MarkQuinn
Powder Monkey
Well here I was defending the Pirates! series for its realism and here comes Jeff Briggs of Firaxis writing this designer diary saying "reality" doesn't really befit their game of heroism and it's not really realistic, and maybe people play games to escape from reality.
Maybe what we have is a discrepancy in the language we're using. What one person might call realistic, another would call "having your facts straight".
Short of a Star Trek: The Next Generation holodeck pirate simulation I don't think we're going to see a completely realistic pirate game that contains all or even a narrow majority of the "facts". When I speak of realism, I mean to say Pirates! --- the old and probably the new --- have their facts straight, or at least consistent. If you chose to omit executions, moldy food and dysentary, wonderful! What you've left in is a beautiful, dynamic, consistent world where everything exists pretty much where it should, where towns have bustling economies and ships ply the trade lanes in search of the cheapest commodities. We, as budding pirates, are free to dive into this game world and pursue fortune or survival on a real map of the Caribbean with true contending forces. I refer back to an earlier post on macro vs. micro realism. In the macro department I stand by this product, and I don't care who is telling me it's not realistic --- whether that person is a POTC fan, a historian or a Firaxis employee. In the departments which I think are important, I should say, Pirates! is every bit as realistic as it needs to be. That it is filtered through a colorful, comical, almost Walt Disneyish vision is to the game's credit, I should say, not its deteriment.
By the way, I know it would be irresponsible of Firaxis (or just about any `game-maker`) to claim their game is in any way realistic. They almost HAVE to say it is fanciful and farcical. But don't tell me for a minute, Firaxis, that you didn't do your homework on this game because you did. You opened a book or two while other game companies didn't do much more than study a few ship paintings.
<img src="http://publish.hometown.aol.com/markquinn2k3/images/mqbw.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Maybe what we have is a discrepancy in the language we're using. What one person might call realistic, another would call "having your facts straight".
Short of a Star Trek: The Next Generation holodeck pirate simulation I don't think we're going to see a completely realistic pirate game that contains all or even a narrow majority of the "facts". When I speak of realism, I mean to say Pirates! --- the old and probably the new --- have their facts straight, or at least consistent. If you chose to omit executions, moldy food and dysentary, wonderful! What you've left in is a beautiful, dynamic, consistent world where everything exists pretty much where it should, where towns have bustling economies and ships ply the trade lanes in search of the cheapest commodities. We, as budding pirates, are free to dive into this game world and pursue fortune or survival on a real map of the Caribbean with true contending forces. I refer back to an earlier post on macro vs. micro realism. In the macro department I stand by this product, and I don't care who is telling me it's not realistic --- whether that person is a POTC fan, a historian or a Firaxis employee. In the departments which I think are important, I should say, Pirates! is every bit as realistic as it needs to be. That it is filtered through a colorful, comical, almost Walt Disneyish vision is to the game's credit, I should say, not its deteriment.
By the way, I know it would be irresponsible of Firaxis (or just about any `game-maker`) to claim their game is in any way realistic. They almost HAVE to say it is fanciful and farcical. But don't tell me for a minute, Firaxis, that you didn't do your homework on this game because you did. You opened a book or two while other game companies didn't do much more than study a few ship paintings.
<img src="http://publish.hometown.aol.com/markquinn2k3/images/mqbw.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />