Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization

[Soeverein]

Sid Meier's classic strategy game Colonization (from 1994), got recently remade to use the engine of Civ IV. This is a stand-alone game, regardless of the name. It's not another add-on for Civ.

Your goal is pretty much to colonize the New World using one of 4 European countries: Spain, Netherlands, Britain and France.

Later on in the game, your goal then turns into: 'declare independence and kick the continental motherland out of the new world'.

I mention this game for two reasons really.

1) I was a huge fan of the original Colinization, and always wanted to replay it. I actually play FreeCol (http://www.freecol.org/) a lot, which is the OpenSource remake of the original game. I also love Civ IV, so it's pretty cool that now I can finally play Colonization in the Civ IV engine.

2) This game seems to be attracting the wrong kind of publicity right now. A whole bunch of blogs seem to be yelling that the game is racist, evil, and so on. Simply because it discusses the period of the colonial era.

Personally, I utterly abhor the idea of colonialism in the real world. So as far as it goes with these people shouting: colonisation is evil - I agree.

But then they start ragging about how this game is evil because it discusses an evil period of our history. It's not like the game is responsible for the genocide of the Amerindians.

Blogtivist speaking: Colonization morally disturbing (http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2008/06/civilization-iv.html)

I especially find this quote amusing:

I dismissed it as a relic from a time when neither developers nor players took videogames seriously as media with moral implications.

I wonder when games became moral. As far as I'm concerned, it's still just a frackin videogame. Someone apparently can't separate reality from fiction.

[Synthesis]

*reads over*

Wow. You express some concern over one of the great injustices in the history of humanity--imperialism--and people bite your head off for it.

I especially find this little nugget of response amusing:

I second that nomination: what douche bag.

Fritz made a very careful point not to insult anyone, including Sid Meier, and yet, a bunch of Civ-fanboys and 'on-the-edge' types decided to turn the topic into an exercise in name-calling. It's sad, really, apparently people aren't allowed to express unpopular opinions anymore without a bunch of twelve-year-olds getting up in arms about the honor of their favorite game. Even sadder than someone clearly taking the subject content of a game a little too seriously.

Personally, I don't care either way--for me, Firaxis' Alpha Centauri was/is better than any of the recent Civilization Titles.

[Soeverein]

If he has posted about the evils of colonisation on a political blog, noone would have attacked him for his opinions.

By attacking a game over this, he shows he is no better than Jack Thompson or Tipper Gore. To claim that this game celebrates and approves of colonising in real life is like saying that TS2 is a training program for pedophiles (and yes, that's something Thompson actually said).

In the end, this is just a game. And that person, regardless of what he claims, does not deserve to be a gaming reporter any more. He never even heard of the old colonization until a friend mentioned it to him earlier this year. It's obvious the guy is just a tool who uses videogames as a way to make money, and now bites in the hand that feeds him.

Short version of my post:
IT'S A GAME!

[Synthesis]

Short version of my post:
IT'S A GAME!

Exactly. IT'S A GAME. Not everyone is required to like it, and last I heard, people were allowed to express their opinions on it.

I probably would enjoy Colonization if I still played Civilization games (Civ 4 is sitting unused on my desktop). Personally, I don't think people are allowed to make death-threats against some guy for expressing an opinion. It's not like he stopped the game from being released...talk about over reacting.