[Freeciv-Dev] Re: fascism patch

[paulz@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

On Fri, Jul 28, 2000 at 11:14:01AM +0200, Reinier Post eloquently wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 28, 2000 at 01:44:02AM +0200, Mathias Hasselmann wrote:
>  
> > Hey, rest of the world, hope you listen to it now:
> > If you really want to embarrass many Germans, speak tumb and
> > *unreflected* about the Naziregime.
> 
> If Fascists and Blitzkrieg get added, I'll add a Klan nation and Apartheid.

After reading this thread I gave some serious thought to what might be
causing all this discussion.  I may not have figured out exactly why
everyone has commented on this specific debate but I have come up with
some things about Freeciv that maybe should be addressed, or at least
discussed. 

First off, addressing the actual issue of this thread.  Maybe I am
mistaken, but aren't there 2 issues here?  One is fascism as a
government and blitzkreig as a technology.  The other issue is adding a
Nazi flag to the game.  Do we have to do both?  Don't get me wrong, I
am not a fan of fascism, but I wouldn't appose adding it along side
things like Despotism and Fundamentalism, I don't see how, as a
governmental form it is any worse than that.  Blitzkreig is also a real
factor in modern warfare, although it could be argued that we already
have this under the technology "combined arms" and could avoid this
name because it is inciteful.  I haven't actually looked at the
patch/modpack.

The second issue is the addition of a Nazi flag with a swastica.  This
I think is totaly unecesary.  As others have mentioned, there have been
other fascist governments other than Nazi germany.  Beside, we already
have a flag for Germany.  I can see no value added to the game by
including something that is so offensive.  Just as I would appose a
Klan nation as Reinier mentioned to show how obsured it is.  If someone
find entertainment in playing with this kind of flag, so be it, but
that doesn't mean it needs to be included.  


Now one to more general Freeciv.  One of the authors of this modpack
mentioned how his flag spread like a virus all over the continent.  But
this pretty much happens in every game.  The civilizations in Freeciv
aren't really "free" (as in liberty), they all end up under the iron
fist of whatever nation K is playing (If you don't know K, play on
civserver.freeciv.org sometime :).  We are creating a game where the best
strategy is to build tons of small cities so your nation can out
reproduce the other ones like rabbits.  Then create war machines and
crush them.  

"So what?" you say.  And I guess I do too, to a certian extent.
However I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to put some thought into
looking for other ways to play the game.  I like the idea of other
types of warfare in Civ:CTP, if not the implimentation.  I like the
idea of border cities voluntarily switching sides because of economic
reasons.  I think it would even be interesting to have parts of a
cities population immigrate to another city of a border nation (I live
in San Diego, so I see this on a daily basis).

Food for thought, and hopefully a comment or two.

-- 
Paul Zastoupil