The QC
Quietly Confident
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2011
- Messages
- 335
Well because it isn't realistic. No country trades with another unless they have some sort of pact, open borders could be a trade pact as well.
If anything, realism *demands* that you can't stop trading with other nations.
Trading is a civilian matter that governments don't control and, historically, couldn't if they tried. First of all, you can't ban trading with one country while allowing trading with other countries. The trade would get around the ban by using proxies. So, you'd need either a fully isolationist stance (like medieval Japan) or a full embargo/blockade against the target country (like the one against modern day Cuba). Even these are usually bypassed by smugglers unless the country is easy to guard (note that both of my examples are small islands). The Ming Dynasty tried to stop trade with Spain via the Philippines but it didn't work, because the country was to large to effectively control its borders. In fact, well guarded borders are a modern novelty that didn't exist for most of history (and even today they are quite permissive, allowing for instance masses of people and drugs to move illegally from Mexico to the United States).
It's not that I care about realism, but it annoys me when people with no knowledge of history criticize the game because it doesn't fit their ignorant beliefs. This happens quite a lot on this forum.