dexters
Why don't you submit your application directly to those who make the game. I don't think they look that closely at what we write here and your employment efforts are probably going to waste.
Meisen, ease up. I have been doing game design and working with various game companies for 20 plus years. My background is history, emphasis on military and naval, with a 3,000 books or so personal library. I have done consulting work for various US government agencies, plus working for the Marine Corps on various projects during the First Gulf War in 1991. If you want to see what I look like, check out the National Geographic Search for PT-109 video. I am the guy that identifies the wreck, plus talks about the Tokyo Express, and other things.
I have some problems with the historical accuracy of Civilizations, but I still play the game. I have issues with just about every game that I play over historical accuracy, and I play a lot, because I use board games to teach history every summer for a three week period. I am always tampering with the rules, changing them to bring them more in line with what I think that they should be. There is an unavoidable tension between historical accuracy and playability in every game that makes even a pretense at being historical. When I am working for a game on a game design, that is always one of the biggest issues to deal with. The bottom line is that you have to have a product that the average person will buy and play, and then tell his/her friends to buy and play as well. Then you make sure that you give the historical guys the tools to edit the game to their satisfaction, and try to make both camps happy. It is NOT EASY to do. Now that I can do editing in Civ3, I am enjoying the game much more, but the key is that the editor is THERE.
As for some of the historical issues I have with the game.
Numidian Mercenary infantry for Carthage. The Numidian mercenaries used by Carthage were all javelin using light cavalry. The heavy infantry came from the Carthaginian holdings in Spain. Also, no Carthaginian War Elephants. Hannibal used them, and also the Successor Kingdoms to Alexander used them heavily.
Lack of an Assyrian Civilization in the game. The Sumerians never fully took over what was called Mesopotamia and is now Iraq. The Assyrians had one of the largest empires in the Ancient World, and an EXTREMELY GOOD army which helped in getting that empire.
Cleopatra for Egyptian Ruler. Cleopatra's background was Greek, descended from Alexander's general Ptolemy, who took over Egypt following the death of Alexander. It they needed a woman, Hatshepsut or possibly Nefertiti would have been much better choices. Rameses II or Thutmoses III could have been used as well.
Lack of any significant Agricultural improvement beyond Irrigation. There have been at least 3 or 4 major increases in agriculture productivity that are not reflected in the game.
Naval Units and Values. Too extensive to cover in this post.
Combat values of some units verses what they did historically. Again, too extensive to cover in this post.
Some of the matching of Civilization traits seems a bit odd.
Olive oil was one of the mayor items in early international trading, and is included in some of the scenarios. I cannot understand why it is not automatically in the standard game. It is still a major item in international commerce, along with other edible oils.
I hope that this is a sufficiently representative sample for those who ask where historical objections may be. However, I STILL PLAY THE GAME!!!!!
