Ubisoft's PC Take on History

Ubisoft and the Crusades

I am sure that some here are saying “why is Papa Giorgio blogging on a game developer?” Well, I will tell you. I am a huge gamer from “table-top pong” days (in the basement bar of my grandmother’s home in Michigan… along with a juke box and a pool table) and have had most systems made for the enjoyment of game-players. So I do not want anyone who reads this blog to first assume that I am just some anti-game console hater with some fiery preaching to back some boycott against XBOX or Ubisoft.

In fact, I am encouraging all here to buy the game. Ubisoft is at the cutting edge of what gaming should be, and supporting them with your $ is supporting one of the best makers of games the world has to offer. I mean that. And not just because my favorite game is Splinter Cell. I just am at odds with Assassin's Creed's producer and her apparent take on history. Remember, I may be wrong in my early "pigeon holing" of the games view of history.

You can download or simply watch the videos of the game at IGN.com. I will post a video here for people to watch, and it will tie into my blog.

Okay, onward we go. The time period in which this game takes place in the later-half of the Third Crusade. The Catholic Church was in some of its worse theological times, and had some pretty nefarious fellows running the Church-end of the Crusades. Not one of the brightest points in Christian history. That being said, lets delve into this topic a bit and get some historical context that the game makers may have left out in order to include their implicit or explicit conspiracy theories and Political Correctness.

Here is the video to watch:

First, one must know that the “assassins” mentioned here were a notorious sect of Ismaili Shi’ite Muslims known as the Assassins. While the Ismaili'itesdidn't invent political assassination, they certainly introduced it on a larger scale. The Assassins also accomplished a closer tie between Islamic religious dogma and murder in the name of Islam (and thus Allah) closer. They put into practice what Muhammad had kick started, bringing to fruition all the murderous creeds found in the Quran and the Hadith.

Jade Raymond, the producer of the game, hints that there are connections that reach all the way to our day. I am only assuming --- and this is a big assumption… but knowing the inner-workings of mine and the younger generation, I state with confidant assumption the next point:

I am sure that some reference to the “New World Order” along with its connection to the Knights Templar’s and modern financial institutions and big corporations that supposedly wish for oil dominance… thus referencing Bush and the Iraq war. If not explicitly, definitely in an implicit manner.

I am sure many who grace this meager blog have heard of some of these “secret societies,” if but for the fact of seeing the movie The Da Vinci Code. Many of the organizations in this conspiratorial view of history are:

Ancient “Secret Societies”

Illuminati

Freemasonry

Count Saint-Germain and other Magicians

Rosicrucians

Knights Templars

Cathars

The Priory of Sion

Merovingians

More Modern “Secret Societies”

The Trilateral Commission

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

Bildebergers

Rockefellers

Morgans

Rothchilds

Secrets of Money and the Federal Reserve System

Empire Building

The Royal Institute of International Affairs- Round table

Rhodes and Ruskin

Skull and Bones

I am sure some in Ubisoft are conspiratorialists and anti-Bushites that take much of Dan brown’s work in his books and movie (The Da Vinci Code) as more than mere fiction. Not to mention the fact that these game producers are based in Canada (ha, ha). Again, I am making wild assumptions here that will either be validated or not when the game is released.

[The game takes place in 1191 A.D. which is the later half of the Third Crusade (1188-1192).] This crusade was proclaimed by Pope Gregory VIII in the wake of Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the Crusader forces of Hattin in 1187. This venture failed to retake Jerusalem, but it did strengthen Outremer, the crusader state that stretched along the coast of the Levant. (The Politically incorrect guide to Islam (and the Crusades), by Robert Spencer, pp. 147-148)

Sure the game takes place in historical settings, but does the average player understand why the Crusades took place to begin with? The almost Political Correct myth is that the crusades were an unprovoked attack by Europe against the Islamic world (p. 122).

The conquest of Jerusalem in 638 stood as the beginning of centuries of Muslim aggression, and Christians in the Holy Land faced an escalating spiral of persecution. A few examples: Early in the eighth century, sixty Christian pilgrims from Amorium were crucified; around the same time, the Muslim governor of Caesarea seized a group of pilgrims from Iconium and had them all executed as spies – except for a small number who converted to Islam; and Muslims demanded money from pilgrims, threatening to ransack the Church of the Resurrection if they didn’t pay. Later in the eighth century, a Muslim ruler banned displays of the cross in Jerusalem. He also increased the anti-religious tax (jizya) that Christians had to pay and forbade Christians to engage in religious instruction to others, even their own children.

Brutal subordinations and violence became the rules of the day for Christians in the Holy Land. In 772, the caliph al-Mansur ordered the hands of Christians and Jews in Jerusalem to be stamped with a distinctive symbol. Conversions to Christianity were dealt with particularly harshly. In 789, Muslims beheaded a monk who had converted from Islam and plundered the Bethlehem monastery of Saint Theodosius, killing many more monks. Other monasteries in the region suffered the same fate. Early in the ninth century, the persecutions grew so severe that large numbers of Christians fled to Constantinople and other Christians cities. More persecutions in 923 saw additional churches destroyed, and in 937, Muslims went on a Palm Sunday rampage in Jerusalem, plundering and destroying the Church of Calvary and the Church of the Resurrection. (pp. 122-123)

One person (my pastor) said to paint a picture of the crusaders in a single year in history is like showing photo’s and video of Hitler hugging children and giving flowers to them and then showing photo’s and video of the Allies attacking the German army. It completely forgets what Hitler and Germany had done prior.

You’ll notice that Jade Raymond says something that makes her reference at the end about this having an impact in today’s time make me think that she has wrongly placed assumptions of history and currant affairs. She says:

“Nine key guys who are architecting the Crusades. Actually making the war and the population suffer and making [it] bad for everyone.”

For four hundred years the Muslims were making it bad for everyone Jade, and during the Crusades some missteps may have been taken by Europe in its response. But the main act of pushing Islam back was a moral position justified by the barbarous acts of Islam. Which are still taking place till this day! That is the only connection to this point in history. Jesus taught one to love their neighbor as themselves, not put a tax on them and tell them to not give religious instruction to their children.

Jesus healed the ear of the soldier struck by Peter, Muhammad personally beheaded people as well as ordering the death of over 900 people in one act. There are drawings showing children around Christ, even being allowed into the inner circle of the apostles to show them that one must be like a child in instances. Do we find this type of loving care and instruction in depictions and writings about Muhammad… No.

So for those who plan on getting this game, you must keep in mind that you are playing a person who altered their state of consciousness by using drugs and getting into a frenzy of murderous rage in order to murder their victims in the cruelest manner.

The player should be aware that they in a sense playing an agent for Osama Bin Laden, like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who if you remember was the Al Qaeda agent in Iraq for the first half of the war there. The guy that killed so many of our brave men and women. Playing a game that has you in command of Abu al-Zarqawi as someone killing U.S. Military personnel would be analogous to playing the character in Ubisoft’s game.

Just keep that in mind. It is a great chance to counter some of the Politically Correct history floating around in the netherworld of 9/11 truthers and university educated victa-crates that tend to be more numerous in Montreal. As you play, contemplate history and the possibility that if the West had stood idol to the centuries long onslaught of Islamic “assassins” what the outcome may have been. In other words, does the total net effect of the Church and the West pushing back the Islamic aggressor make us better, safer, and freer today than if the Church and the West hadn’t done anything?

In the PC crowd, the West and Judeo-Christian mores are the reason for most of history's ills.

Just remember who you are playing!