Let's say they do make Rome II, when will the game end? 476, when the WRE was destroyed? Or 565, when Justinian died, the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as his first language. Or should it be 632, the death of Mohammed?
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I suppose it would depend on how the mechanics of the game work.
I doubt they will cover Mohammed in any of their games, though.
It is a major international taboo to depict him.
I doubt they will cover Mohammed in any of their games, though.
It is a major international taboo to depict him.
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taboo
təˈbuː/
noun
- a social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.
Seems like the right word to me
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It is neither a religious or social custom that drives most Westerners to be wary of depicting Muhammad.
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You wouldn't necessarily have to portray Mohammed in person. The Caliphate was still basically confined to Arabia when he died.
I'm firmly in the 'for every Mohammed you don't draw, I'll draw six' camp but I expect this is a battle Paradox don't want to fight.
I'm firmly in the 'for every Mohammed you don't draw, I'll draw six' camp but I expect this is a battle Paradox don't want to fight.
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You are assuming a western-centric attitude by reading into my words 'which' group I was saying it was a 'taboo' for.
It is both a religious and social custom that drives Muslims to be offended by it, and that is a large potential customer base that PDX would not want to alienate.
So: Taboo is the correct term.
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I feel like there is some audience for going from lets say Rome 2, all the way to the modern era throughout all the grand strategy paradox games. So aybe late 700's but I'd rather say from the establishment of the Roman Empire to it's western fall, since the Byzantines lasted until a certain far longer period. The topic of Mohammad would more likely go in Paradox not doing it at all, giving very minor depiction, or depicting every religion with/without it's taboos. That's just being respectful, but I'd doubt that paradox' audiences would mind it all that much. It's doable. Plus, who said that Mohammad needed any form of depiction? Just once he's born, the game could end.
They'd probably shy away from anything except the extremely early Augustine period, mostly because it becomes a very different game once the Pax Romana rolls around. The mechanics to make something like that interesting would only become relevant in the very late period of the game, and subsequently would likely end up in a seperate package, DLC or otherwise.
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It'd probably be best to roll back the start date, instead of push ahead the end date. As VineFynn said late game mechanics would need to be drastically different if you wanted to compensate for a large Roman/Selucid/whatever empire. Best left to a expansion.
As for a "post Roman" period, that would require a fair change to mechanics again. So that would be best left to a expansion as well. The rise of Christianity, or Islam (or some other religions for that matter) would require a fair amount onto themselves. On the topic of Mohammad, just don't depict him at all, and your fine. Why would he even need to be there? You could just make {Insert name} character be the map depicted one. It would just be a bad business idea otherwise, to potentially alienate people.
Edited: Because I don't know if it could have been considered offensive before.
As for a "post Roman" period, that would require a fair change to mechanics again. So that would be best left to a expansion as well. The rise of Christianity, or Islam (or some other religions for that matter) would require a fair amount onto themselves. On the topic of Mohammad, just don't depict him at all, and your fine. Why would he even need to be there? You could just make {Insert name} character be the map depicted one. It would just be a bad business idea otherwise, to potentially alienate people.
Edited: Because I don't know if it could have been considered offensive before.
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I hope they make the game rather short, about the same length as Rome would be good. I think they should focus on republican Rome.
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It's the most likely although not the only possible birthdate of Jesus.
Mohammed is in CK2's history files and they just have a flag in place of his portrait, since the taboo is aimed specifically at visual representations of the man. It's anyone's guess whether a playable early Caliphate would trip the alarm or not but clearly PDS isn't totally averse to covering him in games. That being said, I doubt they'd cover early Islam because they'd be devoting a fair bit of development resources to a religion that would only be relevant for a few decades of a game that would probably be running a thousand years to get to that point in the first place. They would either cover a fairly large chunk of Islamic history, brushing up against CK2's timeline, or more likely just not cover it at all.
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Sometimes in the 1st or 2nd century AD? Why not 117, when Rome peaked.
Starting dates should be between around 300 BC and 35-ish BC?
The thing is, starting dates in the 268 year period between 31 BC and cca 237 AD would be rather unexciting due to the shear size and power of the Roman Empire itself. Maybe Parthia would be the only playable alternative.
The decline of Rome and (at the other end of the timeline) the rise of Macedon could be good spin-off themes.
Starting dates should be between around 300 BC and 35-ish BC?
The thing is, starting dates in the 268 year period between 31 BC and cca 237 AD would be rather unexciting due to the shear size and power of the Roman Empire itself. Maybe Parthia would be the only playable alternative.
The decline of Rome and (at the other end of the timeline) the rise of Macedon could be good spin-off themes.
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A Rome-centric game definitely should start in 753BC and end (ideally) when Crusader Kings starts; 769 AD.
Incidentally a nice ~1000 year timespan seems reasonable; small scale conflict, reforms, civil war, larger scale conflict, more civil war, outside pressure and fall. Seems like a solid timeline.
Early playing could focus on colonisation (Greek style) and alliance-building (would fit both Rome, Carthage and Greece/Macedon).
Second stage could focus on structural reform and innovation, making sure the fledgling alliance/nation survives.
Third could go be war-focused, expansion.
Fourth could be a focus on civil pressure requiring innovation and personal leadership.
Fifth would again be war-focused, on expansion.
This could repeat with increasingly stronger pressure from outside and inside.
Would work with a historical timeline as well as allow freedom of historical accuracy.
Just thinking out loud. Of course, earliest as well as late-stage could be expansion/DLC, as well as Alexander's age and events, etcetera. Such a well-populated chronology could warrant plenty of expansions even with a fun and playable core game.
Incidentally a nice ~1000 year timespan seems reasonable; small scale conflict, reforms, civil war, larger scale conflict, more civil war, outside pressure and fall. Seems like a solid timeline.
Early playing could focus on colonisation (Greek style) and alliance-building (would fit both Rome, Carthage and Greece/Macedon).
Second stage could focus on structural reform and innovation, making sure the fledgling alliance/nation survives.
Third could go be war-focused, expansion.
Fourth could be a focus on civil pressure requiring innovation and personal leadership.
Fifth would again be war-focused, on expansion.
This could repeat with increasingly stronger pressure from outside and inside.
Would work with a historical timeline as well as allow freedom of historical accuracy.
Just thinking out loud. Of course, earliest as well as late-stage could be expansion/DLC, as well as Alexander's age and events, etcetera. Such a well-populated chronology could warrant plenty of expansions even with a fun and playable core game.
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The birth of Jesus makes no sense as an end date, since his significance is only apparent in hindsight.
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