But seriously, if Italy were in te game, how would the game take care of overlapping city names (like Rome). It must have happened before, but surely not for a capital.
Italy could very well still be in. Just because this was an joke, Firaxis could be working on an Italian civ anyway.it was an april fools joke
While the graphic was very well done (nice lighting!), the fact that it was posted by the artist and there was no explanation for how he got it (in addition to being April Fool's) meant that it was obviously a fake. If he had given it to someone else to post, and had at least a semi-plausible story about where it came from, then he might have had me going.
Any of those, or Turin.Roma instead of Rome or simply Italy with a different capitol( most likely Florence or Milan).
While the graphic was very well done (nice lighting!), the fact that it was posted by the artist and there was no explanation for how he got it (in addition to being April Fool's) meant that it was obviously a fake. If he had given it to someone else to post, and had at least a semi-plausible story about where it came from, then he might have had me going.
It was the date and lack of detailed info (also to a lesser extent the relative unlikelihood of Italy making it in) that told me it was an April Fool, not the quality of the icon.
If a 2K spokesperson came in here and posted that as the leader icon for Lorenzo the Magnificent, I would absolutely believe it to be genuine (as long as it wasn't April 1st!). It's really well-done.
I wouldn't say that the icon clearly wasn't the official one. The thing that didn't make it believable to this skeptic is the lack of support for the revelation. If you had the capabilities to make up a fake news website and put together a fake press report from Firaxis, I probably would have bought it. Heck, if you had just left a link to the 2K Facebook page, and then claim that they took it down, it might have been potentially more belieavable.
However, 4/1 makes me extremely skeptical. I don't believe anything I see on the internet that day. Still, though. Great artwork. An excellent imitation of the current icon style.