Tweet
I'm Torn on This One...
While I think that we should have a degree of control in regards to our political situation that's as close to realistic as possible, I also think it's important that the game compensates for, as a poster whose post I can't locate right now put it, our muted sense of honour.
Cynics -- among who I have frequently been classified -- would argue that all politics is corrupt, self-interested, and completely lacking in ANY sense of honour. This is, however, if seriously and objectively considered, untrue. I will not deny that politicians and diplomats scheme, but they are also human, and collectively do, outside of Hollywood at least, have SOME sense of honour. If agreements are made, on some level, at some time, there is some intent to honour them.
In CivII I frequently made diplomatic agreements that I had NO intention of keeping. I didn't care about my reputation very much to at all, and between the Great Wall and the United Nations I could force peace whenever I wanted, and then break it whenever I wanted, with practical impunity. This was a lot of fun. This was unrealistic. This wasn't, simply put, the way civilization of the non-trademarked kind, worked.
There should be some limit to our ability to treat diplomacy, the art peace, as merely another tool of war. A realistic emphasis on peace is, after all, one of the best and most realistic changes in CivIII. While minor agreements -- simple peace treaties, for example -- should be relatively easy to break, agreements like Mutual Protection Pacts symbolize something more impressive. They represent, realistically, a long-term relationship between two civilizations, one that should not, indeed cannont in the eyes of the people of a country, be broken at the whimisical snap of the Emperor's fingers.
So, after all of that, beginning with the subject and ending here, I think I've managed to convince myself that any high-level diplomatic agreement such as a Mutual Protection Pact, SHOULD be binding. Our realistic control is inherent, really, in the power to decide when and with who we make such agreements.
While I think that we should have a degree of control in regards to our political situation that's as close to realistic as possible, I also think it's important that the game compensates for, as a poster whose post I can't locate right now put it, our muted sense of honour.
Cynics -- among who I have frequently been classified -- would argue that all politics is corrupt, self-interested, and completely lacking in ANY sense of honour. This is, however, if seriously and objectively considered, untrue. I will not deny that politicians and diplomats scheme, but they are also human, and collectively do, outside of Hollywood at least, have SOME sense of honour. If agreements are made, on some level, at some time, there is some intent to honour them.
In CivII I frequently made diplomatic agreements that I had NO intention of keeping. I didn't care about my reputation very much to at all, and between the Great Wall and the United Nations I could force peace whenever I wanted, and then break it whenever I wanted, with practical impunity. This was a lot of fun. This was unrealistic. This wasn't, simply put, the way civilization of the non-trademarked kind, worked.
There should be some limit to our ability to treat diplomacy, the art peace, as merely another tool of war. A realistic emphasis on peace is, after all, one of the best and most realistic changes in CivIII. While minor agreements -- simple peace treaties, for example -- should be relatively easy to break, agreements like Mutual Protection Pacts symbolize something more impressive. They represent, realistically, a long-term relationship between two civilizations, one that should not, indeed cannont in the eyes of the people of a country, be broken at the whimisical snap of the Emperor's fingers.
So, after all of that, beginning with the subject and ending here, I think I've managed to convince myself that any high-level diplomatic agreement such as a Mutual Protection Pact, SHOULD be binding. Our realistic control is inherent, really, in the power to decide when and with who we make such agreements.
It would be nice to know how much longer i have in the pact, so that i can change governments etc if needed due to the war.
Comment