From dmeadows@idirect.com Fri Mar 10 05:01:50 2000 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id FAA56092 for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 05:01:49 -0800 Received: from deimos.idirect.com (deimos.idirect.com [207.136.80.182]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id FAA30574 for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 05:01:48 -0800 Received: from default.idirect.com (on-ham-a53-03-82.look.ca [216.154.52.210]) by deimos.idirect.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id HAA37713 for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 07:57:52 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4.3.0.20000310074244.00c0ea90@idirect.com> X-Sender: dmeadows@idirect.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3 Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 07:56:16 -0500 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: David Meadows Subject: Re: videogames In-Reply-To: <002f01bf89e1$3a1eb0c0$58a42097@oemcomputer> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Well I'm still working on Caesar II (what can I say ... it was cheap!) and if Caesar III is anything like it, my main problem is with the 'realities' that are depicted ... you start with small houses that eventually grow into insulae, but it is possible to have rather large colonies with no slums (eventually), which strikes me as unrealistic ... I'm also not entirely comfortable with the big emphasis on building walls in Republican times, which seem to me to be more a late first-century and beyond phenomenon ... I'm also not entirely comfortable that the 'governor' or whatever you happen to be seems to be the one who builds everything; where are the benefactors?? ... in fact, the whole economics of the situation doesn't quite make sense to me; supposedly one is collecting taxes, much of which must be sent to Rome or maintain an army, and one still supposedly has the money to build Colisea, baths, etc. with a population base to 2 or 3 thousand??? ... then again, we must realize that these games aren't aimed at ancient social historians like me ... I *do* like the semi-regular outbreak of fires and disease, although I'm not sure it would have been possible in ancient times to have the infrastructure needed to deal with such things as efficiently as one can in the game (e.g. to be fire free, one has to have a 'firestation' at practically every intersection) ... That said, I'd suggest searching the internet for 'hint' sites as well. For Caesar II there is at least one (I lost the url ... sorry) which tells you how to begin to be prosperous (essentially involving building a temple, arena, and a couple of other structures) which would surely be beyond the ability of a protoCaesar trying to establish a colony. I guess what I'm trying to say in that rambling bit above is that the economics of the game are the least realistic aspect of it (and much unreality flows from that); they're role-playing game economics, and don't even approach what little we know about the Roman economy. It's still a good time waster if one has time to waste ... (which I don't anymore, alas) regards, dm At 11:04 AM 09/03/2000, you wrote: I'm an italian classics student and I'm specializing in the study of the perception of antiquity expecially through a videogame like "Caesar III". Could people who know what I'm talking about tell me which's their opinion on it? I mean, what do you think about the image of ancient Rome given by the game, do you think it reflects historical reality, do you like playing, which importance do you think we can attach to it? I'm making inquiries about it with the help of some professors of the Department of Ancient History of the University of Bologna; you'd greatly oblige me if you consider my request. Your interventions will be very useful for my resaerch. thank you Debora Stenta ]|[David Meadows]|[ http://web.idirect.com/~atrium ]|[Rogue Classicist]|[ .