As the games industry struggles with issues of representation in gaming, Ubisoft is taking a novel approach to player character gender in the upcoming Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Players will be able to toggle between the male and female version of the protagonist at any point in the game.
While there were earlier reports that it might be possible to switch between genders in the Assassin's Creed Valhalla story mode. This new feature was officially confirmed today by the game's director Eric Baptizat in an interview with GamesRadar.
Baptizat said that having this option is "important" for players, as gender will have "some impact on the narrative. However unlike in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, each gender option won't get their own story. "It’s the same story of the character—whatever options your character decides.”
As of now, those two statements feel somewhat contradictory. It's unclear how the players gender will both have an impact on the narrative, but that the story will remain the same. Perhaps changing genders will unlock new dialog options, or maybe the NPC characters will react differently to different genders. Players may have to wait until the game is released to see how this plays out.
This feature is being included so that players will be able to "experience all the possibilities of the game," and have "the freedom to experiment." This means that players may not need to play the game a second time, which is great, considering how big Assassin's Creed games can be.
It's worth asking if this kind of approach works when it comes to making games more inclusive. On the one hand, players no longer have to choose between male and female protagonists. This will surely encourage some players to try swapping between genders to experience the game from the other point of view.
On the other hand, men and women face different challenges in society, and making a game in which swapping between genders has little effect on the story feels dishonest to people's lived experiences. When gaming companies are regularly facing claims of sexual discrimination and harassment, perhaps acknowledging that gender plays a roll in how people are treated is worth acknowledging.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will release November 17 on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions also in development.
Source: GamesRadar
