Nationalities

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

Warning May Contain Spoilers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been holding off on buying XCOM 2 until the price dropped significantly, so last week I bit the bullet and bought the Digital Deluxe version for $21.00. While I've only played a few hours now and I very well might be missing something later into the games storyline. However, I'm going to touch on my first observations.

 

As we know XCOM lost the first war despite all their/our intentions of thwarting the alien menace. So basically the aliens successfully invade earth and pretty much take over. So far so good right? Then the aliens gather up all the people into "cities" ala X-COM Apocalypse so that they can monitor the humans blah blah blah blah. So that started making me think why does the game use Nationalities?

 

Here's the Websters Dictionary simple definition.

• : a group of people who share the same history, traditions, and language, and who usually live together in a particular country
  
• : the fact or status of being a member or citizen of a particular nation
  

So that brings up three interesting questions.

 

1.) If the aliens for the most part have control of the entire planet, wouldn't the former countries the humans created be pointless?

 

2.) Does XCOM intend to (assuming they best the aliens) reinstate the Earth's former countries?

 

3.) Firaxis developers wanted to pad the games life span by allowing you to customize your characters?

 

Just something to think about, It was one of the first things I noticed whilst watching the intro.

 

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-NoX

[Zombie]

1.) If the aliens for the most part have control of the entire planet, wouldn't the former countries the humans created be pointless?

 

It really depends how long ago the humans were put into the concentration camps (er, cities, yeah), and how globally spread out the cities are. If the humans in the cities have been there for a really long time, then they are probably going to identify more with their current city than their former country. If the humans in the cities were comprised of many different nationalities from across the globe, then here again, they will probably identify more with the city. I doubt the aliens really thought this out, and just herded humans into the closest city and called it a day, and here is where former countries do play a role. If humans are allowed to live wherever they want in the city, they are probably going to settle near people of their former nationality. So you'll have mini-towns within the city each having a different nationality, much like Chinatown in San Fran for example, but on a bigger scale. People will still be patriotic and have a love for their former country, that would be a given, especially if the city is in the former country.

 

2.) Does XCOM intend to (assuming they best the aliens) reinstate the Earth's former countries?

 

Probably, but it might not be up to XCOM the organization, it would be up to the people and they would (I assume) want to be in their former country again.

 

3.) Firaxis developers wanted to pad the games life span by allowing you to customize your characters?

 

Yes? (There's a little sarcasm intended here). Really though, it was a necessary evolution and one that needed to happen at some point. As an example, look at Silent Storm, you identify more with your toon if you like it. Heck, there are a myriad of other games out there with customizable toons which are even more elaborate than XCOM.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

XCOM are now rebels how don't like alien "friendship", therefore they are not abandoning their history and culture, therefore they still use nationalities.

[Kir'jaeden]

1.) If the aliens for the most part have control of the entire planet, wouldn't the former countries the humans created be pointless?

I think the answer is yes

a) Most of humans are killed during the war. The fact severely undermines every traitiditions, nationality identification, state structures etc.

b) Aliens are interested to erase any religious, traditional or national identity to make an amorphous, homogeneous society which easily accepts their social frame. So they will make it by subtle way using its total control on education and propaganda.

 

2.) Does XCOM intend to (assuming they best the aliens) reinstate the Earth's former countries?

It will be impossible due to a) and b) causes. Evidently, victorious XCOM will go to more practical conerns like a global goverment and make every step to prevent another invasion.

3.) Firaxis developers wanted to pad the games life span by allowing you to customize your characters?

This works great in other game projects. For example, DoTa appears as customization of Warcraft III. Now it has its own life.

Why the approach would not work in Firaxis products?