Assassins creed unity meaningful play analysis

How did Assassins Creed: Unity portray meaningful play?

Meaningful play? First of all we need to establish what that actually means. It could mean a plethora of different things, such as how did it make YOU feel, or how did it make ME feel, or for a matter of fact how did it make every single person who has played it feel, this is what we need to track down and find out before we begin. If this is the case then we need to break down the words, first of all lets start with “meaningful”, as stated in the Oxford English Dictionary [1928] “Meaningful – to have meaning, function and purpose” and its that key word “purpose” that I would like to refer to, for a game to be a game it needs purpose, for it to have solid purpose it needs function which in turn creates meaning to the players. Next up is “play” as stated by Oxland [2004] describes game play as“…[the] components that make up a rewarding, absorbing, challenging experience that compels [the] player to return for more.” and this is exactly what ACU [I will now use ACU in position of Assassins creed: unity] has done, the company behind it (Ubisoft Entertainment) have created a game with so much depth and a story that over loads your senses infused with game play that “blows you away”, it all fits together to create such an immense emotional experience that you do not want to put the controller down, you strive to know more about the leading hero in his journey in understanding and revelation it makes you feel like you're there with him during the midst of the French revolution.

You play as Arno Dorian son to a father part of a secret assassin order there to protect the world from the Templars evil plans, after witnessing the brutal murder of his father Arno is taken in by his fathers closest friend, growing up constantly running from the memory’s of that day Arno finds out about his fathers true agenda and vows to join the order to avenge his fathers death and catch the man who did it.

We, as the player, must connect to a character to find any possible meaning within, and I believe Ubisoft have done this very well, they have made us feel compassion towards Arno, towards the lose of his father and the ever spiralling pit of destruction the Templars seem to cause him during the game. People who have been through traumatic situations or even people who haven’t can understand the meaning behind Arnos attitude and by doing this Ubisoft have created the game so we sink deeper into the whole with Arno and its our job to rescue him from that pit and bring justice within the game space.

With the addition of optional missions we can also find other ways of connecting with Arno and the games world, with things like solving murder cases or running assassin missions to better our stature within the order, this creates purpose beyond the obvious (main story line), making a world within a world so to speak deepening our immersion and strengthening our connections.

Meaningful play can also be found within this game due to the historic period the game is set in, with it being set during the French Revolution we can encounter historic figures such as Napoleon, Marie Antoinette and Anne-Josèphe Terwagne , all very big figure heads during the span of the time, this also gives us reason to take it out of the game space to go research things we might of found interesting during time with the game which in turn then makes us come back to the game, to learn about these people as (again) if we were standing right infront of them. This creates a lot of meaning for players becoming connected with just more then Arno.

All of the above can then relate to this “magic circle” This circle, as Huizinga (1971) states, must entice the player into it in order to experience meaningful play. Salen and Zimmerman (2003) develop on this point, and suggest the ‘magic circle’ is a finite space with infinite outcomes.

The time I spent with this game and to then think of it in a sense that is beyond just “play” I have learnt that a lot more goes into games such as this, the emotions to create this game surpass just a physical sense but a deep mental state that all players will hopefully begin to understand after playing this beautiful game, I know I will and I know others will to, whether I be a day, a week or a year later players will go back to experience the true outstanding work Ubisoft have gone into making the game. But thats the whole reason of this essay isnt it? To discuss and prove meaning to players, to talk about the reason why players continue to go back over and over again to get their quick “fix” of their favourite game(s), to lay down the law so to speak of what makes games...games.

I would like to end this essay on a quote by Kücklich from his paper called Perspectives of Computer Game Philology [2003] “It is therefore the player’s desire to become the model player of the game that enables him or her to identify with the avatar, and thus to interact with the game world and make progress in the game, which in turn is perceived

as narrative development.”

Bibliography

Oxland, K. (2004) Gameplay and Design. London; Boston: Addison-Wesley

Salen, K and Zimmerman, E. (2003) Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Huizinga, J. (1949) Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. London:

Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Kücklich, J. (2003) Perspectives of Computer Game Philology. [Internet] Available from

http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/kucklich/ [Accessed 15 November 2013.]