I left a rather lengthy comment on a recent JumboPixel video about the upcoming update, which will supposedly include a mechanic for consistent, era-crossing empire identifiers. I thought it might be worth sharing here to get others' thoughts on how I've come to think of the whole culture-swapping feature of Humankind. The following is what I wrote.
I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed in the "immersive empire names" mechanic. I love the idea of titles that change according to civics and ideologies, but the leader names are already constant throughout the game, and in any case, that's no substitute for some consistent identifier for the empire itself, at least for purposes of true immersion. In my own head, I've gotten into the habit of basing it off my insignia, which is a turtle on a deep green background. Hence, I mentally refer to my empire as "Testudinia" and my people as "Testudinians" (from the Latin word for turtle/tortoise), who just happen to take on the cultural aesthetics of the Egyptians, then the Greeks, etc.
The ideal, for me at least, would be for a dialog box to appear either at the very beginning of the game or upon advancing from Neolithic to Ancient. That dialog box would ask the player to provide a toponym (place name) and demonym (people name), maybe splitting that last choice into noun and adjective forms for a total of three inputs. Maybe the computer could randomly generate these at first and present the option to either accept or customize each. Those become your empire's constant identifiers for the rest of the game, maybe with shifting country titles to match shifting leader titles (e.g. the Testudinian Kingdom of the Medieval Era becoming the Democratic Republic of Testudinia in the Industrial Era).
Something like that might help better convey what I suspect was the original intent of the whole culture-switching mechanic. Any Humankind game is one big alternate history, so the associations we make in the real world don't really apply. That's why you don't have to be French to claim and build the Eiffel Tower, for example. When, in my case, the Egyptians become the Greeks, I interpret it as my people, who have assumed the aesthetics and affinities that we in the real world recognize as Egyptian, transitioning into the aesthetics and affinities that we in the real world recognize as Greek. To the people living in the world of the game, however, there is no Egypt or Greece with which to associate the traditions that they only know as Testudinian. There is only Testudinia at different stages in its history. It's like how, in the real world, Spain is still Spain despite, for instance, their fashion having shifted from the tights, pantaloons, and doublets of the Early Modern period to the contemporary three-piece suit.
I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed in the "immersive empire names" mechanic. I love the idea of titles that change according to civics and ideologies, but the leader names are already constant throughout the game, and in any case, that's no substitute for some consistent identifier for the empire itself, at least for purposes of true immersion. In my own head, I've gotten into the habit of basing it off my insignia, which is a turtle on a deep green background. Hence, I mentally refer to my empire as "Testudinia" and my people as "Testudinians" (from the Latin word for turtle/tortoise), who just happen to take on the cultural aesthetics of the Egyptians, then the Greeks, etc.
The ideal, for me at least, would be for a dialog box to appear either at the very beginning of the game or upon advancing from Neolithic to Ancient. That dialog box would ask the player to provide a toponym (place name) and demonym (people name), maybe splitting that last choice into noun and adjective forms for a total of three inputs. Maybe the computer could randomly generate these at first and present the option to either accept or customize each. Those become your empire's constant identifiers for the rest of the game, maybe with shifting country titles to match shifting leader titles (e.g. the Testudinian Kingdom of the Medieval Era becoming the Democratic Republic of Testudinia in the Industrial Era).
Something like that might help better convey what I suspect was the original intent of the whole culture-switching mechanic. Any Humankind game is one big alternate history, so the associations we make in the real world don't really apply. That's why you don't have to be French to claim and build the Eiffel Tower, for example. When, in my case, the Egyptians become the Greeks, I interpret it as my people, who have assumed the aesthetics and affinities that we in the real world recognize as Egyptian, transitioning into the aesthetics and affinities that we in the real world recognize as Greek. To the people living in the world of the game, however, there is no Egypt or Greece with which to associate the traditions that they only know as Testudinian. There is only Testudinia at different stages in its history. It's like how, in the real world, Spain is still Spain despite, for instance, their fashion having shifted from the tights, pantaloons, and doublets of the Early Modern period to the contemporary three-piece suit.