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Well, sure, and there's also a 200 population limit per player (in Age of Empires 2, at least). And no day-night cycle or seasons. These are clearly intentional
by tshaddox 3mo ago
Well, sure, and there's also a 200 population limit per player (in Age of Empires 2, at least). And no day-night cycle or seasons. These are clearly intentional choices to capture the vibes of economic and military conflict while massively compacting the scale of true historical conflict.
- jerbearito 3mo agoThe author addresses that.
- tshaddox 3mo agoNot really. The author mentions "the game is to be understood as an abstraction" as a potential caveat, and then immediately dismisses it with "but I don’t think it goes for Age of Empires."
- cedilla 3mo agoI don't really get this. It's not like what the author has to say is contingent on displaying it as a failure of Age of Empires. And it really is just over-interpreting the game. No, converting a unit with a priest is not some sort of cultural genocide, this is a game simplified enough so that it can run on a Pentium. How can there be cultural genocide when the simulation is too crude to even include any hint of culture?
- tshaddox 3mo agoYeah, the article is mostly legitimately interesting facts about historical empires. Framing it around alleged shortcomings of the Age of Empires video games is unnecessary and obtuse.
- jerbearito 3mo agoOdd take and deeply dismissive. The author addresses your point already.
- tshaddox 3mo agoThe author addressed it and dismissed it. I think their dismissal is mistaken, so there’s no bonus points for addressing it.
- jerbearito 3mo agoI disagree, and also I'm not here to award points for anything.
- cauch 3mo agoAnd yet it's not rare to find people explaining that the roman empire, the roman armies or the roman cities were "all the same". Yet these persons seem to know that in real life population is not limited to 200 or that there is day-night cycles. The article talks about it, and makes the point that people who created AOE may have been biased by the same misconception that is also visible more generally. And it is an interesting thing to raise. edit: in fact, it is illustrated by the ridiculous recent Elon Musk fit about "the odyssey" cast, itself fueled by the misconceptions that "having black guys in a roman army is woke because everyone knows the romans are not black".
- onraglanroad 3mo agoYes but Musk is really astonishingly ignorant. I realise he didn't have a classical education but he's the kind of person who would complain about Othello casting a black man as the main character.
- cauch 3mo agoSure, but it is just an example, he is not the only one thinking this misconceptions is "historical".
- onraglanroad 3mo agoI'm agreeing with you. Rome was the centre of the empire so had every type of person just as London had as the centre of the British empire. And I suppose New York as a major centre of the American empire. Multicultural cities are the rule rather than the exception.
- modo_mario 3mo ago>Rome was the centre of the empire so had every type of person just as London had as the centre of the British empire. And yet the kind of diversity you're probably expecting was incredibly rare in both. There's enough demographic data to know that.