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[hyperbertha]

New report claims Assassin's Creed developers were pressured into minimising female protagonists

Alexios was never meant to be playable.

www.pcgamer.com

Ignoring the PCgamer spin here are the facts:

Assassin's Creed Syndicate was originally going to feature a more even split between its two playable leads, twins Jacob and Evie Frye. After meddling from executives, including recently-resigned Serge Hascoët, the balance became much more skewed in Jacob's favour. In the final game, it is a rough 40/60 split between Evie and Jacob

Assassin's Creed Origins. The original story saw protagonist Bayek killed off early in the game to be replaced by his wife Aya. In the final game, Aya has a massively reduced role.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was going to originally only feature Kassandra as its player character. Hascoët, and unnamed people within Ubisoft's marketing department, claimed that games with women leads wouldn't sell, and so Kassandra's brother Alexios was included as an alternative lead .




Aforementioned executives have now all been canceled due to harassment, so expect Ubisoft to have full creative freedom from now on.

 

[Stuart360]

No one takes Alexios away from me!. Thank god
And have they really been 'cancelled' for that?

 

[jshackles]

Evie > Jacob
Aya > Bayek
Kassandra > Alexios

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Assassin's Creed Odyssey director 'surprised' at Alexios/Kassandra usage split

‘Right now it’s two-thirds Alexios and one-third Kassandra’ We’re far removed from the whole “Assassin’s Creed is bad” mantra. Origins rocked it...

www.destructoid.com

The Dumbass director was surprised more people wanted to play as Alexios than Kassandra lol.

 

[SaturnSaturn]

And this is shocking how, imagine anyone thinking this will ever stop, it will only get worse lol. Ideology always comes before money now.

Cant do anything about it, so why care in the first place

 

[The Shepard]

I can honestly say I'm not supprised, they've being trying to kill off the alpha male this whole gen.

 

[Zimmy68]

Evie > Jacob
Aya > Bayek
Kassandra > Alexios

I would say:

Evie = Jacob (both performances were good, but I liked the boxing stuff late game with Jacob).
Bayek and that is it (I hated the Aya mission(s) I was super OP as Bayek and they took everything away).
Kassandra > Alexios - Plus Alexios works better as the "villian".

 

[Bonfires Down]

Is this forced diversity?

 

[Sub_Level]

I'm not big into Assassins Creed, how many of the games are female protagonist only?

 

[Mistershine.]

They should give you more control over your look, not just m/f. You should be able to choose height, weight, hair, and the like while still being the right ethnicity.

 

[Bragr]

New report claims Assassin's Creed developers were pressured into minimising female protagonists

Alexios was never meant to be playable.

www.pcgamer.com

Assassin's Creed Origins. The original story saw protagonist Bayek killed off early in the game to be replaced by his wife Aya.

Thank god that didn't happen, Aya was not good, Bayek was the best performed Creed protagonist of them all.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Even I was surprised at the Alexios/Kassandra split. I honestly expected Kassandra to be the preferred one.

I'd love to the know the Commander Shepard Split.

 

[RedVIper]

They should give you more control over your look, not just m/f. You should be able to choose height, weight, hair, and the like while still being the right ethnicity.

....why? whats wrong with having fixed characthers?

 

[Bragr]

I'm not big into Assassins Creed, how many of the games are female protagonist only?

Aveline from Liberation, a smaller spin-off from Creed III was female only. I think that's the only one.

Edit: and Shao Jun from that China game.

 

[sobaka770]

If the creative vision was to make you pay as a woman they should've stuck with it. In every AC game with female protagonist: Evie, Aya and Cassandra are just plain better characters than the male ones.

Choice is a compromise but the idea that a female-led AC wouldn't sell is bonkers. Just make a good character. It's that the reason why we can't get a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil for 2 decades?

The whole article is a worthwhile read. The guy is clearly a douche and his control over Ubi properties let to then all being cookie-cutter clones of each other. I hope Ubi comes out stronger out of this.

 

[SirKicksalot]

I refuse to believe this is true about Origins. Maybe someone was like "dude what if we kill Bayek lmao" but nothing more. His character is the game. Everything is written around him being a depressed Egyptian Sheriff whose life fell apart and stumbles upon conspiracies and politics he does not understand. I guess I can see him dying at the end but I find the ending (and first expansion) better with them separating forever. Aya jumping into the cool world of assassins and Bayek left behind in Egypt is the definition of bittersweet.

>but Aya is the founder of the Assassins!

Yeah whatever. The story is about Bayek and Aya drifting apart because of the death of their child. It's inspired by Ashraf Ismail. The same plot's skeleton is used in Black Flag's flashbacks.

Also Kassandra has a ridiculous actor. Alexios sounds like he knows he's starring in the equivalent of a low budget 1980s Italian sword-and-sandals epic featuring Lou Ferrigno. Kassandra takes it seriously instead of being Xena.

 

[jshackles]

Aveline from Liberation, a smaller spin-off from Creed III was female only. I think that's the only one.

Another spin off, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China, had a female protagonist: Shao Jun.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Evie > Jacob
Aya > Bayek
Kassandra > Alexios

Simp

 

[Notorious_Roy]

Didn't Ubisoft share statistics that showed more players played as Alexios. That would mean those execs were right.

Right?

I don't mind personally although it would be weird to play Odyssey as Alexios. The story felt written for Kassandra.

 

[Mistershine.]

....why? whats wrong with having fixed characthers?

I'm just so used to having customisable characters that having a fixed one seems restrictive.

 

[GreenAlien]

I'm still waiting on that japanese edo period AC with a geisha protagonist. Dance - Seduce - Kill.

 

[hyperbertha]

I'm still waiting on that japanese edo period AC with a geisha protagonist. Dance - Seduce - Kill.

How could they possibly sell microtransactions without damage spongy level gated enemies and weapons that deal 1 damage. Dance seduce kill wtf is this some kind of assassin game? Off with your head.

 

[Woopah]

I can honestly say I'm not supprised, they've being trying to kill off the alpha male this whole gen.

People wanting to make a game with a female lead is "killing off the alpha male lead" now? People have been making games with female leads for decades.

 

[Rikkori]

Even I was surprised at the Alexios/Kassandra split. I honestly expected Kassandra to be the preferred one.

I'd love to the know the Commander Shepard Split.

18% fem shep
72% male shep

Bioware shared this stat some time ago, don't have source.

 

[Rikoi]

They should give you more control over your look, not just m/f. You should be able to choose height, weight, hair, and the like while still being the right ethnicity.

Something you just want to hear the story of a character/team in a certain setting, instead of being addressed as hero, friend, mate, <insert any generic term> by the other NPCs.

 

[Newly Vacant]

Eh, it was the right decision. The proof was in the player split. Of course an outlet like PC Gamer is going to demand the popular choice be taken away. If player can't make the right decision, then they don't deserve that decision.

 

[JeloSWE]

New report claims Assassin's Creed developers were pressured into minimising female protagonists

Alexios was never meant to be playable.

www.pcgamer.com

..claimed that games with women leads wouldn't sell..

How could anyone ever think so. Just look at Tomb Raider, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Mirror's Edge, Resident Evil 2, Metroid, Bayonetta and so on... LOL Basically no one cares as long as the story and game play is good.

 

[Mistershine.]

Something you just want to hear the story of a character/team in a certain setting, instead of being addressed as hero, friend, mate, <insert any generic term> by the other NPCs.

As an example of what I mean:
Keep Kassandra as a character but let me change her hair style, body shape, height, etc. People will still know your name and the like, but you would be more you as it were.

 

[FunkMiller]

Not for nothing, but I couldn’t give a shit if the person I’m playing has a penis or a vagina, as long as the damn game is great to play.

 

[The Shepard]

People wanting to make a game with a female lead is "killing off the alpha male lead" now? People have been making games with female leads for decades.

I have zero problem with a female lead but let's not act as if that's not the route gaming is heading.

 

[Rikoi]

As an example of what I mean:
Keep Kassandra as a character but let me change her hair style, body shape, height, etc. People will still know your name and the like, but you would be more you as it were.

Oh yes I wish we could do that.
I think one of the reasons they don't do this is because of the main character being used as advertisment by the developers/community or something like this, so the face must be fixed.

 

[Xenon]

Press XX to progress.

 

[Jon Neu]

The funny thing is how they try to frame it as sexist when those are the same people trying to push for female only protagonists.

So basically:

-Male protagonist = sexist
-Female or male protagonist = sexist
-90% of the game as a female and 10% as a male = sexist

The normal SJW hypocrisy.

was originally going to injure or kill off its male hero, Bayek, early in the story and give the player control of his wife, Aya, according to two people who worked on it.

So some of them wanted to dispose early of the male hero and substitute him with a (superior) female for the rest of the game.

Where do I have seen that before?

 

[Fbh]

To be honest with the whole open world RPG angle they are going with now I hope the next entries start offering a character creator.
The only one of the newer ones I played was Odyssey and I went with Kassandra mostly because I found the voice acting of Alexios hillariously bad.

Even I was surprised at the Alexios/Kassandra split. I honestly expected Kassandra to be the preferred one.

I'd love to the know the Commander Shepard Split.

In Mass Effect 3 it was 82% Male Shepard

 

[Pejo]

Evie > Jacob
Aya > Bayek
Kassandra > Alexios

I agree with Evie, hard disagree with the other two. Kassandra's only plus was that she was also a worse villain than Alexios.

 

[kretos]

 

[Optimistic Gamer]

I like my assassins to be female. Something about a femme fatale is great.

 

[MightySquirrel]

So ubi's execs aren't as dumb as I thought.

 

[Rikoi]

So ubi's execs aren't as dumb as I thought.

The new ones will probably do the opposite though.
We will see in the next AC game what they are going to do.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Then in reality it would just be a, 'sleeping with the mark and poisoning their drink simulator.'

 

[hemo memo]

They have data to support this or they’ll not waste the time and money. That’s why the decision was made. But Ubisoft is an easy target so of course this will get turn into something else.

 

[Mistershine.]

Oh yes I wish we could do that.
I think one of the reasons they don't do this is because of the main character being used as advertisment by the developers/community or something like this, so the face must be fixed.

Mass effect made it work. No reason other games can't.

 

[Sybrix]

This is an unfortunate issue with the big players in gaming now and has been for the last 10 years.

Ubisoft, EA, Activision etc are ruled by data trends, much like the movie industry, they'll design the game, get it screen tested and alter it based on results and data trends rather then let the creative process evolve naturally.

The big games these days are designed by committee to their detriment unfortunately which is why we get the same churned out crap each year from Ubisoft and EA.

Bethesda is also well on their way to the above sadly.

 

[Amiga]

New report claims Assassin's Creed developers were pressured into minimising female protagonists

Alexios was never meant to be playable.

www.pcgamer.com

Ignoring the PCgamer spin here are the facts:

Assassin's Creed Syndicate was originally going to feature a more even split between its two playable leads, twins Jacob and Evie Frye. After meddling from executives, including recently-resigned Serge Hascoët, the balance became much more skewed in Jacob's favour. In the final game, it is a rough 40/60 split between Evie and Jacob

Assassin's Creed Origins. The original story saw protagonist Bayek killed off early in the game to be replaced by his wife Aya. In the final game, Aya has a massively reduced role.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was going to originally only feature Kassandra as its player character. Hascoët, and unnamed people within Ubisoft's marketing department, claimed that games with women leads wouldn't sell, and so Kassandra's brother Alexios was included as an alternative lead .




Aforementioned executives have now all been canceled due to harassment, so expect Ubisoft to have full creative freedom from now on.

Main character gender is not the reason AC is the biggest boring franchise, it's because of lack of creativity in play-design and a story that finished with Ezio/Desmond and failed to start a new interesting arc

 

[BlackM1st]

Good.

Female only could've worked in Syndicate thanks to more focus on assassinations and guns and less reliance on brute force.

Odyssey and Valhalla definitely work better with male leads due to heavy weapons and hystorical era.

Would gladly play as a female ninja in AC Japan or male Samurai.

 

[Amiga]

18% fem shep
72% male shep

Bioware shared this stat some time ago, don't have source.

and 10% trans Shepard? was that even an option?

 

[TGO]

So was they always men's bodies too
Fucking bullshitters

 

[PresetError]

Good. Release an Assassins Creed with a non optional female lead and let's find out if it sells more, less or the same.

 

[kruis]

New report claims Assassin's Creed developers were pressured into minimising female protagonists

Alexios was never meant to be playable.

www.pcgamer.com

Ignoring the PCgamer spin here are the facts: ...

There is a ridiculous amount of spin in that PC Gamer article ...

Imagine an Origins where Aya had to avenge both her son and her husband, or an Odyssey that really explored the gender dynamics of Ancient Greece. More importantly, imagine if the people making those games could have done it in an environment that was safe and free from the alleged harassment by executives and managers, and from gaslighting by the publisher's HR department.

You can already play either as a man or a woman in AC:O and have sexual relations with both men and women playing both characters. so what more does the PC Gamer author want from that game?

Besides that, I find it laughable that these proponents of gender equality think that putting a character creator in a game is all it takes to play either as a man or a woman in a third person action game. It's also more work for the story department to make the story work for two different genders, you need to cast an additional voice actor who has to record thousands of lines of text, the art department needs to design more costumes that suit a female body type, perhaps even additional motion capture sessions to record both actors. It's a substantial amount of money even for a studio the size of Ubisoft.

 

[Ballthyrm]

Evie was great as a 40 year old in The dlcs