bphennessy

I loved the note that said because that is exactly what I was doing as I went through the house. The story and the environment are so well integrated with one another and everything seems to align just right with the player's motivations. It's just such a sweet, touching game. I'm really glad to have played it.

Sean II Vanaman better name his firstborn son Ragnar.

I think what's really problematic about Paradox's approach is that they attempt to describe what the world was like in a given year but don't take the responsibilities that come with that scope seriously. For example, look at their map of Africa from the starting scenario of Victoria II: http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo219/CanOmer/V2_Political_1836.png According to Paradox, on 1 January 1836, only eight states existed in sub-Saharan Africa: Ethiopia, Liberia, Zanzibar, Madagascar, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Zulu Kingdom, the Orange Free State, and Transvaal. This is utterly and completely wrong. Africa at this time should be teeming with states, especially West Africa and the the area around the Great Lakes. Where's Bornu? Where's Buganda, Bunyoro, Rwanda, the Asante, Benin, Oyo, Dahomey, Mthwakazi, Fouta Djallon, Bamara, Cayor, Waalo, the Mossi Kingdoms, Darfur, or Ouaddai? And why are the two Boer republics in there when neither had been established this early? How could there be so many omissions, all concentrated in one part of the world, from a company that puts so much effort into historical research? From someone else I might call it unfortunate ignorance, but when you look at the comments Paradox staff have made on their own forums about this (e.g. "'states' that was conquered by basically a random guy with a machine gun will be represented as 'not a state'.") it's difficult not to see some actual racism behind these choices. And for a whole lot of gamers, this deeply distorted picture will be their first real glimpse of nineteenth century African history. I'll take Sid Meier's History-themed Playset over that any day of the week.