why I like Assassin's Creed.

Around the time when the first Assassin's Creed game came out, Ubisoft got some flack from "my" community over in Europe. People said that the depictions of the Assassins in the game (based on the historical Hashashins of the 13th century) were flagrant misrepresentations of Nizari Muslims. The game itself bases its world on historical descriptions of the time; so, however inaccurate, it's technically correct. But that's not what I'm talking about right now. The world that is depicted in the Assassin's Creed games is largely based around secret societies. You have the Assassins (which after the first game, deviated from their Muslim origins) and you have the Templars (another society shrouded in mystery). The game takes both these groups and brings them into modern times. According to the Assassin's Creed Wiki, the Templars are responsible for history's most important events, everything from the assembly line, to the Nazis, to the Kennedy Assassination. The Assassins, in this world, have been working tirelessly against the Templars in secret ever since the crusades. Ubisoft inserted these factions into a world that is congruent to our own. Using heavily researched historical settings, Ubisoft gave audiences the idea that our world contained these secret society (keep your tinfoil hats on, guys).

Both of these secret societies have an express purpose. It's often explained in the games that the goal of both the Assassins and the Templars is the same (essentially world peace) but the means toward that end are fundamentally different. Briefly: Templars want to force peace with a heavy hand and the Assassins want to excite peace with an emphasis on gaining knowledge (historically, it's that thing I'm named after).

In the fiction of the Assassin's Creed universe, there are two global groups that are working toward a succinct future. Each group has a plan, and they're shaping the world's events with that in mind. This universe has a purpose, all the seemingly random things that happen are actually done for a reason. For someone like me (who over-thinks everything and needs to rationalize every aspect of life), this reality is massively appealing. These ideas, combined with the historical accuracy of the games, creates a world that is easy to slip into. The world (a combination of conspiracy and high school) is engaging on its own, and the story only adds to the excitement I get from shaping an alternative history lesson. And the detail added makes it plausible that it is, in fact, in fact the world we live in. That idea excites me to no end.