Hey guys,

I am finishing my graduation this semester in University of Sao Paulo. Writing a thesis a about Assassin's Creed, Marketing and Tourism, resuming.

My paper subjects Games as marketing tool to create and develop touristic products, focusing the Assassin's Creed II as a case study. One of my arguments says that the representation of the city in game can increase the tourist curiosity and consequently their visit to Florence.

I saw there are tours and packages offered by local tour operator which says that an Assassin's Creed Tour is offered in Florence. I found here a topic telling how everyone will miss Leonardo da Vinci, and it was the closest I found.

So, could you please share with your opinions about combining tourism and AC II? Do you have any desire to visit the portrayed cities, and at least looked for it? Have you ever heard about Florence, Tuscany, Venice, Monterriggiori, etc, before play the game?

And so...

Every feeling, opinion, even disagrees will be very helpful.

If there is anyone that doesn't want their posts to be used for this purpose please let me know by sending me a private message.

Well I am looking forward to your reply and thank you very much in advance!

Carolina

Honestly, I feel like random anecdotal evidence for an interesting thesis like that is a bit weak. That game sold more than ten million copies, surely it had an effect on the numbers between those years.

In my experience flimsy anecdotal evidence is the backbone of many a thesis. But then again I dodged that trial by writing by having to make a portfolio of creative writing instead.

Don't know about increasing interest in tours, but once when I was playing Assassin's Creed 2 my Grandfather, who had just returned from a trip to Italy, correctly identified the in game depiction of Florence. He went on to say that he'd like to play this game without all the killing. Just a game where you parkoured around various cities.

@rejizzle said:

That reminds me of this Eurogamer article, where the author just drove around in L.A. Noire with his dad. A game like that without all the killing and chasing would be pretty cool indeed.

Having been to Tuscany and Venice prior (and post) playing Assassins Creed II, I definitely recognized landmarks and portions of the areas and cities. It's subject matter is inherently violent, but I seem to recall reading a story about someones grandmother playing the game, simply rowing a gondola through the canals of Venice remembering her trip there (I don't have a source for it though). So I'd say that an argument could be made for it being tourism friendly. It also features an internal database for most locations, famous landmarks and similar.

No, I can't say that my desire to visit those places were heightened after playing AC2. But I'm not a sightseeing kind of tourist, who I think those games would speak to the most, so I'm probably not the one to give an opinion.

My only Assassins Creed reaction when roadtripping in Italy was "Wow those thin and really high square towers are for real".

http://images.travelpod.com/tw_slides/ta00/a87/930/the-two-towers-in-bologna-castenaso.jpg

I wasnt in any city from the game though (apart from Rome).