Wny no Taj Mahal?

[Boliao]

This is something I've always wondered since CIV1....
Why is the Taj Mahal not implemented as a wonder? I mean the forbidden city of China is in right? Any thoughts?

[Yoleus]

World version

Taj Mahal sounds good to me. But I think it was not in either because it is not well known (in the western world: what I mean is that even if most of the people know that something with that name actualy exists, few know what it actually is and why it was built) or because they had "plenty" of other candidates landmarks as CivIII wonders (western stuff).
I too would have liked a more "global" civ, but the choice is done and I am not disappointed (even if I think that they could have done better, I mean, they are Firaxis and Sid, right?).
There have been other threads on this topic, but they are late.
What we could do is to come up (after the game is released and played) with a "sensible" list of wonder changes (or increments, maybe: Taj Mahal as a Minor Wonder for happiness) to propose to Firaxis for a "world version" (what we will get in all the planet at the beginning will be the US (limited?) version).

[Yoleus]

An other example of a too western (and sometimes too american) point of view:
in the small wonders you have the Pentagon and Wall street, not "defence headquarters" (or Kremlin, maybe... just give one to Russia, c'mon) or "national stock exchange", but you have Heroic Epic, not "Iliad" , "Odissey" or "Ramayana".
Now you may get my point.

[Boliao]

Yah another wonder I think that should be included is the ...eh how should I put it...You know the famous colorful buildings in Moscow ..(the St basil cathedral outside the Kremlin at the end of Red Square)....don't you think that's another famous monument? Maybe we can add this plus TajMahal in using the editor.....

[Yoleus]

And battlefield medicine, not Red Cross!!!!
Ok, three sequential replies, I am exaggerating, I know.
I beg everybody's pardon.

[The Templar]

Again, this is why there is an editor.

[Wexu]

Re: World version

Originally posted by Yoleus
Taj Mahal sounds good to me. But I think it was not in either because it is not well known (in the western world: what I mean is that even if most of the people know that something with that name actualy exists, few know what it actually is and why it was built)

Of course, you meant most of the Americans don't know what Taj Mahal is, right?

[Grumbold]

There's a Taj Mahal in almost every English city, and they serve great food. That is what you mean, right?

[Ribannah]

I've said it before, the wonders are awfully America-centered.
Here are just a few I would have liked: Stonehenge, Camelot, VOC (Dutch East Indies Company), Hermitage, Red Cross, Salomon's Court, Thousand and One Nights, Kruger National Park.

[Jason Beaudoin]

I always thought that there should be a Tajmahal, and I wondered the same thing.

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by Boliao

Why is the Taj Mahal not implemented as a wonder?

If I only had just your problems...

Well, we can't have every single wonder idea to
be included in Civ III. We just can't simply do that.
But, you're right, the Taj Mahal would be good
option as a wonder. The Forbidden City is probably
included, because it's perhaps more widely known.

I don't mean that Finns wouldn't know what Taj Mahal
is, but in a certain country on the other shore of
the Atlantic Ocean, it might be less known.

[SITS]

Maybe a few people can get together to do a 'world-centric' mod that changes the name of wonders so it reflects a more balanced view of the world.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Yoleus
And battlefield medicine, not Red Cross!!!!

I think Battlefield Medicine is a hell of a lot more generic - there's absolutely nothing US-centric about it. Plus are you forgetting that there is a Red Crescent organization that would be ignored in favor of your more christian version (you do know what the cross implies, right)?

Oh, and I had heard of the Taj Mahal long before I ever knew what the Forbidden City was all about, and I live on this "other shore of the Atlantic."

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by Ribannah

Here are just a few I would have liked: Stonehenge, Camelot, VOC (Dutch East Indies Company), Hermitage, Red Cross, Salomon's Court, Thousand and One Nights, Kruger National Park.

I can agree with you on two points; Stonehenge and
East Indies Trading Company).
But Kruger and the Nights; nope!

My alternative wonders are (some of them might
overdrive each other, but that's not important)...

The upgraded list can be found more downwards on
this page.

[Yoleus]

Some shoots

Grand Cathedral -> Hagia Sofia (in Istanbul: it was a cristian church, now it is a muslim mosque. 2 religions in a single wonder. Only Jerusalem does better. It is worldwide known and truly beautyful)
Battlefield Medicine -> Red Cross (Red Crescent was a name change for islamic countries, but I would think that this thing in particular is not a problem for muslims - I expect some feedback from our religious cousins)
Pentagon -> Kremlin (give the Russians a chance!)
Heroic epic -> Ramayana (or Iliad, you choose. But I prefer Ramayana for a less euro-centric cultural model. The Greeks are great but they have enough)
Wall Street -> East Indies Trading Company (this really did change economy)
Great University (what was the Newton) -> Cambridge (scientifical more that literary, sorry Oxford)

And for the US guys: why is it in the game something like the Hoover Dam (I mean, who knows it??), but not something more famous like the Union-Pacific Railway???
I know there is also the Russian transSiberian, but I would like the Kremlin more as a Russian wonder.
Moreover, I am definitely in favour of having the Statue of Liberty (a french gift, you know it??) replaced with the Constitution of the Union (far, far better, far more American with the capital "A")