Everything Is Permitted

On Assassin's Creed

Cameron Kunzelman

$270

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

University of Minnesota Press
11 November 2025

Popular culture; Computer games: strategy guides

An entertaining deep dive into the world, gameplay, and evolution of the hugely successful Assassin's Creed video game franchise

A hooded figure stands in a bell tower overlooking medieval Jerusalem, surveying his prey. Parkour-style, he leaps down into the square to kill his target before vanishing into the crowd . . .

Released in fall 2007, Assassin's Creed transformed video gaming. Across more than a dozen franchise entries, players engage with the eternal conflict between the Order of Assassins and the nefarious Templar Order, carrying out missions in a series of painstakingly rendered historical settings, from the Holy Lands during the Third Crusade to Renaissance Italy, the Age of Piracy, the French Revolution, and Victorian London. Everything is Permitted is an analysis of the development, evolution, gameplay, and world-building of this sprawling and distinctive franchise.

Cameron Kunzelman examines key themes and concepts that connect the games in the series. Combining close readings of the games themselves with discussion of the broader landscape of video game franchises since its initial release, he uncovers what it means for a game to be part of the Assassin's Creed franchise. Kunzelman maps the elements that contribute to the immersiveness and continual playability of the games, showing how historically inflected conspiracies and science fictional premises ground the fantastical stories the games tell on a massive scale.

Diving into the real-world histories and ideas that the game designers used for inspiration, Kunzelman argues that the virtual conflicts between the franchise's opposing sides offer intriguing insights into actual reality, from ethical dilemmas to the roles of freedom and fate. He demonstrates how, by incorporating themes of means and ends, control and freedom into its gameplay, the franchise engages with profound questions in a sustained, long-form way that is unique among video games. As the Assassins say, ""Nothing is true, everything is permitted.""

Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.

By: Cameron Kunzelman
Imprint: University of Minnesota Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9781517914936
ISBN 10: 1517914930
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 11 November 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Developing Scale Part I. Concepts 1. The Animus 2. The First Civilization 3. Conspiracy Part II. Considerations 4. Ezio Auditore’s Tragic Open World 5. Black Flag and the Pirate Utopia 6. Playing the Enemy 7. Reconstructing History Conclusion: Beyond the Creed Notes Index

Cameron Kunzelman is assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Theatre at Mercer University. He is author of The World Is Born from Zero: Speculation and Video Games, and his writing about video games has appeared in Kotaku, Polygon, and Vice. He podcasts about culture at Ranged Touch.

Reviews for Everything Is Permitted: On Assassin's Creed

""Powerfully written and deeply original, Everything Is Permitted offers productive interventions into the brand and franchise that makes Assassin's Creed a cultural and economic force. Cameron Kunzelman does an excellent job showing the systemic, historical, and futuristic ways the elements in Assassin's Creed enact themselves on gaming, economic structures, design, public reception, and play. A vital contribution.""--Kishonna L. Gray, author of Intersectional Tech: Black Users in Digital Gaming ""With Everything Is Permitted, Cameron Kunzelman offers a detailed, sustained engagement with one of the most iconic franchises in game history. With a clear and lively voice, the scholar and cultural critic demonstrates a profound understanding of the Assassin's Creed universe, grappling with exactly how and why that world and its themes matter to us so much.""--Soraya Murray, author of On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender, and Space