The game seems very interesting, and I’m only commenting for a friendly discussion and constructive feedback :)
What’s the reasoning behind naming the world powers U.S., China, Europe and The Majority World? Two of these are countries, and two are generalized abstractions. As a person living in a European country, this feels strange. Europe is a varied continent with vastly different countries and cultures. Maybe calling it “The European Union” would not be as much of a thorn in the side of people from European countries. It would at least be more correct. Or, you could switch from U.S. and China to America/North America and Asia.
I can also see “The Majority World” feeling like a heavy generalization. I am not as familiar with cultures outside of Europe and America, but I can see how people might feel misrepresented. Is this a result of the design being finely tuned for 4 factions, and a generalization was required?
I will be happy to hear your thoughts, and sorry in advance if I have misunderstood any aspects of the game design.
Hi Rygg, thanks for your questions!
As a fellow European (grew up in Italy, based in the UK) I'm well aware of the variety of cultures that make up Europe. I still like to quip that "I'm travelling to the continent" when I take the train from London to Paris though :)
Given the practical requirement of a 1–4 player game, we set out to split the world into four, which proved all but simple! We wanted to include as much of it as was reasonable, while giving players plausible choices that they could represent and identify with.
We used "Europe" instead of "European Union" for brevity, and because we think of that player as the archetype of Global North countries, which have similar trajectories and usually negotiate as a bloc at COP conferences.
"Majority World" is an alternative term for Global South, Developing World, or Third World. It describes more accurately and positively countries in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean and Oceania, highlighting the fact that the majority of humanity lives there.
Like "Europe", the countries that make up the Majority World usually negotiate as a bloc.
To clarify - a small common annoyance for people in European countries is that in mainly the U.S., it seems quite common to talk about Europe as one country. For example, U.S. people sometimes use phrases like “I’m going to Europe” whereas we usually would specify “I’m going to Italy”. Yes, we would be traveling within Europe and it makes sense to say Italy for us there, but the same goes for other parts of the world. We would not say “I’m going to Asia”, we would say “I’m going to Vietnam”.
I don’t mean to be petty or generalize U.S. lingual culture. As I said, I want to hear your thoughts and keep the discussion friendly :)
The game seems very interesting, and I’m only commenting for a friendly discussion and constructive feedback :) What’s the reasoning behind naming the world powers U.S., China, Europe and The Majority World? Two of these are countries, and two are generalized abstractions. As a person living in a European country, this feels strange. Europe is a varied continent with vastly different countries and cultures. Maybe calling it “The European Union” would not be as much of a thorn in the side of people from European countries. It would at least be more correct. Or, you could switch from U.S. and China to America/North America and Asia. I can also see “The Majority World” feeling like a heavy generalization. I am not as familiar with cultures outside of Europe and America, but I can see how people might feel misrepresented. Is this a result of the design being finely tuned for 4 factions, and a generalization was required? I will be happy to hear your thoughts, and sorry in advance if I have misunderstood any aspects of the game design.
Hi Rygg, thanks for your questions! As a fellow European (grew up in Italy, based in the UK) I'm well aware of the variety of cultures that make up Europe. I still like to quip that "I'm travelling to the continent" when I take the train from London to Paris though :) Given the practical requirement of a 1–4 player game, we set out to split the world into four, which proved all but simple! We wanted to include as much of it as was reasonable, while giving players plausible choices that they could represent and identify with. We used "Europe" instead of "European Union" for brevity, and because we think of that player as the archetype of Global North countries, which have similar trajectories and usually negotiate as a bloc at COP conferences. "Majority World" is an alternative term for Global South, Developing World, or Third World. It describes more accurately and positively countries in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean and Oceania, highlighting the fact that the majority of humanity lives there. Like "Europe", the countries that make up the Majority World usually negotiate as a bloc.
To clarify - a small common annoyance for people in European countries is that in mainly the U.S., it seems quite common to talk about Europe as one country. For example, U.S. people sometimes use phrases like “I’m going to Europe” whereas we usually would specify “I’m going to Italy”. Yes, we would be traveling within Europe and it makes sense to say Italy for us there, but the same goes for other parts of the world. We would not say “I’m going to Asia”, we would say “I’m going to Vietnam”. I don’t mean to be petty or generalize U.S. lingual culture. As I said, I want to hear your thoughts and keep the discussion friendly :)