{"id":2697,"date":"2010-11-08T19:36:04","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T00:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2010-11-14T13:58:10","modified_gmt":"2010-11-14T18:58:10","slug":"the-american-national-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/2010\/11\/08\/the-american-national-character\/","title":{"rendered":"The American National Character"},"content":{"rendered":"

What this is about.<\/a><\/p>\n

There is always a group of people who resist the idea of putting “Americans” in a game as a race\/nation\/faction. Though you can certainly argue that there is a unique American history that predates independence by a good century, the United States of America is a relatively young nation whose imprint on civilization is sometimes seen as unfinished. But since most historical strategy games with discrete national powers happen before the 20th century, this is a nation that is largely left alone. You have the Civilization<\/em> games and Rise of Nations<\/em>. I strain my brain to think of any others.<\/p>\n

But what a nation. It opened the 19th century in an underdeveloped corner of the continent and ended that hundred years spanning from sea to sea with railroads and factories and farms. Some Americans like to speak of “American exceptionalism” – the idea that the United States is different from all other nations because it has a mission statement, or a Divine providence or that its isolation from the tumults of Europe through the 17th through 19th centuries led to a new type of country.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, America is an idea – both to Americans and foreigners. This is an idea that is hard to grasp or bind in a rule set since the idea is some mish-mash of liberty, opportunity, wealth, glamor…America is a shining city on a hill, but that shine could be anything from a heavenly blessing to gold to the glistening tears of an oppressed people. Is America freer than any nation on earth? Probably not. It is the wealthiest, but its glamor often seems a faded plastic next to the glories of Versailles or the court of Akbar. America the liberator stands with America the hegemon, America the inventor stands with America the consumer. So efforts to embody American culture and character fall back on ideas of what made and makes the United States the child nation born almost fully grown from the head of King George.<\/p>\n

Civilization V<\/em> gives America the power of Manifest Destiny, a reference to an historical American belief that its expansion was natural, sacred and inevitable. America meant freedom and civilization, so that meant liberating Mexicans, British people and relocating\/eradicating Native Americans. Firaxis translates this ideology into greater sight for units and lower cost for buying tiles. Lewis and Clark live on, so to speak – they can explore faster and see the bad guys coming plus you can get Louisiana for a bargain price.<\/p>\n

\"USACiv5\"<\/p>\n

Given the bloodiness of America’s westward expansion, I’d have had a combat bonus for battles in “no man’s land” after the medieval age – a way to reflect frontier combat. Civ 5 has some of this in the Minuteman unit, the American unique musketman that can move through rough terrain as if it were flat land though this is more an homage to the militia that fought in the Revolutionary War. There’s also a unique bomber unit – the B-17 – which does more damage.<\/p>\n

No unique building for the Americans in Civ 5, and it’s not hard to see why. American culture – the real source of unique buildings -is a mishmash of British, authentic American, Mexican , Southern Gothic and Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a large nation that covers many climates and which has become as much a mosaic as a melting pot. This is probably why Civ 4 stuck the Americans with a pretty crappy unique building. The Mall gives more happiness from Hit Singles and Hit Movies but, like many late buildings, comes too late to really be useful or game changing. But hey, Hollywood and Rock and Roll and Broadway – the three big late cultural wonders are American ones; it makes sense to somehow give the US a bonus for exploiting their products.<\/p>\n

This lateness permeates a lot of understanding of America in these games – in Civs 3-5 all the unique units are 20th century except the minuteman. Rise of Nations<\/em><\/a> inserted America in the Thrones and Patriots<\/em> expansion and blessed them with The Power of Innovation. Once again, this interpretation is drawn from a relatively late point in American history. America’s vast resources and the opening of the west spurred a technological boom from the late 1800s to WW2, and a few moments here and there since.<\/p>\n

\"RoNUSA\"<\/center><\/p>\n

A lot of the game’s payoff for this power comes early, though. You get a free scholar with ever new university, your first wonder is built instantly (and you’re burning that on the Terra Cotta Army), you begin with science tech 1 already researched, ground units are cheaper…America is a military powerhouse that can run over anyone after the gunpowder age.<\/p>\n

Designers clearly see America in the way that many Americans do. It is a land of opportunity, but the meaning of opportunity is different. In Civ 5, it’s the opportunity to see and seize resources, the wealth of a continent is at your disposal. In RoN, opportunity is about quick construction of one giant project and a leg up on research.<\/p>\n

From where I sit, the best game about American national character doesn’t even have America as a playable nation. Colonization<\/em> is about the founding of America, how a bunch of colonists loosely tied to the Motherland fight their way free to become an independent state. This is a game that epitomizes Manifest Destiny perfectly. It is not seen as something inherent in America the nation; Manifest Destiny is inherent in America the destination. The four Xs – exploration, exploitation, expansion and elimination – are part and parcel of America’s early centuries but the ultimate goal is to breathe free, to make your own path in a New World as a new nation.<\/p>\n

\"Colon\"<\/p>\n

In the new Colonization<\/em> you can choose new civics to establish whatever sort of nation you want, even one that looks nothing like the America that emerged. But this is less important than the fact the journey required attracting the right talent and using your ingenuity to tame a hostile wilderness. This is the America that emerged from the early settlers to become a superpower.<\/p>\n

Next up, one of the New World “losers”, the Aztecs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What this is about. There is always a group of people who resist the idea of putting “Americans” in a game as a race\/nation\/faction. Though you can certainly argue that there is a unique American history that predates independence by a good century, the United States of America is a relatively young nation whose imprint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[9,138,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5GFeQ-Hv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2726,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions\/2726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}