My first reaction to this headline was "Oh my god, there exists a blog that combines my 2 favorite rabbit holes: computer games and ancient history" — i.e. filfre.net and acoup.blog
The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
71–80 of 246 posts
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#72I feel like the author doesn't understand the point of games... Sorry! Your villagers all died by a plague. Game over!
I mean... I found Oregon Trail fun despite dying of dysentery more times than I could count.
The thing about games is that when everyone dies, you just click the "New Game" button and try again. Failing over-and-over again in a game is allowed. In fact, I dare say that modern games don't provide enough room for failure compared to older games.
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#73Townscaper and Dorfromantik are more fun for me than any city builder or Sim game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1291340/Townscaper/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1455840/Dorfromantik/
I like them because they're _not_ rooted in realism, so they're free from the things that some days feel more like work than play (tax collection, agricultural shortfalls, physical material limits etc.).
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#74I feel like the author doesn't understand the point of games... Sorry! Your villagers all died by a plague. Game over!
Given the popularity of Dwarf Fortress, I'm not sure that the author is wrong.
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#75It’s interesting and most likely not applicable - for the very same reasons you cant get realistic sword fighting (or even street fighting) in most Hollywood movies: realistic fighting doesn’t look as exciting as the fake thing. Glad the author sees into that very clearly. * Could be an interesting art game tho as someone pointed out below
Sword fights certainly could seem more realistic without losing the excitement. Check this out ('fighting' starts at around 2 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GoQlvc_H3s
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Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hearts of Iron (3 in particular) One of the biggest problems with playing as the USA in Hearts of Iron is that you need to actually convince your Democracy / citizens that its worthwhile to go to war. And unless you click the "Crisis of Democracy" button (aka: turn yourself into a dictatorship), you don't actually have full control over the policies of your country. Which is why its more fun to play as Germany / Hitl…
I think HOI problem (more familiar with 4) is that it feels much more half baked. US Congress is mostly click a few event popups, click a few policy stuff in a menu and see the congress members just flip. It's more shoehorning it into the HOI system. I think you could make the process fun, but in paradox style games where you need to generalise a system to fit everywhere in the world, it can fall flat.
I feel like most events in HOI in general are just... popup windows.
You need a very active imagination to piece together those popups into a cohesive story. HOI is a pretty abstract game, but a lot of simulation stuff is going on under the interface.
The map is realtime, so you can see your troops movement. But otherwise, its got a very "newspaper" like feel to events. If something happens, its reported as a popup window.
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#77No mention of Ostriv. That Cities Skylines screenshot is amazing but definitely heavily modded.
But I'd love to see the author try Ostriv because while it is very unpolished it does allow for free placement of buildings. You can actually construct a little place similar to that screenshot from Cities skylines in Ostriv with ease.
The problem of course is that you want good supply lines and he illustrates that in his medieval village plans from real archaeology. How they all fan out from a central point.
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#78It’s interesting and most likely not applicable - for the very same reasons you cant get realistic sword fighting (or even street fighting) in most Hollywood movies: realistic fighting doesn’t look as exciting as the fake thing. Glad the author sees into that very clearly. * Could be an interesting art game tho as someone pointed out below
Sword fights certainly could seem more realistic without losing the excitement. Check this out ('fighting' starts at around 2 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GoQlvc_H3s
This is great but virtually all of this is similar to what I know about the samurai - most fighting with a sword ends VERY quickly with someone getting stabbed. We are talking about an encounter between two men being decided in a few swordstrokes. Seconds, not minutes. There is not much room for 3-5-10 minute fights and acrobatics.
Yes it’s interesting as a YouTube video, but for filmmaking suspense comes from “dilating” the moment in time, spending as much as possible in each step before the final blow.
With realistic sword fighting, this is mostly impossible afaik.
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#79I feel like the author doesn't understand the point of games... Sorry! Your villagers all died by a plague. Game over!
The author addresses in a section how well or not well this realism could potentially interact with actual gameplay and fun.
Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games
#80It’s interesting and most likely not applicable - for the very same reasons you cant get realistic sword fighting (or even street fighting) in most Hollywood movies: realistic fighting doesn’t look as exciting as the fake thing. Glad the author sees into that very clearly. * Could be an interesting art game tho as someone pointed out below
There's a really great scene in HBO's Barry (Bill Hader) with an attempt at a more realistic fight scene. It's quite interesting actually! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_MjQRqEk5M Spoilers possible if you haven't seen the show. Definitely recommend it btw.
If you watch MMA you would know that this fight would be over around the 1 minute mark.
The impression of realism you get here is not real realism - just a way to simulate it, still holding onto the tropes of the genre and the “time dilation” necessary for suspense in filmmaking.
Real street fights don’t last long, and fights between trained fighters are even shorter. one sucker punch or one good chokehold is all it takes.