Volsung said:
But the Maya civilization is not South American. It is Meso-American, i.e. southern North America and Northern Central America, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. In South America a very widely known indigenous civilization would be the Incas.
Ah yes, right you are. Not the first time I confuse their location.
Volsung said:
THAT is just poor story-telling.
I wouldn't call the Templar / Assassins conflict poor story telling. As KoP said, it is a genre in itself, and since the whole AC games centers around the conflict, it's obvious they should be the primary focus.
But with that said, the main focus is not really the ideological divide in the AC franchise (especially not after AC1). In AC1, all the Templars you assassinate represent something, everything from from lust to power to a desire for an established order. Heck, even Altair's codices had a philosophical reflections in AC2. But still, the main focus in the games is primarily the characters, how they grow and develop throughout the game(s).
While the Assassin / Templar conflict is binary, it is being fought over several ideas and issues, both philosophical and practical. Essentially the both start with the same premise: "Nothing is True. Everything is permitted". While similar, they still have a very different view of the world and how it ought to be.