Assassin’s Creed has finally hit the store shelves. What a wonderful achievement in next generation gaming it is. Like all great games, Assassin’s Creed had it’s fair share of love from the press. We’ve seen tons of footage, interviews, trailers and commercials. Along with most of the hoopla that surrounded AC, there was one notable thing that was prevalent; producer Jade Raymond’s cheeky smile.

I first learned of Jade on g4tv.com. Anytime someone mentioned G4tv, they always spoke about “That hot chick Jade”. I later found out that she was the producer for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed game. Kotaku.com posted several items about the game and each time they mentioned her, the adulation became more obvious. It all started with their E306 awards. Jade was given the Developer Most Able to Obviate Booth Babes awards. Their E306 awards were wacky and not to be taken seriously. It didn’t end there though. There were several news posts that included statements on her beauty and her scent. Her face was popping up all over the net and I started to wonder if Ubisoft was taking advantage of her good looks or if the adulation of the press was getting out of hand. It really got bad when I read this on Kotaku:

The Rumor: martin85 over at GameTrailers.com Forums writes, “so my friend is working as an intern editor at maxim and he says that jade will grace the cover of december’s issue which will feature “girls of gaming”! she will also have her own spread showing her in a green an white striped bikini in an exotic local (montreal). it will also feature other hot women in the gaming industry as well as competitive gaming. man i can’t fricken wait! i haven’t jacked to still images since 1999!”

The Smash: Last night at the Assassin’s Creed shindig, producer Jade Raymond personally told Guest Editor Geoff Keighley that those rumors were totally untrue and that she’s never do something like that. She actually seemed somewhat offended people thought she would. Ubisoft PR got so many inquiries about it almost had to issue and official statement. So, while this rumor so SMASHED, please don’t rule out Creative Director Patrice Desilets’ Maxim spread!

It seemed to me that sites like Kotaku and Gametrailers were turning into internet versions of Tabloids. I had never seen a producer get so much attention in my life. All the time I was thinking, shouldn’t we be making note that a woman produced one of the hottest games of the year? Shouldn’t we be complimenting her game producing skills and not the beauty that she’s been blessed with?

At some point you have to wonder, why is it that every time an interview about Assassin’s Creed appears on the net, Jade’s picture is smack dab in the header of the interview? I don’t have a problem with sites posting pics of the producers they interview, but with Jade it became fuel to fap to. I haven’t seen that many pictures of Gabe Newell or Hideki Konno, so why so many of Jade? Then it hit me; maybe Ubisoft’s PR team was responsible for all headshots. Maybe the executives were thinking, “Wow she can make games and she’s hot. Let’s use her to promote the game!”

I’m only assuming here but as you know, this got so out of hand that other people started questioning it. Some people had their own ideas and went as far as disrespecting Jade in an x-rated comic. Yeah, I get the point and it may have been funny but at what cost? If you were trying to send a message to Ubisoft, you could have done so without putting Jade in a negative light. It was done in very poor taste. The comic was received so poorly by the execs at Ubisoft that they threatened to sue the site that had the comic posted in their forums.

So why am I ranting on and on about this? I hate the fact that the press take their freedom of speech to levels of childishness. The first time I saw Jade I thought she was fine, but that was it. Why do we need to keep propagating this fact? Do we constantly have to fill our forums and comments with “OMG Jade is so hot” every time some news about Assassin’s Creed is posted? Do we have to make up lies about Jade in Maxim magazine just to get more hits? Do you think she would have got this much attention if she was fat? Hell no. If she was fat it would have been all about AC and not about her looks. How about we praise her for a job well done on Assassin’s Creed. How about we encourage more women to get involved in game production to give us that woman’s touch that’s been missing this generation? If you really want to speak out about the exploitation of Jade Raymond in the press, do it tastefully.