Gaming has, quite obviously, evolved in recent years. Whereas in its earliest, arcade years, video games were about obtain the highest scores, games are now about “the experience.” Games try to incorporate you into their worlds, have you empathize with their characters, and positively change you as a person. Above all, though, games try to be fun or interesting, if not both. Regardless of the game’s goals, if you enjoy playing it, you’ll want to share it. In the past, you’d have to invite a friend over and either swap the controller every few turns or play a multiplayer game. Nowadays, modern consoles, like the Playstation 4, have “Share” functions that allow you to post a screenshot or video to the Internet. Video games are best when the experience of play, whether single-player or multiplayer, is shared. And this is best shown through the interactive community of YouTube.

A common element of gaming is immersion. Developers attempt to engage us in the experience of the game, bridging the gap between reality and the virtual experience. A game is considered successfully immersive if the game world becomes real in the mind’s eye of the player. Mass Effect brings us into an intragalactic adventure, while Grand Theft Auto V shows us around a fictionalized Los Angeles. The developers want us to be a part of the world they’ve crafted, so we feel agency in continuing to play and affect the events of the game. There is one game series, however, that bridges the gap between reality and virtuality in a far different way, one series which understands that it is a simulacrum of reality without attempting to create a new reality: Assassin’s Creed.