Following Ubisoft’s dynamic and unique conference at this year’s E3, the major studio responsible for titles such as Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, has found itself thrown under the microscope after recent revelations involving the publisher’s exclusionary practices. But how fair are the criticisms Ubisoft face, and should we really be pointing the finger at Assassin’s Creed Unity alone?
The undeniably vast and starkly gorgeous game has been thrown into disfavour with many big industry names and community followers after it released gameplay footage involving four identical white male characters, playable in Assassin’s Creed Unity multiplayer mode. When questioned as to why no female characters were offered, Ubisoft representatives claimed that including any playable women would have “doubled” work on the game. This statement began a massive backlash of criticism that has swamped coverage of the game almost entirely.
But is this heated attack on Ubisoft justified? In reality the game serves to not only actively cut out women from the experience, but also any racial variation – although this hasn’t caused equal stir in gaming media. This is one of several valid points raised against the accusations of blatant misogyny directed at Ubisoft.
However, during an Assassin’s Creed Unity cinematic showcased at E3, the camera pans across a multitude of women’s heads, decapitated and set on display in the streets of France. Attention has been brought to scenes in which animating women, predominantly Cristina in Assassin’s Creed II, for the purpose of sex, did not exponentially increase the workload for developers, or break the bank of the studio producing them – yet another claim Ubisoft have made in order to justify the creative decisions implemented into the game.
To further this, the very same issue has been raised in relation to another Ubisoft title – Far Cry 4. Developers have claimed they were “inches” away from adding a playable female character in their co-op mode, however time and budget limited their capabilities to both design and animate the character – stating “it was this weird issue where you could have a female model that walked and talked and jumped like a dude”.
The real problem highlighted by this hot spotlight is not that Ubisoft are bad developers or publishers. The track record of Ubisoft is little short of phenomenal, crafting amazing games beloved by many. The studio have earnt their way into the top ranks within the industry, and boast incredibly talented developers from a diverse range of backgrounds. On top of this, they are one of very few groups heavily represented by female hosts, namely the incredible Aisha Taylor, during their E3 conferences.
Despite this, the problem of representation in media is one that must be addressed. Focus cast on Ubisoft currently is not a personal attack, nor is it a statement towards the quality of the games they produce. However it is a fact that their games often pander to the typical but harshly damaging stereotypes cast onto women in media – including (but not limited to) sexual objectification, the ‘Smurfette principle’ and violence against women. A great many games are guilty of this of course, however this fact alone does not exempt Ubisoft from any responsibility.
It is known to many just how prominently this attitude bleeds into the real world treatment of women within the industry and community. Although it is a minority that directly uphold and reinforce the principles of misogyny openly in gaming, it is a far greater number that look at these incidents in isolation, and therefore overlook their importance and influence when viewed as a whole.
If you take this instance of exclusion on it’s own it is certainly nothing to be concerned about. Neither women nor persons of colour need be central playable characters in every game. However, it is far too few that even entertain the idea of remote inclusion, let alone developing games that tell the stories of varied protagonists. It is not the intention of these debates to argue that women wipe out male stories, histories and characters – but that women themselves are not wiped out nor solely reduced to background decoration or objects themselves, as they so often are. Parts of the gaming industry don’t appear to have moved on very much from the notion that men are the default, while women are the extras, while it’s very own community grows not only in numbers, but in diversity itself.