Psyringe
Scout
As I see it, Firaxis decides which civs to implement based on the following criteria:
a) historical importance
b) amount of potential customers in the country
c) amount of civs from the same area already in the game
a) is the reason for civs like Egypt, Mongolia, or Persia. b) is the reason for civs like the Vikings or Celts (the two together subsume most countries in northern and western Eurooe that didn't get a civ of their own). c) is the reason for civs like Mali, and also the reason why civs like Austria aren't included (Europe is overrepresented already, and germany is already in).
So how does Poland hold up to these criteria? Let's see:
a) historical importance: While Poland certainly is no insignificant country, I don't think that it's important enough to warrant its inclusion. There are countries which had more impact on history, and which aren't included yet, eg. Babylon or Austria.
b) possible customers: This may be a point, as Eastern Europe is a rapidly growing market for computer games. However, Poland is only a part of this market. I think the markets in Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Belgium are bigger (but that's a guess, it would be interesting to have actual numbers).
c) diversity of eras and areas: While Europe itself is well represented already, *Eastern* Europe actually isn't. Russia, as the obvious choice, is of course included, but that's it for Eastern Europe.
Altogether, I think that a point for the inclusion of *something* Eastern European can be made: There is a growing number of customers in that area, and it's not represented already.
However, I don't think that Firaxis will actually include Poland, because it represents too small a part of this area and these potential customers. Also, there seems to be a strong rivalry among Eastern European nations (at least from what I see, I might be wrong on this one). I've seen other games where users from Eastern European country were constantly moaning that users from another country were being favoured, that they themselves were being shorthanded, etc. Including one Eastern European nation while not including others might actually hurt Firaxis more than they gain from it.
But the real reason why I don't see Poland being added is that there is an obvious better choice for Firaxis. I'm convinced that they will sooner or later add the Slavs.
Like the vikings subsume all of Scandinavian historical importance and potential customers, the Slavs subsume most of Eastern Europe's. They are the perfect choice to give the people of Poland, Czech, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria etc. a civ to identify with (even Ukrainians and Belarussians who don't want to identify with Russia). They are also the most politically correct choice as they don't prefer one Eastern Europe nation over another (only Hungary and Romania would be shorthanded).
So that's my conclusion: The Slavs will eventually appear in Civ. Poland won't.
a) historical importance
b) amount of potential customers in the country
c) amount of civs from the same area already in the game
a) is the reason for civs like Egypt, Mongolia, or Persia. b) is the reason for civs like the Vikings or Celts (the two together subsume most countries in northern and western Eurooe that didn't get a civ of their own). c) is the reason for civs like Mali, and also the reason why civs like Austria aren't included (Europe is overrepresented already, and germany is already in).
So how does Poland hold up to these criteria? Let's see:
a) historical importance: While Poland certainly is no insignificant country, I don't think that it's important enough to warrant its inclusion. There are countries which had more impact on history, and which aren't included yet, eg. Babylon or Austria.
b) possible customers: This may be a point, as Eastern Europe is a rapidly growing market for computer games. However, Poland is only a part of this market. I think the markets in Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Belgium are bigger (but that's a guess, it would be interesting to have actual numbers).
c) diversity of eras and areas: While Europe itself is well represented already, *Eastern* Europe actually isn't. Russia, as the obvious choice, is of course included, but that's it for Eastern Europe.
Altogether, I think that a point for the inclusion of *something* Eastern European can be made: There is a growing number of customers in that area, and it's not represented already.
However, I don't think that Firaxis will actually include Poland, because it represents too small a part of this area and these potential customers. Also, there seems to be a strong rivalry among Eastern European nations (at least from what I see, I might be wrong on this one). I've seen other games where users from Eastern European country were constantly moaning that users from another country were being favoured, that they themselves were being shorthanded, etc. Including one Eastern European nation while not including others might actually hurt Firaxis more than they gain from it.
But the real reason why I don't see Poland being added is that there is an obvious better choice for Firaxis. I'm convinced that they will sooner or later add the Slavs.
Like the vikings subsume all of Scandinavian historical importance and potential customers, the Slavs subsume most of Eastern Europe's. They are the perfect choice to give the people of Poland, Czech, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria etc. a civ to identify with (even Ukrainians and Belarussians who don't want to identify with Russia). They are also the most politically correct choice as they don't prefer one Eastern Europe nation over another (only Hungary and Romania would be shorthanded).
So that's my conclusion: The Slavs will eventually appear in Civ. Poland won't.
