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[figadapaura]

You didn't actually read about the game, did you? The "four identical men" are actually all the same man. Who can be customised... hence the variation. They didn't build four seperate characters, and exclude women. They made one highly customisable character, and deemed it too expensive to add a female character with the same high degree of customisation.

Too expensive right....

 

[dose]

Who cares? I am so sick of this PC bull shit, and I'm disappointed that it has reached gaming. They can make whatever games they like, and if you don't like it don't buy it.

Totally this. Do they have some sort of obligation to put female characters in? Nope, they can do what the fuck they want. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Mr.Wreckless]

I'm so over this whole " we must have women playable characters in every game" movement. If i was bothered by every game that didn't have playable black characters I would never play Nintendo games at all, forget playable minorities their games don't include them period. And the only characters I would be cool with in fighting games, my favorite genre, are boxers since even in fantasies we are only good at brawling.

And no I don't relate to bald white guy, so miss me with that argument.

 

[saunderez]

Totally this. Do they have some sort of obligation to put female characters in? Nope, they can do what the fuck they want. Absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with you, but word of warning, I've seen people banned around here for the same "they can do what they want" attitude. Best to keep it under your hat. Makes for a one sided discussion but honestly not worth the ban.

 

[jon bones]

Who cares? I am so sick of this PC bull shit, and I'm disappointed that it has reached gaming. They can make whatever games they like, and if you don't like it don't buy it.

It is what it is. It sucks but they're not in the game. If no females prevents you from not playing the game then play a game that has females. I've never looked at a game and said "No Doods!?!?!? Fuck it, I'm out!! I've also never said "there's girls!?!? I'm out". Seems like it's getting out of hand tbh.

BREAKING NEWS: White males who gets to play white males in every video game ever don't get why anyone else would want to play a character who also looks like themselves.

Makes himself look stupid on internet forum.

 

[Authority]

Reposting,

The next game in the Assassin's Creed series will not allow you to play as a female character because it would have "doubled the work" for the game's developer Ubisoft. Speaking to VideoGamer, Ubisoft technical director James Therien said female assassins were on the company's feature list until "not too long ago," but were cut as a matter of "focus and production."

"A female character means that you have to redo a lot of animation," Therien said, defending the exclusion by saying it was "not a question of philosophy or choice."[/highlight Ubisoft's Bruno St. Andre estimated that a female assassin would've necessitated more than 8,000 new animations recreated on a new skeletal structure, but said that playable female characters were "dear to the production team."

Assassin's Creed: Unity is set during the French Revolution, and allows players to take part in four-player co-operative missions in which they always see themselves as the game's star, Arno Dorian, and their companions as alternate male assassins. Speaking to Polygon, creative director Alex Amancio, said this was the reason Ubisoft decided not include women as playable characters. "The common denominator was Arno," Amancio said. "It's not like we could cut our main character, so the only logical option, the only option we had, was to cut the female avatar."

It's also very true.

To be fair: They're not necessarily wrong. Modeling women does take some time. I dunno if it takes up huge amounts of time or money like they claim but it is a reasonable response.

Though Ass Creed Brotherhood, Revelations and 3 had female assassins you recruited to use in singleplayer, so it isn't like they can't have women be assassin's in the multiplayer.

Let us refresh our memory.

Lucian Soulban (Openly gay Ubisoft Montreal lead writer)

"What do you think the odds are that we’ll get a mid-30s stubbly-bearded brown-haired white guy with a raspy voice who is gay as a lead character in a AAA title?" Richard Dansky, the company's "Central Clancy Writer" (yes, that's a thing) asked Lucien Soulban, an openly gay man who's worked on blockbuster shooter franchises like Far Cry and Rainbow Six.

"Not for a while, I suspect, because of fears that it'll impact sales," Soulban responded. In his view, commercial constraints are the chief barrier to diversifying video game characters and stories. At best, what AAA game developers can do now is relegate LGBT characters to supporting roles, or pull a sort of "bait-and-switch" on players like Nintendo famously did when it revealed that Metroid star Samus Aran was actually a woman underneath her suit of power armor. Either that, or what BioWare has done with its Dragon Age and Mass Effect games—let players decide the sexuality of their characters and chalk the decision up to player choice"

Gary Steinman, a communications manager for Ubisoft, issued a response to the press that Soulban's comments were getting with a statement issued over the weekend. Steinman's statement is buried in the comments section of the original Q&A, so here it is reprinted in full:

Hello, all... We’ve seen several news outlets pick up quotes from this lively interview, with a focus on Lucien’s comment that we might not see a gay protagonist in a triple-A game for a while due to concerns about an impact on sales. We want to clarify that Lucien is speaking from the heart and sharing his own personal perspectives and insights. We’d also like to reiterate that fully committed to exploring characters of all races, creeds and orientations, in both supporting and starring roles. The UbiBlog was built to be a place where the creative minds behind our games can talk directly with you, in an open setting, fostering frank and candid discussions about key issues like this one.

They only thing they are fully committed is about giving unjustified answers. And here is why,

They could have said,

• "While it was never part of our plans, if there is enough interest we will consider creating a DLC for it".
• "It is a possibility we are currently evaluating".

Alternatively, they could have,

• Removed one Ass and put a Female Character.

One day you will realize (nothing to do with you) that this whole cost-driven argument coming from a bigAss company is bullshit. Adding a woman or a gay character is a burden for them. Nothing about costs. It is all about maintaining the status quo and hiding behind "costs" unless you think a company like Ubi will go bankrupt with a female lead character. If that is the case they might as well remove all female acting and presence and spam men because female voice acting is more costly.

They cannot hide behind this forever. One day, one Ubisoft employee's tongue will slip and I hope they get the shitstorm they deserve.

Edit: Unbelievable how these people pull so many AssWiped excuses on the table when it comes to intentionally excluding a woman and for that it is my greatest honor to give them the following award,

Ubisoft has won this year's most imaginative answer and with that in mind it is my honor and privilege to present to you their new book on the market,

The complexity of female bone structure - Over 8000s ways edition.

 

[Wiktor]

Yeah...Naughy Dog animator criticizing Ubisoft, because Naughty Dog is well known for having lead female characters in their games...lol. They had like what? One in entire history and only in DLC?

In reality Ubisoft has dug iself in the hole solely by weak excuse, whether it was right or not. They should have simply said "we thought it was best for this particular game, for the next one we'll see when we get there" and not say anything more.

 

[Defco 7T]

You have got to be kidding me (chuckles..) cue I don't want to live on this planet anymore gif.
So many stones to throw at a company that has given us decades of entertainment but heaven forbid they slacked for one moment on one minor detail.

The lack of respect is painfull to watch. This even being an issue is embarrassing. Anyone going for the throat should just take a step back in to r e a l i t y.

Since when did we gamers become so entitled???

 

[SketchTheArtist]

Too expensive right....

....and time-consuming. Is it really that hard to grasp?

Without any sort of passive-aggressive from my part, do you know anything about game development?

Sure the Dark Souls series did it, but it's an incredibly cheap series to make (great Art Direction, level design, etc) but their presentation and graphics capabilities are really cheap so yeah, reusing the same rig and animations for male and female is okay for them. Same as Netherrealm where their female characters had the same shapes, rigs and gore effects on male and female. It's hard work to do diversity sometimes. You pick your battles.

 

[Regime]

This really is a no brainer Ubisoft.

 

[Impeccable]

Yeah...Naughy Dog animator criticizing Ubisoft, because Naughty Dog is well known for having playable female characters in their games...lol.

In reality Ubisoft has dug iself in the hole solely by weak excuse, whether it was right or not. They should have simply said "we thought it was best for this particular game, for the next one we'll see when we get there" and not say anything more.

*blink*

 

[Crossing Eden]

So how many people read interviews where they explicitly stated that you ALWAYS play as the main character of the game. Like in Watch Dogs. So how would you see yourself as a female anyway?

 

[jon bones]

Yeah...Naughy Dog animator criticizing Ubisoft, because Naughty Dog is well known for having playable female characters in their games...lol.

The Ellie section of TloU was amazing dude...

You have got to be kidding me (chuckles..) cue I don't want to live on this planet anymore gif.
So many stones to throw at a company that has given us decades of entertainment but heaven forbid they slacked for one moment on one minor detail.

The lack of respect is painfull to watch. This even being an issue is embarrassing. Anyone going for the throat should just take a step back in to r e a l i t y.

now we've got full blown corporate apologists

amazing

 

[raphier]

Yeah...Naughy Dog animator criticizing Ubisoft, because Naughty Dog is well known for having lead female characters in their games...lol. They had like what? One in entire history and only in DLC?

In reality Ubisoft has dug iself in the hole solely by weak excuse, whether it was right or not. They should have simply said "we thought it was best for this particular game, for the next one we'll see when we get there" and not say anything more.

Last of Us, no?

 

[captainpat]

You have got to be kidding me (chuckles..) cue I don't want to live on this planet anymore gif.
So many stones to throw at a company that has given us decades of entertainment but heaven forbid they slacked for one moment on one minor detail.

Given? the hell you talking about? Ubisoft aint no charity.

 

[StoOgE]

The most offensive part of all of this is the implication that female characters have to have the hip wiggle walk.

Jesus christ video games stop it. no one actually walks this way. We all more or less walk the same fucking way.

 

[slash3584]

The only solution:

Assassin's Creed V starring Aisha Tyler.

 

[dose]

I agree with you, but word of warning, I've seen people banned around here for the same "they can do what they want" attitude. Best to keep it under your hat. Makes for a one sided discussion but honestly not worth the ban.

Sure, I understand, but it's the truth. As long as what they're doing isn't inflammatory, illegal or whatever, why should we have a say in what they can do in the game a company is funding themselves?

 

[saunderez]

So how many people read interviews where they explicitly stated that you ALWAYS play as the main character of the game. Like in Watch Dogs. So how would you see yourself as a female anyway?

Well yeah what I learned today is you get less shit from having a non customisable male lead than a customisable male lead. So devs should just continue with that. They should also not make characters of questionable sexuality like Pagan Sim or they'll get crucified for that too. Best to keep your bad guys straight and white to avoid any backlash.

 

[The Incredible Muffin]

Edit: I will further explain myself.

I grew an adversion to these kind of subjects. They annoy me. Why do people get so up in arms if a developer makes a choice?

If no woman lead is present. If homosexuality is not possible. Why is this important to anyone!? We are talking video games here

Let the developer decide what they want to do please.

If someone wants a female character they will chose that. Its not worth anyones breath to make a fuss about that.

 

[KorrZ]

Maybe Ubisoft wouldn't have to give bullshit answers if people weren't ready to jump down their throats for the making the choice, which they perfectly have the right to make, to not include female characters.

Just look at some of the insults thrown at Ubi in this very thread, it's embarassing.

 

[Wiktor]

Last of Us, no?

Elie was secondary there though. And the lead was another male white dude, which is what every other Naughty Dog character has been for the past 10 years. Compared to Naughty Dog Ubisoft are masters of variety when it comes to characters.

AC series alone had middle eastern muslim lead, black lead, black female lead and native american lead. The series has shown so much variery that I really don't even get why Unity team felt they had to explain having white dudes this time at all. Not to mention they should have known better and recognize journalist fishing for fake controversy.

 

[jcm]

I'm surprised Ubi didn't see this coming. They generally seem to care about being inclusive.

Sure, I understand, but it's the truth. As long as what they're doing isn't inflammatory, illegal or whatever, why should we have a say in what they can do in the game a company is funding themselves?

Because we're their customers. Of course we have a say. And this is a discussion forum. Why shouldn't we discuss?

THey can do what they want. We can talk about what they do. We can choose whether to give them $60 in exchange for their game. What's hard about this?

 

[Authority]

Edit or you will get banned.

If you don't care, don't post.

 

[Gold_Loot]

Reposting,





Let us refresh our memory.



They only thing they are fully committed is about giving unjustified answers. And here is why,

They could have said,

• "While it was never part of our plans, if there is enough interest we will consider creating a DLC for it".
• "It is a possibility we are currently evaluating".

Alternatively, they could have,

• Removed one Ass and put a Female Character.

One day you will realize (nothing to do with you) that this whole cost-driven argument coming from a bigAss company is bullshit. Adding a woman or a gay character is a burden for them. Nothing about costs. It is all about maintaining the status quo and hiding behind "costs" unless you think a company like Ubi will go bankrupt with a female lead character. If that is the case they might as well remove all female acting and presence and spam men because female voice acting is more costly.

They cannot hide behind this forever. One day, one Ubisoft employee's tongue will slip and I hope they get the shitstorm they deserve.

Edit: Unbelievable how these people pull so many AssWiped excuses on the table when it comes to intentionally excluding a woman and for that it is my greatest honor to give them the following award,

Ubisoft has won this year's most imaginative answer and with that in mind it is my honor and privilege to present to you their new book on the market,

The complexity of female bone structure - Over 8000s ways edition.

I understand the position you're taking here , but this one team working on this one game does not represent the entire company and their grand vision. It was simply something that wasn't planned from the start.

I would say UBI has done pretty good job giving us some diversity to play as.

 

[figadapaura]

....and time-consuming. Is it really that hard to grasp?

Without any sort of passive-aggressive from my part, do you know anything about game development?

Sure the Dark Souls series did it, but it's an incredibly cheap series to make (great Art Direction, level design, etc) but their presentation and graphics capabilities are really cheap so yeah, reusing the same rig and animations for male and female is okay for them. Same as Netherrealm where their female characters had the same shapes, rigs and gore effects on male and female. It's hard work to do diversity sometimes. You pick your battles.

Is this post serious? Really?

 

[saunderez]

The most offensive part of all of this is the implication that female characters have to have the hip wiggle walk.

Jesus christ video games stop it. no one actually walks this way. We all more or less walk the same fucking way.

Females do typically walk with shoulders held further back whilst men are more straight up and down. There is a difference, hips or not, primarily due to different centre of gravity.

 

[SonnyBoy]

Well, to be fair, it's likely that these animations wouldn't be easily transferable

I'm sure Tiburon could show them how to usher dated animations into their game.

 

[Mr. X]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3...ale-assassin-s-creed-characters/1100-6420392/

Gamestop article with a couple more Cooper tweets.

 

[jon bones]

peace

AC series alone had middle eastern muslim lead, black lead, black female lead and native american lead. The series has shown so much variery that I really don't even get why Unity team felt they had to explain having white dudes this time at all. Not to mention they should have known better and recognize journalist fishing for fake controversy.

this is absolutely true. say what you will about this particular subject, but the AC series has shown some great diversity over the years.

 

[captainpat]

I'm surprised Ubi didn't see this coming. They generally seem to care about being inclusive.

Do they? because I wouldn't call a few sprinkles of non-white straight dudes caring. They seem the same as almost every other developer, just slightly less shitty.

 

[Laeth]

There are a few things which I think need to be taken into consideration in this whole discussion:

1. This is a generational leap game; as such I imagine a large portion of their assets are having to be re-created from scratch. This instantly means their has to be a focus on the core features.
   
2. The co-op multi-player mode they have released details about doesn't allow for avatar selection; you always play as the main hero and the other assassins are there to represent other players.

With that in mind, there are two instances they would of needed to create a female assassin rig and locomotion move set.

1. If the hero character was gender neutral (ala most BioWare games).
2. If they wanted some of the co-op multiplier assassins to appear as females.

Seeing as the AC games are not role-playing games (where-by character creation and thus gender selection is more important), there is no need for a female locomotion set.

So then it comes down to whether or not it would be a worthy investment to make a female locomotion set for the co-op player avatars.

If they had planned from the very beginning to make their hero character's locomotion less masculine and more gender neutral (more agile etc.), then yes I could see how there could be some asset sharing between the two, however all the animation logic (whether that be morpheme or whatever they use for state machines, animation blending etc) would still need to be done and these things can't be outsourced.

As they originally stated, they probably did intend to have female assassins as co-op avatars, but the switch to the next gen, or some other animation related problems during development probably meant that they felt it was a risk and/or the time would be better spent making the hero character, the protagonist and the character every single player is going to use, better.

IMO

 

[The Cowboy]

AC series alone had middle eastern muslim lead, black lead, black female lead and native american lead. The series has shown so much variery that I really don't even get why Unity team felt they had to explain having white dudes this time at all. Not to mention they should have known better and recognize journalist fishing for fake controversy.

This is what shocks me about all of this, of all the people/dev teams to go after peple are going after the AC people/dev team, a team which has given an incredible amount of diversity over the years in the AC games. Does it suck this AC won't have a woman as a playable character, it sure does (the more options the better IMO), but considering this is a game series that has had middle eastern, black, female and native American leads i really don't get the outrage over this game not having one.

Heck i find it quite incredible how diverse this game series has been (its not something i had actually thought about before), of all the game series to go after regarding a diversity issue - people are going after one of the most diverse there is.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Perhaps the better question is, why isn't the main character something other than a white male?

This is literally the second white male main character that we've played as in this series. Edward Kenway was the first.
Altair was middle eastern
Ezio was pure Italian
Connor was Half British Half Native
Adewale/Aveline were African American
And also, maybe we're playing as a white male because it's the french revolution and it wouldn't make sense to play as something other than a white male.

 

[SketchTheArtist]

Is this post serious? Really?

Yes it was. Why?

 

[casmith07]

I say get in line, a Black Assassin is long overdue

Edit: And not as a DLC , Side Character or hell Side Game for that matter lol

Not even gonna touch this one, lol, but just going to say that I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Everyone complaining about women and I'm sitting over here like "where my brothas at?"

 

[Kuldar]

Ezio was pure Italian

Italians aren't white?

 

[figadapaura]

Are they not doing multiplayer anymore? Shouldn't they already be doing female animations?

 

[nynt9]

The most offensive part of all of this is the implication that female characters have to have the hip wiggle walk.

Jesus christ video games stop it. no one actually walks this way. We all more or less walk the same fucking way.

Actually, males and females do have a different gait. See the "gender differences" section in here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gait_(human)

 

[ZeroX03]

The most offensive part of all of this is the implication that female characters have to have the hip wiggle walk.

Jesus christ video games stop it. no one actually walks this way. We all more or less walk the same fucking way.

That's not true! I've seen a woman do the hip wiggle walk in real life!

Spoiler

She looked ridiculous and everyone seemed to find it disturbing

 

[Wereroku]

Elie was secondary there though. And the lead was another male white dude, which is what every other Naughty Dog character has been for the past 10 years. Compared to Naughty Dog Ubisoft are masters of variety when it comes to characters.

AC series alone had middle eastern muslim lead, black lead, black female lead and native american lead. The series has shown so much variery that I really don't even get why Unity team felt they had to explain having white dudes this time at all. Not to mention they should have known better and recognize journalist fishing for fake controversy.

Maybe they shouldn't have used a bullshit excuse. They didn't model a female because they didn't want to. Its not some gargantuan task that they are making it out to be. Also ND has had female characters in all of their multiplayer sections lately so they know something about animating female characters.

Actually, males and females do have a different gait. See the "gender differences" section in here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gait_(human)

There may be some amount of variation naturally but with training you can alter it completely and theoretically these assassin's would probably move very alike it they received the same kind of training.

 

[Kuldar]

Are they not doing multiplayer anymore? Shouldn't they already be doing female animations?

There isn't a competitive multiplayer in AC U, only a co-operative multiplayer where you don't choose your character.

The animation excuse is stupid and the way they talked about customization was confusing.
All they had to say was that you can customize Arno with skills and gears, and that like Watch Dogs you are playing as the main protagonist during co-op missions. That you just see your friends with other skins than the Arno one. As Arno is customizable, your character may be diffrent than characters of your friends (different weapons, different outfits, different skills)

 

[captainnapalm]

Seeing how incredible the animation and movement in the new AC is, I can understand why they chose to just focus on male skins of their main character. Changing the sex would certainly have required a lot more work, considering the level of visual fidelity at work here.

But really all I care about with any game, movie, book, piece of art scrawled on a toilet wall - is it the game, movie, book, piece of art scrawled on a toilet wall the creator/s wanted to make? It is? Cool.

 

[Defco 7T]

Given? the hell you talking about? Ubisoft aint no charity.

Really just quoted me on a word taken out of context. Unbelievable

 

[figadapaura]

This is literally the second white male main character that we've played as in this series. Edward Kenway was the first.
Altair was middle eastern
Ezio was pure Italian
Connor was Half British Half Native
Adewale/Aveline were African American
And also, maybe we're playing as a white male because it's the french revolution and it wouldn't make sense to play as something other than a white male.

Italians are white. Wtf?

Spaniards are too, you crazy Americans.

There isn't a competitive multiplayer in AC U, only a co-operative multiplayer where you don't choose your character.

I know that, but their excuse is that doing female animations etc would have been too hard. They should already have them available.

 

[RockTurtle]

but didn't ubisoft already have a black female assassin's creed character? a game where you HAD NO CHOICE in gender and race? where was the outrage there?

we had middle-eastern, native american characters.

Can game companies no longer make a narrative with specific characters tailored for what the story they want to tell?

If i understand correctly, all 4 characters are THE SAME PERSON.

NOT EVERY GAME HAS TO HAVE CUSTOM MAIN CHARACTERS. Not every game has to be MASS EFFECT or FALLOUT

 

[Fuzzification]

I'm getting flashbacks to Far Cry 2 and the excuse given for the lack of female player characters in that game:

But why only nine of the dozen characters in the game? Because the other three are women.

"There are so many lines of dialog that they would have had to rescript and record if we let people play as a female," I was told.

Wow, that's not going to go over well.

How many spoken lines of dialog did your player character have in Far Cry 2? Zero. How many times was your character referred to in a masculine context by others? Next to zero, and they could've been recorded to be gender neutral (e.g. using pronouns such as "they" instead of "he") without losing any potency in the dialogue.

 

[SketchTheArtist]

Edit: I will further explain myself.

I grew an adversion to these kind of subjects. They annoy me. Why do people get so up in arms if a developer makes a choice?

If no woman lead is present. If homosexuality is not possible. Why is this important to anyone!? We are talking video games here

Let the developer decide what they want to do please.

If someone wants a female character they will chose that. Its not worth anyones breath to make a fuss about that.

But how are all those people going to showcase to the world that they're mature enough to appreciate and respect people of different creeds and genders?

 

[Crossing Eden]

Italians aren't white?

Pure Italians have very naturally tanned skin. Just one look at Ezio shows that he's not a typical fair skinned or pale caucasian male.

 

[Oersted]

I'm so over this whole " we must have women playable characters in every game" movement. If i was bothered by every game that didn't have playable black characters I would never play Nintendo games at all, forget playable minorities their games don't include them period. And the only characters I would be cool with in fighting games, my favorite genre, are boxers since even in fantasies we are only good at brawling.

And no I don't relate to bald white guy, so miss me with that argument.

You stated that you are sick of people demanding female representation. That isn't an argument by any stretch of imagination.