What Video Games have you been playing II: Have you finished that backlog?

[cybrxkhan]

It also feels weird to see all the Asians (for example) grouped as a playable entity.. That seems maybe a bit.. unrealistic? too simple.. If we end up on another planet, there's no way the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Kazakhstanis, Pakistanis, Afghans, and Indonesians will all join hands and sing kumbaya as they're launched into space. I'm not sure what other playable camps exist in the game, the other one I saw was South America. That's a bit more believable, but I still don't buy it. I think people are far more likely to organize themselves along purely ideological or religious or even nationalist lines, rather than what this game is trying to push. It feels very artificial.

I think that's a classic Sci fi trope, especially in video games, wher an entire region joins together in some weird eu-esque super-Union singing kumbaya, so it's not limited to BE. I think almost all the BE factions are like that anyways.

 

[Oruc]

It also feels weird to see all the Asians (for example) grouped as a playable entity.. That seems maybe a bit.. unrealistic? too simple.. If we end up on another planet, there's no way the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Kazakhstanis, Pakistanis, Afghans, and Indonesians will all join hands and sing kumbaya as they're launched into space. I'm not sure what other playable camps exist in the game, the other one I saw was South America. That's a bit more believable, but I still don't buy it. I think people are far more likely to organize themselves along purely ideological or religious or even nationalist lines, rather than what this game is trying to push. It feels very artificial.

Well the Asians are split up, Slavic union is supposed to have picked some up (I can imagine which those are supposed to be), polystralia includes polynesia and south east asia (so indonesia and malaysia) and India is a separate faction.
It depends how big the catastrophe that happened was and how desperate that made people.

 

[Joecoolyo]

I had Beyond Earth on for a half an hour or so.

My first impressions: The UI looks unfinished and bare, and for some reason I didn't get this sense that we were on a strange new planet, like with Alpha Centauri. With Beyond Earth it just feels like I'm sitting in front of a gaming board, like RISK, rather than an actual world that exists out there somewhere. I'm not sure why that is exactly, but I found it very hard to immerse myself in the environment. With some civ games, "it just sort of happens". With this one, it didn't.

It also feels weird to see all the Asians (for example) grouped as a playable entity.. That seems maybe a bit.. unrealistic? too simple.. If we end up on another planet, there's no way the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Kazakhstanis, Pakistanis, Afghans, and Indonesians will all join hands and sing kumbaya as they're launched into space. I'm not sure what other playable camps exist in the game, the other one I saw was South America. That's a bit more believable, but I still don't buy it. I think people are far more likely to organize themselves along purely ideological or religious or even nationalist lines, rather than what this game is trying to push. It feels very artificial.

So.. those are my first impressions. I am going to try to have another go at it sometime this week.

We are talking 600 years into the future. Think how different 600 years ago was.

 

[Zack]

We are talking 600 years into the future. Think how different 600 years ago was.

Are regions really any more unified than they were 600 years ago?

 

[Takhisis]

Neitha niggaz no' whiteboys was in da 'Merican house, Zack-o.

 

[cardgame]

Starsector .65 released recently, tons of new content to enjoy

 

[Joecoolyo]

Are regions really any more unified than they were 600 years ago?

I'd say the advent of nation-states, nationalism, and the forced cultural assimilation/genocide, yeah. Europe has a lot of pretty good examples of this, France probably being the best. But you can also see it in other places as well.

There are still a lot of very localized identities, and regional ones, don't get me wrong, but they're far more encompassing than identities from 600 years ago.

The only identities that I'd say were pretty large back then were language based or religious. Dar al-Islam is a pretty good example, though I'm not sure how widespread the identity was, or if a large amount of Muslims would identify with it at all.

 

[Zack]

What about the huge empires of the past? Not necessarily 600 years ago specifically, but there's nothing today approaching the Roman or Mongol empires, for example.

 

[Takhisis]

Not much of a unified identity in the Mongol one, if at all, except maybe among the different hordes and tribes joined by a series of personal loyalties. In the Roman Empire… to a degree, yes.

 

[cardgame]

What about the huge empires of the past? Not necessarily 600 years ago specifically, but there's nothing today approaching the Roman or Mongol empires, for example.

Pax Americana

 

[Joecoolyo]

What about the huge empires of the past? Not necessarily 600 years ago specifically, but there's nothing today approaching the Roman or Mongol empires, for example.

Even in the Roman Empire you have very localized identities. The empire existed primarily because local elites allowed it to. They derived their legitimacy from Rome. Once Rome was no longer seen as legitimate, well it collapsed as fast as it had begun.

I'm no expert, but I think there's an argument to be made that people identified more with their local area than any sense of grand "Roman-ess." There's always fuss to be made about citizenship, but that's just one layer of identity and its hard to say if it was primary at all.

I think this trend very much applies to other empires as well, before you get any real ability for central control. Mongols are a great example. Their expansion was primarily fueled by weakened and dying states, but its rule in conquered areas relied entirely upon local elite cooperation. The Mongols were relatively good at this, those who cooperated weren't forced into any religion or cultural assimilation, as long as they paid taxes to their overlords they were more or less left alone.

Basically, although there existed large empires that did rule over big portions of a map, their rule in truth was rather light and exercised by locals who benefited from it. People may identify with an empire, but I'd wager that their local community/cultural/religious/what-have-you identity came first. This in turn meant that what seemed to be a unified empire was really just a bunch of local regions strung together for a small period of time. When that empire no longer provided benefit to the local elites, they simply switched sides or created their own states instead.

This is also true today, the nation-states we think of solid blocs could very well be regional in nature, held together by a legitimizing center. And when that center can no longer provide, they'll break apart. But I'd also wager that the experiences of the past two-centuries or two have had a homogenizing and nationalizing affect on local cultures, bringing them more in line to a national level, or at least more than seen before the 19th century. And I don't think its hard to believe that this trend, should it prove stable, could easily continue into the future creating the "mega-blocs" seen in Beyond Earth, for example.

 

[Arakhor]

Pax Americana

I think there are millions of people who would dispute that.

 

[Phrossack]

I think there are millions of people who would dispute that.

Every pax, be it Romana, Mongolica, Brittanica, or Americana, invariably includes millions of corpses and dozens of wars. .

"They make a desert and call it peace," and all that.

 

[Zack]

This is also true today

I'm going to reduce your whole post into this little snippet, so I can smirk and say, "this brings me back to my original point"

Are regions really any more unified than they were 600 years ago?

 

[Joecoolyo]

I'm going to reduce your whole post into this little snippet, so I can smirk and say, "this brings me back to my original point"

I phrased that sentence poorly. It was more about posturing that it could be true, but unlikely given the events of the past two centuries.

It's one of those things that isn't very apparent, so it's all guesswork

 

[cybrxkhan]

Every time I start a new Oblivion playthrough and go to Skingrad I am on the look-out for Glarthir and try to avoid him. He could be around any corner, just waiting to jump me with that annoying voice they give to the Bosmer. I'm so paranoid now I almost pull out my weapon at random passerby and I mistake Altmer for Glarthir if they're wearing the same set as clothes as him.

Glarthir makes me so paranoid.

 

[Civ'ed]

Every time I start a new Oblivion playthrough and go to Skingrad I am on the look-out for Glarthir and try to avoid him. He could be around any corner, just waiting to jump me with that annoying voice they give to the Bosmer. I'm so paranoid now I almost pull out my weapon at random passerby and I mistake Altmer for Glarthir if they're wearing the same set as clothes as him.

Glarthir makes me so paranoid.

They're all after you...
I always manage to get jumped by him, which is why I always prepare to go through the same motion every time I get to Skingrad. Once you hear the "psst", you give up and just listen to the pointy-eared conspiracy theorist..

 

[cybrxkhan]

They're all after you...
I always manage to get jumped by him, which is why I always prepare to go through the same motion every time I get to Skingrad. Once you hear the "psst", you give up and just listen to the pointy-eared conspiracy theorist..

Once I hear the "psst" and I know it's too late to run away, I just fast travel as fast as I can.

Of course, that doesn't always work, because the past few times that mofo cornered me right after I walked out of a shop/guild hall/tavern. Probably will be the same this time.

 

[warpus]

We are talking 600 years into the future. Think how different 600 years ago was.

It's weird and unrealistic, but I've actually had fun with the game these last couple days.. It's finally starting to engage me.

I totally didn't know you weren't supposed to attack the aliens though. Every turn I'd get a message saying: "There's aliens near your city!".. So I'd blow them away .. and had my soldier dude wandering around killing random aliens..

Then 2 hours later everyone suddenly hates me because I'm attacking the aliens.. I THOUGHT THEY WOULD KILL ME IF I DIDN'T..

 

[cybrxkhan]

Oh dear, I saw a short elf running towards me. Had to be Glarthir, so I just fast traveled outside of the Skingrad gates to the Skingrad stables. And of course when I turn around I see that mofo somehow got out of the city and was running towards me. So I had to fast travel elsewhere, where I finally lost him.

Glarthir's crazy yo.