• A goal, and the objective of failing to achieve that goal, and starting over from a set point until the goal is achieved, and possibly a reward for the player’s efforts.
• The advice found in video game manuals to take breaks frequently to avoid damage to the health and
• The improvement to various components of the human body, namely dexterity and though process skills amongst other factors
These three factors, which all come into consideration while playing video games, is represented within Assassin’s Creed II and its use of Desmond, the Animus Machine and his ancestor within his memories. Although seemingly unconnected at first, it eventually becomes evident that several game play elements of Assassin’s Creed II, parallel the connections between a video game and its player.
Goals and objectives: If at first you don’t succeed
The very basis of all video games is simple: a goal the player has to achieve in order to progress until the game is completed. This idea or rule of video game design has never changed, and probably never will, or else, there will be no purpose to play, and ultimately to succeed. When this goal is achieved, there is more often than not, a reward for the trial that the player went through. Whether it’s been playing on ‘expert’ in Guitar Hero or progressing through Tidus’ sphere grid in Final Fantasy 10, the idea of ‘goal’ and ‘achievement’ have been threads woven throughout video game design from ‘tennis for two’ till the latest incarnation of Call of Duty. It’s like saying that the grass is green and the sky is blue, there’s always a goal in video games.
Taking this into consideration, the main plot of Assassin’s Creed II, is to train Desmond as a real life assassin for a battle against The Templars. The Animus machine that Desmond is plugged into a virtual reality which utilises memories of his ancestors who happen to be Assassins themselves. As he plays out Ezio’s (an avatar to put it into gaming terms) assassin life, he is given various objectives he must fulfil in order to progress. Along with this, there are also side missions that Desmond/Ezio can complete in order to gain money and subsequently purchase better equipment, and upgrade his villa. However, the most important concept within the Animus machine, is that Desmond can’t die. Unlike other virtual realities such as The Matrix, the death of your avatar doesn’t result in the death of a player. Die and restart at the last checkpoint. The same idea goes for failing a mission, the animus resets and places Desmond/Ezio at the last checkpoint.
These two concepts of the Animus machine parallel the concepts within a video game. As mentioned a few paragraphs above, the main idea of a video game is to achieve a goal, and ultimately succeed. This notion that has continually been seen within the design of a video game, is the equivalent of Desmond and his assassin ancestor Ezio. As Desmond lives the life of Ezio, he continually fulfils objectives and missions, he progresses and ultimately learns how to become an assassin, akin to a player and completing objectives in a video game, and progressing further. The idea of Ezio receiving money for completing his objective is also like the idea of a player being rewarded for his/her toil to complete a mission within a game.
But perhaps what pushes the idea of the Animus being a parallel of a video game, is the fact that the host of the machine, Desmond, can’t die, even if Ezio dies, but rather, the animus machine resets and Desmond is placed at the most recent ‘checkpoint’. The idea of a ‘checkpoint’ within the Animus is even more evidence of the machine paralleling a universal game play element within Video games.
Ezio is the 'avatar' of Desmond, who in turn is the avatar of the player!
Prolonged Exposure: Take a 15 minute break every hour
While the regular gaming manual recommends we take a short break every hour or so, we ‘hardened’ gamers have pulled off all nighters, gaming sessions with friends on Final Fantasy VII without a memory card and rock band sessions that have resulted in smashed drum kits.
However, it goes without saying that playing video games for too long can result in damage to the health, such as eye damage, and failure to attend to the more important health related activities, such as maintaining personal hygiene, eating regularly and going to the toilet when nature calls. Playing video games for an extended amount of time can also result in failure to attend to other, more important needs (homework, work related activities). So it’s fair to say that playing video games for a long amount of time can be detrimental to one’s health
Conversely, the use of the Animus machine for an extended amount of time can also lead to disastrous effects on the host. This was demonstrated by the previous inhabitant of the animus, ‘subject 16’, who ended up going mad and, aside from leaving cryptic messages within the animus, also began to suffer hallucinations of what he had seen during his time in the animus, during his real life. This effect is known as the ‘bleed out’ effect in the game. The ending of Assassin’s Creed 1 shows this, with Desmond having attained the ‘eagle vision’ ability and is able to see cryptic messages left on his wall. Throughout Assassin’s Creed 2, Desmond also sees hallucinations of horses and soldiers that should only exist within the Animus and believes that he is beginning to show symptoms of overexposure to the animus machine. However Lucy Stillman (associate of Desmond) dismisses any worries of him suffering any long term effects of the animus that Subject 16 had suffered.
Taking the two paragraphs into account, it’s clear that there is a parallel drawn between the effects of playing video games and the prolonged exposure of the animus, namely that it is ultimately detrimental to the participant’s health. Playing too much video games (and as much as I wouldn’t like to believe this) can lead to damage to the health, as well as can effect work and your social life. While these aren’t as nearly as dire as the effects that exposure to the animus can have on an individual, it’s clear that there’s a connection between the two. Over exposure from both results in damage to the health, and is another connection between Gaming and the Animus Machine.
Acquired Skills: Monkey see Monkey Do
The main purpose for Desmond’s first trip into the Animus Machine was for Abstergo to find the location of the pieces of Eden through Altair’s journey. In Assassin’s Creed II, the reasons for Desmond having to enter the Animus Machine again are far more personal, to become an Assassin himself and participate in the war against Abstergo. Reliving Ezio’s memories of an assassin, he himself learns the ways of an Assassin.
This method of using a memory of learning an ability, while not so clear cut at first, has some comparisons towards a video game. Playing a game, requires the player to work their way around the controller, and at times, learn and remember complex button sequences. An example of this is the game Bust A Groove. As the player continues to input the commands, the button sequences become more complex, until his/her chosen avatar pulls off the ultimate freeze dance move. But as the player continues to play, the commands become easier to pull off, due to the ability of the player to remember the commands and input the commands faster and with less thought. Effectively, he/she has increased their memory and dexterity, and consequently, gained increased abilities from playing the game. This tendency for games to increase the ability certain functions within a player has also been seen in Guitar Hero, where the player is required to move their fingers around the plastic guitar in an attempt to match the coloured frets on screen. As the memory of the fret pattern grows, the player’s memory effectively increases as well as dexterity.
And this is no different with Assassin’s Creed 2. Half way throughout the game, Desmond is taken out of the Animus machine and given a test run of the abilities he’s achieved through his time as Ezio. He passes with flying colours, as Lucy puts him through a course to test his climbing ability. Through his time in the animus and living out the memory of Ezio, Desmond has gained several abilities in a short amount of time that would normally take a life time to learn and gain.
And through this, it’s somewhat clearer that both the video game and animus machine have some sort of connection in terms of gaining skills. While I’ll never learn how to scale walls as fast as Drake, or smash people on the heads by jumping on them like Mario, games like Bust A Groove, Guitar hero and even Trauma centre have all increased my dexterity and thought process somewhat. Likewise with the Animus machine and Desmond, having spent his time in the machine, he’s acquired several skills which will help him to be an assassin.
Desmond’s experiences with the Animus machine in Assassin’s Creed II parallels a player’s connection with a video game. Over exposure, goals and restart points, and the increased abilities one acquires with time and practice, are all common links between two seemingly unrelated things. Through this, the player connects with Desmond on a deeper level, as he/she is in an Animus himself, they just have to take a look at the console under their television.
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