Notes

I would have never thought that mindless video games could have some relevance to children's learning. What I did think about Assassin's Creed was that it was a video game where you had to attack people and become invisible. Boy, was I in for a treat.

I recruited the 12 year old boy I babysit, Myles, to teach me this one. He was beyond shocked that I would even dare ask him to play on his precious console (more shocked than I was that a 12 year old would be allowed to play a game where shots are fired, and violence is so prevalent). What can I say? I feel like as a non-gamer, I needed to know this one.

I asked Myles if he knew the importance of this game, what it was about, etc. He explained to me that each of the Assassin's Creed games are set up based on historical locations where there is history behind the mission that needs to be accomplished. These games have landmarks such as Florence, Vatican City, and Paris. The games revolve around the rivalry between two ancient secret societies, which are the Assassins and the Knights Templar. The Earth was destroyed by a massive solar storm. The games' real-world chronological setting begins in the year 2012, and features Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several lines of prominent Assassins; though raised as an Assassin, he left his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. He is initially kidnapped by the megacorporation Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar, who are aware of Desmond's ancestral lineage. Desmond is forced to use the "Animus", a device that allows him to experience his "ancestral memories". Abstergo is seeking to discover the location of several artifacts, or the "Pieces of Eden", that hold great power, to control mankind and alter its fate, bringing humanity into one single unified group. Desmond also encounters a small team of modern-day Assassins; agreeing to work with them, Desmond uses their version of the Animus (the Animus 2.0) to continue to experience the memories of his ancestors to discover the locations of additional Pieces of Eden so they can be recovered before Abstergo can do so. While experiencing these memories, some of their abilities are genetically leaked into Desmond, known as the Bleeding Effect, giving him some of the Assassin skills of his predecessors at the cost of living with multiple sets of memories and personalities in his mind.

Myles' version was much shorter than that, but I needed a better understanding to get at what I was playing and why. The only games I have played in the past 10+ year include Mario Kart and Mario Party, so I was really far behind.

Though I will never consider myself a gamer, or be one to run home and play on a video game console, I do understand the appeal of this game. I will say, the motion sickness I experienced after 15 minutes of playing this game was intense, so I told him I got it and left him to his own devices. My verdict? We should stick to the history books to teach our students about ancient cities and the battles that were fought, but at least if the player knows the history, it becomes more interesting than Mario Party.