Yes yes, I know. This happened last week and we’re slow. We apologize. Any-who!
Good ol’ Paradox has been dropping hints about a new game in the works for a while, now, and although I think just about everyone was hoping for a new IP, the result turned out to be a new installment in Paradox’s flagship series. Here’s the trailer they’ve given us:
Things I get from the trailer:
Okay, so what we’ve got here is a very Crusader-Kings-2-inspired map…
OMG THAT MUSIC IT MAKES ME WANT TO PLAY EU3 AGAIN
And that’s about it. Fear not, though! Paradox has also provided us with some screenshots:
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Now I don’t know about you guys, but I really like the look of this screenshot. It does indeed look like a lovely mashup of Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 3 and I am very okay with this.
Of course, that’s just talking about the visual direction. What about the actual gameplay? It’s probably too early to tell much at the moment, but this is what we’ve got so far:
Europa Universalis IV Main Features:
Make your own decisions: Nation building is completely flexible
Use your Monarch Power: In this new system, a leader’s traits will direct the ebb and flow of gameplay
Experience history coming to life: The great personalities of the past are on hand to support you as you make your mark on thousands of historical events
Turn the world into your playground: Enjoy over 300 years of gameplay in a lush topographical map in full 3D
Gain control of vital trade routes and make the wealth of the world flow to your coffers in the all-new trade system
Bring out your negotiating skills in a deeper diplomatic system
Go online and battle against your friends in an all-new multiplayer game mode that features hot-join, improved chatting, a new matchmaking server, and support for a standalone server
Create your own history and customize your game: Europa Universalis IV gives you the chance to customize and mod practically anything your heart may desire
So basically it sounds like EU3, except better. Again, I’m okay with this. The apple tends not to fall far from the tree with Paradox games, and truthfully I wouldn’t want it to in this case. EU3 is already a very, very solid strategy game, and if Paradox is basically just upgrading the graphics and adding some new stuff then I’m more than happy with that.
A blog called Critical Distance provides writing prompts for game bloggers, and I’ve decided to give this one a go (although I can’t promise how successful I’ll be). Here’s the prompt:
Being Other:
Games, like most media, have the ability to let us explore what it’s like to be someone other than ourselves. While this experience may only encompass a character’s external circumstances–exploring alien worlds, serving with a military elite, casting spells and swinging broadswords–it’s most powerful when it allow us to identify with a character who is fundamentally different than ourselves–a different gender, sexuality, race, class, or religion. This official re-launch of the Blogs of the Round Table asks you to talk about a game experience that allowed you to experience being other than you are and how that impacted you–for better or for worse. Conversely, discuss why games haven’t provided this experience for you and why.
I imagine that a lot of responses are talking about gender or race. Which are very valid things to talk about as we approach games critically. However, I’m going to touch on something a little different. I’m going to provide a sequel to my earlier post “A Spreadsheet With a Soul” and talk about what it’s like to be the bad guy in a game. I’m not talking about picking the dark side path in a Bioware RPG. I’m not talking about roleplaying a jerk character in an MMO. Here, let me show you what I’m talking about.
I’ve been on a big Europa Universalis 3 kick lately. Currently I’m playing Portugal and taking over the Americas, just for giggles. Let me tell you how that went down: I sailed over to the new world and found some unclaimed land (denoted as gray on the ingame map.) Some of this land was inhabited by “natives”, which was no big deal, because my infantry could destroy them in a matter of seconds if they chose to fight. I slaughtered several thousands of these natives that way as I slowly began to turn the map from gray to green.
Then I encountered something else. Aside from the nameless “natives”, there were actual native nations on North America. Huron, Iroquois, Cherokee, Shawnee, and others all had little patches of color on the map denoting their territory. If I clicked on their territory I could see the names of their leaders. I could also see that they were eying me rather warily.
At first I decided to be nice. They weren’t bothering me and I was taking land that was rather far from theirs, so I gave them gifts of gold in order to befriend them and then I let them be.
For about, oh, fifty or sixty years or so.
Because that was when my lust for territory had taken me all the way down to them and their little blobs of color on the map were interfering with my lovely solid green. I checked the technology chart– they had nothing compared to me. I clicked on their territory to see what they thought of me. We weren’t friends, by any means, but they “trusted me implicitly”, probably due to decades of peace and the gifts I’d given them.
No matter. I declared war, stormed in, easily killed off their little armies and occupied all their territory. (The “casus belli”– cause for war– that I gave here in order to not take such a hit in various game attributes was that they “owned territory that was rightfully mine”.) They sent me peace treaty after peace treaty– first just begging me to stop and then offering to give up some of their land– and I turned them all down. I wanted nothing but full annexation. I wanted them gone from the map.
See that brown? It was bugging me.
It didn’t take long. First the Iroquois were gone. Then the Huron a few years later. I let Cherokee and Shawnee live for another decade or so (they were more out of my way), at which point they banded together and declared war on me and I retaliated by annexing them. Just as I’d wanted, these cultures were now gone from the map and it was all mine.
Now I know what some of you are probably thinking. That this is an absolutely awful and atrocious game and how could I play it in good conscience and how could anyone find this fun?
Well here, let me tell you something. By the time I quit WoW I had over ten thousand PvP kills on my main character alone, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of NPCs that I’d killed, and I never batted an eye or thought about the implications of it.
I’ve killed hundreds of people in Skyrim and not blinked.
I’ve Planet Bustered away portions of entire continents in SMAC and giggled.
These were all clearly fiction. The enemies were not real. It was all abstract and didn’t matter.
EU3 is different. EU3 is making you recreate events that actually happened (or would have happened, in some crazy world where Portugal took over North America). EU3 has made me stop and think about myself. Sure, I can rationalize every day that I wouldn’t ever do something like this in real life. But you know what? I bet the monarchs back in Europe in the 17th century were seeing it exactly as I was. These other cultures were offending patches of the wrong color on their maps.
Maybe we weren’t so different after all. What a thing to chew on.
It’s just a game, sure. But it’s a game that lets you step into the shoes of history, for good or for ill, and because of that, it’s a very valuable experience.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana
I don’t really have a lot to report today– a particularly interesting round of Europa Universalis 3 has been eating up most of my free time– so I’m here to make one of the posts that our dear Mister Adequate usually makes around these parts and ask: what will you be playing this weekend?
As for myself, well– the Paradox bug has bit me nice and deep and I keep having to scratch the resulting itch, so I’m guessing there will continue to be a lot of EU3 and possibly some Darkest Hour as well. I’m also still slowly but surely working on Final Fantasy 2– although I keep getting sidelined from it by delicious strategy games– and there are a couple of indie games I’ve been having fun messing with, as well (The Binding of Isaac and Aquaria, in this case.)
Speaking of indie games, I’d also like to bring your attention to a new indie-bundle-type site that has popped up, called The Indie Gala. I’ve refrained from buying the package there yet– although I’m a sucker for cheap games so that may change quickly once my latest paycheck is direct deposited– but I figured I’d get the word out!
Sometimes I’ll be driving down the road in town and I’ll see a sign outside an area that’s being developed. It’ll say something on it like “2 acres, zoned commercial.”
And I know exactly what they’re talking about. I mean, why wouldn’t I? I’ve played SimCity.
In fact, 99% of what I know about city development and planning comes directly from SimCity.
Just like everything I know about Europe in the 15th century comes from Europa Universalis 3. They don’t teach you about this sort of thing in school– not here, anyway. You get one year– nine months– of “World History” and they have to cram everything from pre-history to the present era in those nine months. Do you think they have the time to tell you about a bunch of dinky little countries in Europe that have since disappeared or merged into larger ones? They don’t.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is responsible for the rest of my knowledge of pre-19th century European History.
Now, some games, of course, expressly set out to be educational. Some of them succeed, and some of them don’t. The Oregon Trail is one of the ones that succeeded. Thanks to that game I am expert on dozens of landmarks dotting the midwestern US, as well as several other interesting tidbits, such as: how to use 19th century first aid to treat a variety of illnesses, when it is appropriate to ford the river or caulk the wagon when crossing a river, and how to identify a wide variety of poisonous plants. Whether or not any of these skills will come in handy some day remains to be seen, but one can only hope.
Strategy games have taught me a good deal about war through the ages. I can’t claim to be at the same point that Mister Adequate is (the chap actually has a master’s degree in this sort of thing, thanks to an interest in it that was sparked by video games), but where else would I have learned about various types of war doctrines or crazy sounding terms like “amphibious invasions”? The History Channel, maybe.
Next up, on the History Channel!
Actually, I was recently flipping through a coffee table book my mom had lying around; it was called “The 100 Most Important Ideas in Human History” or something. Reading it was like reading an enhanced version of the Civilization tech tree. I mean, you literally could have released this book as an addon to a Civ Special Edition package or something and no one would have questioned it because the game and the book cover the exact same material.
You know, I could go on and on with sort of thing all day. Just like all other media, video games teach us things and mold us into who we are. Sure, we all love to relay that infamous Pac-Man joke:
