I think that's fine, if you want lots of intricacy in diplomacy Paradox have that covered. Civilization is very much a board game - in general Firaxis seem to have gone down the road of making incredibly polished boardgames that you can play on your own with a computer, and I think it's worked out really well.
>polished boardgames that you can play on your own with a computer, and I think it's worked out really well.
Paradox is also in the business of making boardgames, albeit with way more elaborate rules.
> your own with a computer, and I think it's worked out really well.
I don't think it has. The AI in Civ series is just bad, and only gets by through rampant cheating. Civ V was out for years, and they haven't managed to do anything decent with the combat AI. Nor prevent the AI from doing stupid things.
> It's been 27 fucking years since 1990, and the civilization franchise is still a glorified boardgame, where the only agency is had by each player.
Yes, that's pretty much what the game is designed to be; keeping the game what people have enjoyed it for is sensible.
> Totally unlike the real world, where ruling or governing is more about figuring out how to exercise power without getting overthrown.
And, sure, such a simulation would be interesting, but it's not what civilization has ever been, or advertised itself to be. It would certainly be good to have such a game, but why should it be in, or replace, the Civ line?
I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that it would make an interesting game. Making something more like the real world is often exactly what you don't want to do in a game.
By 'complex' I meant that it'd not be a boardgame anymore, but a boardgame in which the 'pieces' would have minds of their own and would do whatever they were could.
Have you read about the Russian frontier? As soon as it was at least somewhat secure so living on it wasn't a sure-fire way of getting enslaved by Muslim steppe raiders(Tatars), the empty land was filled up by peasants looking for land to farm.
An increase in population led to more slave raids, so Moscow was forced to push the border further south to protect the farmers. In this way the border kept moving south. In 250 years, this mechanism caused the Russian state to expand from Moscow to Crimea.
The article is basically an unhelpful load of bull plugging a book.
Yes, of course the word 'psychopath' is abused.
Yes of course it's not an either-or thing, and a lot of law abiding people have some features of archetypal psychopaths.
Any psychiatrist would tell you something like this. So, a lot of 'water is wet' type of filler.
>> The Myth of the Born Criminal argues that, rather than genes, psychopaths' most significant commonality appears to be an abusive childhood, which related research has demonstrated can affect the anatomy of the brain in various and profound ways.<<
The book dismisses all those cases (there are some) where perfectly normal families produced complete monsters. A good share of serial killers weren't abused. It's thought that those are just people who happen to express a set of genes good for social predation. Nice explanation in this abstract:
>>It never occurred to me that Gregory’s behavior in Kenya could be the product of anything other than his brain, and thus I never asked or inquired about what might have been going on in his life. I ignored the strong, decades-long relationship he had with our boss, the sort of relationship that psychopaths are supposed to be incapable of sustaining.<<
Because whatever goes on in your life of course cannot affect your brain. Why is this sort of stupid dualism even allowed in the 21st century? A person is their brain, and their body, taken together. You can't separate it.
It doesn't say that, also, the article mentions she "cut down" to that, and used to eat more.
I'm more interested in when various athletic old people are going to die. Ernestine Shepherd, or Charles Eugster, or any of these ancient japanese bodybuilders.
You forget that democracy has always been broken, by design.
>>The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.<<
The current fit on part of the intellectuals and media is due to them having lost this power to control the narrative and ideas because they failed to adapt to the new media which have replaced the old.
People with a limited pool of ancestors are often very ugly. Especially noticeable in alpine valleys or remote island communities.
Same if inbreeding is practiced. So, the claim that for example, mid-easterners with their penchant for marrying cousins, or the Swiss with their insular village communities ..
The both despised the colonialist administrations, and the book frequently mentioned all the injustices done on the native populations. Yet the factual descriptions of Africa at that time make it look a far safer place.
Friends of my parents' travelled in Afghanistan (and probably neighbouring countries), presumably in the 1970s. And said it was akin to going to Vietnam now - as in, maybe slightly adventurous by average standards, but nothing crazy.
Not the worst thing in the world. it's part of being handy, you're going to get asked for money A LOT (if you're white). You're going to be asked for dates or marriage a lot if you're a white woman.
Frankly a lot of their problems related to getting stuck was not having a 4x4
Totally unlike the real world, where ruling or governing is more about figuring out how to exercise power without getting overthrown.
Such a game would be way more interesting.