LogFAQs > #954062953

I'm glad you posted that, because it gives me an excuse to go on about history and strategy games, which are much more interesting topics than Human Revolution imo. While reading all your posts about Age of Empires II, I did consider booting up the game again but never got around to it, and one of the things that turned me off was exactly the issue with the faction naming that you describe. The example that I found particularly disappointing was the "Slavs" as the sole representative not only for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, but (presumably) also for Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, which also creates a sort of redundancy/confusion since Bulgaria, which is a South Slavic nation, is its own faction. At least you can sort of simulate the wars between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by doing Slavs vs. Lithuanians, I guess. I would assume that the Tartars are supposed to be the Golden Horde successor states like the Crimean Khanate, Great Horde, and Nogai. And yeah this issue is present in Civ also to a certain extent. Like you said, Italy has always implicitly been represented by Rome except when V included Venice, Scotland used to be represented by the Celts (They spawn in Edinburgh in the Into the Renaissance scenario in V that uses the map of Europe,) and Germany is usually led by someone who ruled over either Prussia or the Holy Roman Empire, again because a united Germany is a relatively new thing. Of course the most egregious of all has to be Canada finally making it into Civ VI only to be represented by fucking Quebec.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having particular countries that you like to read more or less about than others - probably everyone who does like to read about history has their favorites, mine is obviously Russia. Though I will say the severity of your distaste for French and Italian history specifically does seem a little odd, at least the way it comes off from reading your post. For me, there's definitely a connection between my interest in the culture of a country and the history. I got into Russian history because I fell in love with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and I also like reading about Japan because I was raised on JRPGs and anime. Britain benefits from producing most of my favorite music and it helps a little that I live in a British Commonwealth country that still swears fealty to Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II. If anything though, I'd be offended by you bashing France rather than Italy, since French is the only non-English language I have even a shred of literacy in and I've always kind of liked them. I think Venice is an interesting enough country historically but I only gravitated to them in Civ V because of the game mechanics. Really though, every European country has a really rich history with plenty of interesting things to read about. France has stuff like the Hundred Years' War, a role in founding both the USA and Canada (some of the same American polictical commentators you take issue with for their attitudes toward China and the Middle East probably also forget how instrumental the French fleet was to the U.S. War for Independence, for example,) an unusual alliance with the Ottoman Empire, and of course the Napoleonic Wars which were incredibly Earth-shaking both for politics and philosophical thought all across the continent. Crime and Punishment, for example was both a response to and a prediction of writers like Nietzsche who created the Ubermench concept using Napoleon as his example. Without having read much about Italy specifically, they were the home of both the Renaissance and the Papal States, Italian merchant republics like Venice and Genoa colonized all over the place, they had a lot period of being pushed around by stronger neighbors like France, Spain, and the HRE followed by a difficult unification and emergence as a major power, and Venice had a leading role in the sack of Consantinople during the Fourth Crusade, which crippled the remains of the Roman Empire and contributed to the later fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, which is generally considered one of the most significant events in all of European history. I think all that stuff is super interesting, but to each his own at the end of the day. But really, its us in the formerly-colonial nations that don't have much in the way of interesting history to speak of, apart from that of the American Aboriginals of course.

I think the main thing that keeps me from spending more time with games like Age of Empires II is that instead of taking the time to learn them I always go back to Europa Universalis IV. Part of that is just because I already know that game pretty well so I don't have to go through the rougher early learning curve, but I also find it more interesting in terms of things like diplomacy and Empire-building, since a 300-year Grand Strategy campaign gives more of a sense that I'm building up an Empire than the (comparatively) short matches you get in an RTS. If you don't know about them already, I might recommend the Paradox-developed Grand Strategy games (EUIV and Crusader Kings II, and also Victoria 2 and Hearts of Iron IV if you're interested in later periods of history too,) to you as well if you're looking for something where the history itself takes a greater focus. They use the real-world map and just about every nation that existed in those time periods is playable, even tiny and seemingly-doomed ones like the post-Byzantine Epirus or individual Irish clans.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 19/129
Currently Playing: Deus Ex: Human Revolution