Die Bücherei - Fragen und Antworten zum AC - Franchise (sehr intressant)
Please come in traveler,....and find the answers you seek.
Und damit ein herzliches Willkommen zu einer sehr intressanten Frage und Antwort Runde.
Darby McDewitt hat zum Thema Assassin's Creed ein sehr ausführliches und ehrliches Q&A gegeben.
Die Seite auf der dies stattfand nennt sich: Assassin's Creed Initiates und kann unter diesem Link gefunden werden:
-> https://acinitiates.com/forum/discussion/3904/page/1
Ich habe mir nun die Arbeit gemacht und das komplette Q&A zusammengefasst.
Was wurde also verändert/verbessert?
1. Nur die Fragen und die Antworten, die letztendlich von MR Dewitt beantwortet wurden sind hier eingetragen.
Wie ihr allerdings feststellen werdet sind das nicht weniger als 256! Eine erstaunliche Menge, zusammengetragen aus mehreren Tagen.
2. Falls Rechtschreibfehler vorhanden sind, stehe ich dafür in keinerlei Verantwortung. Fall mir beim sotieren welche aufgefallen sind, habe ich diese korrigiert.
3. Es wurden Nummern hinzugefügt, die jede Frage und Antwort klar voneinander unterscheidet
4. Die Fragen sind immer in FETT dargestellt, die Antworten immer in normaler Schrift.
Anmerkung: Es ist alles im Englischen wiedergegeben. Die Übersetzung ins Deutsche wäre bei mehr als 120000 Zeichen etwas viel Aufwand!
Warum dieser Thread?
Nun es hat sich herausgestellt, das es viele Ungereimtheiten innerhalb Communitys und Foren gibt.
Es werden häufig Vermutungen aufgestellt, die allerdings längst nicht mehr dem Sachgehalt entsprechen.
Viele Dinge über das Franchise sind zudem nicht bekannt, oder es werden falsche Vorstellungen gehegt.
Hier werden nun viele Dinge geklärt!
Mr. Dewitt gibt hierzu in einer manchmal sehr amüsanten Art Auskunft, manchmal sehr präzise, manchmal ausführlich, manchmal kurz und knapp.
Hier einmal ein kurzes Beispiel:
Frage: How did you first think of the observatory?
Antwort: I was interested in the theme of surveillance, both in the modern day and the past. So I thought, "how would the First Civ keep watch over their human slaves... just as many governments keep watch on their citizens today. So I invented the Observatory as an ancient equivalent to this. Also, I am not a big fan of Uber powerful science fiction devices. The Apple of Eden was a little too crazy... it seemed like it could do everything, like Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver. So I wanted to invent a device that had a more grounded and obvious use.
Intressiert?
Also dann los
Fragen und Antworten:
1) WHY EDWARD?
After the so-called "Ezio Trilogy", we wanted to do something different, something other than showing the entire life of a single character. And because we were already well into making Haytham and Connor's story in AC3, our team proposed the idea of going back in time and showing, through Edward, how the Kenways got involved in the Assassin-Templar conflict in the first place. Internally we called this the Kenway Saga...
2) I feel like there was alot less emphasis on the darkness depicted in the optional quests (notes, audio logs, etc...) outside of the animus, and felt like the storyline with Abstergo diddent really reflect that dark aspect enough in the gameplay itself while running around in abstergo. I was kind of expecting to see secret labs with human "samples" and a more "out of control" feel in gameplay.
There are two reasons you didn't see as much "Darkness" in the present day: First, Abstergo Entertainment is only a subsidiary of Abstergo Industries, and its not where the Templars do most of their plotting. It's just a fun software and entertainment company with lots of talented employees. In fact, I don't think any of the people who work at Abstergo Entertainment are actually Templars, with the exception of Olivier... I never decided what his affiliation was, though he does know who his bosses are. But most people at AE just work for Templars without even knowing it.
This feeds into the second point... we do not want the Assassin-Templar conflict to feel like a melodrama in our universe. The Templars are not strictly evil; they simply feel like they are uniquely qualified to lead humanity to a better place. And part of the way they do this is by controling the media and means of production, etc. This means that MOST of the companies they control are going to be ordinary businesses with ordinary people working in them. If we depicted every bit of Abstergo as dark and evil, most of you would have a hard time believing the
Templars could actually get away with the crazy stuff they do.
3) HOW "ASSASSIN'S CREED" WILL LEAVE?
Do you mean how will the series End? I have no idea. The current storylines will likely end in the next few years, but the AC universe will go on as long as we can.
4) In your next installment, will you in Modern Day have more things to do? I would enjoy traveling and seeing your latest Initiates update, it can set up alot of peril for us just like the situation with Black Flag. While 5 missions may seem like much it was so short it seems like we did absolutely nothing and the resolution was disappointing.
Unfortunately for fans of the Desmond Trilogy-style of present day, we probably won't be going back to that... but not because we didn't enjoy it. It's more of a time and resource issue....
Whenever we make a new AC game, we research our new time period for many many months. Then we get talented people to design characters, buildings, textures, props, etc. to populate this world. We also come up with a storyline that weaves itself into history and brings the time period to life. This takes a TREMENDOUS amount of effort. Now imagine having to do that twice for each single game... making present day characters, textures, sounds, music, art, gameplay too. It's crazy. And even though the present day usually ammounts to only 5 percent of the gameplay, the amount of assets we have created in the past for them add up to a lot more. AC3 had to create textures for Brazil, New York, another Abstergo Office, and the Temple. That's about as much work as making another full city. Not easy.
This past-present split is something every AC team has struggled with from day one: How do we do justice to BOTH time periods. The short answer is: It's really hard. Most people love AC for its historical tourism and WE love the thrill of bringing those places to life... so after the Desmond trilogy, we decided we would need to approach the present day in a much looser fashion... and in a strange way, it works out quite well.
Because the present day in AC is now concurrent with the real world, each AC present day can take place "In Real Time"... that is... whenever you purchase the game is when it takes place. Also, this gives each AC team the freedom to approach the present in whatever way they choose... so it's a fresh experience every time. (You probably won't see the inside of Abstergo Entertainment again. The next teams will do something new.)
Add AC Initiates to the formula, and you have something that is greater than the sum of its parts: a persistent, ongoing present day that never sleeps... and games that more fully focus on whatever historical period we happen to choose.
5) Is Corey May still apart of the team? Did you totally take over for him?
Corey is still involved in AC, yes yes. When he's not writing, he's reading our scripts... though he is very kind and doesn't yell at us much..
6) When writing the modern day portion of AC4, was it easy writing around an unnamed player? Also, did you have any speech options for the player during the beginning of development? Or were they always mute? Thanks!
It wasn't difficult, no. Not in English anyway, which has no gendered syntax... I don't know if the translators in other languages had problems though. Probably... that's what I love about my job: causing problems other people have to fix.
There was never any plan to have your character talk, simply because we wanted that player to be YOU. We wouldn't presume to put words in your mouth. Not our style.
7) So my question is HOW CAN YOU MAKE SUCH AWESOME HISTORIES, HOW?!?!?!?
This is such a nice question that I am going to use it as a shameless opportunity to give shout outs to everything that inspired me to be a writer.
Books: Everything by James Joyce, most books by Raymond Chandler, everything by Samuel Beckett, Wm. Faulkner, Grace Paley, Donald Barthelme, John Synge.
Games: The Last Express, The Secret of Monkey Island, Shadow of the Colossus, Dark Souls, Creatures 3, Below the Root, Manhunter: San Francisco.
Film and TV: Anything by Orson Welles, Jan Svankmaijer, Lynne Ramsay, Mike Leigh, Stanley Kubrick, Hayao Miyazaki, Lars Von Trier, Deadwood, The Wire.
Music: Brian Eno, Talk Talk and Mark Hollis, J Dilla, Velvet Underground, Kate Bush, Goldfrapp.
Consume all of this and you will have some insight into my thought process. Individual results may vary.
8) Y NOT PUT THE HOOKBLADE IN THE GAME?
We thought about it, but then we were all like "Nah".
Pirates didn't have hooks anyway. That's a fiction from Peter Pan.
9)How much inspiration did you draw from TLA (if any) or any of the other temples for The Observatory?
The core art style for both of these places actually derives from the overall look and feel of the First Civilization, so both were inspired by earlier games... like AC2 and ACB.
10) I saw your message on reddit (or from Ashraf Ismail), you said that we'll not play Connor in the next Assassin's Creed. But why? (The Kenway stories is finished?)
Because Corey said all he wanted to say about Connor. And there aren't any historical events surrounding Connor that we feel the need to explore with him. Yes there are major events in OTHER parts of the world, but Corey and the various other AC teams here at Ubi don't feel Connor would be a good fit in those contexts.
Remember, we build games around important time periods and locations, not characters... we almost always design the character AFTER doing extensive research of the location and era. Even Edward was merely a name with a few bits of backstory before we decided to make him a pirate.
Of course there are many other ways to continue Connors story, and I would be surprised if we didn't hear more about him in some way.
11) I'm desapointed by Desmond's death but to play ourself in-game is cool. But hack PC and collect "code-paper" is not very interesting to continue to follow the war between Assassin and Templar. I hope it will more interesting in AC5.
Oh well! I liked it
12)Technical question about the future. AC series will be available one day on SteamOS and Linux ?? Please :') Leave AnvilNext from Directx to OpenGL guys. Linux is the future of gaming^^
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. All this techie talk is is confusing me. What? I'm just a writer. My head hurts.
13)I'M WONDERING HOW YOU COME UP WITH THE STORIES.
Research, dreaming, beating my head against a wall, throwing out 90 percent of my first ideas, crying, coffee, long walks alone in the darkness.
14) Why does it feel like the series is moving away from the Assassins and more towards the Templars. To me Edward seems more pirate then assassin even his fighting style is more brawl then skill. Don't get me wrong I love the game especially the side activities, but I miss the challenges of AC's assassinations. You gave us so many interesting ways to sneak/blend around, but took away the need to use them.
I don't think the AC series is moving away from the Assassins and towards the Templars. With AC4 we just showed the Creed from a different angle. Rather than depict characters standing around waxing philosophical, we wanted to actually SHOW a man go through a struggle to reconcile his selfish impulses with his innate goodness. I think a lot of fans are used to our characters standing around having long conversations about the more philosophical aspects of the Creed... I did that in ACR, for instance.
But we wanted to show a different side of the Creed in AC4. And with Eds story, I want to show his progress through action, not just dialog. I wanted Edward to experience loss, pain, regret, and the loss of family... not talk about it. And this means that Edward has to be a pirate first and foremost... he has to fight and act like one... so his eventual acceptance of the order has actual meaning and weight.
15) My question to you is how do you come up with names for the Assassin's Creed franchise? There are more straightforward obvious names like George Washington in AC3 and Leonardo Da Vinci in AC2, Brotherhood, and Revelations, but what about the more exotic ones?
Research research research. We always try to pick names that are historically and culturally appropriate for the people we are depicting.
16) WAS IT DONE ON PURPOSE NOT TO SHOW THE REFLECTION OF YOU IN THE MIRRORS AT ABSTERGO?
Because we don't know what you look like. Also, because you are a vampire.
17) AT THE END WE SEE JENIFFERS HARD ATTITUDE AND AS SHE HOLDS THE BLOODLINE, HER CHILD WOULD TOO. SO COULD THEY BE BOTH CONNECTED. THIS GOT ME REALLY THINKING THAT YOU COULD BE THE PRESENT DAY FAMILY BLOODLINE.
Hmmmm. Theories.
18) WHAT PART OF BLACK FLAG ARE YOU NOT TOTALLY HAPPY WITH, AND WOULD YOU HAVE DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY?
SPOILERS! Two bigger parts of the story were planned back in the summer of 2012, but when we looked at our schedule we had to cut them: Between Sequence 10 and 11, Edward was going to return to Nassau, looking for Mary Read to help him track down Roberts. This would allow us to include the famous historical moment of Anne and Mary fighting off the British until they are captured. And THIS is how Edward was going to get tossed in prison. Sadly, the designers thought this we had spent too much time in Nassau already, so we trimmed this. I actually think they were correct from a gameplay POV, but it's unfortunate from a story perspective. (Keep in mind, these missions were never made. We only had them on paper.)
The other part we trimmed was the final sequence. We wanted the final Assassinations of the templars to feel more like AC1, so we were going to have investigation missions that preceded each assassInation. But again we cut these because our schedule was a bit tight.
I regret the loss of these the most because they would have added just the right amount of character development for almost everyone. Jack is definitely underused now... we don't even go on any missions with him. And I hate that we don't see the moment Anne and Mary fight together. This was always one of my top 5 moments in the Golden Age of Piracy. I'm thankful I got to have a little tease of this in the Observatory... but its not enough for me.
19) HOW OBVIOUS DO YOU FEEL IT IS THAT EDWARD ENGAGED IN ADULTERY IN THE FINAL GAME COMPARED TO YOUR COMMENTS WHILE PROMOTING THE GAME? I CAME AWAY THINKING HE WAS FAITHFUL TO CAROLINE. I REALIZED ONLY RECENTLY THAT YOU CAN INTERACT WITH THE DANCER IN EDWARD'S BEDROOM BUT IS THAT CANONICAL?
He was probably unfaithful at some point... he was no angel, and she was separated from her for 8 years. Theres no merit in pretending sailors in the 18th century were angels.
That being said, I have no idea who made the interactive ladies in the Hideout. I wasn't even aware that they were there. So lets say its not cannonical.
20) IS IT TRICKY EXPLAINING EVENTS IN THE DATABASE WHILE RECOGNIZING SOME GAMERS DON'T OPEN THE ENTRIES AS THEY PLAY? (I FOUND IT HARDER TO THAT MYSELF THIS TIME.) I THINK STEDE'S THANK YOU TO EDWARD WAS AN INTERESTING WORKAROUND HAVING EDWARD PRESENT DURING HIS DEATH BUT ANY OTHER EXAMPLE?
Good eye. It would be terribly cheesy if Edward were present for the death of every single character. So I wrote that heartfelt goodbye for Stede to take the place of a death scene. I think it FEELS like a last goodbye, even if we don't say it. Poor Stede.
I had planned on having a better goodbye for Jack (see answer above), but sadly there wasn't time.
21) Why is there such a drop in the Modern Story line? It is what got me into the whole series, and I have completed every game, yet it was the driving modern fight that kept me buying the games. Will the next AC game have more present-day story? I would be pleased if the last game of the series was dedicated to present-day fighting that could lead to an end in which you could choose the destiny/fate of the world. Why do the creators of the game not see the background storyline (modern 2013 stuff) is what made so many fans of the series?
Simply put, with multiple games in production at the same time, it just got too difficult to maintain the proper pace and coherence in the present day story to do it justice. This is easier to do with TV shows, where telling a story is the main objective. But with games, the gameplay is the most important element. And when different teams are busy prototyping new gameplay and new settings, its incredibly difficult to make sure everyone is on the same page with the grand metastory.
We have now switched to a production philiosphy that gives each AC team the maximum amount of ownership over their game as possible so they can do the best job possible. And one way to do this is to ease up on the episodic present day narrative, so that it is not an ongoing story with one cliffhanger after another... this ultimately frustrates a large part of our audience.
In the future we want each present day segment to be unique, fresh, and surprising, while still being part of the overall meta-universe. So we probably won't ever get back to another Desmond type character. Desmond never really got the attention he deserved... but not because we didn't like him. It was all due to the realities of production... making a past AND a present in many ways is like making two games in one. Very resource intensive and time consuming.
Also, the AC present day is now concurrent with OUR present day. So there is no end of the world coming. We want the real world to feel like it is part of an ongoing conflict between assassins and templars, so don't expect a conclusion to the whole series any time soon. Certain plotlines will resolve, but the universe will always be alive and evolving... especially here on initiates.
22)My question is: What is the biggest, most important message you are trying to send through the AC franchise? I have interpreted many messages for myself and am curious to see what point you are trying to get across.
I'm not particularly interested in concrete messages in art and literature and so forth. I'm more intersted in life in general. I'm interested in people, their relationships, their successes and failures, etc. Any time I catch a whiff of a moral or a message in a story, I turn it off, because someone's trying to sell me something. Depictions of reality are far more interesting than a lesson on ethics. Life is messy, love is messy, death is messy, politics are messy, and any story that tries to simplify the mad chaos of living is lying to you.
Of course AC has THEMES, but that is not the same as a message, I think. We like to play with ideas of freedom and liberty, order and chaos, friendship and betrayal... but ultimately we want you do decide what you think of these things. For instance, I feel the Templars are absolutely correct about Edward for most of AC4. And I'd go a step further to say that the TRUE villian in AC4 is Edward himself. He is a criminal. He's a parasite. He attacks innocent peple simply for personal gain. And the story of AC4 is the story of him realizing that his actions have major consequences. But what that means is up for you to decide.
23) I just want to say that this game is amazing. i've played all through the main story and side quests and theyre just beautiful... i wanted to ask about the dlc available for the game. if you could answer can you please tell us about the illustrious pirates pack you have mentioned in the trailers and what sort of things you get included with it?
Sorry. I don't know much about the various DLCs... maybe send a question to one of the ComDev guys?
24) What are the challenges of coming up with a new protagonist each time? Aside from the ending, there is very little that connects Edward to his son and grandson. Given some of the clues we get in Black Flag, will we see Assassin's from outside of Desmond's bloodline? Will they still be connected in an overarching story, or are we going to be looking at a bunch of stand alone games going forward?
I didn't find it too difficult... so long as we have the time to plan and the resources to act, its damn fun making up new characters.
We will most definitely see characters out of Edward's bloodline. We already have, in fact. Aveline and Adewale... expect more of this sort of thing in the future. And yes, all of these stories will be connected to the ongoing present day universe.
Edward's connection to Haytham and Connor are as much thematic as they are genetic. If you break Edward's story down, he actually goes through much of the same disappointments that Connor does, though Edward himself is the catalyst for these disappointments...
25) Apart from (at one point) housing many blood vials, is the Observatory just a theatre for the crystal skull projections?
Yes. It was a surveillance center for the First Civ to keep track of people -- First Civs and Humans alike. There were probably more than one, although they wouldn't be of much interest to modern Templars since we have very similar technology now. But modern Templars WOULD be interested in all those blood samples... if they could find them...
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