Default Powers in Discovery

It's funny how strategy games tend to follow each other as if there are default settings for what these virtual worlds are supposed to look like. I've already mentioned for the trebuchet moved from an obscure medieval weapon to being something that strategy gamers expect. Age of Empires II made this siege device a household word.

With Age of Empires III only six months away, it is a good time to take note of how it too is using the default understanding of what distinguished the major colonial powers from each other.

The first game to distinguish the great European powers of the Age of Exploration was Sid Meier's Colonization, a popular strategy title that never reached brilliance, but was certainly enjoyable. In the New World of colonization, the four European powers had four different advantages to give them an edge over their rivals. Riven by religious strife, England produced immigrants for the colonies at a faster rate. The French got along better with the Natives and could expect more peaceful relations. The Spanish were conquerors and so they got an attack bonus when attacking a Native village. The Dutch had the early commercial advantage of a second ship and more stable prices at the home port.

So, the template was set. The English are better colonizers, the French and Indians get along better, the Spanish kill people more efficiently and the Dutch are business geniuses.

Though it is hard to point to conclusive evidence that game designers take their ideas from other people, Interplay's Conquest of the New World Deluxe Edition implemented similar distinctions between the major powers, even throwing Portugal and a native race into the mix.

England gets ship and artillery bonuses - different from Colonization.

France gets better relations with natives - the same.

Natives get more movement and more gold.

Holland collects interest on gold mines - more commercial stuff.

Portugal gets movement bonuses - probably reflecting early exploration.

Spain gets better infantry and better explorers - a military bonus, but most of the powers get some sort of military bonus.

So we have some similarities and some differences. Most of the cultures get some military bonus of some sort, so Spain isn't too special except for that it applies to the plentiful infantry. England's naval bonus makes sense. France is, by now, firmly pegged as the friend of the Indians and the Dutch like money.

What will we have in Age of Empires III? The May issue of Computer Games Magazine had a thorough preview in which some of the distinctions were laid out. The English get a new citizen with every house - back to the big populations of Colonization. The French get along better with the Indians - again. The Dutch can build a special commercial building. The Portuguese start with two town center building units. The Spanish get more frequent shipments from home. A new culture - the Germans - can recruit mercenaries more easily.

The replication of many of these powers and distinctions in games from three different developers that cover the same era is quite astonishing. If you compare the Romans and Greeks in Age of Empires and Rise of Nations, you will find fewer resemblances I bet.

This fact implies that there is an understanding of the differences between most of the European colonial powers in America. Take the French native relations bonus. Given the relatively limited French colonization in the Americas (they claimed a lot of land, but didn't settle much of it) the lack of sustained French-Native warfare shouldn't be surprising. Beyond the French alliance with the Huron, it is hard to come up with strong evidence that the French and Natives got along better as a matter of policy.

Similarly, the Dutch commercial empire so strongly reflected in these games subsumes the Dutch wars of conquest in Asia. The impression of the Dutch as money smart traders is likely reinforced by English perception of The Netherlands as more of an economic than military threat like France or Spain.

Interestingly, the Spanish seem to be a mystery for game designers. They get a strong military bonus versus natives in Colonization, a general infantry bonus in Conquest of the New World and will be more a standard default power in AoE3. They had the largest empire in the New World, intermarried with natives, exacted slave labor, engaged in extensive missionary activity and yet this great power comes away as undistinctive.

I wonder if the so-called "Black Legend" of Spanish imperialism - the widespread belief that the Spanish were more cruel and vicious to the conquered people of America than other powers - has something to do with the indecision to label the Spanish. Game developers tend to resist ascribing morally objectionable powers to historic empires, for very understandable reasons. But, aside from Colonization, no game maker who has dealt with this period seems to recognize that we remember Cortez and Pizarro for a reason.

If I've forgotten any game that addresses these issues or you want to contribute your own thoughts on this type of historic stereotyping, please weigh in.