tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post4686613945317542611..comments2024-02-10T18:19:36.406-08:00Comments on Newspaper Rock: Natives criticize Sid Meier's ColonizationRobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01478763837213733775noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post-56240167529350903672014-05-26T14:28:26.028-07:002014-05-26T14:28:26.028-07:00This is a bit silly. You should play the game and...This is a bit silly. You should play the game and then criticize - as such you are just quoting a bunch of similarilly ignorant people's speculation.<br /><br />Some of your criticism doesn't apply at all - the game does not hide the atrocities committed against the native americans. Rather, in many ways it rewards doing these atrocities. Here's a link to an article that tries to make your argument, bit from an informed perspective: http://www.playthepast.org/?p=278 . <br /><br />Informed, but ultimately the main criticism I agree with there (also present here, you got lucky on that point) is slavery should have been included. Though the reason they eliminated it, rather than being an attempt to create a beutiful lie out of history in the insidious way you propose, was instead just fear of PC backlash of the kind you and your readers represent. It really is damned if you do, damned if you don't with your group. And since african americans are a larger, more powerful political group, their role gets hidden. Thankfullyy native american PC fanatics aren't politically powerful, so we still get the game. And due to great modders over at 'religion and revolution' mod, we now can bring slave trade fully into the game.<br /><br />Ultimately people don't play these games because they enjoy being evil, or because they want to create a fantasy version of history. They do it because they love experiencing history through novel strategic challanges. I once played hitler in a ww2 scenario. Interetsing challange, better understanding of the history of the time, NO deep damage to my psychological state or reflection of an anti-semitic attitude. <br /><br />In fact, games like these can also cause moral reflection on the tradgedies of the times - playing colonization, I constantly try to adopt a peaceful attitude to the natives, but even so all around me I see my setttlements pushing villages out and destroying their culture, ultimately provoking military reaponses from the natives, which leads me to defend my settlements and fight their people, and wham, I find myself destroying whole peoples. Meanwhile, alll around me several of the other european powers, especially the spanish, are wiping out cuiltures even more actively, and the whole tradegedy of is period of history, and the impossibility of 'friendly colonization' becomes clear. It is precisely through the mechanism of a game, and the motivation to win, to acquire more, and to steamroll what is in your way, that appreciation for the reality of imperialism can be obtained. Certainly far better than sitting in some anthropology classroom, reading about atrocities, and smugly imagining oneself morally superior and incapable of such things. And we need people to realize the dangerous lure of such behavior, if future tragedies are to be avoided.<br /><br />I would encourage you to take account of such considerations in future reviews of games, and first play, and see what the game actually is. Expeditions conquistador was recently released, and is ripe for such analysis (I think them hiding the patriarchy of the times is the biggest problem, but there is alot else to be considered)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post-82784617489678255242010-03-19T19:42:29.525-07:002010-03-19T19:42:29.525-07:00"Brian Bull is referring to playing Civilizat..."Brian Bull is referring to playing Civilization, not Colonization. Since Colonization is part of the Civilization series, we don't know how different it is from its predecessors."<br /><br />I've played the Civilization series. It seems to take an approach devoid of value judgements towards individual cultures. The only difference between civilizations in the core game (and other add-ons like Beyond the Sword and Warlords) is a specialty building, a specialty unit and two different 'qualities' (eg: 'Philosophical and 'Protective' are Native America's traits, while 'Aggressive' and 'Religious' are Aztec). Everything else (from religion to civics) is alterable. <br /><br />Ironically, playable indigenous civilizations (Aztec, Babylon, Inca, Native American, Mayan and Zulu) are considered very powerful, as all civilizations start off equally and since they receive specialty units and buildings very early on in the game quite easily crush nations like America and the USSR who are millenia from receiving their specialty tanks and/or navy SEALS. <br /><br />Anyways, that's why Sitting Bull is the representative of Algonquian natives - he was the 'leader' of the hypothetical Native American Empire in Civilization 4 and <i>Colonization</i> merely took a shortcut by copying over pre-existing material.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post-12601951585527897092010-03-16T10:56:34.283-07:002010-03-16T10:56:34.283-07:00Your opinion about what matters to Indians and the...Your opinion about what matters to Indians and their supporters isn't entertaining, Anonymous. It's ignorant.<br /><br />P.S. For more on people playing Indians at Halloween parties, see <a href="http://www.bluecorncomics.com/hallowen.htm" rel="nofollow">Tricking or Treating Indians</a>.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01478763837213733775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post-78927254580912246732010-02-06T13:03:16.803-08:002010-02-06T13:03:16.803-08:00Your posts are so entertaining the way you make a ...Your posts are so entertaining the way you make a big honking deal about stuff that doesn't even matter anymore. Sheesh, I wouldn't want to take you to a Halloween party, you'd think everything was racist, even the haircuts of the guests! XDAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post-5072694394944725392010-02-01T09:54:22.521-08:002010-02-01T09:54:22.521-08:00And that game, if anyone remembers it, treated the...And that game, if anyone remembers it, treated the indigenous peoples of the New World sort of like bees: you could walk carefully around them, and if you bumped into them, they died. If you bumped into more than a couple, the hive er tribe took notice, and swarmed and killed you.dmarkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07269773990064736457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29769707.post-1246041290473685802010-02-01T02:37:01.567-08:002010-02-01T02:37:01.567-08:00Sounds a lot like the much much older "Seven ...Sounds a lot like the much much older "Seven Cities of Gold", but more detailed.dmarkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07269773990064736457noreply@blogger.com