Representation and Its Historical Antecedents in New Media: The Queer-ious Case of <i>Assassin's Creed</i>

Videogames, like other new media, reflect and shape culture and are influenced by societal attitude shifts. We conducted a qualitative close-reading analysis of queer representation in the AAA historical-fiction series Assassin's Creed and the historical antecedents thereof to explore (a) the traditional marginalization of queer-identifying folks in (b) the context of growing societal acceptance within the (inter)national zeitgeist. In our examination of the developer's reaction operationalized as observable shifts in developers’ design choices, we observed an increase in representation that aligns with the shift in social attitudes toward queer folks over the last 15 years. With respect to the historical antecedents, we discovered a misalignment between the in-game portrayal of queer folks and acceptance thereof vis a vis the available historical record.