"Lauwersoog" - an easter egg?

[Dutch Leader1]

Dear gamefriends,

"Lauwersoog" is a Dutch name for a place in Holland. I can know it, because I am Dutch. "Lauwersoog" is a small place.

Greetings Roland

 

[Frollo]

We know it is, Roland. But that is not the issue anymore -- well, at least not for me
The issue is why Lauwersoog, a town that never had any importance in Dutch history and in fact didn't even exist before 1969, is included in the game, while other cities, such as Kampen, Zwolle and Nijmegen, aren't.

 

[Bartleby]

Zwolle is there, isn't it? I thought I'd seen it in my games.

 

[Shabbaman]

Yes, Zwolle is in (as one of the provincial capitals) so that wasn't a really good example. Think Deventer, instead

But we could have this discussion for any civ, and most likely those discussions could be found in the archive. To me, it proves that firaxis wasn't seriously thinking about delivering decent products.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

But we could have this discussion for any civ, and most likely those discussions could be found in the archive. To me, it proves that firaxis wasn't seriously thinking about delivering decent products.

That's a bit too harsh IMHO. Firaxis isn't Microsoft; how many folks at Firaxis do you think worked on C3C? Less than 5, I bet; and most of them only part-time, since 'Pirates' needed to get out (Breakaway made the Conquests, but that was a different job).
Firaxis for sure is a pretty small company, with nevertheless pretty high standards. And a pretty user-orientated policy; so, if none of the ~400 testers notices a problem, I can't really blame Firaxis for not fixing it.

 

[Stapel]

Lauwersoog is in Groningen, not Holland .
It really is nothing more but the collection of buildings that form the ferry terminal to the island of Schiermonnikoog (part of Friesland, not Groningen).

My guess is that whoever was resonsible for the naming of the cities, took an atlas, and saw the ferry-ship-lines and concluded Lauwersoog was an important city....

 

[Stapel]

I never played the Dutch long enough to see Lauwersoog appear, but I did notice Holwerd. And yes, I did wonder why on earth they'd chosen that backwater dump, which I couldn't point out on the map even if my life depended on it, over historically important cities such as Nijmegen.

That's why I'm glad I found this thread -- Shabbaman is probably right in his analysis.

So I don't think it's an easter egg, just a poor and ill-informed choice for a city name.

Since Holwerd is nothing but the buildings that form the ferry terminal to the island of Ameland (west of Schiermonnikoog), my theory makes sense.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

That really sounds convincing, Stapel.
Now, do you also have a theory about the German list?

 

[Shabbaman]

Since Holwerd is nothing but the buildings that form the ferry terminal to the island of Ameland (west of Schiermonnikoog), my theory makes sense.

You just copied my theory

BTW, Holwerd is HUGE compared to Lauwersoog.

EDIT: it took me some time, but I've found the original Holwerd thread here

 

[Frollo]

it took me some time, but I've found the original Holwerd thread here

Thanks! That was a nice read.

I didn't know that everything had been said already about the Holwerd/Lauwersoog thing. I will shut up now, but not before I complained one last time about the omission of Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands -- 2000 years this year!