Representation and Historical Antecedents in Videogames: The Queer-ious Case of Assassin’s Creed

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Video Games as Sites of Learning and Critical Media Literacies (Table 1)

Abstract

New media like videogames reflect and shape cultural ideals and thus influence the historical funds of knowledge students bring into their classrooms. New media, and thus those funds of knowledge, are influenced by the zeitgeist in which it is created. We examine queer representation in the historical-fiction series Assassin’s Creed and its historical antecedents to explore how the game’s developers, Ubisoft, reacted to shifts in social attitudes towards queer folks over the last fifteen years. We find queer folks took on an outsized presence in the games as Ubisoft sought to respond to substantive shifts in the zeitgeist surrounding the ga(y)ming ecosystem. We consider what responses like Ubisoft’s might mean for (informal) history education.

Authors

• Jess L. Root-Williams, University of Texas - Arlington

• Taylor M. Kessner, University of Texas - Arlington

• Jeremy Bernier, Clemson University