AC: Style balance

[Grim]

EDIT - I just realized another point to show FROM's inherent bias towards humanoids: Every top-ranked raven in the arena of every AC game ever (as far as I can remember) has been a midweight biped.

You've just debunked From's hidden programming for players to use bipeds. Expect men in black suits to come knocking at your door soon enough. )

I've read CCR's thread, and yes it is nearly a parallel of where this discussion has gone too: it's all a matter of perspective, really. You decide what parts to use, and you go play with them because that's what you want to do. Simple enough.

The problem arises when a country with a large audience and the means to make a very large impact in a small amount of time (that is, the US, with the help of ACO and YouTube), becomes the only source of what can be considered legitimate information on something. In comparison, you have a country with a very large audience but with limited means to influence people outside of its borders (that is, Japan). They may have the best players (and with good reason, one: the Japanese have always been good at games, and two: they made the damn game), but with very little desire, incentive or capacity to share this knowledge with the rest of the world, except maybe to the fans who are willing to search for it, this becomes all for naught. Hence, a monopoly is formed on the "right" information and the "right" way to play. Players are ingrained into accepting so-called truths about a game before they even have a chance to experience it for themselves. There becomes only one source which dictates, and that's never a good thing.

EDIT: The above paragraph speaks in terms of the general. I'd like to point out the individuals who prove that this is not always so, but they're there if you look for them, so I won't anymore.

Of course with online play opening up more and more in AC4, people got to interact more and look at the way the "other" plays. And true to form, one side didn't really take to the way the other side played. Ah, what can you do.