What happens to nations in the future?

[Ace32]

So I'm somewhat of a grand strategy game junkie these days, mostly dabbling in Paradox's games like Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings or others like Galactic Civilizations. However, I'm looking for a new game to sink my teeth into with a theme of space colonization (more or less Galactic Civ...) except I keep running into the same problem...

Where do all of our nations go?

It seems like most game designers like to toss all of Earth into some happy little global world order without differentiating between different nationalities. Now I know current international policy towards the moon and the like insist on borderless territory... but where is the fun in that?

So what I'm getting at is: are there any good games that could let me recreate 15th/16th century Imperialism in space? Chinese colonies on the Moon, Russian colonies on Mars, etc.

Or just general thoughts on the subject.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Huh...never noticed a computer game like that, though it's common enough in fiction and RPGs.

Brad

 

[Megaton]

I figure it'll be one of two things: the world becomes owned by rival transnational corporations, or things continue as they do now but branch out into space.

Whenever I think of colonies in outer space I think of this "Red Mars", "Blue Mars," "Green Mars" book series I read. The colonists in that book were born when I was born, lol.

 

[Shayuri]

You could sorta do it with Gal Civ 2...

When you name a new colony, just give it a name typical to the nation desired to run it. Then you can set it up according to the "politics" of that nation, as you see them. You can even give it a planetary governor who embodies that management style, if you want to create the illusion that the planet is semi-autonomous.

Course, in the end, it still belongs to you.

Nationalism is a tricky issue. Partly because it could theoretically add a lot of complexity while yielding very little real value, and partly because you WILL offend people. Some folk will think Communist Russia should consist of collective agrarian farms. Others think it should reflect the iron and belching smokestacks of Stalin's era. The game effects of the nation will likewise seem overgenerous to some, and ridiculously bigoted to others.

Most designers, and authors, when faced with that, wisely (IMO) decide to jettison nationalism...or at the very least nationalism based on real nations.

They want to sell games overseas too, ya know.