The removal of the term 'colonial' from the game. Why?

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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Surely I’m not the only one whose noticed that any instance of the words ‘Colony’ or ‘Colonial’ has completely vanished from the game, right?
Colonial Militia are now Revolutionary Militia, among other random changes that didn’t need to happen.

What kind of backwards logic is it to change the natives for historical accuracy (which I in general can understand and support, those changes don’t bother me at all), but then immediately turning a blind eye to any other kind of accuracy by never making mention of the word colony?

There’s absolutely no good reason to change the name around. Colonies were a thing empires did, the word should not be taboo in any way.

And renaming the plantation, too. I get that the name is good at making those uncomfortable with its implications, but changing stuff to not draw attention to those things having happened is some weird kind of censorship. Why would you try to disguise the existence of slavery? I get that racism is a touchy subject for many in recent days, and rightly so, but pretending it didn’t happen with things like this helps no-one.

Age of Empires is supposed to be a game about a historical setting, filled with information about the historical significance of those time periods and what was accomplished, quietly hiding away the mention of slavery and not drawing any kind of attention to it is little better than denying it happened, which is not a route we, as a people, should take. Surely if more people can be informed about it, it might actually help people understand better.

I’m half-expecting to get screamed at for being a ‘racist’ for posting this even with that not being true, but… nothing ventured, nothing gained

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There is a mod already, you can stop complaining and download that.

I just don’t care about a name change. I don’t know why was changed really. Need to ask the devs. But i guess this: Colonial was changed because Native people, Asian civs don’t have any colonial age (they are victims of it). And because Colonial age improves their condition in Aoe3, while in reality a colonial age didn’t improves their condition at all, they changed it.

For plantation, the story was probably like this:

Plantation were place where slaves worked. In aoe3, settlers are working on it. So they changed to a broad ‘estate’

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There’s a mod? Good to know, I might look into that.

But I do wonder, why is every instance of the term colonials was removed from the game entirely. It seems so unnecessary, especially with the renaming of things like Colonial Malitia… but suppose I’m mostly just splitting hairs. I’m too nostalgic for the original, which I could just as easily go an play… I was probably more annoyed by the game randomly crashing on me, to be honest.

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No one who plays AoE is a liberal dw

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Just the zeitgeist of 2020 I guess. This game was originally made 15 years ago, when no one cared about words like ‘colonial’ and ‘plantation’ save for the odd gender studies major. I honestly don’t blame the devs for doing this. Could you imagine the fallout if they HADN’T changed these terms in this day and age? I suspect they thought a few complaints on a forum was a better poison for them than an entire biased establishment of gaming media corporations calling them “racist” for using terms like these. Shame really.

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Why would one of the richest corporations around be afraid of that :clown_face:

Interesting how other civs didn’t receive the same special treatment, seems like racism to me

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Easy as changing the name of that Age in those civ that didn’t have colonial age are where “victims” of it only and leaving it intact on the one’s that had…

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I think the changes are more accurate for a game simultaneously portraying a diverse number of nations. The Native Americans and Asians didn’t have a Colonial Era. Commerce is still accurate for colonial nations, because commerce is what the colonies were for. Settlers work the Plantation/Estate building, and not slaves. The Revolutionary is made by the Revolution/Revolt! technology, and revolting colonies are not colonies anymore from severing ties with their parent country.

It’s like renaming Jihad to Zealotry in AoE1 DE because there are no Muslim empires in the time period for AoE1.

In the instances for this topic, I don’t see propaganda. But I’m well aware there can be propaganda in video games.

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Jihad simply means ‘Holy War’ in Arabic though
bad comparison

you telling me Native Americans had a fortress age or Industrial one?

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Yeah, colonial age made sense when you were playing a mostly european rooster of civs, but with asian and native americans, a change of name was due.

What I don’t understand is the change to Coloniao Militia (i am guessing this is the campaign? As the revolutionaries where always called that after revolution). Maybe thats a bug, since the campaign seems to have a lot of issues and things missing/missplaced.

About states, not sure about that either. Plantation explained better what the building does, and the explanation about slavery makes sense but in all the years I played the original I never heard it was racist.

So yeah pretty on board witj colonial age, not so much with state but meh, and maybe the revolutionary thing is a bug.

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Microsoft and many corporations are pandering to sjws. I mean colonizing is the whole point of the game. If they get rid of the term colonial then they should make all types of European nations that didn’t necessarily colonize.

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People complain too much for little.

You see, native peoples can be represented in a less pejorative way and apparently this was done without impairing their gameplay (I usually play with the Lakotas and Aztecs).

With regard to the change from Colonial Age to Age of Commerce, it is clear that the term applies better with the native peoples and Asians.

It’s not about being politically correct, historical perspectives change all the time, and that comes from analysis.
For example: when I was a teenager, a certain period of the Middle Ages was called the Dark Ages, and that has changed, because today it is possible to see cultural and knowledge production at that time.

Stop the nostalgia for the terms, be happy with the game receiving a remaster and new content.
(If u want complain about something, complain about the bad performance and crashes)

And I agree, the bad part of the story doesn’t need to be erased or forgotten, it just needs to be shown as such, so it doesn’t repeat itself in the future, and games like any other media should also play his part of awareness.

Sorry for my english.

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I think “Commerce Age” is more suitable for this game.

At first we start to “explore” a new world, and then we start “commerce” activities in this world. It sounds very logical to me.

Not every civ colonizes a new land, but all civs trade.
If I have to choose a word between “colonial” and “commerce” to express this age , I will choose the latter one.

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There are no goods and bads in history.

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What?? Asian countries have defiantly colonized mad. Everyone was a victim of colonization, it happened all over the world to everyone, and everyone was doing it to themselves and each other. That’s just how the world worked.

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Well, easy answer : SJWs.

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What??? Its called the Dark age because there was no artistic/culture and technical advancements. That’s what the Renaissance is man, a boom in culture and technology.

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That was clearly the intent on the original game at least. A key change that goes under the radar but says a lot is that in the intro, when a text says ‘‘destined to conquer’’, DE changed it for ‘‘destined for adventure’’.

Kind of a kids light version of colonialism. You can also see in the historical battles that you are never fighting against natives, but usually by their side, and when you are, it’s all love and flowers like in the Ethiopia-Portugal alliance.

I understand these particular changes, I just don’t know how I feel about them yet. Probably the same reason for when you play war game you are never the Nazis or Fascists. But then again, you don’t play as young Hitler there either, as you do play as Andrew Jackson before the native genocide. Edit: Omitting his name by calling him ‘‘American General’’ I may add.

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Just because you think something is bad, it does not mean it is bad. Only if God says something is bad, will it be bad - otherwise it is just an opinion.

Some view European colonization of America as bad. Do I? No - I’m quite thankful it occurred; otherwise I would not even have been born or had the things and people in my life.

When you reply, please define ‘good’ and ‘bad’ for me.

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These are two totally different things ma man. Sure, NSDAP were fascists, but are all fascists NSDAP? No!

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