HoD intro picture

[eleinvisible]

And I say it as a Brit. (And woefully inaccurate; did someone miss the bit where Napoleon nearly conquered all Europe?)

To be fair to the French, that was before Vicky's time frame. But even within the time frame they certainly didn't lose many wars.

Anyway, the original (Darkath's post) was funny.

 

[ColonelSanders]

Here's a definition of racism, I dedicate it to Damerel.
Racism [noun] prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior
I don't discriminate them, rank as superior or inferior and to begin with French are not a separate race to begin with. As you can see those jokes can't be racist. Then again your post implies that you confuse nationality with race so I'm not surprised. Let's end this discussion I honestly didn't want this to go offtopic.
I really like the ideas of Spiller68, especially that of Russian Ironclads burning Japanese towns. Intro pictures were a bit too Anglocentric. Vanilla had confederate troops going against Brits(Yankees going against Brits would be funnier in my opinion) House Divided had Murrican ships literally employing gunboat diplomacy in good ol' London. It was refreshing to see Russian ship in Congo in AHD but the score is still 2:1 for Anglos. Whites advancing on Red Guards along the Nevsky Prospekt with Winter Palace in the background would be badass. Or maybe Mehmed V sipping coffe while receiving parade of victorious ottoman forces in Vienna...

 

[Damerell]

... the best answer you've got is that you're a different _kind_ of bigot?

In most cases I completely conquer kebab and don't get my recover Greece mission.

 

[ColonelSanders]

Is that the best anwser you've managed to come up with? I was kinda hoping for an anwser on the basis of merit not calling names. I even tried to make it easy for you and cited a definition of the word you just used. I don't see what my post in EUIV forum about generating missions with purple chicken DLC has to do with ongoing discussion. Seems to me like this bigotry is a serious business to you. Let me guess, you are a Guardian subscriber right?

 

[Darkath]

Anyway, the original (Darkath's post) was funny.

And i said that being french myself, no one ever liked Napoleon III here

 

[Henry 43]

So, making sterotypes makes you a bigot now.

Im literally Hitler then.

 

[Jamey]

Fun fact: I tried to photoshop in a raptor dinosaur that would sometimes take the place of the panther randomly but my photoshop skills could not match up to Adrenaline's epic art so I removed it

That would have been epic.

I never noticed the Russian flag, so kudos on the subtle alt history nod.

In closing: "The horror... The horror..."

 

[alexti]

I wanted something to give the feeling of exploring the unknow dark jungles of africa (in this case Congo), and perhaps also to tie in with Heart of Darkness by Conrad, so a river boat felt perfect. I also like our V2 screens to be alt history so i asked Darkrenown "which major power DIDNT colonize africa?" and he said Russia so we went with that

Fun fact: The russians did have a small colony historically but got driven off by the french: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagallo
Fun fact: I tried to photoshop in a raptor dinosaur that would sometimes take the place of the panther randomly but my photoshop skills could not match up to Adrenaline's epic art so I removed it

It's cool to get such reply from the developers

 

[RX2000]

It's cool to get such reply from the developers

Yay for interaction with the actual developers of the games you love.

 

[ben606]

Seriously? It was one of the few books I enjoyed. It did take some effort, though.

Heart of Darkness is one of the most racist and bigoted specimens of English language fiction ever written. Every African in it is depicted as a simpleton who is either servile or savage, and Africa itself is portrayed as a dark and mysterious land fit only for "civilizing" by Europeans. The late Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author of the famous Things Fall Apart felt particular disdain for it. One of his criticism's can be found here:
http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html

 

[Mgoblue201]

Heart of Darkness is one of the most racist and bigoted specimens of English language fiction ever written. Every African in it is depicted as a simpleton who is either servile or savage, and Africa itself is portrayed as a dark and mysterious land fit only for "civilizing" by Europeans. The late Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author of the famous Things Fall Apart felt particular disdain for it. One of his criticism's can be found here.

Reading the book should yield the opposite conclusion, assuming that Conrad's views are reflected by Marlow's words (and I'm not certain we should conflate the two at all times). Heart of Darkness, at one level, is an indictment of colonialism. This comes straight from Marlow himself. In the opening pages of the book, Marlow makes the comparison between European imperialism and Roman imperialism. The only difference, he believes, is...

"...efficiency -- the devotion to efficiency... [The Romans] were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force -- nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind -- as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."

This is not the literary manifestations of an inveterate colonial sympathizer. It's true that Conrad is particularly interested in the idea of savagery, but as a universal human quality, not endemic to any one race of man. Here's a description from the book: "Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -- all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination -- you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate." Is he describing Africa? No, he's describing Britain, particularly when the Romans first arrived. Conrad is making the larger point that civilization, if not an illusion, is merely a guise for the darkness lurking in the hearts of men. I would love to engage with Achebe's entire essay, part of which I sympathize with (particularly in Conrad's use of pejorative, racist imagery) and part of which I don't, but obviously this isn't the appropriate forum to write an extended literary critique.

Anyway, to answer the original post, the image from the loading screen is a very beautifully rendered evocation, though not necessarily an outright depiction, of the famous passages in Heart of Darkness in which Marlow travels down the river on the boat. A more stylized version often graces the cover of the book:

 

[LouSydney]

Another treat, a loading screen draft that was never completed for A House Divided:

I love this so much! Please make this a loading screen if and when you make Victoria III

 

[eleinvisible]

Heart of Darkness is one of the most racist and bigoted specimens of English language fiction ever written. Every African in it is depicted as a simpleton who is either servile or savage, and Africa itself is portrayed as a dark and mysterious land fit only for "civilizing" by Europeans. The late Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author of the famous Things Fall Apart felt particular disdain for it. One of his criticism's can be found here.

You've missed the point entirely. Go read it again.

 

[ben606]

You've missed the point entirely. Go read it again.

I suggest you both do the same, yet read it taking into account all of Achebe's criticisms. Heart of Darkness, while wonderfully written, is just another book about Africa written by white men, which uses Africa as a kind of primitive springboard to express Conrad's message. Achebe expressed this better than I ever could when he wrote that "Africa is to Europe as the picture is to Dorian Gray -- a carrier onto whom the master unloads his physical and moral deformities so that he may go forward, erect and immaculate." The only defence I could offer Conrad is that his work is not so much a reflection of his own racism, but a projection of the racism so inherent to his age.

 

[ColonelSanders]

Heart of Darkness is one of the most racist and bigoted specimens of English language fiction ever written. Every African in it is depicted as a simpleton who is either servile or savage, and Africa itself is portrayed as a dark and mysterious land fit only for "civilizing" by Europeans. The late Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author of the famous Things Fall Apart felt particular disdain for it. One of his criticism's can be found here:

It's seriously scary, how you can misinterpret a book. Writing that ""Heart of Darkness" is one of the most racist and bigoted specimens of English language fiction ever written" is quite a thing to say about one of the sharpest critiques of colonialism ever written. "Heart of Darkness, while wonderfully written, is just another book about Africa written by white men" Are you (or rather this achebe fellow) trying to imply that white people have no right to write about Africa? If so then why? because... they are white? I'm not sure but it may actually be racist... While we are it we might also say that portrayal of women by chiuaua achebe is sexist (funny thing about traits ending on -ist is that you can always attribute at least one of them to whomever you want) racism, classism, ableism, sexism, antisemitism, heterosexism, ageism - take your pick. I really can't stand folks who try to find those things wherever they look. Most of those -ism words didn't exist decade ago anyway.

 

[Ethanol]

I remember staring for a few minutes a this picture when I first launched up HoD, the atmosphere it creates is just awesome, gets you right into the whole "dark jungle explorer" thing.

My next thought was that the next expansion would bring a new menu picture (not a jolly thought at all).

And on the subject of the book, personally I liked it, but then I practically grew up reading 19th century novels (Jules Verne, etc.) so the less "gripping" nature of the book (characteristic in my opinion of that era) didn't really affect me, this being said it is quite short (80+ pages) and some of the texts are just great.

The fact that it depicts one of the biggest genocides of the 19th-20th century whom my country still refuses to recognize (try speaking about the congo in Belgium and people will tell you how we practically brought wealth, civilization and progress to them, last time someone started a debate about the congo genocide they got a few corrupt/royalist university professors together and made a hour-long program on how great Leopold II was) may influence the value I give it.