpose it is trying to achieve. There number of non-whites in England when The Order was founded (probably around 900-1200 AD) was extremely small and insignificant. In Victorian England, the only non-whites in any notable numbers were some small, lower-class immigrants from China and India. Adding them to the main cast of characters would be preposterous when they would certainly be extremely poor and class conflict is an important part of the setting. Their only place would be as rebel leaders, and then you'd still have the unbelievable situation of Victorian white people willingly following non-white immigrants. There's not really any way to have it make sense without compromising the purpose of the setting, and for a game that's trying so hard to craft a specific believable world with a convincing story, that would be a mistake.
 

Salvatron

Member
Looking at these characters I couldn't tell you a damn thing about them. Nothing about their design communicates their personality, background, profession, nothing. This is an example of really poor character design.

I disagree. While character design can definitely communicate those things, it isn't a necessity.
 
Knights of the Round Table included minorities in lore? In the majority of all takes on the lore they were mostly, if not all, anglo-saxon. That's what this game is loosely based off and draws inspirations from. I am aware of minorities existence in almost all confines of the world - immigration is a byproduct of human travel after all.

I am pretty sure "the Order"- a loose interpretation of the lore as it's could include "Knights" from other parts of the world (minorities) and that would be nice to see. However, their lack thereof does not hinder its presentation.

Oh I don't think it impacts it either. Just pointing out it isn't necessarily historically correct especially when you can do anything you like with fiction especially the ones so deeply embedded in the supernatural.
 

Vire

Member
I do wish there was some more diversity in the designs themselves. Like, why does every character have brown and black hair? Have some with blonde or red hair... Characters would be more recognizable if they each had a distinguishing factor that made them unique like Gallahads glorious mustache, instead these all kind of blend in together.

I don't think any of them look outright bad, but it's all kind of bland and one note.
 
Someone ask the owner of Ready At Dawn where all the minorities are at...

weerasuriya_ruomexv.jpg

Heh. And based on what's been said in interviews, The Order is his dream project as well. He's been wanting to make this game for years, and he's involved in all aspects of its creation, even down to co-writing the script.

But yeah, too many white people or something.
 
Any word on the cast yet?

I would love to see an authentic, all-English ensemble (provided the characters hail from the country of course).
 
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