Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Social & Cultural Contexts Flashcards
1
Q
A
- It is typical of the franchise and other open world AAA video games to feature a male protagonist.
- It could be considered a way that the franchise is targeting the typical target audience demographics of these video games.
- Having a male protagonist is arguably a way that video game producers construct an identity for audiences that could be their ‘desired self’ (not an identity that they see as themselves, but one that they can become when playing the video game).
2
Q
Examples of varied gender options in AC Franchise
A
- There have been several games in the series where you can play as a female character.
- Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation was the first in 2012, with the whole game played as a female character.
- In Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (2015), audiences played as a pair of twins with the ability to play as the female sibling Evie at times.
- In Assassin’s Creed: origins (2017) there were two missions audiences played as the main character’s wife Aya.
- In Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (2018) audiences choose whether to play as the male Alexios, or female Kassandra at the start and it is then fixed for the whole game.
- Lastly, in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (2020), audiences can switch between a male or female Eivor at any time.
3
Q
A
- Indeed, studies have shown that female gamers are far more comfortable assuming the avatar of the opposite sex (and in some cases another species of character in fantasy genres) than their male counterpart.
- This is likely due to female gamers being more used to being side-lined / ignored and having to regularly
play as a male character due to their existence often being overlooked.
4
Q
A
- Although the main protagonist in early Assassin’s Creed chapters has been predominantly Caucasian, more recent entries into the franchise have featured a varied approach to race including; Native American (ACIII), mixed race (ACIII: Liberation), Chinese (AC Chronicles: China), Indian (AC Chronicles: India), etc.
