Assassin's Creed III

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The video game "Assassin's Creed III" has received glowing reviews from the tech community.  A USAToday reviewer called the detailed re-creation of 18th century America, "phenomenal".

"Players follow Connor, a Native American assassin who joins forces with the newly formed American colonies to fight off the British during the 1700's  The story dives deeply yinto Connor's life, from his family history to his path to becoming an expert killer.

"The structure of the game allows players to feel like a graceful assassin, leaping between trees or rooftops as they kill Redcoats with hidden blades, bows and arrows, tomahawks and even rope darts. ..." 

"Graceful assassin" . . . one can almost picture a Rahm Emanuel or Ron Reagan, Jr., in their ballerino days (more at Emanuel), but still not a gratifying proposition.  We are not Samurai in a slow-mo Tarentino conception or a Bruce Lee film.  Assassins are not graceful in the true sense of that word, and anyway, why would someone want to be an assassin, clunky or graceful?

Molina calls it "highly satisfying action, however, the reviewer fails to note that it presents an entirely erroneous interpretation of history, leading uninformed individuals to believe that assassins helped win the United States Revolution.  Adding insult to injury, Connor is a Native American, which some reviewers actually found to be an inclusive nod to minorities.  It is not; once again, the dirty work is foisted off onto a transgressive minority member.

Assassins were NOT a tool of the U.S. Revolution, a war won by a combination of conventional and guerrilla-type warfare.  A slick and mindless violent game does not change that fact, though it does play into the current fascination with Black Ops and extralegal strategies employed in the execution of war.  Combined with Presidents who sign off on the illegality, confusion is the name of the game.

Assassination is not a soldierly skill nor should it be a tool of policy, and games should not espouse this insane thought.  Meanwhile we stand by simperingly wondering how nut jobs like the Aurora, Colorado killer get their ideas for what they must feel constitutes "heroic action". In the inspiration for the Colorado case, the film "The Dark Knight Rises" has all of the archetypal trappings of righteous vengeance wrought by a wronged entity, reminiscent of the collective U.S. mindset apres- 9-11-01.

In the case of "Assassin's Creed", the very name of the game implies that assassins live by a "creed" -- something honorable and special to an elite group; this is an enticing concept for a marginalized, ostracized individual.

Assassins should not be heralded as heroes.  If they are, all that is good about America is lost.

--Jim & Lisa