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Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India and Cultural Representation

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This article was printed for INTEL. SMI’s Gurinder Singh Mann was interviewed for the story.

As one of the first major franchises to set a game in the country, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India brings an underserved cultural identity to light.

India is a diverse country, home to some 3499 separate communities and 325 different languages and dialects, according to one anthropological survey. But representation of the region in video games has been lazy at best and non-existent at worst.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s campaign featured a single mission set in the city of Dharamshala with barely a trace of Indian culture. Games like Final Fantasy and Smite tend to bend elements of Indian culture to fit the game’s needs or aesthetic (particularly with Smite’s voluptuous re-imagining of an Indian goddess).

“There is a feeling of cringing when you have someone called Shiva, but the thing looks nothing like Shiva is supposed to look,” said Arvind Raja Yadav, an independent game designer who created his own role-playing game inspired by Indian mythology.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, however, is committed to authentic Indian representation.

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Set in a bustling city of sandstone and Rangoli patterns, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, an offshoot of the main series, features a cloaked adventurer in the middle of the Sikh War of 1841. The mission is to recover the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond for the good of mankind—while killing a bunch of Sikh enemies along the way.

As with game publisher Ubisoft’s other Assassin’s Creed titles, plenty of historical research went into the game’s creation. The Sikh weaponry for instance, accurately features the katar, the chakram (a sharp, ringlike blade employed by throwing it), and the bag naka, or “tiger’s claw.”

UK-based Climax Studios, the lead designers behind Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, emphasized the importance of original historical sources for their world-building.

“We took influence from lithographs. Color was a key component,” the game’s art director Glenn Brace blogged. “We mixed some Sikh-influence into the world.” It’s not hard to see why a big game studio like Ubisoft is turning its attention to India. According to Ken Research, the Indian gaming market is predicted to exceed $2.7 billion in revenue by 2018.

As others have speculated, the Chronicles series, which includes two other games set in Russia and China, appears to be Ubisoft’s attempt to court these powerful emerging markets. Vishal Golia, CEO of Gamiana Digital Entertainment, all but confirmed this theory to Franchise India.

“Foreign giants like EA and Ubisoft have had Indian presence for a long time, helping nurture the local talent,” Golia said. “The ecosystem is building up.”

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The Sikhs are prominent in Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, as well as the various weapons including the katar, the chakram , and the bag naka.

This coming-of-age story for Indian gaming, however, is not without complications. Designers who are poorly acquainted with Indian culture often take artistic liberties that mix up (or flat-out ignore) important nuances. The results can easily come off as offensive and even exploitative.

Despite its best attempts, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India is not above reproach in regards to cultural marginalization. By casting the Sikhs as the antagonists of the story, some argue the game unwittingly plays into pre-existing stereotypes that paint this religious minority as villainous.

According to Gurinder Mann, the Director of the Sikh Museum Initiative, “There is a long way to go before a Sikh character with a turban and beard is seen as being the hero. Only then will we see a true representation of Sikhs in the gaming world.”

An example from comic books is already showing a way forward. Last year, Silicon Valley executive Supreet Singh Manchanda launched a Kickstarter project called Super Sikh. The goal was to reboot the modern-day superhero. Not by reimagining Superman, Ironman or Spiderman, but by developing a secret agent who wears a turban.

The message? Looks don’t define a hero—actions do.

Despite its more shallow depiction of Sikhs, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India avoids the common pitfalls of other major franchises, which, according to Yadav, often treat India like exotic wallpaper. The next step, perhaps, would be a blockbuster game that not only features India but is created by Indians, too.

Images: Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, Climax Studio and Ubisoft.
Story by Jess Joho; killscreen
Main story at : https://iq.intel.com/assassins-creed-chronicles-india-and-cultural-representation-in-games/

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