The only reasonable approach is to use the older Vedic gods (Indra, Surya, Agni) and avoid mentioning the current big stars of Hinduism (members of the Trimurti and the Tridevi, their most famous incarnations, and Ganesha) at all.
It doesn’t warrant complete lack of controversy (Vedic revival movements are a thing and some people got butthurt about Indra’s depiction in the animated Bahubali trailer) but it’s still leagues safer.
…though I admire the balls of the LEGO games developers who made Indiana Jones fight Yahweh and Kali lol.
i couldn’t choose either. i am very interested in both and i think both are the strongest contenders after aztec (maya).
you could say the “vibe” of aztec is more similar to mesopotamian but then again a change in climat again with celts would be interesting too.
really curious about ishtar and morrigan since i heard the most of these two. but marduk and dagda are also quite well known i think.
for celts i would like to see the “cyclop” giant as a titan. for mesopotamian tiamat would be awesome!
both have amazing mythological creatures!
tho i would really like to see the hanging gardens as a wonder!
celts have banshees, vampires and dragons and more dragons are always welcome! mesopotamian have therianthropes (and i hope gryphon/griffon)! really hard choice!
I don’t think that many native Americans really played AoE3 but they heavily influenced many portrayal decisions in the DE or like many people believe Tibet/Uyghur in AoE2 is impossible because China ban.
On the other hand, games like Smite had scandal about using modern Indian Gods, but they kept adding them either way. We don’t know their internal stance on things unless they told us or it was leaked
I hope it is not really internally banned, that would mean not ever having one of the largest missing cultures in the game
Cyclops is a Greek monster. Celtic one-eyed giants do exist though.
The name “vampire” originates from Slavic mythology so it should be preserved for a future Slavic pantheon.
Celtic blood-suckers do exist, but shouldn’t be named “vampires”.
No idea but even if there isn’t many players in India, I think many non-Indians would still be interested in playing as a Vedic pantheon. It’s worth an attempt.
I mean people really living out the traditions like rural Indians probably don’t have PCs able to run the game so it wouldn’t affect them. Whenever there’s a drama about portrayal of Christianity or Hinduism, most often it’s caused by political grifters, not by pastors and priests. The issue is that political grifters can actually form a government one day, as it happened in India where Hindutva is the ideology of the governing party or the US where many members of Trump’s team have ties to the Heritage Foundation.
aren’t you a little fussy i am not into the names i just wrote down the names i am familiar with and most ppl quickly understand. cyclops = one eyed giant, vampire = bloodsucker/undead.
thanks for the insights but i think most understood i didn’t mean the exact creature behind these words.
In some cases a scandal can even be beneficial for marketing. If they expect little sales in India, having Indian people complain might create some more attention for AoMR in general.
Both are quite famous and popular mythologies. You might not know exactly which gods exist in them, but their recognition is high. I cast my vote for Mesopotamia. I only know famous gods like Enlil, Enki, Nergal, Marduk, Ereshkigal, and Ishtar from Mesopotamian mythology, but I am more familiar with this one than Celtic mythology. (I really should read Celtic mythology someday, though. I am quite interested in it.)
It’s the same result just less extrem. Not really surprising, there is probably a relatively large overlap in the userbase and there is no like fundamental difference between both places.
i honestly, when i think about it, also think that Mesopotamian should be slightly more important.
i think we can all agree Celts are cool and would be a nice contrast to most civs (beside partly norse)
they have some REALLY cool myth units and interesting gods (Morrigan <3)
but mesopotamian are so old and also have a really rich mythology + their architectural style would stand out. + as far as i know there is really not much left of this culture and its would be really interesting to see this culture and howit maybe would be “alive” with its mythology.
so even it was previous a draw for me before when i think about it i would vote mesopotamian slightly higher than celts.
i am not into the names i just wrote down the names i am familiar with and most ppl quickly understand. cyclops = one eyed giant, vampire = bloodsucker/undead.
