14 DAY TRIAL // The main antagonist from the Assassin's Creed games, Dr. Vidic, is one of the users of the social-networking site Facebook. In what seems to be a viral marketing campaign begun by Ubisoft, followers of the Assassin's Creed official Facebook page saw yesterday the following message: "It is the time of our rising. A new age enters and a great battle looms. Templar destiny is at hand and waiting for you. - Dr. Vidic."
This message expands upon the Knights Templar theme present in the game. Viral marketing campaigns often blur the boundaries between reality and the title that is advertised by making characters or events apparently interact with the real world.
Dr. Vidic is, in the Assassin's Creed sequence of events, contemporary with us, making him an ideal character for such a marketing move, meant to increase the hype surrounding the game. A third installment in the series is currently being planned by Ubisoft, sometime in the spring of 2011. Rumor has it that during this year's fall an addon will be launched that will introduce competitive multiplayer.
It has become something of a trend for big-budget developers to use viral marketing campaigns to promote their creations. One such notable event was the ilovebees campaign for Bungie and Microsoft's Halo 2, when hundreds of thousands of fans followed cryptic messages and an alternate reality game on a specially designed website.
Assassin's Creed II is an action-adventure game, with a third-person perspective, set in two different times. It is based on the myths related to the Knights Templar and historical figures such as Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci. The player is able to control two different characters, one living in contemporary times and one during the Renaissance. The game continues the story from the previous release in the series, and adds a nonlinear storyline, more diversity to the missions, an improved non-player character AI and a database with historical facts.