title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: In 2006, the head of Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, said that the last Russian military personnel would be removed from the Baikonur facility by 2007. However, on 22 October 2008, an SS-19 Stiletto missile was test-fired from Baikonur, indicating this may not be the case.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: On 22 December 2004, Kazakhstan and Russia signed a contract establishing the "Russia–Kazakhstan Baiterek JV" joint venture, in which each country holds a 50% stake. The goal of the project is the construction of the Bayterek ("poplar tree") space launch complex, to facilitate operations of the Russian Angara rocket launcher. This will allow launches with a payload of 26 tons to low Earth orbit, compared to 20 tons using the Proton system. An additional benefit will be that the Angara uses kerosene as fuel and oxygen as the oxidiser, which is less hazardous to the environment than the toxic fuels used by older boosters. The total expenditure on the Kazakh side will be US$223 million over 19 years. As of 2010, the project was stalling due to insufficient funding. It was thought that the project still had good chances to succeed because it will allow both parties – Russia and Kazakhstan – to continue the joint use of Baikonur even after the Vostochny Cosmodrome is commissioned. The first scheduled launch of the Baiterek Rocket and Space Complex is scheduled for 2025.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Baikonur Cosmodrome has a small museum, next to two small cottages, once residences of the rocket engineer Sergei Korolev and the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin. Both cottages are part of the museum complex and have been preserved. The museum is home to a collection of space artifacts. A restored test artifact from the Soviet Buran programme sits next to the museum entrance. The vehicle that flew a single orbital test mission in 1988 was destroyed in a hangar collapse in 2002; For a complete list of Buran artifacts, see Buran (spacecraft).


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: The museum also houses photographs related to the cosmodrome's history, including images of all cosmonauts. Every crew of every expedition launched from Baikonur leaves behind a signed crew photograph that is displayed behind the glass.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Baikonur's museum holds many objects related to Gagarin, including the ground control panel from his flight, his uniforms, and soil from his landing site, preserved in a silver container. One of the museum rooms also holds an older version of the Soyuz descent capsule.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: In 2021, the Baikonur space complex was named as one of the top 10 tourist destinations in Kazakhstan.


title: Categorical imperative

text: The categorical imperative () is the central philosophical concept in the deontological moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Introduced in Kant's 1785 "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals", it is a way of evaluating motivations for action. It is best known in its original formulation: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."


title: Categorical imperative

text: According to Kant, sentient beings occupy a special place in creation, and morality can be summed up in an imperative, or ultimate commandment of reason, from which all duties and obligations derive. He defines an "imperative" as any proposition declaring a certain action (or inaction) to be necessary. Hypothetical imperatives apply to someone who wishes to attain certain ends. For example, "I must drink something to quench my thirst" or "I must study to pass this exam." A categorical imperative, on the other hand, denotes an absolute, unconditional requirement that must be obeyed in all circumstances and is justified as an end in itself.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the popular moral philosophy of his day, believing that it could never surpass the level of hypothetical imperatives: a utilitarian says that murder is wrong because it does not maximize good for those involved, but this is irrelevant to people who are concerned only with maximizing the positive outcome for themselves. Consequently, Kant argued, hypothetical moral systems cannot persuade moral action or be regarded as bases for moral judgments against others, because the imperatives on which they are based rely too heavily on subjective considerations. He presented a deontological moral system, based on the demands of the categorical imperative, as an alternative.


title: Categorical imperative

text: The capacity that underlies deciding what is moral is called "pure practical reason", which is contrasted with: pure reason, which is the capacity to know without having been shown; and mere practical reason, which allows us to interact with the world in experience.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Hypothetical imperatives tell us which means best achieve our ends. They do not, however, tell us which ends we should choose. The typical dichotomy in choosing ends is between ends that are "right" (e.g., helping someone) and those that are "good" (e.g., enriching oneself). Kant considered the "right" superior to the "good"; to him, the latter was morally irrelevant. In Kant's view, a person cannot decide whether conduct is "right", or moral, through empirical means. Such judgments must be reached "a priori", using pure practical reason.


title: Categorical imperative

text: What action can be constituted as moral is universally reasoned by the categorical imperative, separate from observable experience. This distinction, that it is imperative that each action is not empirically reasoned by observable experience, has had wide social impact in the legal and political concepts of human rights and equality.


title: Categorical imperative

text: People see themselves as belonging to both the world of understanding and the world of sense. As a member of the world of understanding, a person's actions would always conform to the autonomy of the will. As a part of the world of sense, he would necessarily fall under the natural law of desires and inclinations. However, since the world of understanding contains the ground of the world of sense, and thus of its laws, his actions ought to conform to the autonomy of the will, and this categorical "ought" represents a synthetic proposition "a priori".


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant viewed the human individual as a rationally self-conscious being with "impure" freedom of choice:


title: Categorical imperative

text: For a will to be considered "free", we must understand it as capable of affecting causal power without being caused to do so. However, the idea of lawless free will, meaning a will acting without any causal structure, is incomprehensible. Therefore, a free will must be acting under laws that it gives to "itself".


title: Categorical imperative

text: Although Kant conceded that there could be no conceivable example of free will, because any example would only show us a will as it "appears" to us—as a subject of natural laws—he nevertheless argued against determinism. He proposed that determinism is logically inconsistent: the determinist claims that because "A" caused "B", and "B" caused "C", that "A" is the true cause of "C". Applied to a case of the human will, a determinist would argue that the will does not have causal power and that something outside the will causes the will to act as it does. But this argument merely assumes what it sets out to prove: viz. that the human will is part of the causal chain.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Secondly, Kant remarks that free will is "inherently unknowable". Since even a free person could not possibly have knowledge of their own freedom, we cannot use our failure to find a proof for freedom as evidence for a lack of it. The observable world could never contain an example of freedom because it would never show us a will as it appears to "itself", but only a will that is subject to natural laws imposed on it. But we do appear to ourselves as free. Therefore, he argued for the idea of transcendental freedom—that is, freedom as a presupposition of the question "what "ought" I to do?" This is what gives us sufficient basis for ascribing moral responsibility: the rational and self-actualizing power of a person, which he calls "moral autonomy": "the property the will has of being a law unto itself."


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant concludes that a moral proposition that is true must be one that is not tied to any particular conditions, including the identity and desires of the person making the moral deliberation.


title: Categorical imperative

text: A moral maxim must imply absolute necessity, which is to say that it must be disconnected from the particular physical details surrounding the proposition, and could be applied to any rational being. This leads to the first formulation of the categorical imperative, sometimes called the principle of universalizability: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."


title: Categorical imperative

text: Closely connected with this formulation is the law of nature formulation. Because laws of nature are by definition universal, Kant claims we may also express the "categorical imperative" as:Act as if the maxims of your action were to become through your will a universal law of nature.Kant divides the duties imposed by this formulation into two sets of two subsets. The first division is between duties that we have to ourselves versus those we have to others. For example, we have an obligation not to kill ourselves as well as an obligation not to kill others. Kant also, however, introduces a distinction between "perfect" and "imperfect duties".


title: Categorical imperative

text: According to Kant's reasoning, we first have a perfect duty not to act by maxims that result in logical contradictions when we attempt to universalize them. The moral proposition "A": "It is permissible to steal" would result in a contradiction upon universalisation. The notion of stealing presupposes the existence of personal property, but were "A" universalized, then there could be no personal property, and so the proposition has logically negated itself.


title: Categorical imperative

text: In general, perfect duties are those that are blameworthy if not met, as they are a basic required duty for a human being.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Second, we have imperfect duties, which are still based on pure reason, but which allow for desires in how they are carried out in practice. Because these depend somewhat on the subjective preferences of humankind, this duty is not as strong as a perfect duty, but it is still morally binding. As such, unlike perfect duties, you do not attract blame should you not complete an imperfect duty but you shall receive praise for it should you complete it, as you have gone beyond the basic duties and taken duty upon yourself.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Imperfect duties are circumstantial, meaning simply that you could not reasonably exist in a constant state of performing that duty. This is what truly differentiates between perfect and imperfect duties, because imperfect duties are those duties that are never truly completed. A particular example provided by Kant is the imperfect duty to cultivate one's own talents.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Every rational action must set before itself not only a principle, but also an end. Most ends are of a subjective kind, because they need only be pursued if they are in line with some particular hypothetical imperative that a person may choose to adopt. For an end to be objective, it would be necessary that we categorically pursue it.


title: Categorical imperative

text: The free will is the source of all rational action. But to treat it as a subjective end is to deny the possibility of freedom in general. Because the autonomous will is the one and only source of moral action, it would contradict the first formulation to claim that a person is merely a means to some other end, rather than always an end in themselves.


title: Categorical imperative

text: By combining this formulation with the first, we learn that a person has "perfect duty" not to use the humanity of themselves or others merely as a means to some other end. As a slave owner would be effectively asserting a moral right to own a person as a slave, they would be asserting a property right in another person. This would violate the categorical imperative, because it denies the basis for there to be free rational action at all; it denies the status of a person as an end in themselves. One cannot, on Kant's account, ever suppose a right to treat another person as a mere means to an end. In the case of a slave owner, the slaves are being used to cultivate the owner's fields (the slaves acting as the means) to ensure a sufficient harvest (the end goal of the owner).


title: Categorical imperative

text: The second formulation also leads to the "imperfect duty" to further the ends of ourselves and others. If any person desires perfection in themselves or others, it would be their moral duty to seek that end for all people equally, so long as that end does not contradict perfect duty.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant claims that the first formulation lays out the "objective" conditions on the categorical imperative: that it be universal in form and thus capable of becoming a law of nature. Likewise, the second formulation lays out "subjective" conditions: that there be certain ends in themselves, namely rational beings as such. The result of these two considerations is that we must will maxims that can be at the same time universal, but which do not infringe on the freedom of ourselves nor of others. A universal maxim, however, could only have this form if it were a maxim that each subject by himself endorsed. Because it cannot be something which externally constrains each subject's activity, it must be a constraint that each subject has set for himself. This leads to the concept of "self"-legislation. Each subject must through his own use of reason will maxims which have the form of universality, but do not impinge on the freedom of others: thus each subject must will maxims that could be universally self-legislated.


title: Categorical imperative

text: The result, of course, is a formulation of the categorical imperative that contains much of the same as the first two. We must will something that we could at the same time freely will of ourselves. After introducing this third formulation, Kant introduces a distinction between "autonomy" (literally: self-law-giving) and "heteronomy" (literally: other-law-giving). This third formulation makes it clear that the categorical imperative requires autonomy. It is not enough that the right conduct be followed, but that one also demands that conduct of oneself.


title: Categorical imperative

text: In the "Groundwork", Kant goes on to formulate the categorical imperative in a number of ways following the first three; however, because Kant himself claims that there are only three principles, little attention has been given to these other formulations. Moreover, they are often easily assimilated to the first three formulations, as Kant takes himself to be explicitly summarizing these earlier principles.


title: Categorical imperative

text: There is, however, another formulation that has received additional attention as it appears to introduce a social dimension into Kant's thought. This is the formulation of the "Kingdom of Ends."


title: Categorical imperative

text: Because a truly autonomous will would not be subjugated to any interest, it would only be subject to those laws it makes for itself—but it must also regard those laws as if they would be bound to others, or they would not be universalizable, and hence they would not be laws of conduct at all. Thus, Kant presents the notion of the hypothetical Kingdom of Ends of which he suggests all people should consider themselves never solely as means but always as ends.


title: Categorical imperative

text: We ought to act only by maxims that would harmonize with a possible kingdom of ends. We have "perfect duty" not to act by maxims that create incoherent or impossible states of natural affairs when we attempt to universalize them, and we have "imperfect duty" not to act by maxims that lead to unstable or greatly undesirable states of affairs.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Although Kant was intensely critical of the use of examples as moral yardsticks, as they tend to rely on our moral intuitions (feelings) rather than our rational powers, this section explores some applications of the categorical imperative for illustrative purposes.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant asserted that lying, or deception of any kind, would be forbidden under any interpretation and in any circumstance. In "Groundwork", Kant gives the example of a person who seeks to borrow money without intending to pay it back. This is a contradiction because if it were a universal action, no person would lend money anymore as he knows that he will never be paid back. The maxim of this action, says Kant, results in a (and thus contradicts perfect duty). With lying, it would logically contradict the reliability of language. If it were universally acceptable to lie, then no one would believe anyone and all truths would be assumed to be lies. In each case, the proposed action becomes inconceivable in a world where the maxim exists as law. In a world where no one would lend money, seeking to borrow money in the manner originally imagined is inconceivable. In a world where no one trusts one another, the same is true about manipulative lies.


title: Categorical imperative

text: The right to deceive could also not be claimed because it would deny the status of the person deceived as an end in itself. The theft would be incompatible with a possible kingdom of ends. Therefore, Kant denied the right to lie or deceive for any reason, regardless of context or anticipated consequences.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant argued that any action taken against another person to which he or she "could not possibly" consent is a violation of perfect duty as interpreted through the second formulation. If a thief were to steal a book from an unknowing victim, it may have been that the victim would have agreed, had the thief simply asked. However, no person can consent to theft, because the presence of consent would mean that the transfer was not a theft. Because the victim could not have consented to the action, it could not be instituted as a universal law of nature, and theft contradicts perfect duty.


title: Categorical imperative

text: In the "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals", Kant applies his categorical imperative to the issue of suicide motivated by a sickness of life:A man reduced to despair by a series of misfortunes feels sick of life, but is still so far in possession of his reason that he can ask himself whether taking his own life would not be contrary to his duty to himself. Now he asks whether the maxim of his action could become a universal law of nature. But his maxim is this: from self-love I make as my principle to shorten my life when its continued duration threatens more evil than it promises satisfaction. There only remains the question as to whether this principle of self-love can become a universal law of nature. One sees at once that a contradiction in a system of nature whose law would destroy life by means of the very same feeling that acts so as to stimulate the furtherance of life, and hence there could be no existence as a system of nature. Therefore, such a maxim cannot possibly hold as a universal law of nature and is, consequently, wholly opposed to the supreme principle of all duty.How the Categorical Imperative would apply to suicide from other motivations is unclear.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant also applies the categorical imperative in the "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals" on the subject of "failing to cultivate one's talents." He proposes a man who if he cultivated his talents could bring many goods, but he has everything he wants and would prefer to enjoy the pleasures of life instead. The man asks himself how the universality of such a thing works. While Kant agrees that a society could subsist if everyone did nothing, he notes that the man would have no pleasures to enjoy, for if everyone let their talents go to waste, there would be no one to create luxuries that created this theoretical situation in the first place. Not only that, but cultivating one's talents is a duty to oneself. Thus, it is not willed to make laziness universal, and a rational being has imperfect duty to cultivate its talents. Kant concludes in the "Groundwork":


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant's last application of the categorical imperative in the "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals" is of charity. He proposes a fourth man who finds his own life fine but sees other people struggling with life and who ponders the outcome of doing nothing to help those in need (while not envying them or accepting anything from them). While Kant admits that humanity could subsist (and admits it could possibly perform better) if this were universal, he states:


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant derived a prohibition against cruelty to animals by arguing that such cruelty is a violation of a duty in relation to oneself. According to Kant, man has the imperfect duty to strengthen the feeling of compassion, since this feeling promotes morality in relation to other human beings. However, cruelty to animals deadens the feeling of compassion in man. Therefore, man is obliged not to treat animals brutally.


title: Categorical imperative

text: In 1961, discussion of Kant's categorical imperative was included in the trial of the SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.


title: Categorical imperative

text: As Hannah Arendt wrote in her book on the trial, Eichmann declared "with great emphasis that he had lived his whole life...according to a Kantian definition of duty." Arendt considered this so "incomprehensible on the face of it" that it confirmed her sense that he wasn't really thinking at all, just mouthing accepted formulae, thereby establishing his banality.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Judge Raveh indeed had asked Eichmann whether he thought he had really lived according to the categorical imperative during the war. Eichmann acknowledged he did not "live entirely according to it, although I would like to do so."


title: Categorical imperative

text: Deborah Lipstadt, in her book on the trial, takes this as evidence that evil is not "banal", but is in fact "self-aware".


title: Categorical imperative

text: Pope Francis, in his 2015 encyclical, applies the first formulation of the universalizability principle to the issue of consumption:Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate. ... To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues. It is an attempt to legitimize the present model of distribution, where a minority believes that it has the right to consume in a way which can never be universalized, since the planet could not even contain the waste products of such consumption.


title: Categorical imperative

text: One form of the categorical imperative is superrationality. The concept was elucidated by Douglas Hofstadter as a new approach to game theory. Unlike in conventional game theory, a superrational player will act as if all other players are superrational too and that a superrational agent will always come up with the same strategy as any other superrational agent when facing the same problem.


title: Categorical imperative

text: The first formulation of the categorical imperative appears similar to the Golden Rule. In its negative form, the rule prescribes: "Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself." In its positive form, the rule states: "Treat others how you wish to be treated." Due to this similarity, some have thought the two are identical. William P. Alston and Richard B. Brandt, in their introduction to Kant, stated, "His view about when an action is right is rather similar to the Golden Rule; he says, roughly, that an act is right if and only if its agent is prepared to have that kind of action made universal practice or a 'law of nature.' Thus, for instance, Kant says it is right for a person to lie if and only if he is prepared to have everyone lie in similar circumstances, including those in which "he" is deceived by the lie."


title: Categorical imperative

text: Claiming that Ken Binmore thought so as well, Peter Corning suggests that:Kant's objection to the Golden Rule is especially suspect because the categorical imperative (CI) sounds a lot like a paraphrase, or perhaps a close cousin, of the same fundamental idea. In effect, it says that you should act toward others in ways that you would want everyone else to act toward others, yourself included (presumably). Calling it a universal law does not materially improve on the basic concept.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant himself did not think so in the "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals." Rather, the categorical imperative is an attempt to identify "a purely formal" and necessarily universally binding rule on all rational agents. The Golden Rule, on the other hand, is neither purely formal nor necessarily universally binding. It is "empirical" in the sense that applying it depends on providing content, such as, "If you don't want others to hit you, then don't hit them." It is also a hypothetical imperative in the sense that it can be formulated, "If you want X done to you, then do X to others." Kant feared that the hypothetical clause, "if you want X done to you," remains open to dispute. In fact, he famously criticized it for not being sensitive to differences of situation, noting that a prisoner duly convicted of a crime could appeal to the golden rule while asking the judge to release him, pointing out that the judge would not want anyone else to send him to prison, so he should not do so to others.


title: Categorical imperative

text: One of the first major challenges to Kant's reasoning came from the French philosopher Benjamin Constant, who asserted that since truth telling must be universal, according to Kant's theories, one must (if asked) tell a known murderer the location of his prey. This challenge occurred while Kant was still alive, and his response was the essay "On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Benevolent Motives" (sometimes translated "On a Supposed Right to Lie because of Philanthropic Concerns"). In this reply, Kant agreed with Constant's inference, that from Kant's own premises one must infer a moral duty not to lie to a murderer.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Kant denied that such an inference indicates any weakness in his premises: not lying to the murderer is required because moral actions do not derive their worth from the expected consequences. He claimed that because lying to the murderer would treat him as a mere means to another end, the lie denies the rationality of another person, and therefore denies the possibility of there being free rational action at all. This lie results in a and therefore the lie is in conflict with duty.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Constant and Kant agree that "refusing to answer" the murderer's question (rather than "lying") is consistent with the categorical imperative, but assume for the purposes of argument that refusing to answer would not be an option.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy expresses doubt concerning the absence of egoism in the categorical imperative. Schopenhauer claimed that the categorical imperative is actually hypothetical and egotistical, not categorical. However, Schopenhauer's criticism (as cited here) presents a weak case for linking egoism to Kant's formulations of the categorical imperative. By definition any form of sentient, organic life is interdependent and emergent with the organic and inorganic properties, environmental life supporting features, species dependent means of child rearing. These conditions are already rooted in mutual interdependence which makes that life form possible at all to be in a state of coordination with other forms of life - be it with pure practical reason or not. It may be that the categorical imperative is indeed biased in that it is life promoting and in part promotes the positive freedom for rational beings to pursue freely the setting of their own ends (read choices).


title: Categorical imperative

text: However, deontology also holds not merely the positive form freedom (to set ends freely) but also the negative forms of freedom to that same will (to restrict setting of ends that treat others merely as means, etc.). The deontological system is for Kant argued to be based in a "synthetic a priori" - since in restricting the will's motive at its root to a purely moral schema consistent its maxims can be held up to the pure moral law as a structure of cognition and therefore the alteration of action accompanying a cultured person to a 'reverence for the law' or 'moral feeling'.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Thus, insofar as individuals freely chosen ends are consistent in a rational Idea of community of interdependent beings also exercising the possibility of their pure moral reason is the egoism self-justified as being what is 'holy' good will because the motive is consistent with what all rational beings who are able to exercise this purely formal reason would see. The full community of other rational members - even if this 'Kingdom of Ends' is not yet actualized and whether or not we ever live to see it - is thus a kind of 'infinite game' that seeks to held in view by all beings able to participate and choose the 'highest use of reason' (see "Critique of Pure Reason") which is reason in its pure practical form. That is, morality seen deontologically.


title: Categorical imperative

text: Søren Kierkegaard believed Kantian autonomy was insufficient and that, if unchecked, people tend to be lenient in their own cases, either by not exercising the full rigor of the moral law or by not properly disciplining themselves of moral transgressions. However, many of Kierkegaard's criticisms on his understanding of Kantian autonomy, neglect the evolution of Kant's moral theory from the "Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals", to the second and final critiques respectively, "The Critique of Practical Reason, The Critique of Moral Judgment," and his final work on moral theory the "Metaphysics of Morals"


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia University's trustees to create an affiliated college named after Columbia's recently deceased 10th president, Frederick A.P. Barnard.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard College was one of more than 120 women's colleges founded in the 19th century, and one of fewer than 40 in existence today solely dedicated to the academic empowerment of women. The acceptance rate of the Class of 2025 was 11.4% and marked the most selective and diverse class in the college's 133-year history, with 66% of incoming U.S. students self-identifying as women of color.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard is one of Columbia University's four undergraduate colleges. Founded as a response to Columbia's refusal to admit women into their institution until 1983, Barnard is affiliated with but legally and financially separate from Columbia. Students share classes, libraries, clubs, Greek life, athletic fields, and dining halls with Columbia, as well as sports teams, through the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, a unique agreement that makes Barnard the only women's college to offer its students the ability to compete in NCAA Division I athletics. Students receive their diploma from Columbia University signed by both Presidents of Columbia and Barnard.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard offers Bachelor of Arts degree programs in about 50 areas of study. Students may also pursue elements of their education at Columbia, the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and The Jewish Theological Seminary, which are also based in New York City. Its campus is located in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights, stretching along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets. It is directly across from Columbia's main campus and near several other academic institutions.


title: Barnard College

text: The college is one of the original Seven Sisters—seven highly selective liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that were historically women's colleges (five currently exist as women's colleges).


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard College alumnae include many prominent leaders in science, religion, politics, the Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, theater, and business. Barnard graduates have been recipients of Emmy, Tony, Grammy, Academy, and Peabody Awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, MacArthur Fellowships, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the Pulitzer Prize.


title: Barnard College

text: For its first 229 years Columbia College of Columbia University admitted only men for undergraduate study. Barnard College was founded in 1889 as a response to Columbia's refusal to admit women into its institution.


title: Barnard College

text: The college was named after Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, a deaf American educator and mathematician who served as the 10th president of Columbia from 1864 to 1889. He advocated for equal educational privileges for men and women, preferably in a coeducational setting, and began proposing in 1879 that Columbia admit women.


title: Barnard College

text: Columbia's Board of Trustees repeatedly rejected Barnard's suggestion, but in 1883 agreed to create a detailed syllabus of study for women. While they could not attend Columbia classes, those who passed examinations based on the syllabus would receive a degree. The first such woman graduate received her bachelor's degree in 1887. A former student of the program, Annie Meyer, and other prominent New York women persuaded the board in 1889 to create a women's college connected to Columbia.


title: Barnard College

text: Men and women were evenly represented among the founding Trustees of Barnard College. The males were Rev. Dr. Arthur Brooks (chair of the board), Silas B. Brownell, Frederick R. Coudert, Noah Davis, George Hoadley, Hamilton W. Mabie, George Arthur Plimpton, Jacob Schiff, Francis Lynde Stetson, Henry Van Dyke, and Everett P. Wheeler. The founding female trustees of Barnard College were Augusta Arnold (née Foote), Helen Dawes Brown, Virginia Brownwell (née Swinburne), Caroline Sterling Choate, Annie Nathan Meyer, Laura Rockefeller, Clara C. Stranahan (née Harrison), Henrietta E. Talcott (née Francis), Ella Weed, Alice Williams, and Frances Fisher Wood.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard College's original 1889 home was a rented brownstone at 343 Madison Avenue, where a faculty of six offered instruction to 14 students in the School of Arts, as well as to 22 "specials", who lacked the entrance requirements in Greek and so enrolled in science.


title: Barnard College

text: When Columbia University announced in 1892 its impending move to Morningside Heights, Barnard built a new campus nearby with gifts from Mary E. Brinckerhoff, Elizabeth Milbank Anderson and Martha Fiske. Two of these gifts were made with several stipulations attached. Brinckerhoff had offered $100,000 in 1892, on the condition that Barnard acquire land within 1,000 feet of the Columbia campus within the next four years. The Barnard trustees purchased land between 119th-120th Streets after receiving funds for that purpose in 1895. Anderson, who gave $170,000, requested that Charles A. Rich be hired. Rich designed the Milbank, Brinckerhoff, and Fiske Halls, built in 1897–1898; these were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The first classes at the new campus were held in 1897. Despite Brinckerhoff's, Anderson's, and Fiske's gifts, Barnard remained in debt.


title: Barnard College

text: Ella Weed supervised the college in its first four years; Emily James Smith succeeded her as Barnard's first dean. Jessica Finch is credited with coining the phrase "current events" while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s.


title: Barnard College

text: As the college grew it needed additional space, and in 1903 it received the three blocks south of 119th Street from Anderson who had purchased a former portion of the Bloomingdale Asylum site from the New York Hospital. Rich provided a master plan for the campus, but only Brooks Hall was built, being constructed between 1906 and 1908. None of Rich's other plans were carried out. Students' Hall, now known as Barnard Hall, was built in 1916 to a design by Arnold Brunner. Hewitt Hall was the last structure to be erected, in 1926–1927. All three buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. An inability to raise funds precluded the construction of any other buildings.


title: Barnard College

text: By the mid-20th century Barnard had succeeded in its original goal of providing a top-tier education to women. Between 1920 and 1974, only the much larger Hunter College and University of California, Berkeley produced more women graduates who later received doctorate degrees. In the 1970s, Barnard faced considerable pressure to merge with male only Columbia College, which was fiercely resisted by its president, Jacquelyn Mattfeld.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard students are able to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in about 50 areas of study. Joint programs for the Bachelor of Science and other degrees exist with Columbia University, Juilliard School, and The Jewish Theological Seminary. The most popular majors at the college include Economics, English, Political Science, History, Psychology, Biological Sciences, Neuroscience, and Computer Science.


title: Barnard College

text: The liberal arts general education requirements are collectively called Foundations. Students must take two courses in the sciences (one of which must be accompanied by a laboratory course), study a single foreign language for two semesters, and take two courses in the arts/humanities as well as two in the social sciences. In addition, students must complete at least one three-credit course in each of the following categories, known as the Modes of Thinking: Thinking Locally—New York City, Thinking through Global Inquiry, Thinking about Social Difference, Thinking with Historical Perspective, Thinking Quantitatively and Empirically, and Thinking Technologically and Digitally. The use of AP or IB credit to fulfill these requirements is very limited (students are limited to the transfer of 16 credits), but Foundations courses may overlap with major or minor requirements. In addition to the distributional requirements and the Modes of Thinking, students must complete a first-year seminar, a first-year writing course, and one semester of physical education. Foundations replaced the old general education requirements, called the Nine Ways of Knowing, in 2016.


title: Barnard College

text: Admissions to Barnard is considered "most selective" by "U.S. News & World Report". It is the most selective women's college in the nation; in 2017, Barnard had the lowest acceptance rate of the five Seven Sisters that remain single-sex in admissions.


title: Barnard College

text: The class of 2026's admission rate was 8% of the 12,009 applicants, the lowest acceptance rate in the institution's history. The median SAT composite score of enrolled students was 1440, with median subscores of 720 in Math and 715 in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. The median ACT Composite score was 33.


title: Barnard College

text: In 2015, Barnard announced that it would admit transgender women who "consistently live and identify as women, regardless of the gender assigned to them at birth" and would continue to support and enroll those students who transitioned to male after they had already been admitted.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard is ranked tied at 17th overall, tied for 16th in "Most Innovative Schools," tied for 64th for "Best Undergraduate Teaching," and 38th schools for "Best Value" for 2022 among U.S. liberal arts colleges by "U.S. News & World Report". "Forbes" ranked Barnard the 19th best liberal arts college in 2019 and ranked it 50th among 650 universities, liberal arts colleges, and service academies.


title: Barnard College

text: While Barnard students have access to the libraries at Columbia University, the college has always maintained a library of its own. Lehman Hall was the site of Barnard's Wollman Library from its opening in 1959 until 2015. In August 2016, Lehman Hall was demolished to make way for a new library facility. Barnard's Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning opened in September 2018. The Barnard Library also encompasses the Archives and Special Collections, a repository of official and student publications, photographs, zines, letters, alumnae scrapbooks and other material that documents Barnard's history from its founding in 1889 to the present day. Among the collections are the Ntozake Shange papers and various student publications.


title: Barnard College

text: Founded in 2003 by then-Coordinator of References Services, librarian and zinester Jenna Freedman, the Barnard Zine Library is a unit of the Barnard Library and Academic Information Systems (BLAIS), whose other components are the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Instructional Media and Technology Services (IMATS) Collections and Services, Operations, and Teaching, Learning & Research Services.


title: Barnard College

text: According to Freedman, who is now the Barnard Zine Library curator, zine collections such as Barnard's provide a place on campus that is primarily female, default queer, intentionally of color, and gender expansive. The library is meant to be a home for the voices of young women and others otherwise underrepresented in library collections. The Zine Library's website states:


title: Barnard College

text: "Barnard's zines reflect Barnard College's student population. We have zines by women, nonbinary people, and trans men, with a collection emphasis on zines by women of color and a newer effort to acquire more zines by trans women. We collect zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. The zines are personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, trans feminisms, and other topics. Our zines are at the lower end of the production level scale and typically cost $10 or less, with most of them in the $1-$5 range."


title: Barnard College

text: As of February 2022, the library had approximately 7,000 unique zine titles/issues available to library patrons, including zines about race, gender, sexuality, childbirth, motherhood, politics, and relationships. Zine library staff attempt to acquire two copies of any given zine. The first is filed in the college's climate-controlled, acid-free archives. Second copies are shelved in open stacks for lending. Both collections are cataloged in CLIO, the Columbia/Barnard online public access catalog[] and housed in the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning.


title: Barnard College

text: Every Barnard student is part of the Student Government Association (SGA), which elects a representative student government. SGA aims to facilitate the expression of opinions on matters that directly affect the Barnard community.


title: Barnard College

text: Student groups include theatre and vocal music groups, language clubs, literary magazines, a freeform radio station called WBAR, a biweekly magazine called the "Barnard Bulletin", community service groups, and others.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard students can also join extracurricular activities or organizations at Columbia University, while Columbia University students are allowed in most, but not all, Barnard organizations. Barnard's McIntosh Activities Council (commonly known as McAC), named after the first President of Barnard, Millicent McIntosh, organizes various community focused events on campus, such as Big Sub and Midnight Breakfast. McAC is made up of five sub-committees which are the Mosaic committee (formerly known as Multicultural), the Wellness committee, the Network committee, the Community committee, and the Action committee. Each committee has a different focus, such as hosting and publicizing identity and cultural events (Mosaic), having health and wellness related events (Wellness), giving students opportunities to be involved with Alumnae and various professionals (Network), planning events that bring the entire student body together (Community), and planning community service events that give back to the surrounding community (Action).


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard students participate in Columbia's six National Panhellenic Conference sororities—Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Omicron Pi, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Sigma Delta Tau—and the National Pan-Hellenic Council Sororities- Alpha Kappa Alpha (Lambda chapter) and Delta Sigma Theta (Rho chapter) as well as other sororities in the Multicultural Greek Council. Two National Panhellenic Conference organizations were founded at Barnard College. The Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity, founded on January 2, 1897, left campus during the college's 1913 ban on sororities but returned to establish its Alpha chapter in 2013. The Alpha Epsilon Phi, founded on October 24, 1909, is no longer on campus. , Barnard does not fully recognize the National Panhellenic Conference sororities at Columbia, but it does provide some funding to account for Barnard students living in Columbia housing through these organizations.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard Greek Games: One of Barnard's oldest traditions, the Barnard Greek Games were first held in 1903, and occurred annually until the Columbia University protests in 1968. Since then they have been sporadically revived. The games consist of competitions between each graduating class at Barnard, and events have traditionally included Greek poetry recitation, dance, chariot racing, and a torch race.


title: Barnard College

text: Take Back the Night: Each April, Barnard and Columbia students participate in the Take Back the Night march and speak-out. This annual event grew out of a 1988 Seven Sisters conference. The march has grown from under 200 participants in 1988 to more than 2,500 in 2007.


title: Barnard College

text: Midnight Breakfast marks the beginning of finals week. As a highly popular event and long-standing college tradition, Midnight Breakfast is hosted by the student-run activities council, McAC (McIntosh Activities Council). In addition to providing standard breakfast foods, each year's theme is also incorporated into the menu. Past themes have included "I YUMM the 90s," "Grease," and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." The event is a school-wide affair as college deans, trustees and the president serve food to about a thousand students. It takes place the night before finals begin every semester.


title: Barnard College

text: Big Sub: Towards the beginning of each fall semester, Barnard College supplies a 700+ feet long subway sandwich. Students from the college can take as much of the sub as they can carry. The sub has kosher, dairy free, vegetarian, and vegan sections. This event is organized by the student-run activities council, McAC.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard is an independent institution with its own policies, endowment, and trustees. The college's agreement with Columbia University means that Barnard is one of Columbia University's four undergraduate colleges, and students have access to libraries, facilities, and activities on both campuses; Barnard students compete in NCAA Division 1 athletics through the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium; Barnard and Columbia undergraduate students cross-register in courses at both institutions; and students receive a diploma from both Barnard College and Columbia University. Barnard students can also pursue "4+1 Pathways for Accelerated Graduate Study" with Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, Mailman School of Public Health, School of International and Public Affairs, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.


title: Barnard College

text: Outside sources often describe Barnard as part of Columbia; "The New York Times" in 2013, for example, called Barnard "an undergraduate women's college of Columbia University". Its front gates read "Barnard College of Columbia University." Barnard describes itself as "both an independently incorporated educational institution and an official college of Columbia University" that is "one of the University's four colleges, but we're largely autonomous, with our own leadership and purse strings", and advises students to state "Barnard College, Columbia University" or "Barnard College of Columbia University" on résumés.


title: Barnard College

text: Columbia describes Barnard as an affiliated institution that is a faculty of the university or is "in partnership with" it. Both the college and Columbia evaluate Barnard faculty for tenure, and Barnard graduates receive Columbia diplomas signed by the Barnard and the Columbia presidents.


title: Barnard College

text: Smith and Columbia president Seth Low worked to open Columbia classes to Barnard students. By 1900 they could attend Columbia classes in philosophy, political science, and several scientific fields. That year Barnard formalized an affiliation with the university which made available to its students the instruction and facilities of Columbia. Franz Boas, who taught at both Columbia and Barnard in the early 1900s, was among those faculty members who reportedly found Barnard students superior to their male Columbia counterparts. From 1955 Columbia and Barnard students could register for the other school's classes with the permission of the instructor; from 1973 no permission was needed.


title: Barnard College

text: Except for Columbia College, by the 1940s other undergraduate and graduate divisions of Columbia University admitted women. Columbia president William J. McGill predicted in 1970 that Barnard College and Columbia College would merge within five years. In 1973 Columbia and Barnard signed a three-year agreement to increase sharing classrooms, facilities, and housing, and cooperation in faculty appointments, which they described as "integration without assimilation"; by the mid-1970s most Columbia dormitories were coed. The university's financial difficulties during the decade increased its desire to merge to end what Columbia described as the "anachronism" of single-sex education, but Barnard resisted doing so because of Columbia's large debt, rejecting in 1975 Columbia dean Peter Pouncey's proposal to merge Barnard and the three Columbia undergraduate schools. The 1973–1976 chairwoman of the board at Barnard, Eleanor Thomas Elliott, led the resistance to this takeover. The college's marketing emphasized the Columbia relationship, however, the "Bulletin" in 1976 stating that Barnard described it as identical to the one between Harvard College and Radcliffe College ("who are merged in practically everything but name at this point").


title: Barnard College

text: After Barnard rejected subsequent merger proposals from Columbia and a one-year extension to the 1973 agreement expired, in 1977 the two schools began discussing their future relationship. By 1979 the relationship had so deteriorated that Barnard officials stopped attending meetings. Because of an expected decline in enrollment, in 1980 a Columbia committee recommended that Columbia College begin admitting women without Barnard's cooperation. A 1981 committee found that Columbia was no longer competitive with other Ivy League universities without women, and that admitting women would not affect Barnard's applicant pool. That year Columbia president Michael Sovern agreed for the two schools to cooperate in admitting women to Columbia, but Barnard faculty's opposition caused president Ellen Futter to reject the agreement.


title: Barnard College

text: A decade of negotiations for a Columbia-Barnard merger akin to Harvard and Radcliffe had failed. In January 1982, the two schools instead announced that Columbia College would begin admitting women in 1983, and Barnard's control over tenure for its faculty would increase; previously, a committee on which Columbia faculty outnumbered Barnard's three to two controlled the latter's tenure. Applications to Columbia rose 56% that year, making admission more selective, and nine Barnard students transferred to Columbia. Eight students admitted to both Columbia and Barnard chose Barnard, while 78 chose Columbia. Within a few years, however, selectivity rose at both schools as they received more women applicants than expected.


title: Barnard College

text: The Columbia-Barnard affiliation continued. Barnard pays Columbia about $5 million a year under the terms of the "interoperate relationship", which the two schools renegotiate every 15 years. Despite the affiliation Barnard is legally and financially separate from Columbia, with an independent faculty and board of trustees. It is responsible for its own separate admissions, health, security, guidance and placement services, and has its own alumnae association. Nonetheless, Barnard students participate in the academic, social, athletic and extracurricular life of the broader University community on a reciprocal basis. The affiliation permits the two schools to share some academic resources; for example, only Barnard has an urban studies department, and only Columbia has a computer science department. Most Columbia classes are open to Barnard students and vice versa. Barnard students and faculty are represented in the University Senate, and student organizations such as the "Columbia Daily Spectator" are open to all students. Barnard students play on Columbia athletics teams, and Barnard uses Columbia email, telephone and network services.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard athletes compete in the Ivy League (NCAA Division I) through the Columbia/Barnard Athletic Consortium, which was established in 1983. Through this arrangement, Barnard is the only women's college offering DivisionI athletics. There are 15 intercollegiate teams, and students also compete at the intramural and club levels. From 1975 to 1983, before the establishment of the Columbia/Barnard Athletic Consortium, Barnard students competed as the "Barnard Bears". Prior to 1975, students referred to themselves as the "Barnard honeybears".


title: Barnard College

text: In the spring of 1960, Columbia University president Grayson Kirk complained to the president of Barnard that Barnard students were wearing inappropriate clothing. The garments in question were pants and Bermuda shorts. The administration forced the student council to institute a dress code. Students would be allowed to wear shorts and pants only at Barnard and only if the shorts were no more than two inches above the knee and the pants were not tight. Barnard women crossing the street to enter the Columbia campus wearing shorts or pants were required to cover themselves with a long coat.


title: Barnard College

text: In March 1968, "The New York Times" ran an article on students who cohabited, identifying one of the persons they interviewed as a student at Barnard College from New Hampshire named "Susan". Barnard officials searched their records for women from New Hampshire and were able to determine that "Susan" was the pseudonym of a student (Linda LeClair) who was living with her boyfriend, a student at Columbia University. She was called before Barnard's student-faculty administration judicial committee, where she faced the possibility of expulsion. A student protest included a petition signed by 300 other Barnard women, admitting that they too had broken the regulations against cohabitating. The judicial committee reached a compromise and the student was allowed to remain in school, but was denied use of the college cafeteria and barred from all social activities. The student briefly became a focus of intense national attention. She eventually dropped out of Barnard.


title: Barnard College

text: Barnard College has graduated many prominent leaders in science, religion, politics, the Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, theater, and business; and acclaimed actors, architects, artists, astronauts, engineers, human rights activists, inventors, musicians, philanthropists, and writers. They include academic Louise Holland (1914), author Zora Neale Hurston (1928), author and political activist Grace Lee Boggs (1935), television host Ronnie Eldridge (1952), Phyllis E. Grann, CEO of Penguin Putnam, U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan (1924), Spelman College's 11th President and former chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS Helene D. Gayle (1970), president of the American Civil Liberties Union Susan Herman (1968), Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Judith Kaye (1958), chair of the National Labor Relations Board Wilma B. Liebman (1971), musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson (1969), actress, activist, and gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon (1988), author of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" Ann Brashares (1989), "The New Yorker" cartoonist Amy Hwang (2000), actress from "Grey's Anatomy" Kelly McCreary (2003), writer and director Greta Gerwig (2004), and Disney Channel actress Christy Carlson Romano (2015).


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Assassin's Creed: Revelations is a 2011 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the fourth major installment in the "Assassin's Creed" series, and a direct sequel to 2010's "", concluding the "Ezio Trilogy". The game was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows in November and December 2011. A remastered version of "Revelations", along with "Assassin's Creed II" and "Brotherhood", was released as part of "The Ezio Collection" compilation for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on November 15, 2016, and for the Nintendo Switch on February 17, 2022.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The plot is set in a fictional history of real-world events and follows the millennia-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight to preserve peace and free will, and the Templars, who desire peace through control. The framing story is set in the 21st century and features the series protagonist Desmond Miles who, after falling into a coma during the events of "Brotherhood", must relive the memories of his ancestors through the Animus device in order to awaken and find a way to avert the 2012 apocalypse. The main story spans the years 1511–1512, and follows an aged Ezio Auditore da Firenze (the protagonist of the trilogy) as he travels to Constantinople to find five keys needed to unlock a vault built three centuries ago by Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad (the protagonist of the first game in the series). While searching for the keys, Ezio becomes caught in a feud between the Ottomans and the Byzantines, and discovers that the Templars are also attempting to unlock Altaïr's vault and its secrets.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Revelations" features an open world and is played from the third-person perspective, with a primary focus on using Ezio's and Altaïr's combat, climbing and stealth abilities to eliminate targets and explore the environment. Ezio, who the player controls throughout the majority of the game, can freely explore Constantinople and complete side missions unrelated to the main storyline. Altaïr is playable in a smaller capacity, as he is featured only in a series of flashback missions set in Masyaf from 1189 to 1257. In the modern-day, the player controls Desmond in a series of first-person platforming levels within the Animus. The multiplayer mode returns from "Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood", and has been expanded with additional maps, characters, and game modes.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The game was released with multiple editions, some of which featured exclusive limited-time content. Most notably, several editions included an animated short film, titled "", which serves as a proper conclusion to Ezio's story, and which was later re-released as a free download on the PlayStation Store. Downloadable content (DLC) released for the game includes new maps and characters for the multiplayer mode, and a story expansion titled "The Lost Archive", which adds more platforming levels to the modern-day.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Upon release, "Revelations" received largely positive reviews, with praise directed at the world design and narrative, although some reviewers noted that the gameplay of the series was getting overly familiar and the newly introduced features felt lacking in comparison to the ones introduced in previous titles. The game was a large commercial success, outperforming the sales of its predecessors. It was followed in October 2012 by "Assassin's Creed III", which introduces a new storyline and protagonist in the New World during the 18th century, while also concluding Desmond's story arc.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" is an action-adventure, stealth game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. The game features three distinct protagonists: Ezio Auditore, Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad, and Desmond Miles. When playing as Ezio or Altaïr, the game retains the series' standard gameplay formula, consisting of a mixture of combat, stealth, and exploration. While the base gameplay remains virtually unchanged from the previous title, "", "Revelations" does add several new features; most notably, the "Hookblade", which acts as a replacement for Ezio's traditional dual Hidden Blade (which is broken at the beginning of the game). The Hookblade is intended to facilitate traversal and compensate for Ezio's old age, allowing him to climb buildings much faster and reach further ledges. It can also be used to jump over large gaps and access ziplines across the environment. Reportedly, the Hookblade speeds up navigation by around 30 percent. The Hookblade also has applications in combat, allowing for new moves such as grabbing and yanking enemies for a combo attack.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Another new aspect in the game is bomb crafting. Introduced early on in the story, this mechanic allows Ezio to experiment with different shells and ingredients to create bombs with various effects, such as smoke to distract guards or lethal explosions that can take out large groups of enemies. There are around 15 different bomb variations in the game, although only three can be equipped at any given time.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Revelations" is primarily set in the city of Constantinople during the rise of the Ottoman Empire. It is similar in size to Rome from "Brotherhood", and just like it, it can be renovated by purchasing different stores, such as armories, book shops, and apothecaries. Doing so not only grants Ezio access to that store's services, but it also increases the passive income generated by the city, which is deposited in the bank and must be collected regularly. The player can also renovate several of Constantinople's landmarks, like the Galata Tower, Hagia Sophia, and the Topkapı Palace, to increase their income. Other locations include Masyaf and Cappadocia, which are visited by Ezio at various points in the story but become inaccessible after their respective sequences are completed.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Similarly to "Brotherhood", players can gradually take control of Constantinople from the Templars by destroying their towers in each of the city's districts and killing the Templar captain stationed there. However, this feature has been expanded, as now the Templars will attempt to reclaim their tower if Ezio's notoriety in that district becomes too high and the player has not yet taken over the other Templar dens. When this occurs, the player will have to defend the tower in a "Den Defense" minigame, where they control a group of Assassins from the rooftops and must fight off multiple waves of Templar soldiers and siege equipment.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Another returning feature from "Brotherhood" is the ability to recruit Assassin initiates and call them for support during missions or send them on assignments to other cities around the Mediterranean Sea, which are controlled by the Templars. By completing contracts, the initiates gain experience and level up, granting them access to better equipment, and also reduce Templar influence in a particular region. When Templar control over a city is weakened enough, the Assassins can launch an attack to try and take it over. To prevent the Templars from reconquering a city, Ezio can assign up to five Assassins to be permanently stationed there. An Assassin recruit who has reached the highest possible rank can be assigned to serve as the "Den Master" for any of the Assassin-controlled towers in Constantinople. This allows them to level up five additional ranks, and also unlocks a unique mission for each district, in which Ezio and the Assassin hunt down a dangerous Templar in that area of the city.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Other side activities include Piri Reis Missions, which teach the player about the different types of bombs that can be crafted; Guild Challenges for any of the three ally factions in the game (Thieves, Mercenaries, and the Romani); and finding rare books for Ezio's love interest, Sofia Sartor. In-game collectibles include treasure chests, Animus data fragments, and Ishak Pasha's Memoir Pages, the last of which unlock a secret mission akin to the Assassin Tombs from "Assassin's Creed II" and Lairs of Romulus from "Brotherhood", in which Ezio must explore the inside of Hagia Sophia to retrieve Pasha's armor set.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Outside of the Ezio sequences, the game also features six Altaïr memories, which are unlocked after Ezio retrieves each "key" for the Masyaf library. In these sequences, Ezio is reliving key memories from Altaïr's life in Masyaf, during which the player controls the latter. Altaïr controls similarly to how he did in "Assassin's Creed", and lacks all of Ezio's advanced equipment, being limited to a sword, a single Hidden Blade, and throwing knives. Besides Ezio and Altaïr, the player can also play as Desmond in the modern day, whose mind is stuck in the computerized core of the Animus, known as "Animus Island". The island acts as a mini-hub, from where Desmond can access five memory sequences known as "Desmond's Journey", as long as the player has collected enough data fragments or has "The Lost Archive" DLC installed. These sequences play differently from anything that has come before in the series, as they involve first-person platforming and puzzles, while the story is provided in the form of narration by Desmond, who recounts his life prior to the events of the first "Assassin's Creed" game.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The console versions of the game support the stereoscopic 3D mode for both 3D-HD and 2D-HD television screens. All "Revelations" gameplay videos and cinematics have S3D support.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Multiplayer gameplay also makes a return in "Revelations", and builds upon the basic game modes from "Brotherhood" with new characters and locations and improved matchmaking and game interface. Before release, Ubisoft stated that although this component is returning, the narrative, which is considered more important to the franchise, is an area of greater focus. As players level up in multiplayer, they move up in their Abstergo Templar rank and gain access to more information about the company.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: New multiplayer modes are added to the already existing modes, including "story-oriented quests", as well as a much-requested Capture the Flag mode. Some multiplayer maps are based in the island of Rhodes. Among the new additions is a new multiplayer mode — Deathmatch — which differs from the previous multiplayer gameplay in that there is no compass pointing toward your assigned target, rather, there is a box in the top right of the screen where your current target is displayed, which glows blue when you enter the line of sight of your target. There is also Simple Deathmatch, which also removes the abilities and perks from the players.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The multiplayer function is protected by the Uplay Passport system on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which requires a code for access. Codes are included in all new copies of the game, but are tied to a single Uplay account. This means that players who purchased their copy second hand will need to purchase a new code to access the multiplayer. Uplay players can buy a new Passport code online or activate a free trial.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Players who preordered the game with specific editions received three exclusive multiplayer characters: the Ottoman Jester, the Crusader, and the Ottoman Doctor. Those who played the "Assassin's Creed Brotherhood" multiplayer received the Courtesan, a character who also appeared in the multiplayer for "Brotherhood". More characters and maps were later added via downloadable content.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Ubisoft announced that the multiplayer servers for "Revelations", alongside several other of their older titles, would be shut down on September 1, 2022. The date was later delayed to October 1, 2022. This renders all multiplayer-related achievements and trophies on the original console versions as unobtainable.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Assassin's Creed Revelations" features all three of the series' major characters up until this point: Desmond Miles (Nolan North), Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad (Cas Anvar), and Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Roger Craig Smith). The main part of the story takes Ezio to Constantinople, present day Istanbul, in 1511 AD, during the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Four of the city's districts are available to explore: Constantine, Bayezid, Imperial, and Galata. Ezio also briefly travels to Cappadocia, part of which is a completely underground city populated solely by Templars, and Masyaf, where the old Assassins' stronghold is located (featured in the first "Assassin's Creed" game). He discovers Altaïr has sealed within the fortress an ancient artifact that is said to be a powerful weapon which could end the Templar-Assassin war forever, and had the keys hidden in Constantinople.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The game also continues the storylines of both Desmond and Altaïr following the previous games in the series. After falling into a coma at the end of , Desmond has become trapped in the Animus 2.0, where he finds a safe mode known as "the Black Room". Helped by the preserved consciousness of Clay Kaczmarek / Subject 16 (Graham Cuthbertson), Abstergo Industries' previous Animus test subject, he must find a "synch nexus", a key memory that links him with Altaïr and Ezio, to reintegrate his splintered subconscious and awaken from his coma. Altaïr's part of the narrative is told in the form of flashbacks experienced by Ezio through the keys he finds, which hold Altaïr's memories. It spans the years 1189–1257 AD, and depicts several key moments in Altaïr's life, primarily his struggle to lead the Assassins into a new era after becoming their Mentor.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: During the game, Ezio meets a variety of historical figures, including Manuel Palaiologos (Vlasta Vrana), an heir to the now-lost Byzantine Empire; Byzantine Templars lurking in the shadows of Constantinople; Prince Suleiman (Haaz Sleiman), the man who will one day become one of the Ottoman Empire's greatest Sultans; and his uncle, Prince Ahmet (Tamer Hassan). Other historical characters include Piri Reis (Alex Ivanovici), Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, Ishak Pasha, Yusuf Tazim (Chris Parson), Al Mualim (Peter Renaday), Bayezid II, Selim I (Mark Ivanir), Shahkulu (Alex Ivanovici), and Tarik Barleti (JB Blanc). Ezio's love interest, Sofia Sartor (Anna Tuveri), is based on "Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman" by Albrecht Dürer.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Following , Shaun Hastings stays in Rome to attend Lucy Stillman's funeral, while Rebecca Crane takes the comatose Desmond to his father, William Miles, in New York. To save Desmond's mind, they place him in the Animus's safe mode, the "Black Room". Awakening on Animus Island, a testing program within the Black Room, Desmond meets the consciousness of Clay Kaczmarek, Abstergo's previous Animus test subject, who explains that Desmond must repair his mind by fully reliving his ancestors' memories, at which point the Animus can separate Desmond from his ancestors, and awaken him.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Desmond returns to the perspective of Ezio, who, in 1511, travels to the Assassins' former fortress in Masyaf to learn more about their secrets. He finds Masyaf occupied by the Templars, who try to execute him. Ezio escapes and discovers the entrance to an underground library built by Altaïr, which requires five "keys" to unlock. The Templars have found one key underneath the Ottoman Sultan's palace, and are searching for the rest in Constantinople. Travelling there, Ezio is met by Yusuf Tazim, leader of the Ottoman Assassins, and befriends the young student Suleiman. Ezio soon learns that the keys were hidden by Niccolò Polo, and meets Sofia Sartor, an Italian traveler and collector. Ezio finds the keys with Sofia's help, while developing feelings for her.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Meanwhile, Prince Ahmet and his brother Selim are quarreling over who will inherit the Sultanate. Revealing himself as Selim's son, Suleiman asks Ezio to investigate the Byzantine Templars, whom he suspects to be behind the feud. Ezio discovers that Manuel Palaiologos, with Templar support, is attempting to raise an army to overthrow the Ottomans and re-establish the Byzantine Empire. Ezio travels to Cappadocia, kills Manuel, and recovers the final key, but learns Ahmet is the true mastermind behind the Templar plot to open Altaïr's library.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: During these events, Ezio uses the keys to witness various moments in Altaïr's life. He learns that Altaïr, after killing his traitorous mentor, Al Mualim, took over and tried to reform the Assassins, but was challenged by a former friend, Abbas Sofian. While Altaïr and his wife Maria were away fighting off the Mongol invasion, Abbas staged a coup, seizing control of the Assassins and executing Altaïr's youngest son, Sef. Altaïr sought revenge, but Maria tried to stop him, leading to her also being killed. Altaïr was subsequently forced into a self-imposed exile, but eventually returned to kill Abbas and reclaim leadership of the Assassins. Years later, Altaïr encoded his memories on the keys before entrusting them to Niccolò.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Returning to Constantinople, Ezio discovers that Ahmet has killed Yusuf and kidnapped Sofia, demanding the keys in exchange for her. Ezio agrees, but after saving Sofia, he pursues Ahmet and recovers the keys. While Ahmet is killed by Selim, now the Sultan, Ezio is spared due to Suleiman's endorsement, but is ordered to leave Constantinople and never return. After completing this memory, the Animus begins to delete excess data. Clay sacrifices himself to save Desmond from being deleted.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Ezio and Sofia return to Masyaf, where Ezio unlocks Altaïr's library, finding it empty except for Altaïr's skeleton and a sixth key. Through the key, Ezio discovers that the library was a vault meant to house Altaïr's Apple of Eden, and that Altaïr had sealed himself to protect it. Ezio leaves the Apple there, stating that he had seen enough for one life, and speaks directly to Desmond, knowing that he is watching. He tells Desmond that he realizes he is nothing more than a conduit for a message, and hopes that Desmond will be able to find answers to his questions. With this, Ezio retires from the Assassins.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Desmond is approached by Jupiter, a member of the First Civilization. He explains that his race had studied methods to save the planet from destruction, and transmitted all the collected data to a central vault—the Grand Temple. Jupiter tells Desmond that he must find the Temple before an impending solar flare hits the Earth and kills all of humanity. Awakening from the coma, Desmond finds Rebecca, Shaun, and William next to him, and tells them that he knows what they must do, just as they arrive at the Grand Temple's location.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The multiplayer aspect has its own plot from the Templar perspective. After impressing Warren Vidic in the of Abstergo's Animus Training Program, the player is selected to participate in the second stage of the program for further training. Upon being promoted to the rank of Master Templar, the player is allowed into the inner sanctum of the Templar Order and is implanted with a tracker to ensure their trustworthiness. After reaching level 50, the player is dubbed an active agent, and assigned the task of finding and capturing the current Mentor of the Assassin Order: William Miles.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: During his time in the Animus's Black Room, Desmond involuntarily experiences Clay Kaczmarek's memories, learning more about his life. Clay recalls his father's disregard for his career goals, demanding that Clay should instead become an engineer to provide for his family. Clay believed that his father's focus on wealth pushed his mother away from the family. Eventually, Clay joined the Assassins and was sent to infiltrate Abstergo Industries' Animus Project laboratory in Rome and discover what Warren Vidic hoped to achieve by exploring the genetic memories of various Assassins. Lucy Stillman, an Assassin herself, had been placed within the facility to rescue Clay when his mission was complete.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Clay eventually realized that Vidic was using these genetic memories to discover the locations of various Pieces of Eden across the globe. In particular, Vidic focused on locating an Apple of Eden, which was meant to be launched aboard a satellite to control the minds of the entire human race. Clay also witnessed Lucy discussing her true loyalty to the Templars with Vidic, and revealed her actual motives, which were to remove Desmond from the Abstergo facility and transport him to a more comfortable environment, where she would use the Assassins' resources to discover the location of the Apple and recover it for the Templars. After discovering that Clay had learned about her treachery, Lucy wiped the security feed showing that he had witnessed her conversation with Vidic, and kept Clay imprisoned at the Abstergo facility, both to protect him and to keep her true allegiances secret.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: These memories continue in a loop until Desmond collects all the scattered memory fragments, which allow him to access a final memory. In it, Clay emails his father to tell him not to worry about his disappearance, because he has found a greater purpose to serve, foreshadowing his suicide.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" was initially conceived as a Nintendo 3DS game called "Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy" about Ezio traveling east to the Assassins' former city of Masyaf, where he would have discovered the origins of the Assassin Order. It was first announced during Nintendo's E3 2010 press conference. It was quietly cancelled and its main concept was developed into "Assassin's Creed: Revelations".


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: In November 2010, Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot teased "something "Assassin's" related" in 2011, despite an earlier statement by Ubisoft Montreal's Jean-Francois Boivin that no "Assassin's Creed" game will be released in 2011. Geoffroy Sardin of Ubisoft later confirmed that there will be a "big" Assassin's Creed game in 2011. Guillemot also explained that ultimate goal for Ubisoft is to release new games in the franchise annually along with Ubisoft's most popular other franchises. In February 2011, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the next "Assassin's Creed" game would be released during its next fiscal year, which starts on April 1, 2011, and ends on March 31, 2012.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: On April 29, 2011 the game's name was released on the official "Assassin's Creed" Facebook page, with a link which led to a flash file. The teaser clip included the words, "Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad, Son of no one" in Arabic which hints that "Altaïr", the main protagonist of the first game, may once again be the main protagonist of the game. A third teaser clip for the game showed the city of Constantinople, which hints at it being the setting for the game. In the E3 rumor section of its April 2011 issue, Xbox World 360 said "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" is not "Assassin's Creed III", but suggests that game is also secretly in the works. "Revelations" was likely to be "another slimline "Brotherhood"-style offering", Xbox World 360 stated. On May 5, "Game Informer" released details of the game, and the game was "officially" announced by Ubisoft at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The game was developed primarily by Ubisoft Montreal in Canada. Production was aided in part by five other Ubisoft developers: Annecy, Massive, Quebec, Singapore, and Bucharest. Lead writer Darby McDevitt said that "Revelations" would not answer all the burning questions clouding the series, stating "Well, we won't answer everything because Desmond's story continues. But fans will definitely know most of the important details of Ezio and Altair's lives, and how they fit into the grand scheme." McDevitt also stated that 85 percent of "Assassin's Creed's" overarching plot is already "mapped out". McDevitt claimed original "Creed" protagonist Altaïr had his story arc written for two years, and that Ezio's ultimate fate was planned during the development of "Brotherhood".


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Voice of Desmond Miles, Nolan North, urged Ubisoft to adopt motion capture methods similar to Naughty Dog's "Uncharted". Speaking in an interview, North admitted there is a "disconnect" in the Ubisoft game's current setup, which has voice actors provide voice facial animation separately from body motion capture, which is recorded by different actors. "I wish it wasn't done separately," North said. "Don't get me wrong, the mo-cap actors do a great job, but there will always be somewhat of a disconnect when it's done this way. After my experiences on the "Uncharted" franchise, where the actors do both performance and voice, I can honestly say there is absolutely a difference."


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The PC version of "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" does not force players to always be online to work like its predecessors, despite Ubisoft's recent claims that its policy is a success, insisting it has seen "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection". Even then, the always-online DRM was permanently removed from all single-player games. It does, however, require a one-time-only online activation the very first time the player plays the game, which will permanently bind the activation code to the player's account, and thus, it does not need to be activated again on the same account if the game is reinstalled for some reason. This also applies to reinstalling on another computer. Following that, the player can permanently play the game in offline mode.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Ubisoft announced a PlayStation Network timed exclusive multiplayer beta for "Assassin's Creed Revelations" on August 10, 2011. The beta began on September 3, 2011, and finished September 17, 2011, exclusively for PlayStation Plus and Uplay members on PlayStation 3. On September 8, the multiplayer beta opened to everyone with a PSN account. The beta offered access to nine characters (The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster, The Champion – all boasting different abilities), three maps (Knight's Hospital, Antioch, Galata) and four playable modes (the previously seen Wanted and Manhunt options joined by new Deathmatch and Artifact Assault variants).


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Media Molecule announced on November 15, 2011 that a new Ezio costume for Sackboy will be made available in "LittleBigPlanet 2" to promote the launch of "Assassin's Creed: Revelations". Those who pre-ordered through Best Buy got an exclusive multiplayer character. All day one copies of "Revelations" for the PlayStation 3 had the first "Assassin's Creed" bundled as part of the disc, which launched in 2007. Ubisoft called the announcement a "special partnership" between itself and Sony Computer Entertainment America, and that the deal only applies in Europe. Additionally, Ubisoft released an "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" Avatar collection Xbox 360, which includes a Codex prop, Desmond's black hoodie, and a pet eagle. Also, the following outfits will be available: Ezio, Bombardier, Guardian, Sentinel, and Vanguard (female only).


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: There are several different limited editions of "Assassin's Creed Revelations". The "Animus", "Collector's" and "Special" editions were available on all platforms and only in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, while the "Signature Edition" was only available in North America through GameStop for all platforms. Those who pre-ordered "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" through GameStop automatically upgraded to the "Signature Edition" of the game at no extra cost. The "Signature Edition" features exclusive packaging, a bonus single-player mission ("Vlad the Impaler Prison"), an exclusive multiplayer character ("Ottoman Jester"), weapons capacity upgrades, an animated short film ("Assassin's Creed Embers Movie") and the original game's soundtrack.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The "PS3-Only edition" includes the standard game contents plus a complete version of the "Assassin's Creed" original game included in the game disc. This edition is only available to those who bought the game when it first released or pre-ordered it. The "Animus Edition" features an Animus box, an in-depth encyclopedia, an animated short film ("Assassin's Creed Embers Movie") and the original game's soundtrack. In-game content included is an exclusive mission ("Vlad the Impaler Prison"), an armor from "" ("Armor of Brutus") in single-player, weapons capacity upgrades, and two additional multiplayer characters ("The Crusader" and "Ottoman Jester").


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The Gold Edition is digitally exclusive to the PC. It is available on Uplay and Steam and it contains all the downloadable and redeemable content available on Uplay.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Ubisoft's Uplay system enables further in-game enhancements which can be redeemed by points that are given when playing the game. The available awards are a "Revelations" theme or wallpaper for PC and PlayStation 3, Solo Pack, Mediterranean Exclusive Missions, and Multiplayer Pack which unlocks the Knight character.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: On the day of the game's launch, Ubisoft announced that they were working on various downloadable content (DLC) for the game. The first one announced was a character pack, which was released in December 2011. It adds four new characters to the multiplayer mode: the Privateer, Corsair, Brigand, and Gladiator.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The second DLC pack announced was the "Mediterranean Traveler Map" Pack, which was released on January 24, 2012. It adds six new multiplayer maps, three of which return from "Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood".


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: The final DLC pack for the game, titled "The Lost Archive", was released on February 28, 2012. It adds a new campaign in the style of the "Desmond's Journey" sequences from the base game, as well as most of the exclusive content from the different limited editions of "Revelations". The DLC pack is available for purchase separately and bundled with the Ottoman and Gold Editions.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" received generally positive reviews from critics upon release. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 80.05% and 80/100, the Xbox 360 version 79.37% and 80/100, and the PC version 74.67% and 80/100 respectively. IGN gave the game a rating of 8.5 out of 10, stating "This is the best "Assassin's Creed" yet, even if that victory is claimed by an inch and not a mile. If you've been following the lives of Altair and Ezio this long, you owe it to yourself to see their last adventure." 1UP gave the game a rating of B+, stating "While "Revelations" lacks that one supreme improvement or standout mechanic that defined "AC2" and "Brotherhood" each, it's still a damn fine sendoff for Altair and Ezio."


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Edge" gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, saying that "unlike the elegant lead, who's grey-haired but unbowed by the end of the adventure, "Assassin's Creed" has been quietly compromised by age". Eurogamer also gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, writing "where "Brotherhood" enhanced the thrill of being Ezio Auditore, "Revelations" distracts from it. Ezio may look old, but it's the series itself that really shows its age."


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "VideoGamer" gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, stating "So, for the first time, a new "Assassin's Creed" game is worse than its predecessor, the first time the short development period has had a noticeable impact on the game's quality. It's a game of nearlies and might-have-beens: summed up by the hookblade, a supposedly key new feature which in practice merely extends Ezio's reach slightly, and allows him to glide down the occasional zipline." GamePro also gave the game a rating of 7 out of 10, saying that "at its core, this is the "Assassin's Creed" we've grown to love in recent years, and it still serves as a pretty good time sink – plus, it's a necessary bridge to next year's already-announced follow-up. But obligation shouldn't be the primary reason to play something, and sadly, that's too often the case in this humdrum campaign."


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Game Informer" gave the game a rating of 8.75 out of 10, writing "a number of new features have been attempted to make "Revelations" feel new and different from its predecessors. In that quest for broader variety and a unique identity from the earlier games, "Revelations" makes some missteps that are hard to ignore. However, the game offers more of what has been great about the franchise, and that should be enough to bring most fans to the table, even if it is a poor starting point for new players." GameTrailers also gave the game a rating of 8.8 out of 10, saying that "the engine is a bit long in the tooth and some of the content isn't entirely worth exploring, but if you're looking for an unforgettable top shelf action/adventure, heed the creed".


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: "Official Xbox Magazine" gave the game a rating of 8.5 out of 10, stating "What's available here remains as ridiculously appealing as ever. It's still a thrill unique to the series to be perched six stories high, looking out across miles of meticulously rendered game world — even if that dazzling, danger-filled world has grown overly familiar, having traded what was once revolution for iterative evolution." UK "Official PlayStation Magazine" gave the game a rating of 9 out of 10, stating "As a conclusion for Ezio's chapter, "Revelations" proves an utterly brilliant swansong."


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: In April 2020, "Game Informer" ranked the game as the eleventh best game in the "Assassin's Creed" series to date.


title: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

text: Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot announced during an earnings call on November 8, 2011, that pre-orders for "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" were "significantly higher" than figures for "", yet the firm is still expecting a "double digit decline" in sales for "Revelations" compared to the other title. According to NPD Group, "Revelations" was the fourth-best selling game in the U.S. in November 2011. Ubisoft announced sales of "Revelations" were up 10 percent year-on-year on 2010s "Brotherhood". That puts "Revelations" first month total at around 1.26 million. "Revelations" debuted at second place in the UK video game sales chart in its first week. Its week one numbers were better than those of its predecessor "Brotherhood" by four percent in unit terms and eight percent in revenue, making it the best performing title both in the series and in Ubisoft's history to date. 61 percent of the game's sales occurred in the first 24 hours. As of February 15, 2012, the game has shipped 7 million copies worldwide.


title: Governor General of Canada

text: The governor general of Canada () is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, the United Kingdom. The , on the advice of Canadian prime minister, appoints a governor general to carry on the Government of Canada in the 's name, performing most of constitutional and ceremonial duties. The commission is for an indefinite period—known as serving "at Majesty's pleasure"—though five years is the usual length of time. Since 1959, it has also been traditional to alternate between francophone and anglophone officeholders—although many recent governors general have been bilingual.


title: Governor General of Canada

text: The office began in the 17th century, when the French crown appointed governors of the colony of Canada. Following the British conquest of the colony, the British monarch appointed governors of the Province of Quebec (later the Canadas) from 1763 onward. Consequently, the office is, along with the Crown, the oldest continuous institution in Canada. The present version of the office emerged with Canadian Confederation and the passing of the "British North America Act, 1867", which defines the role of the governor general as "carrying on the Government of Canada on behalf and in the Name of the King, by whatever Title he is designated". Although the post initially still represented the Government of the United Kingdom (that is, the monarch in his British council), the office was gradually Canadianized until, with the passage of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and the establishment of a separate and uniquely Canadian monarchy, the governor general became the direct personal representative of the independently and uniquely Canadian sovereign, the monarch in his Canadian council. Throughout this process of gradually increasing Canadian independence, the role of governor general took on additional responsibilities. For example, in 1904, the "Militia Act" granted permission for the governor general to use the title of "Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian militia", while command-in-chief remained vested in the sovereign, and in 1927 the first official international visit by a governor general was made. Finally, in 1947, King George VI issued letters patent allowing the viceroy to carry out almost all powers on behalf of the monarch. As a result, the day-to-day duties of the monarch are carried out by the governor general, although, as a matter of law, the governor general is not in the same constitutional position as the sovereign; the office itself does not independently possess any powers of the royal prerogative. In accordance with the "Constitution Act, 1982", any constitutional amendment that affects the Crown, including the office of Governor General, requires the unanimous consent of each provincial legislature as well as the Parliament of Canada.


title: Governor General of Canada

text: The 30th and current governor general is Mary Simon, who was sworn in on 26 July 2021. An Inuk leader from Nunavik in Quebec, Simon is the first Indigenous person to hold the office. She was nominated on 6 July 2021 to replace Julie Payette, who had resigned in January; Richard Wagner, the chief justice of Canada, had served as Administrator of the Government of Canada in the interim.


title: Governor General of Canada

text: The letters patent constituting the office, and official publications of the Government of Canada, spell the title "governor general", without a hyphen, unlike the spelling of the title in the other Commonwealth realms, which do include a hyphen as part of their titles. The hyphenated form, 'Governor-General of Canada', is sometimes used unofficially.


title: Governor General of Canada

text: As "governor" is the noun in the title, it is pluralized thus, "governors general", rather than "governor generals".


title: Governor General of Canada

text: The position of governor general is mandated by both the "Constitution Act, 1867" (formerly known as the "British North America Act, 1867") and the letters patent issued in 1947 by King George VI. As such, on the recommendation of the Canadian prime minister, the Canadian monarch appoints the governor general by commission issued under the royal sign-manual and Great Seal of Canada. That individual is, from then until being sworn in, referred to as the "governor general-designate".