American traits ?

[Akka]

I was wondering which traits I would put to USA. Then I suddendly recalled there is a forum with plenty of American civfanatics, that could give me a good advice about it

So, if I had to pick three traits for USA, what would it be ?
My personnal match would be Commercial first, then a combination between Expansionist, Industrious and Scientific.

What do you think would fit better to the history/culture/values of USA ?

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Commercial, Expansionist, and Industrious.

 

[silver 2039]

I think industrious, scientific, and commercial would fit better.

 

[Revolutionary]

I think Com/Ind/Agr would be the most realistic or maybe Com/Ind/Exp

not sure

 

[Xen]

Ind/Exp

the U.S commercial success is due to having so many resources in our borders, and its a similer emplination for the scientific success as well- since they are both more or less a bi-product of the largness of U.S territory, the U.S gets expansionist, and industiral, because well, for at least the two WW, the U,S has been industrial, the Modern day US however...well, we need to get back on track

 

[cgannon64]

Definetely Commercial, Industrious, and Expansionist.

You could also put in Militaristic if you want.

 

[Godwynn]

eh.. they would really be all of them cept seafaring. Agricultural, I live in the country, all i see. Commercial/Industrious, look at any big city. Expansionist/Militaristic (Iraq/Vietnam). Religous and Scietific would both fit. Religous would barely fit tho, only in small communities are we very religous.

 

[Goober]

2 things

1) There is already a USA Civ in Civ 3

2) This forum has more then just "American" CivFanatics on this site. In fact, there are Civ Fanatics on this site from anywhere and everywhere in the world.

 

[ybbor]

well for 3 probably scientific, industrious and expansionist (?) for 2 i would say scientific and industrious, here are my explinations

agricultural:maybe, but it's just not what makes america america. if we imported all our food as opposed to exporting what we curently have, no one would really care that much

seafaring:again, not what makes america america our boats are prety much military and we don't heavily realy on fishing, and our private yachts are more comericial

religous: you can go either way, we have all this contreversy over the 10 Comandments, and without churches or temples america would be very different than what it is now, however having no official religon it would be hard to get the citizens to raise half the money for a mosque (spelling?) or even a jewish temple, also do you really think america could got to communism in a year?

militiristic: okay a war for every generation, but almost all countries have that. but the american people are usually not that excited about war (our leaders on the other hand...) we often have war declared on us. the american public would probably love it if the US didn't get into any wars, again take it away, and america will still be america

Comercial: true the US doeasn'y have high corruption, but the american public is more commercial than the government, take it away and america won't be america though.

expansionist: can go either way, we don't seek to expand our territory anymore but expansion was a key part of the US. depending on what time period you look at we are very expansionist or very unexpansionist, for instance, did we make japan a new US sate ?

Industrious: goes without saying, but we build roads/railroads/mines way faster than other nations, look at he railroad wars during the gold rush. without industry america would be a very different place

Scientific: again goes without saying, but when we develop a new age, we get an increased period of thought that will often lead to new breakthroughs. and almost any US city has a library, hundreds have universities, and research labs abound in evry city with a big enough population

personaly i say don't change 'em just for the sake of playability, you don't play the civ, you play the traits

 

[Zardnaar]

Industrial is a given. The next two you can argue over is commercial and expansionism.

Science doesn't really fit. Only in the last 50 years has America IRL aquired this trait. Before that other countries discovered more than america in terms of chemitry and astrology etc.

Militaristic. Not really. Up until WW2 America maintained a small army with the exception of the Civil War). The Indian wars fit in expansionist more.

And the other traits don't really fit.

 

[Akka]

Originally posted by RealGoober
1) There is already a USA Civ in Civ 3

Mmh, yes, I know.
And ?

2) This forum has more then just "American" CivFanatics on this site. In fact, there are Civ Fanatics on this site from anywhere and everywhere in the world.

Again : yes, I know. And ?



A word of explanation about my choices :

Commercial is a given, considering how free enterprise and success in business are very deeply rooted in the US culture. If there is a commercial civilization, it's this one.

Scientific is a worthy trait, as USA is leading in science since early in the XXth century, and is a fertile ground for new breakthrough. Considering the short span of US history, it's being a scientific civ for half its existence.

Industrious takes some roots in the same "working spirit" that also make USA Commercial, and the habits for Americans to always build it bigger.

Expansionist reflect the spirit of "conquering the frontier" that we saw during the XIXth century in the Middle and Far West, in the XXth century with the space exploration (also Scientific), and again the same spirit of commercial competition, that culturally drive American to expand themselve.

 

[The Apple]

America's traits, along with any other civilization's, depend totaly in which time frame you're looking at.

In the 1800s America was strongly expansionist and not very scientific, while in the 1900s America was strongly scientific and not very expansionist. Likewise, in the 1800s America recently born from British Sugar/Tobacco/Cotton colonies, was almost entirely an agricultural nation, but throughout the 1900s the majority of americans worked not in agriculture, but in industrial and commercial jobs.

Now when I think of the idea behind what Civilization is as a game, it's to let you play as any number of civilizations who are remembered throughtout history for when they were at their greatest. When I think of America for when it was it's greatest it's not as the 1800s I think of, it's the 1900s.

Therefore in my mind, commercial/industrial/scientific best fits America as a civilization. If I had to trim it down to two I'd say it was more commercial than anything else, with industrial representing the earlier half of the 20th century and scientific representing the later half. Flip a coin, I guess.

 

[Homie]

I would agree in your 1st 3 choices Akka, but not your last one. Although I see what you mean when you explain why America is an expansionist Civ, I think that the makers of Civ3 consider the trait "expansionist" to be purely territorial exapansion. Therefore that trait does not suit America (by far) as much as the other 3 you mentioned, namely: Commercial, Industrious and Scientific.

 

[Akka]

Mmh...

Good points, Apple and Homie.
Think you went right on this one.

C, I and Sci for USA, then