Assassin's Creed - Nottingham

The Medievalism of Ubisoft’s Ludic Outlaws

Abstract

The Assassin’s Creed video-game series has, to date, never explicitly featured Robin Hood as a character in a game. Nevertheless, the series seems to model its principal player-characters on historian Eric Hobsbawm’s definition of the Noble Robber, whose role as a “social bandit” is, according to Hobsbawm, best illustrated in modern conceptions of the legendary outlaw’s relationship to peasants. In each Assassin’s Creed game, the nine traits of the Noble Robber ground the player-characters’ titular Creed and the overarching objectives within the game; these traits are also evident in game mechanics that disallow a player from interacting with innocent non-player-character commoners in ways that could be injurious to in-game communities. Ultimately, the clear parallels between Hobsbawm’s work and the Assassin’s Creed series suggest a need for broader considerations of the ways in which the Robin Hood legend may influence representations of justice and communal benefit in video games.