Sid Meier's Civilization

[A-Stump]

I love the wikipedia criticism section of the franchise.
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Like "The problems of these games up to IV is that they indulge in Eurocentric ideas for gameplay like scientific and social progress and nation and empire building. Instead should be about the Australian Aboriginal experience of History of throwing sticks around and sniffing petrol for 40,000 years."

I guess that's why they felt bad and made the Zulu so good. The Battle of Isandiwana was their greatest 'victory' of the British and had about 1300 British soldiers vs 25,000 Zulu with 5K more in reserve. And the British still claimed nearly 3X more men before they were defeated, and that's the low estimate.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Mount Athos, as a complex of twenty monasteries all on one tiny plot of land, should be a wonder.


I think Old World should kick Revelation back to Tier 3 and add Monotheism as a Tier 2 theology and rebrand Monotheism-Polytheism as (some cleaner name for) institutionalized organized religion vs open religion. I've been thinking on its theologies (it's a really profound and clean typology of religion it already has, rare game that feels like its arguing something about faith the way it represents them evolving).

If they ever added Confucianism and Daoism I can imagine Harmony as a Tier 3 that basically interprets maintaining a good world as an ongoing, human-sustained project. Confucianism would be Legalist-Monotheist-Harmony, Daoism would be Mythological-Monotheist-Harmony.

The tiers basically go:
Cultural practice
- Mythology = The faith is rooted in storytelling
- Veneration = The sacred evolves through living tradition
- Legalism = The faith is orthopraxy
Metaphysics of evil
- Revelation (as it exists right now) = Has fuck all to do with problem of evil directly, but the religion contains ongoing prophetic traditions as part of its own self-critique
- Monotheism (my take) = One governing cosmic force, creation is fundamentally good
- Dualism = Contesting forces, evil is a thing in and of itself in battle for creation
- Gnosticism = Creation is a lower evil shade or a perfect higher reality
Telos of humanity/eschatology
- Revelation (as I reimagine it) = No known eschatology, but creation unfolds as an ongoing dialogue between the human and divine
- Redemption = Healing the broken individual and world
- Enlightenment = Seeing through the illusion to achieve the purity that was always there

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Tuesday will be Civ VII's big day of either swimming back up for air or fail and sink to the dark depth of the sea. Any Test of Time predictions? Will it save it? Doubt it.

 

[Kane Lives]

It'd have a small bump of up to 15-20k players briefly, but it will not salvage its reputation among the wider Civ fans who had just wanted a game where they could play their Civ and grill. Test of Time does nothing to fix the euro boardgame style of doing random tasks for arbitrary win points.