Assassin's Creed (Games Industry)

I am using an early submission to offer feedback on this assignment so that you can add to your analysis. My comments are in red. In class we conducted a close textual analysis, also called a micro analysis of the trailer for your set text 'Assassin's Creed Liberation'  The task was to move from the 'specific to the general' and explain the connotations.

How has meaning been created and what is the preferred reading of the text for an audience?

Hopefully your analysis and use of the fact sheet will open up discussion of issues about the games industry.

'In the first shot I have chosen we can see a medium shot of the female protagonist. The fact she is at the front of the screen and stands out to the people behind her clearly shows her importance in the game. In the trailer, we also learn she is the daughter of a very rich French man but her mother was an African-American slave. This is important as she still has upper class quality which means she is above the slaves who are behind her. The choice of the slaves being lower down, being in the background and being behind her shows that they are very much lower class within their community. Also, the female protagonist is looking forward not paying attention to the slaves which could also represent the upper class background she gets from her father.'


Yes, you identify power relationships in this community and link them to types of shot. Exploitation of social groups based on ethnicity. Slaves were transported to the New World by European countries such as Spain, England, Portugal and France.  Liberation is set in New Orleans, Louisiana during the era of slavery.  There are direct links to make with another set text 'Formation'. Beyonce also uses iconography of the plantation and the lyrics celebrate her mixed heritage , ' Creole, Texas Bama.' 

Creole is the name of a dialect which is a mixture of English, French and West African languages which developed in French colonies. Slaves would address owners in French but developed a language of their own to communicate.  Slaves came to the New World with a range of tribal West African languages such as Yoruba and Ibo and all these languages mixed to create a new dialect which could be used to communicate apart from the exploiters. Often it is through wiping out language that oppressors gain power and subdue oppressed groups. By taking away the means to communicate they are taking away a key tool of resistance and trying to force assimilation. This is happening in China where one million people from the ethnic group 'Uighurs' are being 're-educated' as the government want to force assimilation and wipe out the Islamic nature of their culture. Using Chinese and forbidding other languages is a key method of wiping out identities that may be a threat to the hegemonic class.  In the case of slavery, wiping out the many languages spoken was a method of gaining control and subservience.   I once lived in Turkey where the Kurdish language was forbidden.  People were arrested for speaking Kurdish in the street.  
The protagonist in the trailer has a lighter skin and she would be treated differently. There is a wealth of American literature from Tom Sawyer to the Harlem Renaissance that delineates the power relationships that skin colour denotes and this shows the powerful hold that the dominant culture has over self image.  Oppression is not just physical it is psychological.  Power structures in this society are clearly delineated and this allows clear binary oppositions to develop in a short space of time. We identified these in class and discussed the theory of Levi Strauss. You could mention them here and identify opposites that drive the narrative through conflict. 

Tyranny /Oppression/ Injustice/ Exploitation/ Abuse/ Patriarchy/ Racism

In this shot we can see a wide angle medium shot of her stood in a very upper-class, wealthy house. The fact that she is stood high up and looking over the top of the other people, shows her status and shows from her father’s background that she can be above everyone else. Also, from the choice of clothing we can clearly see she has a higher status that everyone else in the area she is in. we can also include social and cultural context in this game. This is because they have chosen a female protagonist in Assassins Creed which is quite unusual in the video game world and we normally see male protagonists. We could consider within the game whether she is subverting female stereotypes within video games or if she reinforces expectations of female characters. In my opinion she is subverting them. This is because the typical female in video games always seems to need saving or the one that is in trouble and needs help from a male character.

It is unusual and perhaps an attempt to engage female gamers and broaden the appeal of the franchise which has been overwhelmingly masculine thus far. Established fans would also enjoy the varying perspective and engage with the narrative of liberation and justice.  The first person element increases a sense of righting wrongs and become an avenger which is common in modern blockbuster narratives. Is the role of Assassin just accepting violence as a means of liberation and appropriating masculine characteristics and therefore just re-inforcing stereotypes and encouraging aggression?
You mention costume and the 'heroine' is wearing dresses associated with this period of history which have become synonymous with slavery through depiction in a range of film, literature and TV dramas.   Some of you are studying Tennessee Williams play,  ' A Streetcar Named Desire' , and there is a character called Blanche du Bois who is sort of lost in this mythic past of the Southern plantation era.  Beyonce appropriates this costume in 'Formation'.  Academic and literary theory refers to the 'Empire Writing Back', re-appropriating the tools of a discredited past to address issues.  In wearing a dress from the plantation era, Beyonce is recognising her history and the history of Louisiana and appropriates the costume of exploitation in a political act.  The connotation of this image is powerful and can be read in different ways by different audiences. One reading is that Beyonce is saying the story of women of colour  in the history of America has been overlooked for too long and her music and use of a range of art forms from dance to music video is her way of addressing the many themes and debates that need to be discussed. The great thing about popular culture and social media is that this debate is stimulated.  Texts are accessible and hopefully stir further interest and discovery. Beyonce has the power to get people talking about these issues and to recognise that history plays a key part in life. Whether that be through healing and understanding or protesting injustice.  There is still a lot of injustice in society today and media texts are good ways to educate new generations and to get people to engage with ideas and further exploration of history.  

Whether Assassin's Creed is an educative experience you will have to decide. We discussed how placing the action of the franchise in different time periods such as Ancient Egypt or Rome could have educational aspects. It definitely places the player in an immersive first person situation where we empathise with the oppressed and fight to overcome injustice. This is a powerful narrative used in mainstream film and in gaming. There is a clear right and wrong in these media which some in power dislike, often blaming Hollywood or the BBC of a liberal bias.

You could also apply academic theory here. bell hooks fights to end injustice also. hooks interrogates the messages that we are bombarded with and explains how they can be damaging to society.  She focuses on how messages re-inforce patriarchy but it is more nuanced than that. Discrimination and oppression has many forms and also relates to ethnicity and class.  Therefore this theory is applicable to this text as there is no simple binary opposition between women and men.  Oppression and hierarchies of power are linked to language, skin colour, ethnicity, gender and class, amongst other things.  It is a useful prism to approach a number of our texts from as bell hooks is a key commentator on American society and culture.

hooks' message is clearly about empowerment and how putting others down is a form of social control.  Calling someone stupid or dumb harms their self esteem, just as repetition of certain power relationships or images or characters in the media has a damaging effect and re-inforces hegemonic power relationships in society.  hooks also recognises that within African American culture there is an issue with patriarchal control. This is a  common occurrence across the globe but one that is identifiable to audiences in American popular culture as it dominates our screens. In another text  'Straight Outta Compton' it is clear that the musical genres of hip-hop and gangster rap have issues with misogyny and violence. The film also raises the question of when is violent or non violent resistance necessary or justified to fight oppression? Is the creative process and use of the media another useful method of protest and resistance from oppression by a hegemonic class of people in society who abuse their position?

It is an issue which Beyonce tackles head on in Formation and you could argue that Assassin's Creed interrogates these issues also to a lesser degree. Can you think of other texts where these issues are addressed?

Here is Mrs Fisher again with her explanation.

 hooks take on Beyonce led to a lot of debate about how celebrity and popular culture can have a powerful effect on self image and how young people learn about their identity. For example, what is the impact of early Destiny's Child  music videos on the primary audience of young American women and how they packaged and objectified Beyonce ? Whether it was this debate that led Beyonce to radically alter her representation is unclear but it is a live debate that would be hard to ignore. In 'Formation' Beyonce is politically active and the narrative is about female empowerment which definitely engages with the messages that hooks outlines.

 In this scene we can see her mother, centre screen and stood up. While this scene is happening we can hear the voice over of the female protagonist saying ‘my mother was a slave’ so from this we learn the context of her family and her background.

The fact that her mother is black and a slave already shows her father must come from a wealthy background for her to live a good life without being born into slavery. The background also makes it clear to see her mother suffered greatly. The use of the Mise-en-scene of the grey costumes and the grey houses behind her shows the misery her mother lived in and represents that she didn’t have a good life.  

The body language displays in this mid shot shows yearning as if she is looking at her daughter but powerless to contact her as she is denied by the patriarch. It may also be a point of view from the narrator, her daughter, adding another layer of meaning as they are denied contact. The abuse of power is cruelly captured in this image. A mother separated from her daughter but forced to see her every day shows the incredible brutality and psychological horror of the slave era. The wounds of history are very raw in American society and this is why race and ethnicity are key themes in a lot of popular culture. We also looked at Childish Gambino's 'This is America' which identified similar themes. 

As a young nation, if we discount Native Americans, this element of history and segregation is never far away and the civil rights movement and injustices in society are still very much alive.  It is hard for artists to avoid these issues especially with a divisive President. This is perhaps why Beyonce has become more political.  Is the Queen Bee the new liberator, leading her sisters to emancipation from patriarchal oppression.

In this scene we hear her say ‘My Father, a man of opportunity and wealth.’ This shows that he had a lot to live up to and the fact he was a man of opportunity shows he had many valuable things in life. We can clearly see a binary opposition between her father and her mother from the background and the setting. Her father’s background and setting is full of expensive items such as a big table, expensive chairs, a grandfather clock, a piano and paintings on the wall. Also the way he is dressed compared to her mother shows extreme opposites.
Yes, refer explicitly to Levi Strauss and narrative theory. Explain why these extreme opposites are used. A trailer has about 60 seconds to establish a narrative so simplicity and emotional engagement is key to its success. 

In this scene we can see a black slave in the middle of 2 men who clearly are there to punish these people. The medium shot clearly shows us the difference between the two people and what is about to happen. The way the man in the middle is looking at one of the men clearly shows anger and disgust towards them. As this is happening the protagonist then says ‘when my people were robbed of their humanity…’ so this is clear to the audience that they are treated like animals and it is very inhumane. The faces of the two men look evil and menacing.
Clear and concise expression as you warm to your theme.  We empathise with the defiance of the oppressed and the injustice in this inhumane treatment. The audience wants to literally join the fight. 
We also discussed the power of computer games to place the user in an active position dictating the narrative. This is a more immersive experience than passively watching a narrative unfold and suggests why the games industry has overtaken film in economic terms. We talked about virtual reality and the future of these industries and where the games industry could take the technology. This also led to a debate about media effects and regulation. 

In this scene we can see the female protagonist centre screen but this time she is wearing an outfit similar to the two men shown in the scene above. However, we know she is a good person with good intentions to help her people. She also states ‘I watched’ this is very upsetting to the audience as she I literally watching her people die. The way she is knelt down now compared to earlier on in the trailer could suggest she is trying to put herself in their position and is trying to be empathetic. We can also interpret that the body on the floor is dead and the fact she is kneeling down beside it is quite shocking as no one should experience that.
This medium shot shows to us how strong the female protagonist is. She nearly gets whipped by one of the ‘masters’ but instead she grabs his wrist and fights back. Again, this subverts the stereotype of female characters as we wouldn’t normally expect them to fight back. The way she has grabbed the man’s wrist also shows how much power she has over him.

Like you say the use of a female protagonist is  addressing a lack of representation in the franchise and the games industry.  We also looked at the Lara Croft franchise which was the first computer game to employ a female avatar.  We looked at the problematic representation of Lara Croft and you could go on to compare the two characters. We looked at the changing shape of the Lara Croft character. Initially she was created for a male audience primarily and her features were anatomically enhanced to a ridiculous degree for the adolescent male's fantasy.

This objectification is challenged in later versions but there has been lots of debate about lazy stereotyping that suggests that gaming is still behind the curve on this.  For example, why do female characters have to undergo a particular type of trauma at the hands of men to become strong characters, willing to fight. Research this debate about representation of gender in the games industry to see if things are evolving. This is lazy writing which perpetuates stereotypes.  What are their limitations and are they created to appeal to a female audience or a more traditional male audience ? Or has gaming got to a point where gender is not significant to those playing?  I have just played Marvel Lego with my daughter and she mentioned that there were no female superheroes. We played Hulk, Iron-Man and Spiderman.  It is alive debate and worth a whole lesson exploring gender representation in the super hero genre.  We will return to this with 'Black Panther'.

You begin to analyse audio codes. Thus is often overlooked in textual analysis and the soundtrack in the trailer is like a blockbuster film cinematic in scale with accentuating the epic scale of the struggle. The voice-over is dramatic and anchors the meaning of the quest .  Powerful words like 'tyranny' raise the stakes for the heroine who is a 'symbol of hope for the broken..a liberator of the enslaved.'


This close up on the protagonists face almost shows realisation. The fact her eyes are wide open shows she has realised what she needs to do for her people and how she needs to help them. This shows us the impression of a strong, female character that will do anything for her people.


In this scene we can see a medium shot of the protagonist holding a sword and looking down at it. Over the top, we can hear her say ‘I would need to become a symbol of hope for the broken.’ The noun ‘hope’ shows that she is going to do anything to help her people get out of these tragic times. The fact she is also looking down at this sword also shows bravery and how she is going to fight and prove her bravery. As an audience we can also the determination on her face as she knows what she has to do.

This wide shot of her jumping off a building clearly shows the extreme lengths she will go to, to save her people and bring hope to them. The fact she in centre screen again also shows her importance within the game and her as a person. It also shows her bravery and determination. The audience will definitely see this as straying away from the normal stereotype as usually we see the male doing this.

This is also an iconic part of the gameplay, 'the leap of faith'  linking the trailer with the game.  Much of the latter half looks like action from the game itself rather than the more cinematic prologue.

This scene is extremely violent and full of danger. We can see the female protagonist with her back turned to us, stabbing a man in the throat which obviously will kill him. The use of the blood also creates the sense of death and danger which makes the audience question the game. For example the game was classified 18 by PEGI and this can be seen as censoring certain things from children and they minimise certain risks so children cannot be harmed. However, this can be taken further by saying that parents can still buy their children these games and no one can stop them from buying it. We can include Bandura’s social learning theory into the games industry. This theory was to test if children are more influenced by violence than adults. He did this by putting an adult and a child in a room together with a Bobo doll and getting the adult to act violently towards it. Once the adult was removed from the room, Bandura found that the child copied exactly what the adult did. This could link to games and children could be influenced by the violence they see in these video games. 
This medium shot of the protagonist helping up a prisoner shows she is caring and will help her people get through anything. Also, the man will now be on the same level as her so it’s also as if she is creating equality between her and her people. Levels in games matter because it shows the importance of the people within them.

Yes, you engage with some of the key questions regarding regulation. Should this game be regulated ?  What do you think of Bandura's experiment? What is your opinion of the regulation of computer games? Is it realistic? Does it work? Is the targeted audience really over 18? We will look at theories of regulation by Livinstone and Lunt when we return but research these to gain an understanding and use the EDUQAS resources on their web-site.  We need to know about the history of PEGI and the efficacy of its regulatory system. Ultimately parents are the regulators. Has society passed responsibility for regulating children's media consumption onto government. Is this a concern if true?

This wide angle shot of the main protagonist shows the intensity of this game and how far the gaming world has come with the graphics and the different levels. We could also interpret that this game was made for a different demographic because of the constant use of the female protagonist. The explosion of fire behind her also shows how she is willing to take risks until she saves her people. We could also say it is almost ‘cool’ in a way where it has a shock factor to it.

Is the game 'cool' or is it cynically promoting violence?  Is it merely made for profit? Employ Curran and Seaton's theory here.
What are the ethics of using such important and sensitive historical events to create a narrative for a computer game?
Is UBISOFT (conglomerate) exploiting the history of slavery for entertainment?
Like criticisms of the Lara Croft franchise (see earlier blog) does the narrative rely on 'lazy journalism? A quick shorthand to engage an audience  with a short attention span who crave simple binary oppositions in their narrative rather than to explore something as complex as slavery and its legacy in any detail. 
Or is it a good entry point for audiences to engage with the issues. 

Conclusions
Use the fact sheet to broaden the discussion to issues around the games industry
Read widely and use the internet to follow up on the many issues and debates that surround the text. The text is always just an entry point for further reading and developing your interest and in turn your knowledge and understanding.
The examiner will always know who has read around the subject and engaged with the wider debates. You need to be informed and have an opinion.  In the exam you will be thrown a question to unbalance you and the skill is not to regurgitate facts but to interrogate the question and to illustrate your  response with secure knowledge and understanding.  This is why your teachers keep saying read widely, continue your research and don't just rely on what you do in the classroom. The point of most subjects is to develop an enquiring mind and to question. Then you can hone your arguments and develop a coherent point of view.  Many of these final points are direct quotes from the mark scheme. 

My final suggestion for now is to read articles from Media Magazine. They are invaluable.

...and finally, watch or listen to 'Lemonade' by Beyonce. It is incredible. Here is my favourite track..play it loud...