Technically it should be Sumer and Babylonia...

[turingmachine]

I know civ is filled with inaccuracies, but Sumeria is a misnomer so is Babylon.

Sumer is the correct name for the collection of city states (still Sumerian for the adjective, so Sumerian Empire, but the civ short descriptions should be Sumer not Sumeria).

Same goes with Babylon, the short description should be Babylonia not Babylon (another misnomer when applied to the collection of city states as opposed to the city; Babylonian Empire would be correct though, since Babylonian is the correct adj.).

Just saying...

 

[zehcoutinho]

Technically you are also wrong, because it should really be written in an ancient alphabet to be really accurate. As Russia should be written in cyrilic. And Japan in their own alphabet and so on. So you are just as wrong as they are.

 

[turingmachine]

Technically you are also wrong, because it should really be written in an ancient alphabet to be really accurate. As Russia should be written in cyrilic. And Japan in their own alphabet and so on. So you are just as wrong as they are.

Actually, no. There's a difference in terms of an outright incorrect term and the term being written in a different language.

In standardized English, the terms are Sumer and Babylonia. The game, when playing under English uses English and thus the wrong terms. The terms Sumeria and Babylon refer to different things in English than what they are used for in the game (with Sumer and Babylonia being the correct terms).

BTW 'Sumeria' is the correct term for the English 'Sumer' in Spanish and Portuguese.

I was pointing out an actual mistake in the game, and possibly looking for people to notice other similar mistakes.

You just appear to be being snide...

 

[noto2]

Yes, this is true. Babylon was the capital of Babylonia, and Sumeria was the capital of the Sumer empire.

 

[PieceOfMind]

This was pointed out a long time ago, after Warlords or BtS, I can't remember which. But if you want to hear about historical innacuracies etc. just look up all the old threads on the Holy Roman Empire. There was a time where it seemed like every day a new thread about it went up.

 

[turingmachine]

This was pointed out a long time ago, after Warlords or BtS, I can't remember which. But if you want to hear about historical innacuracies etc. just look up all the old threads on the Holy Roman Empire. There was a time where it seemed like every day a new thread about it went up.

Hmm, are there any other Civs named wrong? I'm trying to correct them in my mod.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Well you could rename "America" to the "United Sates of America", since that is my country's full and real name, America is just kinda like a nickname, just like U.S. and U.S.A., not the actual name.

 

[NP300]

Well you could rename "America" to the "United Sates of America", since that is my country's full and real name, America is just kinda like a nickname, just like U.S. and U.S.A., not the actual name.

America is the continent consisting of North and South America, actually. It seems that immigrants coming to the US often said they "came to America" and somehow in the US the term became a nickname. But in Latin America, which also took these same immigrants, the term "America" refers to the continent, not to the USA. In fact, the first use of the term "America" was in reference to the coast of Brazil.

 

[turingmachine]

Maybe United States of America is just too long for the in-game text box

But, I think America is the accepted short name. Other countries also suffer from similar situations. Technically, Brazil's name is actually the Federative Republic of Brazil, or República Federativa do Brasil, not just Brazil and Mexico is the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) not just Mexico.

It seems to be a trend in the America's to commonly use the short form of the country's name.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Maybe United States of America is just too long for the in-game text box

But, I think America is the accepted short name. Other countries also suffer from similar situations. Technically, Brazil's name is actually the Federative Republic of Brazil, or República Federativa do Brasil, not just Brazil and Mexico is the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) not just Mexico.

It seems to be a trend in the America's to commonly use the short form of the country's name.

Yes, but Brazil is the only country in the world who's name is Brazil, while America can be applied to a whole continent. Its like calling Egypt "Africa" or China "Asia". If the full United States of America name is too long, then I think United States should suffice.

 

[tsentom1]

I agree America is a poor term to represent the nation of the United States of America, but Civ doesn't technically refer to the modern-notion of nation states that we have today but rather that of Empires.

The term "American Empire" is a socio-political term referring to the political, economic, military and cultural influence of the United States of America so therefore I think it's correct.

Similarly, Babylon refers to the city-state of Babylon. However, Babylonia refers to the total area or empire that that city-state controlled so Babylonia is the correct term.

EDIT:

I just realized we were talking about the short description entry, in which case I'm not sure what it should me. I guess you'd have to use the full United States of America, as just United States can refer to a number of countries, including (as stated above) Mexico. Still, I think when you say 'America' today, everyone knows you're talking about the USA. If you're talking about the continents individually you'd always say North or South America instead of just America, and if you're talking about them together you'd probably say Americas (plural).

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Still, I think when you say 'America' today, everyone knows you're talking about the USA.

No. If you say "America" I know you are talking from Argentina to Canada.
A continent, wich actually is named after an italian explorer. Over here it's pretty ignorant to call the USA "America". We just call them "the US" (Stati Uniti).

 

[assass1n]

They didn't add Mahatma(to the name) and it's Ashok and not Asoka

 

[LiddellHart]

They didn't add Mahatma(to the name) and it's Ashok and not Asoka

If they should add anything to Ghandi, why not his first name (Mohandas) instead of his title (Mahatma)?

 

[turingmachine]

No. If you say "America" I know you are talking from Argentina to Canada.
A continent, wich actually is named after an italian explorer. Over here it's pretty ignorant to call the USA "America". We just call them "the US" (Stati Uniti).

There are a lot of countries called the United States. If you say America referring to a continent shouldn't you always distinguish with North or South America, otherwise you are combining two continents into one?

 

[Ai Shizuka]

If we are going into semantics:
"Continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water."
There is one America, not a southern one and a northern one. And there is an eurasian continent.

But that's not the point. You can consider them two continents or a single one. Tell me "America" and I think about the whole thing. South America I think from Colombia/Venezuela and south.
In any case, I know you are not talking about the USA but about, you know, other countries.

 

[turingmachine]

If we are going into semantics:
"Continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water."
There is one America, not a southern one and a northern one. And there is an eurasian continent.

But that's not the point. You can consider them two continents or a single one. Tell me "America" and I think about the whole thing. South America I think from Colombia/Venezuela and south.
In any case, I know you are not talking about the USA but about, you know, other countries.

Well, if you really want to argue semantics and get technical Eurasia isn't even it's own continent but part of the Afro-Eurasian continent because Eurasia is connected to Africa at the Isthmus of Suez (and if you don't count that connection then you can't count North and South America as connected as that area is actually bigger than the similar situation in Panama, and the Panama canal). Thus making only 4 continents, the Americas, Afro-Eurasia, Antarctica, and Oceania.

Anyway, back to the debate at hand. This is the game's text files for America:

	<TEXT>
		<Tag>TXT_KEY_CIV_AMERICA_SHORT_DESC</Tag>
		<English>America</English>
		<French>
			<Text>Américains</Text>
			<Gender>Male</Gender>
			<Plural>1</Plural>
		</French>
		<German>
			<Text>Amerika</Text>
			<Gender>Male</Gender>
			<Plural>0</Plural>
		</German>
		<Italian>
			<Text>L'America:l'America:dell'America:d'America</Text>
			<Gender>Female</Gender>
			<Plural>0</Plural>
		</Italian>
		<Spanish>
			<Text>Estados Unidos</Text>
			<Gender>Male</Gender>
			<Plural>1</Plural>
		</Spanish>
	</TEXT>

So for some reason, Firaxis deliberately chose to keep it America in all languages (including Italian), except for in Spanish in which case they called it the United States. I still think what tsentom1 said above is correct that, in English, the proper term for North and South America combined is 'Americas' (with the s) not 'America'. If you want to distinguish between the continents you use North or South, and that America alone, in English, refers to the U.S.A. I can't speak for Italian, naturally, so the terms in your language are of course different, but for the English version of the game at least the terms are correct.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

And this pretty much settles the thing. Over here America is the whole continent, over there you use the term in both ways.

So probably tsentom1's should've phrased: "Still, I think when you say 'America' today, everyone in the USA knows you're talking about the USA."

Sorry for hijacking this a little, but it's pretty much the same point you make in the OP.

 

[nanomage]

in russia they do, too!

 

[Sic Transit Zeb]

Pretty sure America or Americans is synonymous with the USA.