Surrender, Routing, and Pacificm

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PhilD:
Err, this is a game about fighting a religious war of extermination...

That's a bad thing?

There is no good side. There are a lot of bad sides, and a few worse ones.

Sure there is. Your side is the good side, duh! And the streets will flow with the blood of the nonbelievers!

(Of course, being personally very anti-religious does not help seeing a "good side" in this game... but still...)

I'm not a terribly big fan of religion either, but if the religion is about worshipping me, that's enough to make me a believer.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

---

There is no good side. There are a lot of bad sides, and a few worse ones.

Sure there is. Your side is the good side, duh! And the streets will flow with the blood of the nonbelievers!

---

Yeah, eye of the beholder and all that...

Doesn't provide too good an argument for giving bonuses to the "good guys"...

(Still, it bothers me a little that, at least in SP, each of my nations ends up summoning either big devils or hordes of undeads, mostly because they're typically not the hungry/greedy types of worshippers... what does that tell about me as a pretender god, I wonder... )

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by PhilD:
(Still, it bothers me a little that, at least in SP, each of my nations ends up summoning either big devils or hordes of undeads, mostly because they're typically not the hungry/greedy types of worshippers... what does that tell about me as a pretender god, I wonder... )

It tells us that you are a wise and prudent pretender that values the lives of your faithful servants. I didn't watch your kingdom closely, but I could see several provinces where the dead were toiling the fields and fighting the wars, while your loyal subjects sat in orchards drinking wine and munchin olives.

Let the dead do the dying and the living do the living.

On the blood magic aspect on the other hand, shame on you! Those virgins should have been serving olives to your wine drinking men, dressed in exotic clothing unfit for anything but serving olives.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:

On the blood magic aspect on the other hand, shame on you! Those virgins should have been serving olives to your wine drinking men, dressed in exotic clothing unfit for anything but serving olives.

What's the deal with olives and swedes? Do you have some special olive-related fantasy, or what?

[ywl]

It's way off-topic but to me, war is evil. Religious wars are even worse. Any game which glorify or fantasize one side as good, and thus justify the killing of the enemies, is actually more morally repulsive to me .

The game in its current state is fine.

[ March 08, 2004, 23:40: Message edited by: ywl ]

[vanedor]

"war is evil."

Well, so I guess a nation which is at war to defend itself against the hords of zombie from Ermor is necessary evil?

I feel this game could be seriously improved by adding diplomacy. And people who prefer it this way could just set the settings as "Total War" and have fun the old way.

[Alarik]

I'm new to the forum...I'm just a barbarian so you can take my comments for whatever you think they are worth. I find this thread absolutley fascinating. It's a testament to the game and it's creators that it could stimulate such a dialog and bring folks like you together.

I especially like the discussion about:

Game is Here

----Reality----

Real Life is Here

It reminds me of this book I'm trying to get my head around at the moment 'Godel, Esher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'. Maybe one of you could help me understand why it does. Or maybe not, who knows?

With regards to young children or even early teen-agers getting into this game, I think they would be the rare exception not the rule. The game is more complex and not as vicerally rewarding as the games most of them would go for. Simply stated, it's not bloody enough! I would actually think if a younger person got into this game it would be a good sign of their character as it would show they had some patience, a lot of curiosity and a vivid imagination.

On a side note when I picked up the game I found myself gravitating toward the Acroscephale precisely because they seemed like the race most predisposed to be "Good". After all, how evil can they be if they've got Healers, Mystics and Astrologers. At least they've got their telescopes pointed in the right direction! And they seem to be connected and concerned with Astral magic which is the source of the other magics and can be manipulated to be any of the other schools. This surely is a promising national quality. The nation with the strongest grasp of astral magic would be standing on firmer ground with all magical principals. This seems to be bourne out by many accounts that they are easy to win with. And would not the people that were the closest to the "source" be the servents of a greater god than the others? Are the Acroscphales a "Moral" good race in the game or at least one that we can use our imagination to easily imagine has principals?

But Geez I carry on and I am just a barbarian. And this is just a game. A fascinating one none the less.

[ March 09, 2004, 08:40: Message edited by: Alarik ]