Review for game

So I have been playing a game on steam called Nantucket. The game is about being the captain of a whaling ship in the early 1800s. The game has good game mechanics (like curious expedition) and the artwork is quite good. Spend a lot of time in Hudson Bay and off the coast of Newfoundland. Occasionally travelling over the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Barrents Sea. Long expeditions to the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea. Over to Cape Town and around the horn. There is a lot that is well done in the game; however, it is has one glaring omission in my mind. The game should have stated something about the over harvesting of whales which took place during this time period and continued on into the 21 century. It should also mention the conservation efforts to save these mammals.

I'd like to write a review on steam about this game and I would like to point out that omission and that it really should be in there given that so many of whale speicies are endangered because of these practices. So I'm looking for some thoughts on what to say?

My mistake. They do mention it and provide links to conservation of whales and their endangered status.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/23/16923138/nantucket-steam-pc-preview-moby-dick wrote:Many strategy titles do something like a dice roll, but they hide it in the background. Nantucket, however, leans into the board game theme. Dice rolls are shown as they happen and enemies literally play cards, either face down or face up, against you on the battle board.... Nantucket is more sandbox than story-driven game

Mixing FTL & Curious Expedition with a sandbox setting based on early whaling sounds pretty cool.  :)

I understand you concerns about the subject matter, Curious Expeditions treatment of the people, animals and ecosystem of the lands explored leaves me queasy. Often you complete a level by leaving its' land deforested, its' animals slaughter and its' locals defrauded (and sometimes massacred). You can try to less be exploitative - but it's often at the cost of game success.  Any game that has you open fire into 'cannibal pygmies' is not trying for realism, yet it is so grounded in Victorian era exploration that it cannot exist without all the historical references.

Any game that has 'romantic' appeal has something foreign as its' subject matter - whaling, eastern mysticism, space exploration, medieval warfare, rome, the middle east - yet a sustained interest in any of those subjects will lead you to explore the grim real-world basis for those romantic fantasies. Many just lobotomized themselves to sustain their enjoyment but that is bad faith and ultimately poisons the fantasy. Few game designer seem able to escape this.

Here is the introduction to a 2005 indie RPG:

City of Brass (2005) wrote:In this game, you will play those lost souls. Trapped in Africa’s interior, with a map drawn on a parasol and not enough resources, you search.
A note about the content of this game
This game was done in one week with minimal research. In addition, while there is no magic in this game, it is a fantasy. The nobility found among the people of Africa is not balanced against the savagery found here. Like all peoples, the historic Africans had both high nobility and awful destruction found in them. Even though this game depicts the negative side of culture disproportionally, the author is fully aware that is not the only side, or even the dominant side.

 

Here is the introduction to Mombasa

Mombasa (2015) wrote:In Mombasa, players acquire shares of chartered companies based in Mombasa, Cape Town, Saint-Louis and Cairo and spread their trading posts throughout the African continent in order to earn the most money.

Chartered companies were associations formed for the purpose of exploration, trade and colonization, which links them inextricably to a very dark chapter in human history: global colonialism. This period lasted roughly from the 15th century to the middle of the 20th century and is associated with exploitation and slavery.  

Although Mombasa is loosely set within this time frame, it is not a historical simulation. It is a strategy game with an economic focus that roughly refers to historical categories and places them in a fictional setting. The exploitation of the African continent and its people is not explicitly depicted within the game play.

If you want to learn more about the underlying history, we recommend the following read: History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present by Richard J. Reid. (Blackwell Concise History of the Modern World). Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.

The authors of these games know they are using a setting built around massive human suffering but are simply unwilling to find a different setting, the enjoyment of Africa as a romantic setting is too deep.

You can see their bad conscience even in those introduction, the first states "this game depicts the negative side of culture disproportionally" which should read "this game depicts the negative side of African culture disproportionally", the second says "global colonialism ... is associated with exploitation and slavery", it should read "global colonialism ... is a primary force driving exploitation and slavery."

The same romantic ideals that attract people to foreign lands also inspire people to more humane politics. Many times my leftist political knowledge has clashed with my enjoyment of a romantic setting. I don't know how to resolve it but wrestling with it does drive to reach for more.

Melville writes in Moby Dick that he is convinced that whales would always be able to escape man' reach, that if the whaling fleets get hungry enough then the whales can retreat to the polar waters. Moby Dick is a very humanistic book but Melville could not imagine the true slaughter industrial whaling would unleash. The makers of Nantucket cannot claim that innocence so I'm glad they make some notice of the history there game is simulating. But could they really take account of all the islands of seals depopulated by club-wielding sailors, the supply islands of Polynesia left in imperial chains and riddled with disease, the brutal treatment of the sailors themselves, and ruthless slaughter of intelligent mammals to fuel oil lamps and fill New Englanders coffers?



The link to my similar thoughts on Curious Expedition: roadtonowhere.forumotion.org/t85-curious-expedition-seven-cities-of-gold-and-colonialism