Top 10 Historical Inaccuracies: Assassin's Creed
01. Sail Handling (AC3/AC4/Rogue)
Before you claim we are being petty here, please understand that we did not need a book or website to tell us this - half of the crew in the SuperCheats Bullpen are skilled sailors and can tell you based on personal experience that sails? They don't go up and down instantly.
Point of fact - to handle the complete set of sails that are on the Jackdaw would require a minimum of eight topmen per yard and something like half an hour to 45-minutes to unfurl - note, we did not say SET, just unfurl.
But in the game the Captain calls for full sail and BOINK! He gots full sail! And don't even ask what we think of the speed at which the sails are furled and secured. His crew must be half Cybermen!
Yeah, it doesn't work that way.Think about AC Rogue whose basic premise was, Aye! I'm a Leprechaun with a spiffy fine ship that can sail against the wind at speeds that allow me to reach the Arctic Circle in two shakes of a lamb's tail! Faith and begorra! Me guns can shoot through waves and hit the target with grand accuracy, doing only enough damage for me to recover the maximum wealth in prizes.
Now you need to read that bit above with a thick Irish accent - preferably a Dublin accent. Umkay?
We are not going to go into the fact that ships in the game can sail against the wind - they really do try to address this by making it not seem like they can - but in reality none of the vessels in the game would be able to sail that close to the wind on point and get anything like the sort of speed that they get.
In fact and to be clear here, unless the wind is behind in a 220-degree cone, most of the navigational activity would involve tacking, which is slow, and difficult and labor-intensive.
Then there is docking - you float up to the dock and hit B and the ship magically slides into place, with nobody throwing or pulling on ropes, or using the windlass - there is no anchor work even though they say they are dropping or raising the anchor - man that involves some serious effort. And spring lines? What are those?
The manner in which ship and sail handling is presented in the games tends to suggest that it was a very trivial process, when in fact crews trained very hard and long to be able to do things like set the mainsails in under twenty minutes!
Yeah, that is Numero Uno for sure.
Conclusion
The thing about the AC series is that it sets out to tell a specific story about specific people doing specific things in order to eventually solve a specific mystery that involves a race of people that may or may not have existed in the past.
Amazingly there has recently been evidence discovered that a technologically advanced society may have existed on earth prior to what we accept as the modern interpretation of science and technology today.
A combination of anthropology and archeology discoveries suggests that a lot of what passes for basic science may actually be the re-discovery of science and not its “discovery” though we are not suggesting that a super-race of aliens existed as the game sets out.
The point is that the games present a narrative and multiple-premises that are reasonable and, more to the point, entertaining. They are fun to play, as are the protagonists in them, but to make that happen they almost have to play with history - and its accuracy.
The important thing to take away from this is that while these inaccuracies exist, they exist to make the story - and game play experience - better for the most part. So we should be willing to tolerate them.
Then again, the wizards at Ubisoft are not entirely without hutzpah - after all when the issue of an anachronistic British Railways insignia was found in the trailer for the upcoming game Syndicate, they pointed out that since the “memories” being accessed are essentially drawn from genetic memory.
So perhaps the reason for that anachronism is down to the power of the mind of the player desiring that symbol to exist to make the narrative fit into their world view?
Pretty off point with some of the French revolution criticism.
For the record there are numerous texts that suggest that Leonardo has a relationship with his assistant. Additionally homosexuality was only coined in recent times, but has been practised since biblical times. did you actually do any historical research or is this article just your personal opinion?
I would like to clear up a misconception written on the first page. Other than a minority number of off sect extremists, like the assasins themselves, Shias have not been known to kill Sunnis. Rather, it was usually the other way around. Also, Shias do not believe they were the ones to lead after the Prophet. Shia means follower and accordingly Shias are the followers of Prophet Mohammad and his family. Shias believe the the rightful heirs to the leadership of the Islamic community belonged to the Prophet's cousin Ali, and his descendants. The Prophet stated and implied many times that Ali will be his successor but the power hungry people ignored the fact that the Prophet himself raised Ali after he was born in the Ka'aba in Mecca, and usurped the leadership of Islam while Ali was busy burying the Prophet after his passing. The Sunnis unfortunately follow those that usurped Ali's power while the Shias follow Ali. Shias view the Prophet and his progeny to be perfect exemplary humans.
the catacombs did exist at that point they were just less extensive the people of paris expanded upon what a previous civilization had expanded on the original catacombs, also the speed and ease of use in ships was something that is explained in the codex they were added by the animus to make it a little easier for the whole thing to happen
Actually, depending on the size of the ship, the guns will be on the main deck due to the fact that there is only 1 deck above the water line, like on the Jackdaw. So in truth, the "gun deck" and the "sail deck" would be on the same deck on a brig (Jackdaw) due to it's size. Same can be said about other ships like sloops, schooners and other ships where there is only 1 deck above the water line.
If you're going to question historical validity in a work, it's only fair to give credible sources in turn. "Significant other is archaeologist/anthropologist" doesn't cut it, particularly for evidence on this "advanced technological society" you talk of.
Ancient Aliens aside, some of your "facts" were incorrect. Example, some pirates were pressed from captured vessels. Bartholomew Roberts, in fact, was dragged into service reluctantly under Howel Davis. Roberts later forced captured officer Henry Glasby into service as navigator. To say it NEVER happened is wrong; that implies we know everything about pirates when we really know very little.
Historical fiction doesn't presume to be 100% accurate. Who wants to spend 45 minutes of gameplay unfurling a sail, or 2 in-game weeks careening? History itself is inaccurate; it relies on storytellers to tell us the "facts". People are unreliable narrators, storytellers moreso. After all, it's always about the best story you can tell.
People think Da Vinci's gay because some court files accusing him of "lieing with a man" are found and very real ._.
In his notebooks there are also some pictures of naked boys and men even more than the amount of naked women
Part of that was social attitudes toward women, too. While growing steadily more progressive toward women having education or women in arts, women posing naked in front of men was improper. Women artists were on the rise, as well, where previously art was strictly a man's job, but were still banned from male nude art model classes, something that's essential in any art training, as well as learning how to paint group pictures. Consequently, most of the nude or semi-nude paintings commissioned depicted religious scenes, which paid quite a bit more.
Many artists just used drawings of corpses, themselves (if they couldn't afford models), each other, or their apprentices, as was the case with Salai. Salai was clearly a favorite subject of many art classes, not just da Vinci's, and although Salai definitely has his share of mysteries and rumors which may or may not have aligned with the Assassin Creed storyline, he was definitely an interesting character if nothing else.
when playing assassin's creed one needs to remember that it's just a game
The only part of this that was't picky was the cannons on the top deck. The point of the game isn't to be exact, Warren Vidic says that what Desmond see's is different because that's how it actually happened.
You have a very rudimentary understanding of history. Being a Professor of world history, I would love a link or reference to your source. Not just for your historical "facts" but more importantly to the empirical evidence of this once great, technologically advanced, extinct society of which refer!
The word bloke came up and I stopped reading
Wow sorry to hear that mate... Where I come from the word is commonly employed to refer to a person of the male gender in casual conversation.
I'm originally from Australia, and while I learned American English as a Second Language at times I do slip up and use real English words. So yeah, sorry mate, didn't realise you were the sort of bloke whose word tolerance is so weak you have physical reactions to words you encounter on web pages.
Glad we got that sorted. You have a great day mate!
Cheers!