Replacing Religions

[_BuRjaCi_]

I know that nbarclay. But on the other hand some people might find it uncomfortable to realise that it is strategicaly prudent to wipe out their real-world nations or to play as the Germans (any Polish people here? , for the record the post-WW2 Germany is not agressive and deserves all praise for seeking peacefull solutions and most Germans are really good people, I'm just using this as an example) in a WW2 scenario.

[ml_4da3]

Originally posted by Nikolai
You can be a believer and still think for yourself. Honestly, I'm a bit tired of that critizism...*sigh*

Yes, of course. But my experience is that *generally* christians has much easier to believe whatever someone (as long as its the right person) says without proof or further explaination: For example anything a bible, priest or a parent says; and when you try to discuss it with them, they refuse to listen to logic and return to some crazy "but X says Y exists which says X is right which says I am right" arguments..

[ajbera]

How about the Cthulhu cult? Cthulhuism?

[Fidel]

Re: Replacing Religions

Originally posted by nbarclay
As a Christian, I don't feel entirely comfortable with a game where it is likely to be strategically important to create and spread religions that, in the real world, I believe are wrong. Because of that, I'm seriously considering modding my game

let me give you a list of thoughts for modding things:
- thou shallt not kill - mod arms out of the game. alternative RealityMod - priests bless weapons - +1 when fighting different religions
- mod out population expansion resulting from people being born out of wedlock
- credo quia absurdum - random silly event should be in occassionally
- mod out WMDs. of course they are 'wrong' too. wait a second, they do not exist. silly me.
- what about civics? slavery? serfdom? how can you withstand that much pain around? half, or more than half of the civics should be out or somebody might use them and they might 'spread' throughout the game.
- killing bears and lions should be prohibited. trade in fur resource as well. it is wrong.

i will come back with more...

[nbarclay]

If people are interested in discussing the merits of religion versus atheism, can you please take it to Off Topic (assuming it's okay with the moderators to discuss the issue even there)? I'd rather not clutter this thread rehashing an old debate that's off topic to the thread anyhow.

[Senethro]

So instead you clutter this forum with a trivial mod where you change an incredibly insignificant portion of the game to fit in with your narrow worldview?

[Niptium]

Shheeeeeeeeeeesh ! When I see that I can see why some companies are wuss who don't include some more realistic features like religion. And the way it's handled by Firaxis is OK - but they should be more courageous - Folks it's not because in the game I'm an hinduist and I,m gonna take it out on the jews or the taoists that it's bad... these people complaining are the same that listen to Bill O'Reilly and that plays Halo on their Xbox shooting people all over the place...

That - with all du respect - sir is kind of insulting the atheist in me. But you know - I really dig you though - you are respectfull since you didn't take he highroad and said : FIRAXIS IS BAD ! I'M NOT GONNA BUY THE GAME. You will just modify your own game. That's cool

[H Tower]

trivial mods, inane trivia, pbem's that aren't going to start until november 1st. as long as it pertains to Civ4, he can post it.

[nbarclay]

I got to thinking about religion from the perspective of fictional people living in a fictional world created by human beings, and I may have a viable set of pseudoreligions.

The Firaxian family of religions:

Firaxianism - Worship of all the "High Firaxians" who created the game.

Sidism - Focuses on the worship of Sid, who defined the fundamental nature of the universe.

Sorenism - Credits Soren as the source of all intelligence and as the driving force behind making the world the way it is now.


Web-based Religions:

Apolytonism - Believes that people should live their lives according to the guidance of the Apolytonians.

GOTMism - Believes that every month of a person's life should be lived as if it were a great game.


Other religions:

Playerism - Believes that the human being playing the game at a particular moment is worthy of the highest worship.

Randomism - Belief that fate is guided by the mystical Random Number Generator.

[Spiffor]

In your Civ games, do you never raze any city, never purposefully starve the population, never bomb an enemy city silly, never choose a despotic regime over a representative one?

In Civ4, are you going to never use slavery or feudalism?

I mean, there are so many horrible worngs that one can do as the leader of a civilization, do you avoid them all? Or do you rank spreading a wrong religion as worse than genocide?

[nbarclay]

Re: Re: Replacing Religions

Originally posted by LaRusso

let me give you a list of thoughts for modding things:
- thou shallt not kill - mod arms out of the game. alternative RealityMod - priests bless weapons - +1 when fighting different religions
- mod out population expansion resulting from people being born out of wedlock
...

The central issue is suspension of nonbelief. Some people view Civilization so purely as a game that they focus purely and ruthlessly on strategy without caring at all about realism. Others don't suspend their nonbelief quite so completely.

Prior to the Conquests expansion pack, I wasn't generally interested in pursuing domination victories unless my palace and forbidden palace were positioned in such a way that I could make almost all of my conquered territory reasonably productive. Conquering territory only to have cities that would have been productive under their old owners be reduced to one shield and one gold per turn didn't feel like I was accomplishing anything useful.

I've also never been all that thrilled over bringing AI A into a war with me against AI B and then turning around and attacking AI A after the war is over. It's not too rare that I'll do it, especially if an AI attacks me when I'm not adequately prepared. But it's generally more fun for me when I don't feel like I'm stabbing a friend in the back.

For me, the issue of religion is another "suspension of nonbelief" issue. I know that if I work against "Christianity" in the game, I'm not really working against Christianity, but if it looks like I'm working against something in the game that I'm for in real life, that makes suspension of nonbelief more difficult. Given the existence of an almost trivial fix, why not mod away the problem?

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Spiffor
In your Civ games, do you never raze any city, never purposefully starve the population, never bomb an enemy city silly, never choose a despotic regime over a representative one?

It's almost unheard of for me to raze a city. I do let game mechanics push me into starving cities fairly often, but I have a pretty strong distaste for being pushed to do it. When I play Civ, my goal is to build up a great civilization, not to engage in gratuitous distruction.

In Civ4, are you going to never use slavery or feudalism?

For some reason, I find it a lot easier to suspend my nonbelief when it comes to slavery than I do in regard to some other issues. I used to make quite a bit of use of slavers in Call to Power, and I happly grab slaves when I get a good opportunity in Civ 3. Maybe the fact that slaves end up doing essentially the same thing for me that they would have been doing for the other civ, without anything being obviously harmed or destroyed, contributes to that difference.

I mean, there are so many horrible worngs that one can do as the leader of a civilization, do you avoid them all? Or do you rank spreading a wrong religion as worse than genocide?

I don't think I've ever committed genocide in all the time I've played Civ 3, which dates back to probably within a couple weeks of the game's original release. I've conquered entire nations any number of times, but that's a very different thing from killing all of their people.

[lockstep]

How about replacing the seven game religions with other historical ones that were once powerful competitors, but are insignificant or nonexistent today? Mithraism crossed my mind immediately.

[Niptium]

There is also Manicheism

[Martinus]

As a Pole, I am offended by the existence of Germans and Russians in game, and want them removed.