games

This video really activates the Morrowind cells in my brain haha.

Wish it was longer, though. I could listen to discussions about older games all day. Some days I do lol. I agree with the points but it’s too bad the video doesn’t get real gritty with the details (tech limitations, development details, different visions/expectations, etc.) Although obviously it wasn’t trying to be that kind of video.

Now to hijack this reply for my own discussion lol:

He brings up Assassin’s Creed a bunch, which reminds me that I’ve wanted to do an effort post on the series’s inspirations and how Ubisoft both helped and squandered its potential.

The very first Assassin’s Creed game takes heavy influence from the 1938 Slovenian/Italian novel Alamut (which I’ve yet to read). It’s kind of like the novel The Crucible, which uses a historical narrative (in this case, the story of Hasan-i Sabbah and the Hashshashin) to tell a meta-narrative about anti-fascist movements in Italy that opposed Benito Mussolini.

The original idea of the first game seemed to apply some of these concepts of radical opposition of fascist control to a story about modern day Assassins that are opposed to the capitalist control over the modern world.

Obviously, we now get, well, Assassin’s Creed as it is today. I’ve been meaning to do some research because I’m really curious. I want to do a leftist reading of the first couple of games, plus the novel and other inspirations.