I think this game is probably the best that Paradox (or anyone else) has ever produced because you actually learn something useful from playing it. I don't have TIME to play many computer games but I'm addicted to EU II, perhaps because European history was one of my favorite high school courses. It even prompted me to take out and read the textbook I used in that course LONG ago.
EU II is not only like a history book (until you change history so it no longer follows its original course), it simulates the economic, geopolitical, and social driving forces that made things happen the way it did. Its potential as a high school and college teaching tool is far underutilized and EU III provides a perfect opportunity to change this.
Even something as horrific as the Spanish Inquisition becomes understandable, if not acceptable by modern standards, when the player has to implement it to convert the southern Iberian provinces to Catholicism. The Shiite vs. Sunni automatic casus belli shows why people are killing each other in Iraq right now, while the Mughal Empire and Delhi (Sunni) should tell us why Pakistan and India don't get along today.
Meanwhile, the "Empire: Considerable Assembly Required" aspect of France, Spain, and Russia is enormously educational. The first time I tried Muscovy or Novgorod, I discovered not only that "Russia" consisted of five or six different countries, they also hated each other! The same for France, in which the France of 1419 is the mortal enemy of Burgundy. What are now Belgium and France were once the Duchy of Burgundy, and so on. The Treaty of Tordesillas is meanwhile recognizable to anyone who has read or seen James Clavell's Shogun, in which John Blackthorne tells Lord Toranaga that the Portuguese have the "right" to conquer his country.
Here are a few pointers for bringing its educational power to a level that could in fact get teachers and professors to require their students to play it.
(1) Clicking on a monarch (yours or someone else's) should bring up a biography. The same for military leaders. The option could even be extended to provinces, where clicking on an icon could bring up the history of that region. As an example, Lebanon's "naval supplies" are of course the country's famous cedar trees that were sought after by shipbuilders from the time of Gilgamesh. The "furs" from the Everglades (Southern Florida) have to be alligator skins, and so on.
(2) When you have to make a historical choice, such as the Ottoman Empire's decision as to whether to implement the Sheikh-al-Islam office, you should then be told what the country actually did in real history. I always reject the Sheikh-al-Islam but (as shown by a later event) it seems that the Ottoman Empire implemented it.
(3) Identify fabricated events as such. As an example, I often find myself in possession of the Netherlands and I get the Duke of So-and-So (depending on my country) and the Edict of Blood. Now I know that England's Duke of York was never involved in the Edict of Blood but this could confuse someone who doesn't know that it was actually the Spanish who were involved. I like the way you handle the situation in which the player chooses to make the Yorkists rulers of England during the Wars of the Roses, though; Richard III wins the Battle of Bosworth (again, this should be identified as a fabricated event based on the player's decision versus actual history) and agrees to leave the kingdom to Henry VII. (The game does identify fabricated leaders with a *.)
EU II is not only like a history book (until you change history so it no longer follows its original course), it simulates the economic, geopolitical, and social driving forces that made things happen the way it did. Its potential as a high school and college teaching tool is far underutilized and EU III provides a perfect opportunity to change this.
Even something as horrific as the Spanish Inquisition becomes understandable, if not acceptable by modern standards, when the player has to implement it to convert the southern Iberian provinces to Catholicism. The Shiite vs. Sunni automatic casus belli shows why people are killing each other in Iraq right now, while the Mughal Empire and Delhi (Sunni) should tell us why Pakistan and India don't get along today.
Meanwhile, the "Empire: Considerable Assembly Required" aspect of France, Spain, and Russia is enormously educational. The first time I tried Muscovy or Novgorod, I discovered not only that "Russia" consisted of five or six different countries, they also hated each other! The same for France, in which the France of 1419 is the mortal enemy of Burgundy. What are now Belgium and France were once the Duchy of Burgundy, and so on. The Treaty of Tordesillas is meanwhile recognizable to anyone who has read or seen James Clavell's Shogun, in which John Blackthorne tells Lord Toranaga that the Portuguese have the "right" to conquer his country.
Here are a few pointers for bringing its educational power to a level that could in fact get teachers and professors to require their students to play it.
(1) Clicking on a monarch (yours or someone else's) should bring up a biography. The same for military leaders. The option could even be extended to provinces, where clicking on an icon could bring up the history of that region. As an example, Lebanon's "naval supplies" are of course the country's famous cedar trees that were sought after by shipbuilders from the time of Gilgamesh. The "furs" from the Everglades (Southern Florida) have to be alligator skins, and so on.
(2) When you have to make a historical choice, such as the Ottoman Empire's decision as to whether to implement the Sheikh-al-Islam office, you should then be told what the country actually did in real history. I always reject the Sheikh-al-Islam but (as shown by a later event) it seems that the Ottoman Empire implemented it.
(3) Identify fabricated events as such. As an example, I often find myself in possession of the Netherlands and I get the Duke of So-and-So (depending on my country) and the Edict of Blood. Now I know that England's Duke of York was never involved in the Edict of Blood but this could confuse someone who doesn't know that it was actually the Spanish who were involved. I like the way you handle the situation in which the player chooses to make the Yorkists rulers of England during the Wars of the Roses, though; Richard III wins the Battle of Bosworth (again, this should be identified as a fabricated event based on the player's decision versus actual history) and agrees to leave the kingdom to Henry VII. (The game does identify fabricated leaders with a *.)
