Isa Piva

I'm Isabela (aka @TDCAUGirl). I was once a content creator in the brazilian AC Community. I used to run a blog which had the biggest content related to AC in Portuguese, I was also a moderator at @UbisoftBrasil's official Facebook Group for AC and in 2017 Ubi made me Star Player.

I started playing AC in 2014 and I fell in love with it at the end of AC2, when I realized how unique this series was. So after playing the games, I began searching about the lore and tried to learn as much as I could, the more I searched, the more passionate I became.

Fascinated with the AC universe, I wanted to share what I knew with other fans. At first, I attempted to do so by creating a parody page with memes, in a way to soften the content so I could easily reach more people, without having them to read huge posts with lots of text.

And... It worked, in little more than a year I managed to have one of the biggest Facebook fan pages dedicated to Assassin's Creed in Brazil.

2016 and my friend Eder asked me if I wanted to run his blog. I accepted and began posting news, that's when the huge texts came... Reviews, theories, everything AC related, once it happened, it was there a few minutes later, translated and sometimes with my opinions as a fan.

I dedicated most of my time trying to create the best content I could, so I joined Ubi's FB Group for AC as a moderator, happy to try to make the community a better place where people would have quality content in Portuguese and a nice place to share their opinions with others.

Moderating a group with 70k wasn't easy, I was the only woman in a team with 5 friends, all of them men. I would often deal with sexists, members who couldn't accept a girl being in charge of asking them to follow the rules (designed by Ubisoft in partnership with all the mods).

But for some sexist members, those were "my rules" and it was like I waa the only moderator, just because I was a woman, and as such, I should not have the authority to ask men to follow the rules.

In 2017 Ubisoft recognized my work in the community and, alongside my friend Leonardo (one of the mods), they made me a Star Player. We both went to Brazil Game Show in São Paulo and met other fans from many of Ubi's IPs.

We had the chance to meet devs as well and play the demo for AC Origins. It was an amazing experience, a dream come true, beyond everything I could expect, and something I will never forget. But after that, things only got worse in the community...

When 3 men from another fan page learned I was given the title of Star Player, they began spreading lies about me, in order to harm my image towards the community and Ubisoft, blaming me for banishing one of them from the group, when actually one of the other mods did it.

The guy was banned trying to sell unofficial merchandise, not allowed for obvious reasons. But for this guy, I banned him for no reason. He began saying I was a tyrant and should be out from the mods team, one of them even asked my friend Eder to do so (as if he owned the group).

Eder tried to explain to him that those were the group rules and he broke them more than once, but he continued to spread lies about me, to make me look like the worst moderator, when I was there, most of my day, trying to do my best for the community.

This happened on Facebook, but it didn't stay there for long. Those guys were spreading lies to the community even through WhatsApp, where they created a private group in which they would call me things, in the most childish way, they even started calling me "Juno".

I was a tyrant for being the only woman in the mods team, even though I was doing the exact same thing the other mods were doing. Leonardo, Eder and my other friends were never bullied or called silly names, just me, because I'm a woman, and I shouldn't have such authority.

I'm not tagging those men in this thread because that's not what this is about. But they're still out here, the same guy that called me "tyrant" and "Juno" once called a female dev from Ubisoft a "Templar". It seems their sexist behavior hasn't changed.

Also, I must say this was always behind back, they never spoke with me directly, their intention was clear: to ruin my reputation in the community. That was their agenda.

In 2018, when I approached someone at Ubisoft Brazil for help and told what was happening showing screenshots and with the other mods attesting it, they simply did nothing. They didn't try speaking with those men or even post a message warning about toxic and sexist behavior.

I was expecting Ubisoft would do something about it. I couldn't bare having to deal with this stuff every day. I was there to create content and try to make a better community, not to be a target because of a title those men thought I didn't deserve for being a woman.

I've been supporting Ubi and their games for years, passionately sharing my content and taking care of their community for pure love, but when I most needed their support, I had none. So I left... Heartbroken and feeling like my work and passion meant nothing to them.

I miss being active in the community, sharing opinions, creating content. It's been 2 years, a lot happened to AC since I left. But I'm also glad I found amazing people here too, such as @emcuejay and @RinoTheBouncer, people that respect women and won't stand to sexism.