{"id":4725,"date":"2014-05-14T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=4725"},"modified":"2014-05-13T10:32:52","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T14:32:52","slug":"assassins-creed-iv-ubiculturality-and-stede-bonnet-an-invitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=4725","title":{"rendered":"Assassin’s Creed IV, Ubiculturality, and Stede Bonnet: an Invitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

My intention for this post was to write something specific and reasonably authoritative on how the character of Stede Bonnet as seen (as performed by means of, really) in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag<\/em><\/a> differs from what we know of the historical Stede Bonnet<\/a>, and what I think the difference means. That kind of analysis would serve as a very useful example of how, within my model of text as ruleset<\/a>, player performances of ubiculturality<\/a> in the Assassin’s Creed<\/em> franchise embody both games’ potential for critique and the pitfalls of uncritical reception. This post would have functioned both as a companion piece to David Hussey’s wonderful\u00a0Assassin’s Creed\u00a0<\/em>Week posts<\/a>, and as an extension of my “games precede the humanities” argument.<\/p>\n

I planned, that is, to show that if you play ACIV without thinking about how it fails to do justice to the complexity of history, you end up thinking that the real Stede Bonnet must have been a likable fellow, whereas if you play ACIV with the complexity of history in mind, you end up with interesting questions about Stede Bonnet, and new creative tools with which to find the answers.<\/p>\n

\"250px-AC4_Stede_Bonnet_render\"<\/a>
Stede Bonnet in ACIV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Time at the end of the semester has got away from me, though, and so instead of attempting a half-baked version of that post, I want to try to open a conversation about Stede Bonnet and about the Assassin’s Creed<\/em> franchise in general. Quite possibly no one will respond, but I’m guessing that the game is good enough, and popular enough, that at least a little bit of valuable discussion will ensue.<\/p>\n

So, in order from least to most abstract, here are the questions to which I’d love to hear others’ answers, in particular as they relate to the issues David raised back in February:<\/p>\n