When Player Choice Goes Wrong

Exploring the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey backlash from a game design perspective

You may have heard about the recent controversy surrounding Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Specifically, the game attracted significant criticism related to a DLC where the game’s protagonist was required to get married and have a child. This sparked widespread anger among gamers and led to heated debates between players who were outraged by the decision and those who didn’t quite understand why it was seen as such a big deal. Now that the immediate dust has settled to a degree, I want to reflect on how Ubisoft walked into a trap of their very own making, and how this isn’t the first time such an issue has arisen.

Ground rules

Let’s step right back for a moment and consider first principles. All video games are built upon a set of rules and constraints defined by the developers. As consumers of games, there’s an unwritten contract between us and the game’s developers. That is, the developer agrees to make the best possible version of a game for us to enjoy, and we agree to the rules and constraints imposed on the game’s design. A practical example of this might be a theoretical bad-ass ninja game where the object is to go around killing everyone — in this context, it might be unreasonable for players to expect…