#ubisoft said gay rights

[yessadirichards]

What to stream this week: 'Young Sheldon,' Amy Schumer, 'Oppenheimer' and lots and lots of JLo

Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer” arriving on Peacock and a documentary and album from Jennifer Lopez are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: “Young Sheldon” returning for its seventh and final season, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. exploring the power of gospel in a two-part PBS documentary and Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones pirate-themed video game.

— If you were holding out for “Oppenheimer” on streaming, now’s your chance to catch up before the Oscars (March 10), where it’s up for 13 awards including best picture, best director for Christopher Nolan and best actor for Cillian Murphy. The film arrives on Peacock on Friday, Feb. 16. Nolan and Emma Thomas, his producer and wife, are passionate advocates of the big screen experience, but they also know that most people will watch their films in the home — sometimes even as their first time. It’s how both discovered some of their favorites as well, they’ve said. In an interview with The Associated Press, Thomas added, “The nice thing about Chris’ films is because they are so very rich and reward multiple viewings, I think that they’re perfectly pitched for home viewings.”

— Jennifer Lopez has a new movie coming to Prime Video on Feb. 16. She co-wrote “This is Me…Now: A Love Story,” a movie musical about finding love which she called “the most personal thing I’ve ever done.” It is a star-studded endeavor, with appearances from her husband, Ben Affleck, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Post Malone and more, and ties in with her first studio album in a decade (see below). Also coming to Prime Video is Emma Seligman’s “gay high school fight club” comedy “Bottoms,” starring Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as a few misfits who start a fight club to flirt with the hot cheerleaders (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu). In his review, AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote that, “The rites and rituals of the raunchy high-school comedy can be as prescribed as a class syllabus. But what makes Emma Seligman’s “Bottoms” such an anarchic thrill is how much it couldn’t care less.”

— And finally, Taika Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins” arrives on Hulu on Thursday. It’s based on the real story of the American Samoa men’s soccer team quest to qualify for the FIFA World Cup after an historic loss (31-nill) against Australia. Michael Fassbender plays the coach who tries to help. In his AP review, Mark Kennedy wrote that “’Next Goal Wins’ is most winning in the way it handles the team’s star player, Jaiyah Saelua, who became the first nonbinary player to compete in a men’s FIFA qualifier. Played with real tenderness and joy by nonbinary actor Kaimana, the way the team and coach relate to Saelua is genuine and touching."

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

— Get ready for a second dose of J.Lo. On Friday, Feb. 16, she drops the Amazon original film “This is Me… Now: A Love Story” (see above) as well as her “This Is Me… Now” album. The 13-track set’s song titles include “To Be Yours,” “Mad in Love,” “Greatest Love Story Never Told” and “Dear Ben Pt. II,” a seeming sequel to a track on her 2002 album “This Is Me … Then.” The video for one new pop single, “Can’t Get Enough,” has as much JLo strutting as all of Paris Fashion Week. Lopez’s last album, “A.K.A.,” came out in 2014 and reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200.

— Blackberry Smoke — a Georgia-based band that has been together for 24 years and seven studio albums — makes a strong return with “Be Right Here,” blending blues, Southern rock and Americana. The album contains the arena country “Hammer and the Nail,” the rocking “Little Bit Crazy” and the driving, bluesy “Dig a Hole.” The band goes more acoustic with the wistful “Azalea,” about a loved one making a wrong decision, with the lyrics “Coming back don’t mean you're leaving here was wrong/Sorry ain’t the same as moving on.”

— AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

— In a new docuseries for PBS, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. examines how sermon and song have long been a source of strength and wisdom in America, particularly among Black Americans. “Gospel,” a four-part series told over two nights has interviews with Dionne Warwick, U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock and more. “Gospel” airs Monday Tuesday on PBS.

— Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche play Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in a new historical drama “The New Look” for Apple TV+. The 10-episode series is set against the backdrop of Paris reemerging from Nazi occupation in WWII. Dior’s designs helped to lift an oppressed France and its culture with a stylish, modern glow up. As Dior rose to prominence, a rivalry developed between other established designers, including Chanel. “The New Look” also stars Maisie Williams, John Malkovich, Emily Mortimer and Glenn Close. The first three episodes of “The New Look” drop Wednesday on the streamer.

— Before Sheldon Cooper met Leonard, Penny or Amy he was a child prodigy growing up in east Texas. Iain Armitage plays the coming-of-age version of the character in the CBS comedy “Young Sheldon.” Emmy winner Jim Parsons who played Sheldon on “Big Bang” for 12 seasons, narrates. “Young Sheldon” returns for its seventh and final season on Thursday.

— Amy Schumer’s Hulu dramedy “Life & Beth” charmed viewers when it debuted in 2022 and the series returns for a second season on Friday, Feb. 16. Schumer writes, directs and stars as Beth opposite Michael Cera, who plays John, a farmer. The two fell in love in season one despite their differences and personal baggage. Now, the couple is planning to marry. Schumer has said the story is semi-autobiographical, inspired by her real-life marriage to chef Chris Fischer. All 10 episodes of season two will be available on the premiere date.

— Alicia Rancilio

— Batten down the hatches: Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones is finally ready to launch after more than a decade of development and delays. You are the captain of a pirate vessel in the Indian Ocean in the 18th century. You have a decent ship to start with, but if you want to make it really deadly you need to start collecting booty. That means pillaging merchant ships, battling rival scalawags, dodging the authorities and even surviving the occasional sea monster on your way to becoming the Pirate Kingpin. You can team up with friends or fight against them in epic naval warfare — something Ubisoft has shown a flair for in some of its Assassin’s Creed games. Set sail Friday, Feb. 16, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

— Focus Entertainment’s Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden travels to the New World in the 17th century. The protagonists are a couple of paranormal investigators, Red and Antea, who are trying to clear the tormented wraiths out of a haunted settlement. They can help the lost souls ascend or banish them to eternal misery, and those choices have consequences down the line. It all gets more complicated when Antea gets killed — but fortunately she can use her supernatural powers to help Red finish the job. Banishers comes from the French studio Don’t Nod, best known for story-heavy cult favorites like Vampyr and Life Is Strange. You can take possession Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

— Lou Kesten

[jageshemashftw]

Look, I totally get that if you role-played Kassandra or Alexios as exclusively gay, the forced relationship with Natakas/Neema is bullshit and Ubisoft never should have done that. Even the later patch only marginally makes things better at the cost of Kassandra/Alexios being super OOC for suddenly caring enough about their bloodline to have a baby with someone they don’t love.

That being said, if you role-played your Eagle-Bearer as bisexual like I did for Kassandra…… I honestly believe Kassandra and Natakas had the best written romance in Odyssey. Especially if you romance as many people as possible because a lot of those romances either end up being flings or end in tragedy (unless you’re a horrible person and straight up lie to Kyra about killing Thaletas).

We basically have the story of a badass misthios who’s extremely good at killing but also a hopeless romantic who falls in love very easily and who’s every attempt at love either peters out or crashes and burns around her. Now here comes someone who more or less lives the same life. Someone who more or less can keep up. And this is someone who looks at you like you’re Aphrodite and Athena mashed together.

Someone who sticks around long enough for you to build a family. And depending on how the Deimos story ends, that can be an even bigger deal than it already is.

From the way I role-played Kassandra, I got someone who longed to share her life of adventure with someone, tried and failed so many times to hold onto that, finally getting exactly what she wanted… which makes it all the more tragic when it’s all torn away from her.

Again, it’s absolute bullshit that Ubisoft forces that narrative on you. I can totally understand why that would absolutely kill any value anyone could find in this entire DLC. You are right to be pissed about it.

But for someone who kinda naturally chose that narrative… I have to be honest with myself and say that I absolutely loved it.

[achireus]

i'm a simple man. i buy a new game a year after it's release and i hyperfixate on it until i die.

[yainttt]

Ubisoft really forced my lesbian mercenary into a het relationship and having a baby 🤢🤢🤢

[jonwatson]

ANYWAYS i love assassin’s creed odyssey

[ilikedetectives]

Thanks for saying it. As a trans woman I was side-eyeing that hashtag the moment I read the “movement explained” post last year saying this:

That wording (from the most prominent voice!) directly implies that there’s an acceptable criteria for womanhood and women outside those criteria don’t count. This kind of thinking always ends up targeting gnc cis women too because they’re not the “right” women, no surprise it happened here. (Apparently a gay cis man is more worth defending to them than gnc and sapphic women too?)

Plus a quick google search would easily tell them Kassandra and Eivor were envisioned as “masculine” as they are now even before the male options were designed? Official ACV concept art for Eivor’s character design even states lady Eivor was designed first and that male Eivor was based off of HER. But sure they’re “shells” based on men 🙄

Looks like they’ve chosen to “highlight, appreciate and support” the fact that queer, gnc women aren’t real women because these women are simply men’s “shells” for being masculine and queer.

Oh I’m so glad that you see this and stay tf away. Aren’t these the same breed that were sooooo outraged after reading and citing that Forbes article by Jason Schreier last year, “OMG Kassandra and Aya/Amunet originally were supposed to be the protagonist, I’m so oUTraGEd and feel rOBbeD that Ubisoft took this from us”? You’d think with all the devs that they are good friends with, they should know by now that Kassandra and f!Eivor were designed first in mind, then the male counterparts were added AFTER being forced by higher-ups and marketing. The Montreal writers keep having to reassure people that everything about Eivor is intentional and they have always intended that Eivor is a female. The first name alone, Eivor, is a female name. I think the devs already know they’d have to deal with idiots, so they added Varinsdottir in her last name (dottir means “daughter”), but I think the devs still underestimate their level of stupidity. They sure are attentive to plot details when it involves their brotherhood though, but women? *wheeze* They love AC2 sfm but it didn’t take them until last year to realize how dirty Aya/Amunet treated. Nobody paused when Origins was announced to say, but Amunet statue? Pleaseeee *wheeze* For them to go around saying that Kass and f!Eivor are just “shells” based on men and now, practically calling the devs lazy because making them masculine to save time/effort in development time really shows their true colors. If a woman isn’t slim-af-and-only-attracted-to-cishet men, then they’re not women. gnc, queer, trans women? I don’t need to take a guess to see what they view these women as. These fake feminists don’t find it disrespectful that Kass and f!Eivor are pushed aside for the male shells to take the spotlight, but they find Kass and f!Eivor being masculine and queer disrespectful. Someone please turn on “Send in the Clowns'' for me, I prefer the Judi Dench version.

You know what I find hypocritical about these fake feminist breeds? When they call for more female assassins content, they never once invalidate their beloved male protags, “We’re not here to cancel m!Eivor/Alexios/Bayek/Jacob/Arno, we just want more of f!Eivor/Kassandra/Amunet/Evie/Elise/Aveline”, but now that they have more backers, they immediately turn around and dismiss the only two AAA female protags as women because they’re “too masculine, like men.” That’s right! f!Eivor walking like a man and both Kass and f!Eivor wear male armors and are attracted to women automatically dismiss their existence as gnc, queer women. Being a masculine, queer woman somehow exempt them both from sexism because these two are just “men’s shells”? What kinda Isu drugs are they on? Now I wish f!Eivor had a true buff Viking body in her vanilla state (I know there’s muscles mod by amisthiosintraining and I, but still), because what else are these fake feminists gonna trash her on? f!Eivor is a shell for m!Eivor? *wheeze* What could’ve been said was, “I want a female-protag-only game because then the devs can focus all their time and effort on her story, for her” or “Ubisoft should give the devs more time, resources, and creative freedom to give players more historical context of the struggles the female protags have to deal with, compared to male protags”. For example: a side quest with Aspasia as she deals with how sexist people (surprise, women can be sexist too) were towards her as perhaps the most educated, influential woman in Athens at the time. Or how Kassandra had to fight her way to be allowed to compete in the Olympics. That’s all that’s needed to be said. There’s nothing wrong with asking/wanting a feminine female protag who is gender-conforming, but it says a lot about their true view of women when they drag gnc and queer women down to parade their idea of a superior woman.

But what did these fake feminists choose to “highlight, appreciate and support” instead? Oh that’s right, disregarding both Kassandra and f!Eivor as inferior women, because them fakers don’t deemed masculinity and queerness as the aUThenTIc female experience they want to play as. You know what’s worse? Pitting these female characters together to rate how “feminine” each of them are to deem which ones are more “real” as a woman. Can you imagine them doing that to the male protags? Knowing full well that the devs’ hands were tied when it comes to creative freedom when making Kassandra and f!Eivor, but still go around and shit on the devs for being “lazy”, while dismissing Kassandra f!Eivor experience as women because of their gnc and queerness. What kinda Beta Sigma (BS) is this? Oh I think I know the answer: reinforcing their ideas of what they find acceptable for their version of a woman. Honestly, it’s not the first time gnc, queer women are shit on in AC, remember that cursed DLC from Odyssey? Yea. I expect nothing more from Ubisoft-certified fans. Watch, if we somehow get a female-lead AAA game next installment and she happens to be queer, gnc, and godforbid to their fEMinISt standards, she happens to be trans as well, these fakers would most likely scream, “We support women. We want the REAL woman experience”. But if she happens to conform into their fEMinISt standards, you’ll get to hear how she’s their most favorite protag since Ezio cuz she’s a “real woman”. Again, nothing wrong with gender-conforming, feminine women, but using them as THE superior example, this fuckery/fakery reeks.

One last general tip from Doctor Who, “Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage. Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit, without hope, without witness, without reward.” Look closely and you’ll see what those advantages and rewards are. 

p/s: Didn’t Ubisoft CEO just appoint his family member(s) to be in charge, while there were also discussion on how the new directors are no better than the sexist, racist ones that were fired/let-go? Sounds to me like it’s business as usual again. Or us Vietnamese have a saying, “It’s easier for rivers and mountains to change than human’s nature to even budge” (giang sơn dễ đổi, bản tính khó dời). I find it so ironic that “gaslight gatekeep girlboss” is trending on my dash.

[assassins-and-hidden-blades]

Ah i couldn’t express myself properly again. Sorry about that. What i meant was there are much better and healthier ways of Jacob discovering his bisexuality. Him having a crush on one of his best friends in his late teen years, like you said. Not because he was forcefully kissed by a pure evil man like Roth, which Jacob did not reciprocate. Which is what i meant by corruption. It really gives a bad message like a gay man corrupting a seemingly strait guy. People are already judgey as it is.

Ah right I see. I fail to see how Ubisoft would think that that’s a good idea to instil a bisexual awakening. Maybe it was just subtext to show it implicitly — it feels like it was something they didn’t think hard enough about.

I get you — like I said, I never realised that that was a trope/thing people thought. If they were going for that angle I’d be mighty disappointed.

[bishipsaremyships]

i know nothing about assassin's creed but you should talk about it !!!!! seeing ur posts abt it is very cool

Assassin’s Creed is such a good game series, the worst part about it is the fact that the majority of the fanbase is filled with either cishet white gamer dudes who would do anything for Ezio Auditore OR cishet girls who ship Rothfrye and infantilize the shit out of Connor Kenway. But that doesn’t really matter ig-

My favorite game in the series are tied up between Black Flag and Syndicate.

Black Flag was considered the last of the ‘Desmond Miles Saga’ for quite some time. The modern day protagonist was YOU, the player. The story is that you, the player, are now working for Abstergo Entertainment, a company that sifts through genetic memories to make historically accurate movies or something like that. The memories that you’re sifting through belong to Sample 17, “one very generous donor, Desmond Miles” to quote the game. You sift through the genetic memories of Edward James Kenway, a pirate born in Wales who now lives in the West Indies.

Throughout the game, Edward’s friends die left and right or simply leave him behind. My favorite, favorite quote of Edward’s is his little bit of dialogue about that.

“For years I've been rushing around, taking whatever I fancied, not giving a tinker's curse for those I hurt. Yet here I am... with riches and reputation, feeling no wiser than when I left home. Yet when I turn around, and look at the course I've run... there's not a man or woman that I love left standing beside me.”

Edward’s story is a tragedy, but, for a while, he gets his happy end. In the book about his adventures (and the beginning on his son, Haytham’s book), Edward eventually moves to London with his daughter (long story and I don’t wanna spoil it too much) and Edward joins the Assassins in London, eventually moving up to become co-Mentor os the Brotherhood with a man named Miko. Edward also meets a woman named Tessa and together they have Haytham. I’ll leave Edward’s story there for now, but the Kenways are probably my favorite lineage in the AC series, so I could talk about just the Kenway family for hours dxgfchvbjn

Syndicate is also a really really good game, despite what the majority of the fanbase says. I really like the game because it has the most canon queer rep (Odyssey doesn’t count bc of that shit that Ubisoft pulled with the ‘Legend of the First Blade’ DLC). In the game, there are three queer character. Jacob Frye, one of the playable characters, is bisexual, Ned Wynert, who is a trans man, and Maxwell Roth, who is a gay man. I also absolutely love the game because you get to follow two different storylines without it feeling like you’re being dragged on with one single character BECAUSE you get to play as both Jacob Frye and Evie Frye, two twin Assassins who are trying to free London from the clutches of the Templar Order.

The twins fall into the ‘polar opposites and always fighting’ trope of twins. Evie is a textbook Assassin, sticking to the shadows and following the Tenets of the Creed to the letter, never letting her emotions compromise the mission (tell that one to Henry). Jacob, however, is the exact opposite. He’s brash and impulsive and he rather go in guns blazing than sneaking through soundlessly. “Escape plan? When no one is left, walk out the front door,” is a quote credited to Jacob, but I don’t know if he actually said that ingame or not-

The modern day protagonist was once again, YOU, the player. But instead of getting to walk around Abstergo and shit, you were an Initiate, a part of the modern Assassin’s Brotherhood. And you didn’t even get to get up and walk, you just got to talk to Bishop and see Shaun and Rebecca go around and do cool stuff. The modern day story kinda stopped being cool around Rogue, but I don’t really care too much about the modern day storyline. I just like going around and stabbing shit as an Assassin in the Animus.

[snugglyporos]

@sun-scorned​  go on

Why do you do this to me? 

Okay. So, here’s my thing. For all the talk of Breath of the Wild being new, it doesn’t feel new. For all the talk of it being different it doesn’t feel different. It feels like literally every other game out there. It feels like a Zelda game made by Ubisoft. 

You like collectables? They’re everywhere. You like towers to climb to unlock the map? We got towers to climb. You like really terrible mission designs? We got terrible mission designs. You like collecting hundreds of random items and grinding for drops? We got that too. 

It feels like someone looked at what was in every other game on the market, and just did that. It doesn’t feel original or engaging. It feels like a lesser version of what exists everywhere else. And I mean, if that’s all you want, that’s fine. 

But it also feels entirely backwards as a game. Like, in terms of story and execution, the entire game feels like it went through ten rewrites and they ran out of time and just threw it together. 

Story as I understand it is, heroes failed, you were sealed in time, you wake up, find new heroes, win the second time. Except then it’s also telling you the story through flashbacks all the time. Which is essentially breaking the rule of show, don’t tell. Because you could cut out all the ghost people and the failed attempt plot point and nothing changes at all. Nothing that you’re doing changes at all. We’ve seen Zelda games that start out from the position of ‘world’s already fucked’ before. 

The way you do this story right is that you have two time periods. You start the game in the past, you make allies as you go through the dungeons, you develop the friendships, and then you fail. Everyone dies. You wake up in the ruined future, and you have to try again with the descendants of your now dead friends, go through the dungeons again, and then finally win. 

Except that’s the plot of Ocarina of Time, and nearly every other Zelda game, because the writers are incapable of writing anything new at this point. Telling the story backwards and in random order doesn’t change that guys. 

And that’s before mentioning the fact that the dungeons are uninspired, the puzzles aren’t interesting, the powers are all given to you immediately so there’s no feeling of progression, the weapon durability means you never feel powerful or want to use your weapons like you should, rare ingredient grinding is a chore, none of the bosses are memorable or at all interesting, and oh there’s a really awful transphobic moment where a stereotypical gay cross dresser hits on Link who’s in drag because Japan. 

And then you find out that the game’s reward for going through the dungeons is to make the final boss super easy, so at the end of it all, you don’t feel like you’ve really done anything, because you just show up and win and it’s dull and uninspired like the rest of it. 

It feels like a game made by committee, like they asked focus groups what sells and made that. It is, as I said, a Zelda game as made by Ubisoft. It’s Zelda if you put it through the Assassin’s Creed formula. 

Like, I like Assassin’s Creed fine for what it is. But I’m under no illusions as to what that amorphous mass of grey blandness is. 

I don’t get the people who think Breath of the Wild is the greatest Zelda game. Even games in the series I hate for other reasons, like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, at least feel like they are Zelda games that belong in the same series. 

Breath of the Wild feels like a game that I could label anything else and it would be anything else. Change Link’s name to Jim and literally nothing changes. There’s nothing about the game that’s unique or interesting or memorable.

So it irks me when people go ‘this is the greatest game in a generation!’ because it’s not. It’s a game that you barely remember because there are no memorable moments in the game itself. 

[budugaapologist]

i love how in black flag's tattoo and blackbeard trailers its like, "oh edward? yeah he pounds major puss, heres him with two women in his bed, him stealing a chic from a guy he just killed, him flirting with two women, yeah he's the straightest man alive, all that water but he's drowning in coochie" and then his e3 trailer is like:

"nothing wrong with sharing a cold one with the homies!! nothing gay about being all sulky then immediately lighting up with a smile the second your bff gives you a hearty shoulder rub!! its not gay to only smile when this person interacts with you haha!!"

"oh yeah so uh remember when we said he was straight?? well haha here is footage of his quartermaster trying to get up to help his captain but getting stuck where he is and like we're going to frame this scene like edward is fighting for him??? haha it's completely unnecessary but no homo though!!"

"just two bros sailing the brocean as pirates, which were notoriously bisexual and even practiced gay marriages on their decks and like edward is totally going to come out in game as a birate not to mention him flirting with at least five different men in his game, but we're never gonna discuss it, it's all an 'out of respect flirt!' those exist, right?"

anyway, this was the og chaos power couple*, adéwalé is functional bisexual, edward is chaotic bisexual, and jacob is distinguished bisexual because he was the only one (before odyssey) ubisoft had the balls to announce because god forbid they make the pirate game any more realistic

[classicnovaproductions]

A statement from Ubisoft by EuroGamer

Okay a couple of things here that need to be addressed.

They say players choose they're motivation behind certain events-and we all know the only "choices" here for having a baby and being with Nut Tacos is either because

She apparently "loves" him

She just wanted a family

These hardly differ from each other when it comes to the harmful tropes they imply. We are still being forced to be with him and to have a kid, no matter our "motivation" or sexual preference.

There also seems to be an interesting implication that, in the 3rd and final episode, there may be the possibility of a same-sex relationship, if their talks of including everyone is something to go by. This could end up being just as damaging as the second episode for multiple reasons and this is why.

This would do exactly what Ubisoft said they eould not do, and that is confirm any sort of sexuality of the MC, in this case Bisexuality. This would not be a problem if they just did this from the beginning. There is nothing wrong with Bisexuality. But they didn't. They told us there is no canon orientation.

Because of this, it would completely erase the rest of the gay/lesbian fandom, who want nothing to do with the opposite sex.

It would also play heavy into the very toxic trope that all Bi/Pan people will always end up with the opposite sex, which is far from true!

It also ropes in that "Growing Up" meaning that, for them along with women in general, they always grow out of the idea of same-sex relationships, and to eventually settle down and bare children

This is absolutely absurd, because again, we were denied the right to choose whether we wanted this ending!

Many Bi/Pan individuals do not actually want to have a romantic or physical relationship with the opposite sex. Sexuality is a spectrum, and everyone lands somewhere different! To assume they would say yes to the opposite sex just because they're Bi is a gross stereotype that is being enforced here!

There is only a couple of ways this could work that would include ALL sexualities, while undoing what the forced ending has done, and that would allow players to not have to sacrifice their agency to continue perusing their sexualities in full, and they are

At the beginning of the 3rd Arc reveal that the ending in the 2nd arc was all a dream, and to allow players, through the MC's thoughts, to determine if the dream was a good one or not (depending on their preferences)

Actually create a Patch for Episode 2 that would make the "Farewell" choice a literal goodbye. The romance and family bit would be skipped all together, because let's face it that creepy baby has no legitimate purpose whatsoever in ANY of these storylines.

We will see what happens, but this is all very interesting.

[dgcatanisiri]

Part of me wants to make more comments to that producer for Greedfall to explain just how badly her response missed the mark, but... I mean, if that was her take away from three pretty clear, short, and succinct tweets, I don’t expect a long, drawn out rant to get the point made any clearer.

I mean, it’s really pretty simple. It’s not that gay players are asking for more content, in the sense that it’s asking for the amount of content to tilt in favor of the gay (I mean, even just for novelty value, it’d be nice, but...). It’s about how we want EQUAL content, more content in the sense that we can tell - we have eyes - that the amount of content we’re being given is less than that of straight players, and we’re tired of feeling like a second class audience. 

This isn’t a numbers game, a “oh, well, only 10% of people are gay, so we can’t really appeal to them.” Because what, exactly, does it matter, when “ten percent” of the human population is still larger than the population of the United States? That’s your “ten percent of people,” a population that is only surpassed by the two largest populated nations in the world. No, numbers are an excuse.

For whatever reason the people responsible for making these decisions have said and are continuing to say “we don’t care about gay people.” At best, it’s “we’re more afraid of angering the straights by having content that makes them feel icky.” And yet... Gay gamers are some of the most loyal customers you could ask for - treat us with respect, and we’re on board for forever. Like, I joined the BioWare fandom right in time for Dragon Age 2 to be released, and I was preordering the following games regardless of the controversies that happened... Until Mass Effect Andromeda was released with only two gay male romance options, as opposed to three for everyone else (and, as was later revealed, a fight to keep the one lesbian option exclusive for women, on top of the female!Ryder love scene where Peebee rides a non-existent dick...). At that point, I swore off BioWare preorders. 

Like, think about that. I did love Dragon Age 2, so it didn’t impact my choice to preorder ME3. But the ending debacle happened, and... Hell, I was actually fairly accepting of them. Didn’t think twice about preordering Inquisition, and not only is this the game where I ended up hating my two romance options, but I also basically bought my preorder for nothing when it turned out that they were dropping support for the system I’d bought it for during the DLC cycle, meaning that I not only had to buy it again, I also needed to buy a new system with it. And even through that, I still preordered Andromeda. Only to have my faith in BioWare shattered, and literally the only reason I picked it up on day one was because of the already-placed preorder. 

It was the same with Odyssey, too. We were ALL talking about how we were in a relationship with Ubisoft now, cuz they were treating us all right in this franchise that has historically had little to do with us (not just gays but women, too). And then the utter BULLSHIT. of Legacy of the First Blade, requiring a heterosexual breeding pair to contribute to this ludicrous plot connection they wanted to make that doesn’t even work in the context of these games, considering that it was all to connect the Eagle Bearer to a character whose driving motivation in her previous appearance was to avenge the death of her only child - what, exactly, was the point of “preserving the bloodline” when it canonically dies out a relatively brief time later? No, the writers came up with a story for a heterosexual Alexios, who would be able to knock up the daughter of Darius and still run around being the mercenary while she’s pregnant, and they didn’t care about anyone else.

At the end of the day, this isn’t a problem about who’s getting what content. I mean, that’s there, we can talk all day (check the tag, I certainly have) about the kind of content that gay players are getting in comparison to their straight counterparts, where the same stories repeat themselves over and over in media, frequently treating a character’s queerness as the only thing about them that matters, the only thing that drives any plot they receive... But this isn’t that argument.

This is the argument that gay players deserve to be given an equal footing with the straight players. Not on a numbers basis but on a respect basis. Because at this point, anything less than equal treatment, in terms of the time and effort put into their content as straight characters receive, is at most performative allyship, but not a genuine effort at being inclusive. Because it’s an active choice to give gay players less.

[shipsnthenight]

Thoughts on Ubisoft and DLC retcon, from an as objective POV as I can:

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m glad about Ubisoft’s decision to do something to fix the DLC ending, the whole thing is a complete mess on many levels and for many different reasons, mainly:

Level 1 - Not well set chronologically. At the end of Chapter 7 in the main story, there’s no way the character would just stop her/his quest to find her/his family (gonna go with “her” from now on) and just settle down.

Level 2 - Playing your character straight (or any other gender identity that includes heterosexual relationships) and not being able to refuse this outcome, being forced into a relationship with a character that Is absolutely not what you pictured your character falling for.

Level 3 - Playing your character gay/lesbian (or any other gender identity that doesn’t include heterosexual relationships) and not being able to refuse this outcome, being forced into a relationship that changes the desired character sexuality. 

That said, I’m extremely worried about what’s going to happen, for the following reasons:

This is NOT the first time a retcon like this has happened. I’ve compared this situation to the Mass Effect debacle multiple times in the past week. For those of you that don’t know the story here’s a quick recap, if you already know this, skip the small text:

Bioware released the ending of Mass Effect 3 which essentially boiled down to having a different colored filter over the same cutscene and resulting in the same outcome no matter what of the original three (or were there just two? don’t remember if the synthesis was added after) choices you had for the ending. Outrage by the entire fandom, petitions, protests, all kinds of shit, Bioware decides to release the “Extended Cut” which “would add major context and satisfy player blah blah blah”. It didn’t. People were initially happy with Bioware’s decision but when the Extended Cut was released it only added like 30 seconds to the ending cutscenes and other unimportant stuff that left players even angrier, only with the Citadel DLC it looked like something in regards of “closure” was achieved, but it wasn’t enough and to this day I think it isn’t.

So, because of this reason, I am worried that right now everyone is happy and hopeful, but we’re going to get burned all over again. Ubisoft isn’t Bioware tho, they don’t have EA breathing on their necks to squeeze as much money as possible from their players (they're pretty good at that on their own honestly), and from how they handled this and all the PR on AC Odyssey in general, it genuinely looks like they really care about this, more than usual, like... looks like they really took an emotional blow when they saw the reactions from the fans, so it’s possible that they’ll genuinely try to fix this in the best possible way. What is the best possible way tho?

Here comes my dilemma: how will they handle this?

Here’s what I know:  The “having a baby” part of the story was apparently pivotal in their view of Assassin’s Creed lore, many of us pointed out that there was no need for a bloodline since: 

The Animus no longer needs blood relatives to work.

At the and of the game Kassandra/Alexios will be immortal. 

Now, for the animus thing, I think (MY OPINION, NOT CONFIRMED) that since Ubisoft is known for giving AC games to their 2 different studios, and these studios don’t really communicate that much, I genuinely think that the studio that made Odyssey didn’t know about this Animus change that happened in Origins, so their view was correct, if based on “old” AC lore. 

I honestly can’t say I blame them if this was actually the case... AC lore is probably one of the biggest narrative messes I’ve ever seen (still here waiting for you guys to tell me what the Observatory in Black Flag is for). But still, TALK TO EACH OTHER GUYS.

Anyway, I’m getting to the point guys I promise. How will they actually fix this?

The way I see it they have two options:

One would be perfect, but it would take a lot of effort and money.

Another would be easier but would solve ONLY TWO of the “levels” I wrote at the beginning of this post, leaving the people on level 3 (the majority, and the ones that are most mad about this) still angry. That would be game over for Ubisoft, they’d never recover from that. 

OPTION 1:

The farewell option becomes an actual farewell, you don’t get together with Natakas/Neema, you don’t start a family, you don’t have a bloodline. Great, awesome, but how will this affect Episode 3?  This would require A LOT of work in terms of reshoots of Ep 2 and actual rewriting of Ep 3 (if they hadn’t already shot something for that too).

I saw from instagram that Melissanthi is in Greece right now, so they’ll have to get her and Michael back to reshoot stuff from Ep 2 and most likely add scenes, dialogue, choices, pathways to Ep 3. That would take time and A LOT of money for Ubisoft, money that they certainly have, but as a video-game company I find it hard to believe that they’d go to this length to fix this. I am ready to be pleasantly surprised tho, as I said before it really looks like they care about this AC game for a change.

OPTION 2 (this is what scares me)

The farewell option becomes an actual farewell, but they find a way for the baby to be born anyway (one-night-stand intensifies).  This would mean minor reshoots for the ending, next to no rewriting for Ep 3, and a lot of money saved for Ubisoft. So that’s why I’m worried that they decided to go with this option. 

Now, you know that I don’t have an actual problem with Kassandra sleeping ONCE with Natakas just because they were fooling around in the “at least there’s wine” scene and ending up having the baby BY HERSELF. I, personally (talking about ME, JUST ME, don’t take this as an attack on your person), could get behind that, but I know for a fact that this would make most of this fandom explode, and that would really be something that Ubisoft would not recover from. 

So here’s my word vomit, what do you guys think? This situation is so tricky and has the potential to either turn Ubisoft in one of the most “beloved” video-game companies out there or one of the most despised.

I didn’t touch on the fact that depending on how this goes, this creates a precedent for video-game companies that shows fans that they could get whatever they want if only they make enough noise... I’m not sure if this is a good thing in terms of the industry honestly, but that’s another matter.

[manletjacob]

not to sound like a mad gay but like ubisoft has just kinda been consistently homophobic huh the whole kassandra being forced to be straight thing isn’t like too out of place when you consider the complete lack of lesbians in the AC franchise and also like the fact that their one gay character (roth) is a legit homophobic caricature  jacob and kassandra/alexios being sga was a step in the right direction but none of those characters’ sga is handled especially well apart from Maybe alexios (though i haven’t seen a lot of his storyline so correct me if im wrong)  edit: i was wrong, turns out both alexios and kassandra are forced into a straight relationship (my knowledge of odyssey is lacking and i hadn’t seen any posts about alexios in the dlc), ubisoft said fuck gay rights 

[king-mecha]

E3

EA:

Mircosoft: Thanks for showing me all the stuff I could get on my PS4.

Bestheda: (Read in deepest gravely voice) DOOM. Well Rage 2 looks really good.

Ubisoft: Didn’t watch I was at work.

Square: I was also at work for this one. With that being said WHERE THE FUCK WAS LEFT ALIVE AT?!

Sony: Fuck everything give me Ghost of Tsushima right now, that is the samurai game  I’ve been waiting my whole life for! Also everything else looked good.

Nintendo: Yep buying a Switch pray for my wallet folks.

Minor Rant- To the anti sjw we already establish that Ellie was gay so why the fuck are you freaking out. You already sounded like a bunch of dumbass for bitching about a woman on the front of Battlefield V!

P.S. METAL WOLF CHAOS BIIIIIIIITCH!

[myrooks]

ALRIGHT FRIENDS LETS ALL SIT DOWN AND HAVE A CHAT.

First of all, my dearest nonnie, 

Give me the exact link to the post referencing where I said those words. If I said them, I will own up to them, but give me proof first or your argument is nothing more than an attempt to start drama with me. Also, take note my blog is years old, so I hope you were aware of the date said post was made (IF said post exists) as obviously what I say will change based off of what new information had come out about Jacob.

Second-

EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OWN OPINION.

Sorry mine doesn’t align with yours. Literally: ‘those kinds of comments should be banned forever’ who are you? Jesus? The moderator of Tumblr? This is my blog, sorry not sorry. Don’t like don’t follow that simple.

There is a proper way to state what you were trying to say, which is that if you clearly see someone saying something because they (in your eyes) are misinformed, instead of getting angry, tell them the information they are lacking. It’s that simple.

Third-

ALL of what I just said aside, it is obvious there is some explanation that needs to occur. 

Jacob is bisexual. I accept and promote that?? What do you mean by proclaiming I said he was heterosexual and bi curious??? It has even been directly stated by Ubisoft Jacob is bisexual. I’m not exactly sure what your interpretation was of what I was talking about, but I’m pretty sure it just had me talking about what gender he tends to prefer more.

Jacob being bisexual does not phase me in the slightest. All I have EVER said, is that based off of MY INTERPRETATION OF HIS CHARACTER, he prefers women more over men. 

I will not cater to you. I will not say he prefers men more. All I will say, and this is really the only thing you are correct about- is that yes, there is nothing in game, or stated by Ubisoft, that shows us which gender he prefers more. It is left entirely up to the individual’s interpretation, and mine is that he prefers women more. Sit there and argue with me all you want, but that’s MY OPINION, and I’m entitled to it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Yeah, any attraction he has with dudes is obviously not going to be promoted by Ubisoft, but that aside I hope you understand the reason why I have Jacob (remember, in MY interpretation of him) as having a preference towards women, as is it is actually going much deeper than just witnessing him flirting with women in game.

Jacob is all around an alpha character. He’s a charismatic leader. He loves being the boss. This is what drove me to decide he prefers women over men. Sure, he likes dudes, but he also likes to be the alpha in a relationship (remember, based off of my interpretation). Don’t get me wrong, he still can (and usually is) an alpha in a relationship with a guy, but remember, it would be very rare for him to come across a man to begin with who is gay or bisexual.

I don’t want drama on my blog, so if anybody has the intention to throw some hate my way because of this go right ahead. But I would also like to state I’m open for discussion about this, so if what you actually want to do is sit down and have an intelligent discussion like an adult, formulate your question, write it down, and send it to me.