Let’s just say historians and activists won’t buy the DLC if it’s accurate, they never do, whereas the people who are passionate about playing the Vikings will. But sure, we can go for historical accuracy. We wouldn’t want not being laughed at on forums for being a dead game.
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As you’re from the UK, you should be most certainly also familiar with the history of your country before 1066 with the Danelaw and Danegeld that don’t play an insignificant part in history.
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If they named them something like Norse or Norsemen, would you still buy the DLC?
Every post about protesting DLC has been from people standing on principle, but it’s the people mocking it for being a dead game who do so most.
Kind of counterintuitive when you dig into it a bit.
I say this because so far using Norse has been a suggestion from many in the community (top comments in the mega thread on reddit for example). I have yet to read a comment stating, “If they call them Vikings, I will not buy the game”.
But the concept of them being called vikings is because more people would buy the game. Is this because “If they do not call them Vikings, I will not buy the game” is the case? Is it because there is a belief that people will not recognize vikings in a Norse themed civ?
So, I’m curious about who you believe would protest the game. If it’s not about protest, then why take issue with the new civ using a name other than Vikings?
Surely there’s more to this than the general audience only knowing as much as tv shows, theme parks, and sports teams show them about vikings.
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That depends entirely on how that name impacts civ design. If it’s gonna be another plain European civ called Danes, with some vague Viking elements, then I might consider not buying it, depending on the price. We already have plenty regular European civs, and Macedonians already have vague Viking elements.
I want the Vikings to be a warrior civ with some crazy new mechanics and lore. And I think this is only possible if it doesn’t have a historically accurate name, such as “Danes”, because then they’d have to be more grounded, more unimaginative, and more mindful about it.
Aside from this I’m absolutely sure a lot of people have no clue about history and won’t be pulled in if it’s called some name they’re not familiar with. Almost as certain as I am that a lot of people complaining about the name “Vikings” don’t actually play the game, aside from occasionally zooming in and out, marveling at the buildings.
“nearly all the people disagreeing are fakers” isn’t quite what I’d call a good faith representation of people having different opinions to you.
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People who obsess over this kind of stuff are never the main audience. They can feel free to share their Steam accounts and I will stand corrected.
Also, I believe I said “a lot of people”, not “nearly all”. Just so we are careful not to misrepresent each other’s words when paraphrasing.
I don’t really see the difference. The point was to delegitimise opinions you disagree with. There is no semantic difference in any percentage you want to define “a lot” as, the point was to undercut the validity of the position in general. You can try to call this “misrepresenting” if you want, but you’d be wrong 
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I can’t compete with your linguistic gymnastics, as I’m not a native English speaker, but what I can positively say is that I didn’t try to delegitimise anything, it’s what I genuinely believe. On the other hand, I would call paraphrasing to exaggerate my words as being a bad faith representation.
Viking is not appropriate for a civilization. The AoE2 argument is straight forward; they weren’t trying to include civilizations but any and all factions they found interesting.
That isn’t the case with AoE4. With the exception of variants, full blown civilizations aim to represent PEOPLE.
This insane begging will not come to fluition. They mentioned Vikings by name to fish out you little gremlins that don’t know history, as to not let the news fly over your heads. Either way, the fact that you’re stuck on this name when it has no impact on gameplay is laughable.
In particular because as someone from this very region, this is not how people identify, nor have they ever. Yet here you are, begging for insanity.
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So we are now saying that AoE2 doesn’t have civs? Because I’m pretty sure they’re called exactly that. If anything I’d argue that they have more proper civs than AoE4, considering the existence of variants.
There’s no need to invent awkward reasons for the presence of Vikings in AoE2. There is a much simpler explanation: Age of Empires 2 is a game inspired by history, not a game that’s keen on reproducing history. It’s a game first and foremost, and then historical material that needs to be accurate to the letter. And it’s meant to inspire, not teach, just like Civilization, the series that it was inspired by.
Don’t worry, kids won’t be stuck with the wrong knowledge. They’ll have plenty of occasions to dig deeper when doing more serious activities, such as learning history at school, or in their private time. And people that are inclined to be ignorant…well, they won’t care either way. But games need to take liberties, because their main purpose is to entertain, not teach. I hope you can agree with this statement.
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I believe that you genuinely and honestly regard “most of” the criticism of the Vikings name as being effectively illegitimate / not from “real” players.
That doesn’t really change anything. You can genuinely believe in something that is unfair, or illogical, etc, etc.
And don’t sell your English short, it’s perfectly fine. You even disparagingly used “gymnastics” correctly
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Btw rumor has it that the next campaign DLC is centered around Mulan. If that’s the case, then so much for historical authenticity.
You’ve made a lot of fun jokes in this thread, but teenage boys fervently flipping through historically accurate records for a fun pastime takes the cake!
Some do, if they’re interested, and there are better tools nowadays than “flipping through historically accurate records”. And if they aren’t interested, why would the devs be interested in teaching them Danish history? At most they can make them excited about history. And guess how you don’t do that: by turning AoE4 into a boring history book.