Yeah, that's a pity. Medieval people didn't care about those sites. Were they intrigued by them? Sure. They were interesting regional oddities, but not important to the way people lived and thought about the medieval world. Apparently my criticism of these sites in game is upsetting to people, but forget for a moment what you as a modern person think and know about them. Think about what a medieval person would think/know about these sites, and consider the gameplay interactions that could derive from that.
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A very good point.
However, one of the things that struck me about CK2 is that it is not so much a game about "medieval history", but about a modern person's view of medieval history. This is most obvious in things as mundane as calling the eastern Roman Empire "the "Byzantine Empire" and not ERE or just the "Roman Empire", which is pretty much what EVERYONE In the middle ages called them. More subtly and one of the first things I noticed and loved was the fact that the map colors are highly reminiscent of the colored maps I used to see in old encyclopedias and history books. You know - pink for England, blue for France etc.
This is partly why PDX has seen fit to add things such as devil worshipers, the Hermetic society and Warrior Lodges when in actual fact these things either didn't exist (at least as depicted in game) or were only a pale imitation of their in game counterparts. The idea is to give the players the "feel" for the era and the general impression that they really were living as an 8th or 12th century feudal lord, at least as far as their knowledge of history is concerned. Naturally and by necessity this approach causes conflicts with people who have a better grasp of history than the average RTS gamer - witness the endless threads on the forums about "It's ERE not Byzantium" or "Remove all Supernatural Content" or "Matrilinear marriages were not a thing !".
I think that i have a pretty good understanding of the history of the era but I am more than comfortable with mechanics or "flavor" content that has no real place in a medieval dynasty sim. I generally keep supernatural events on (but ruthlessly burn every witch, heretic and devil worshiper I can find), I keep matrilinear marriages on (but try not to cheese dynasty blobbing) and have been known to occasionally dabble in the Hermetic society or Warrior lodge (although I am still surprised when I find I have to duel my "good friend" from 3,000 km away !).
I think that having readily identifiable Great Wonders on the map will increase CK2's appeal to the wider gaming public (looking at you Total War and Civ players), while also keeping true to the game's core appeals of dynasty management and personal control of events. I have pointed out though that I would be more than happy with the ability to destroy existing monuments for whatever religious, cultural or governmental purposes the player saw fit.
IMHO something like Stonehenge should be a minor oddity that attracts a small but steady stream of half-pagan heretics and lunatics (and thus possibly some minor income and or prestige bonus to the holder, perhaps with a minor piety malus to go with it), but the player should be able to have the option if Zealous and say Arbitrary to tear it down and use the stones to build a new Wonder of their choice.
In fact, this brings up a neat suggestion.
What if every existing Wonder had some set of "destruction preconditions" which could be anything but which in fact would generally narrow down to a small selection of usual motives, say Zealous and Wroth (if the target was a heretical or heathen holy site), Proud and Arbitrary (if the target was a foreign cultural site) and so on. The player would then have the option to tear down the Wonder and use it in the creation of his new one. Major Wonders would of course take longer and cost more to tear down than minor ones, but in return would provide a discount to the creation of the resulting new Wonder, say for 20 years or so, after which the stones, icons etc would all be lost.
Want to tear down the Great Pyramid of Giza and use the stones to build yourself a mighty mausoleum ? Go ahead, but know that it will take 15 years and 1,500 gold, after that you will get a 30% discount on the construction cost of your new Wonder for the next 20 years.
Stonehenge for most, Salisbury for some.
