The Interactive Pasts Conference 2: Michelle Hui Yee Low

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VALUE

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Published on December 2, 2018 12:59:42 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6edkWqL136E

Game:

Assassin's Creed Origins (2017)

Duration: 21:33

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Video presentation for the Interactive Pasts Conference 2, October 8-10 2018, Center for Sound and Vision.

Michelle Low (Methodist College Kuala Lumpur)

Fiction Dressed in Facts: The Reception of Assassin’s Creed: Origins Narrative

Set in 49 BCE Ptolemaic Egypt, Assassin’s Creed: Origins (AC:O) invites the gamer into a fictional three-dimensional world dressed in pharaonic and hellenistic Egyptian history, led by two individuals’ lust for revenge and power, and desire to restore ma’at in Egypt. As the last medjay of Egypt, Bayek’s goal is two-fold: i) avenge the untimely death of his son; Khemu and ii) restore ma’at in Egypt by assisting Cleopatra VII as she seeks to reclaim her power as the rightful pharaoh of Egypt. As the game narrative develops, we see Bayek’s lust for revenge and Cleopatra’s lust for power overshadow the former’s honourable responsibilities as an Egyptian medjay. This is evident in both the main and side quests which require Bayek to commit unethical acts such as trespassing and looting. Furthermore, the game remains true to the myth surrounding Cleopatra VII as she is represented as a woman who seduces men to fulfil her lust for power. The objectives of the paper are as follow: i) to identify and evaluate the game’s narrative aspects such as its beginning, its characters and events, and its ending; ii) to explore the necessity of marrying ‘history’ – the tumultuous reign of Cleopatra VII -and ‘fiction’ – an origin story for the Assassin’s Creed franchise; and iii) to consider how the first two objectives have made this archaeogame an appropriate medium to expand the field of Ancient Egypt Reception Studies.

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