Update:

When Ubisoft announced that they were doing an expansion on the legendary Assassin Darius. Fans were excited, to say the least. Only to find out that this would become the prime example of everything that is going wrong with the brand right now. The first episode started decently enough.

The second was met with a lot of backlash because it took away choices, conflicted with fan's past experiences, and defied the promise that players would never be forced into a romantic relationship. This is a franchise that started as a linear experience. Starting with Odyssey, Ubisoft added choices to it which was already a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people. But with the second episode, they took away said choices which even alienated the new fans they were trying to target. Which eventually resulted in very lackluster changes made to the same episode in the hope to please these new fans. (Something, we the "old" fans have never gotten)

The third episode was full of retcons to our beloved franchise and has been heavily criticized by fans. Basically showing that our worst fears are true. Ubisoft is just adding story onto story without having any regard for what came before, and done so without someone overseeing these additions. Not only did the expansion retcon a lot. It also created issues with lore dating back as far as AC2.

I implore everyone to make yourself heard. AC is a franchise with untapped potential that is being lost by Ubisoft's disregard for it's deep and expansive lore, and ignorance of past experiences of its player-base.

Please read the following article for a more in-depth look at the problems this franchise faces. It was written by @RinoTheBouncer and published on the highly known and respected AC News and Lore site TheCodex.

http://thecodex.network/codex/reflections/

Original Message:

A while ago there was an interview with the Narrative Director of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Some very interesting details popped up here that baffled a lot of people. In the interview with Melissa MacCoubrey, they talked about different subjects.

About the hypothetical existence of a lore overseer as in Marvel movies who has a guides the series' narrative: "I'd love it (For it to happen)".

"We've learned (the lore) from our own documentation, but also from the wiki that fans keep updated with all the information (...) I (have to) browse it once in a while".

"It's hard to keep up with all of this (lore) (...) we tried to make an encyclopedia parallel to the development of our game but as always, was finished later"

Couple this with the fact that the latest few games have some major retcons and lore issues. I think it's safe to say that Ubisoft has a lore issue. Their games are released in such quick succession, with comics, books and all the transmedia in between releases, that the devs can't even keep up with it. The fact that they lack an actual lore database of their own and use the wiki is extremely telling. There is also a big disconnect between the developers and the upper management in regards to the Modern Day sections. MacCoubrey said this about Modern Day:

Answering to why the franchise isn't centered on the present day anymore: "I'm not the right person to talk about this (...) people are not always the same (...) the present day is managed by the guys at brand (office) because they're also involved in the comics, novels etcetera (...) this is out of reach from developers"."





The Solution:

My proposal is this. Ubisoft needs to hire someone (or a team) that are knowledgeable about the Assassin's Creed lore. Someone that has a deep understanding of what Assassin's Creed can and should be. Someone that can communicate with the brand team, developers, narrative directors, upper management on a correct way to progress the lore in a meaningful and interesting way. This franchise has a lot of potential, but current mistakes have led me to believe that Ubisoft doesn't value the lore and narrative anymore.

Candidates:

From my time spent on the Assassin's Creed Reddit and Wikia. I noticed 3 people who seem known with the lore. These 3 people are already part of the Mentor's Guild (A group of people chosen by Ubisoft to represent the AC Community). I think they all would make excellent additions as Lorekeepers.

Master Sima Yi - Head admin of the Assassin's Creed Wikia.

(Sima has a deep understanding of the Lore, he worked on the Wikia for years now. Conversations with him always amazed me how much he actually knows of the lore.)

Shadow_Markuz - Head admin of Access the Animus

(As Head Admin of ATA Markuz is a well-known figure in the AC community, He always brings some amazing theories and his podcast always brought some good insights)

Serenika Sorrosyss - Lore analyst at Access the Animus

(Everyone familiar with the AC lore will know her name, she writes some very in-depth and thorough lore speculation articles. Her knowledge of the lore is very in-depth and she has some amazing ideas on where the franchise could go.)

SixKeys

(A old school fan and veteran of the official AC forums. Also a member of the Mentor's guild)

These are just my recommendations, I would love to hear yours.

Sources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/ageiot/m_maccoubrey_interview_the_present_day_is_out_of/

https://www.eurogamer.es/articles/fun-and-serious-2018-entrevista-con-melissa-maccoubrey