What is the appeal of Shaska?

U

ubergeneral

Warlord
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Feb 14, 2013
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People really seem to like the Zulu, myself included. They have been around since day one, and will always be in civ franchise the question I have is, why do people like shaka so much? What do people like about him?

questions to be answered

1. Why the Zulu? What made them the best choice when representing africa in Civ 1?
2. What is it about Zulu and Shaska do people like?
3. Take what you like about this civ, in both the play style and the design of their leader. What other civ that haven't been in civ should be "the next Shaska"
 
I just guess Shaka is the most famous African warlord of the time, considering I have no ideas of any other ones (although that isn't a history topic I've never really looked into)

ALso, based of the title, I'm just gonna put this here:
Spoiler :
 
I think the answer is mostly that Shaka Zulu is iconic from a Eurocentric standpoint, in that he led the Zulu to a standoff against a technologically very superior England. By this point the game is trying, to varying degrees of success, to alleviate the Eurocentricity, but Shaka has been around so long as to have a legacy within the game itself, and if you replaced him with, say, Mansa Musa, people would still clamor for Shaka to be included.
 
To me, the main appeal of Shaska to me is having the AI play them. (I love to hate them.)
 
Pop culture. The Zulu have been in multiple movies and books. The Alan Quartermain books really made them seem legendary. Joe Schmoe knows who Shaka is. That can be said about only a handful of potential African leaders.
 
Just pointing out that Shaka isn't the most famous African warlord of all time (Hannibal is) and Shaka never fought against England (didn't Shaka die before their wars against the Zulu begun?).

I can imagine, that he game creators wanted a second African civilization into the original Civ, and decided to add Zulu because they are well known, and the other African civilization is Egypt, which is historically and culturally very different from Zulu. Shaka just happened to be the most successful Zulu chieftain and that's why he's the leader of Zulu.
 
VicRatlhead5199 said:
Pop culture. The Zulu have been in multiple movies and books. The Alan Quartermain books really made them seem legendary. Joe Schmoe knows who Shaka is. That can be said about only a handful of potential African leaders.
Click to expand...

I kind of agree. Mandela, walk to freedom also kind of has Zulu reference.
 
VicRatlhead5199 said:
Pop culture. The Zulu have been in multiple movies and books. The Alan Quartermain books really made them seem legendary. Joe Schmoe knows who Shaka is. That can be said about only a handful of potential African leaders.
Click to expand...

^^this reason. The bloody movies.

Indeed Nelson Mandela might be a cool leader for civ6, or Queen Sheba of Ethiopia. HEre's a whole list of famous african leaders of the past: http://www.africanlegends.info/

Most people will recognize one or two names on that list due to movies, but if The Zulu were not represented in civ the fandom would freak out.
 
For me, the personality is a fun one to have him as an AI player. He just seems less psychotic than a lot of the others, like Assyria.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Rubendg12 said:
For me, the personality is a fun one to have him as an AI player. He just seems less psychotic than a lot of the others, like Assyria.
Click to expand...

Google defines: psychosis
sʌɪˈkəʊsɪs
noun
1. a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.

This is Gandhi all the way.
 
There are many African cultures now so I can see Zulu being notorious enough to be included legitimately.

We have Egypt,
Morocco,
Ethiopia
Songhai
Zulu
and the Ottoman Empire (Turkish but owned North Africa too)

If anything they're over-represented now. Songhai was kinda famous but not terribly needed in my opinion. Who hasn't heard of Timbuktu! It was around before them but flowered into the academic and trading center it was at its height under their rule. Honestly the Mali Empire was just as prolific and preceded them.
 
Shaka, not Shaska.

The first two questions are answered, so I`ll try to answer the third one: warmongering is actually fun with them.
 
I like Shaka because he has the coolest war theme.
 
I like their colors and music. Important when spending hours looking at the screen.

I like their ua uu and ub as well. Great for defense when wonderspamming! :)


Skickas från min iPhone via Tapatalk
 
Wow! This thread is over 3 days old and TheKingOfBigOz has yet to weigh in on this subject. I'm truly taken aback!
 
troublmaker said:
Entirely pop culture.

The Aztecs are very similar. They're not an old and ancient civilization... they only came into existence 80-100 years before the Europeans showed up (early 1300s). They collapsed a few years after the Europeans showed up.
Click to expand...

What do you call an "old" civilisation? In my wikipedia page (ok it's wiki, but still) they lived for more than 300 years. It's quite a decent time for medieval civ.
 
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