Tilted Mill’s Hinterland was released yesterday over Steam. I’m reviewing it, so I won’t write my final judgment here, but I will say that this is most aggressive manifestation of Manifest Destiny that I think I’ve seen in a light strategy game.
The set up pushes you in that direction. You are the leader of a small town, commissioned by the king to beat back the wilderness and make a thriving town. Winning doesn’t mean reaching a population target or meeting all His Majesty’s demands for food and gold. Winning means eliminating every sentient being you find outside your town limits – territory you don’t expand into.
Sure, there are occasional raids from the Hinterland. But for the most part, those goblins are not posing any threat to you and your farmers. Still, the king demands you kill them all to secure iron or game or fresh water – all so you can attract more powerful workers so you can kill more powerful bases of “monsters” like dark elves, dark dwarfs, bandits and trolls.
Sid Meier’s Colonization is an after school special compared to this game. It’s perfectly in tune with all the fantasy tropes we’ve been reared on – humans are good and most non-humans are vermin to be exterminated so you can gather their loot.
Does this make Hinterland a bad game? Not necessarily. But it’s great that there aren’t any gnolls and trolls in the real world. Otherwise, the message of taming the wild through murder could be a bit disturbing.
What else does one do with evil Elves, psychopathic dwarves, and hungry Trolls? Invite them for tea and biscuits?
Still, I guess I’m more of a builder fan than fighter: I’d prefer that my warriors and defenses be more for show (“Look! We got the palisades up and ten swords/shields in the armory.”) than for actual use. It’d be more interesting and unusual to do the “build colony” at this microlevel. Sigh…Dwarf Fortress, why are you so ugly?
I was just thinking this morning about the politics of Mount & Blade and how they are essentially the exact opposite of the politics you ascribe to Hinterland. (Yes, I’m a dork.)
In M&B, there are no “inferior races” to exterminate, and no “good wars” to fight — every conflict in the game is just a result of some NPC wanting to grab some additional power at the expense of another NPC. It’s like Smedley Butler‘s famous quote, “War is a racket”, in game form.
I wonder how much mileage one could get out of a comparative analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of various medieval/fantasy games…
>>I wonder how much mileage one could get out of a comparative analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of various medieval/fantasy games…
Interesting question, and one that I hope someone will attempt to answer.
I wonder how much mileage one could get out of a comparative analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of various medieval/fantasy games
Tons of mileage, I suspect. I wouldn’t be surprised if this has already been done in one academic journal or another. D&D’s alignment system, the line between civilized and savage races, the kobold slot machine problem…few genres are as easily analyzed as the RPG and fantasy RPGs are in their own little world.
I meant to do just that type of analysis on my as of yet incomplete blog, but I got bogged down by weddings and new jobs and school applications and such.
Also, I don’t think I’ll make many friends this way, as I’m an anarchist and think pretty much all the games I like have really disturbing politics behind them.
There are a few with consciously bad politics, like Colonization, but those type of games, in my opinion, are the exception rather than the rule.
I’m not convinced that Colonization has “consciously bad politics”, Eduardo. I’m still writing my review, but I stand by what I said when Ben Fritz raised the issue of Colonization’s “message” without playing the game. You can certainly critique Colonization‘s portrayal of the birth of America, but to dismiss it as a game with “bad politics” misses a lot of the subtlety in the game.
This never occurred to me while playing (also doing a review). Does that make me a bad person, or is Troy taking Hinterland too seriously? You decide! Personally, if a funny-looking guy had 4 gold and level 3 armor, I would totally pwn that n00b.
I say consciously bad as in it portrays a period of time that was very politically charged and important, and does it in a careful, conscious way. to me, Colonization is a great way to better understand the situation, even if it was a situation one finds totally abhorrent.
Another good example of such a game would be Defcon.
I guess you could counter-balance that with a game like America’s Army, which seems totally apolitical in game, but has quite a lot of baggage behind it.
What is the kobold slot machine problem? I assume it’s the fact that every game requires copious slaughter of kobolds?
What is the kobold slot machine problem? I assume it’s the fact that every game requires copious slaughter of kobolds?
The kobold slot machine is my personal term for all the loot that falls from monsters you kill. I guess “kobold vending machine” makes more sense, since there’s really no chance of you not getting a prize.
Does that make me a bad person, or is Troy taking Hinterland too seriously?
Graduate school permanently warped my brain; I see subtext everywhere.