Do you think Ancient Rome is underrepresented in games as a main setting?

[Stiler]

Where on earth are people getting that ancient Rome is overused in games? The only genre that has really utilized the setting is the strategy genre, which I'd say make up about 98% or more of all the games set in ancient Rome. Also people using AC as an example, what? We literally only got to visit ancient Rome for like a short mission in AC: Origins, otherwise they haven't been set there...

I'd love to see a good rpg or action game set in Rome, one without fantasy elements (think Kingdom Come but set in Rome).

There's so many great stories/locations you can use.

 

[4Tran]

Where on earth are people getting that ancient Rome is overused in games? The only genre that has really utilized the setting is the strategy genre, which I'd say make up about 98% or more of all the games set in ancient Rome. Also people using AC as an example, what? We literally only got to visit ancient Rome for like a short mission in AC: Origins, otherwise they haven't been set there...

I'd love to see a good rpg or action game set in Rome, one without fantasy elements (think Kingdom Come but set in Rome).

There's so many great stories/locations you can use.

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The problem is that outside of strategy games, you'll barely ever see historical settings. At least Rome has RPGs like Age of Decadence, and that's a lot more than you can say about almost any other time period.

 

[birdinsky]

"Under"represented means relatively underrepresented compared to whatever amount of representation would be expected. Like, how much representation of Ancient Rome do y'all expect, sheesh.

 

[Screen Looker]

Meanwhile, there are more games on the moon than in all of meso and South American cultures. Lol

 

[Mechaplum]

Don't mind more to be honest.

 

[medyej]

Helllllllllllll no. There are a ton of games set in Rome. How about some games set in underrepresented parts of human history for once? Like a game about Native Americans, or Indian civlizations (literally 1 billion people of our planet today), or the british isles before the romans?

 

[Pellaidh]

Not really.

I play a lot of strategy games, and there's so much Rome stuff there I'm honestly kind of tired of it. And it doesn't help that I find the setting in general to be pretty boring. And it didn't help that the last Roman game I played was Imperator, which was both super disappointing as a game, and also showed how the setting didn't really work in the game because the developer diaries just admitted they had to make a ton of stuff up because the historical records for a lot of early European tribal people just don't really exist. But people want more Rome games for some reason, so Paradox chose to do that instead of focusing on rarer (and more interesting) historical settings.

But even outside of strategy games, at least the Roman empire has games about it. But you can't really say the same for pretty much any other large empire in history. Seriously, how many games are there that are set in the Brazilian empire, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman empire, any one of the huge Arab caliphates (excluding the crusades), or anything in India. Outside of some Paradox games for some of these empires, I don't think there even are any. And these are all settings I'd be much more interested in exploring instead of just getting another thing set in Rome.

Also, my dislike for Rome probably also comes from just how much non-video game stuff is focused on it. It has tons of movies and books about it, and like 30% of my history school education feels like it was about Rome. Sure, Rome was pretty influential on European culture and history, but so was a whole bunch of other stuff that never actually gets any attention in popular media.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

I don't play RTS titles, so I'm cool with more games set in Rome.

 

[birdinsky]

I just find it really weird that the thread poses the question as "Is Ancient Rome underrepresented?" instead of "Do you want more games in Ancient Rome?" when that is blatantly the actual question being asked. And then a bunch of people going, well, there are a lot of Ancient Rome games but they're mostly strategy and I don't play strategy... like... so? Still doesn't change the fact that Ancient Rome is in no way underrepresented. It's like saying, "I want to play WW2 action RPGs or WW2!Sims but there are only shooters, man, WW2 is underrepresented in games."

In short, it is honest to say, "I would like more games in Ancient Rome because I like the setting." It is really, really not to say, "I would like more games in Ancient Rome because it's underrepresented."

 

[SofNascimento]

Yeah, you actually mentioned it to me before. :P

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Haha. Well at least I'm consistent!

 

[boontobias]

Rome and Greece are the most overrepresented

More Egypt games

 

[Calvarok]

Ancient Rome is the most generic possible period of history for a person to be obsessed with. media in general has done it to death. theres always more to represent and ways to more accurately represent it, but it's not particularly novel as a setting. ancient Egypt was a far more interesting place for ac to go, and i know greek and roman history is vastly different but i feel similarly about greek history in terms of its saturation.

anyways, you can do a good roman setting, but we're not desperate for it. also ryse has a whole lot more tact about its representation than any gow game.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Not as interested as I am Ancient Greece tbh.

I don't mind the setting, but there are others that are less represented I'd like to see more in games that appeal to me, like the Crusades or even India or Korea.

 

[SofNascimento]

Ancient Rome is the most generic possible period of history for a person to be obsessed with. media in general has done it to death. theres always more to represent and ways to more accurately represent it, but it's not particularly novel as a setting.

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You'd be surprised by how wrong you are if you start to learn Roman history. Most stories that are told, at least in mainstream media, are the same stories over and over again. Just try to find a good film about the Crisis of the Third Century, or the reign of Justinian or Heraclius.

 

[Karateka]

No. Roma is overdone, we need to explore other settings in games. We need to leave Roma alone for a bit. We need to go ancient Asia, Vikings, ancient India, Mesopotamia. So many settings to explore and exploit. Roma is getting tired as a theme.

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Meh vikings.
Vikings/norse are this gens generic knights

 

[moustascheman]

When it comes to ancient greece, I feel classical Athens and Sparta are definitely overdone in media. I'd love to see other Poleis and time periods, such as Archaic Corinth, get the spotlight (tyranny during the archaic age in general might make an interesting premise for a game). It would also be cool to maybe see some representation of the Minoans and Myceneans, although I'm not sure if an accurate representation would be possible considering the general lack of information we have on them (especially with Linear A being undecipherable).

 

[Calvarok]

You'd be surprised by how wrong you are if you start to learn Roman history. Most stories that are told, at least in mainstream media, are the same stories over and over again. Just try to find a good film about the Crisis of the Third Century, or the reign of Justinian or Heraclius.

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that's why i said there's always more to represent. usually when media gets obsessed with something its the same exact part of the thing over and over. im aware. that doesn't change how saturated we become with the general aesthetic of the thing.

also something i should maybe be more clear about is i dont have faith in video games to seek out the less travelled roads within settings if they end up choosing one of the more popular ones

 

[Hu3]

I would love to see how shocked op would be knowing that Roman Empire it's a faux Greek story.

 

[SofNascimento]

I would love to see how shocked op would be knowing that Roman Empire it's a faux Greek story.

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Well, I would first need to live in an universe in which that is true.

 

[moustascheman]

I would love to see how shocked op would be knowing that Roman Empire it's a faux Greek story.

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I assume you're talking about mythology since those two are often compared as being similar. That being said despite sharing some gods and goddesses as well as some myths (Trojan war happens in both), Roman and Greek Mythology are pretty clearly different in a lot of ways, especially in their application to state religion.

If you're talking about art and architecture, then that's clearly not true since there are massive differences between them.

 

[Hu3]

Well, I would first need to live in an universe in which that is true.

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Which is true there are older civilizations more exiting, full to the brim of knowledge, but you keep insisting on Rome.

One. Greece is older than Rome.
Two when Rome invaded they coped tons of clay work fro old Greece which is still work today from specialists.

Rome is a failed stated. Yeah is cute and all but is tired.

People have been telling and you ignore.

 

[Hu3]

Which is true there are older civilizations more exiting, full to the brim of knowledge, but you keep insisting on Rome.

One. Greece is older than Rome.
Two when Rome invaded they coped tons of clay work fro old Greece which is still work today from specialists.

Rome is a failed stated. Yeah is cute and all but is tired.

People have been telling and you ignore.

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Edit: f you're talking about art and architecture, then that's clearly not true since there are massive differences between them.

Go back in history and see which one is older, who copied who. And where clay works came from.

 

[SofNascimento]

Which is true there are older civilizations more exiting, full to the brim of knowledge, but you keep insisting on Rome.

One. Greece is older than Rome.
Two when Rome invaded they coped tons of clay work fro old Greece which is still work today from specialists.

Rome is a failed stated. Yeah is cute and all but is tired.

People have been telling and you ignore.

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This is a very weird post.

But yes. Ancient Greeks were a huge influence on the Roman society, as older civilizations tend to be. That's basically it.

 

[Hu3]

This is a very weird post.

But yes. Ancient Greeks were a huge influence on the Roman society, as older civilizations tend to be. That's basically it.

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Sorry very tipsy at a bar in ny trying to break down history at the hour. Just tryin to say there are older civilizations richer of history and they haven't been exploited.

 

[Red Comet]

I'd love an open world/RPG style game set in Ancient Rome. Ideally set around the end of the Republic. Anywhere between the time of Marius/Sulla and Augustus would be fine. It's such an incredible story and there's so many fascinating people from that period who would make any game compelling. I think the most likely scenario is an Assassin's Creed game, which is fine I suppose, but I'd prefer something less formulaic and more realistic. Something with similar mechanics, pace, and attention to detail like Red Dead Redemption 2 would be a dream come true for me in this setting.

 

[moustascheman]

Which is true there are older civilizations more exiting, full to the brim of knowledge, but you keep insisting on Rome.

One. Greece is older than Rome.
Two when Rome invaded they coped tons of clay work fro old Greece which is still work today from specialists.

Rome is a failed stated. Yeah is cute and all but is tired.

People have been telling and you ignore.

Click to shrink...

Edit: f you're talking about art and architecture, then that's clearly not true since there are massive differences between them.

Go back in history and see which one is older, who copied who. And where clay works came from.

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Alright, so there's a couple misconceptions here. Romans were of course influenced by the greeks; they had contact with them due to greek colonies in southern italy. Certain ideas were transmitted between the two cultures which is pretty much commonplace with every culture in history. However this doesn't mean the actual architectural styles were the same or that one copied the other. in fact the two cultures used very different architectural styles which were meant to focus on very different things. A quick comparison would be the temple of jupiter optimus maximus and the Parthenon which are very clearly different despite both being Doric temples.

 

[Acido]

That's such an odd question to make, like, what should be the "right" amount of games depicting a certain location? There are endless historical settings that a game could take place on, and we already have lots of stories set in Rome in pop culture. Give me a game set in ancient Mesoamerican civilizations tbh

 

[Deleted member 47654]

Ancient Rome sucks, just a Greek Rip off

 

[Strings]

I'd love a game set in modern day Italy.

 

[Deleted member 29280]

There's a severe lack of them that are not strategy games and are actually good

 

[Zeouter]

No. Meanwhile there's many cultures that have zero representation in games.

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This was my thinking, there are way more avenues to explore.

 

[Deleted member 33887]

Edit: f you're talking about art and architecture, then that's clearly not true since there are massive differences between them.

Go back in history and see which one is older, who copied who. And where clay works came from.

Click to shrink...

The Etruscans were the potters, who imported and borrowed it from the Greeks. The Romans never did the painted pottery nearly as well those two. And they also spent a lot of time looting Etruscan tombs for pottery.

 

[RedSwirl]

Outside of PC simulation games, yeah it probably is underrepresented. Fantasy RPGs are eternally stuck on Tolkien. Really, historical-themed action games in general are not extremely common. World War II is probably the only historical setting in video games that has been massively overdone, and possibly Samurai games if you count everything coming out of Japan. This is a big part of why Assassin's Creed stands out in the first place. Shit, even the Old West isn't THAT common in video games.

The problem is this might require developers to think up more combat systems without fully automatic weapons, which is really hard. Even Creed has never had a truly great combat system. It's why the 1940's is about as far back in time as a lot of them will go.

But Greco-Roman is sort of like the tip of the iceberg of underrepresented historical settings. You could point to ancient/medieval pretty-much-anywhere-but-Europe and find an interesting setting that virtually no video game has ever touched.

I think in order for that to improve though, more home-grown game development scenes are gonna have to develop in different countries around the world. Different countries already produce historical drama books, movies, and TV shows based around their own histories, you just don't see most of the ones outside the west get translated into western languages. At some point they might all start making video games about the same things too. Witcher 3 itself is the result of a Polish developer getting better and better at making a game steeped in Polish history and culture. China and Taiwan have actually been making singleplayer RPGs about Chinese history and mythology since the 90's and they're getting gradually better. You have games like Detention and Devotion. There was that one Indonesian horror game that came out a while ago.

Meh vikings.
Vikings/norse are this gens generic knights

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Norse Mythology is definitely the next overdone fantasy setting (though even that is linked to Tolkien), but we've had almost no historical Viking games. Meanwhile there has actually been sort of a glut of historical Viking-themed media in recent years.

 

[bane833]

Yes. What was the last game with an ancient Roman setting? Ryse? And that was awful. Before that we had Shadow of Rome and not much else.

 

[4Tran]

Norse Mythology is definitely the next overdone fantasy setting (though even that is linked to Tolkien), but we've had almost no historical Viking games. Meanwhile there has actually been sort of a glut of historical Viking-themed media in recent years.

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Note that you're talking about Norse Mythology as a source of inspiration as opposed to the thread being about Ancient Rome as a setting. One of these is much more broad than the other and if we accept Greco-Roman theming, then these games would probably come pretty close to the Norse Mythology ones.

Yes. What was the last game with an ancient Roman setting? Ryse? And that was awful. Before that we had Shadow of Rome and not much else.

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If we're arbitrarily discounting strategy games and only taking into account games with a bit of fanfare, Dungeon Rats came out in 2016. If we don't use such restrictive criteria, then Imperator Rome came out a whole two months ago. And if we count indie games as we should, then games based on Ancient Rome literally come out all the time.

 

[bane833]

Note that you're talking about Norse Mythology as a source of inspiration as opposed to the thread being about Ancient Rome as a setting. One of these is much more broad than the other and if we accept Greco-Roman theming, then these games would probably come pretty close to the Norse Mythology ones.


If we're arbitrarily discounting strategy games and only taking into account games with a bit of fanfare, Dungeon Rats came out in 2016. If we don't use such restrictive criteria, then Imperator Rome came out a whole two months ago. And if we count indie games as we should, then games based on Ancient Rome literally come out all the time.

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If we count strategy games we might as well count Civilization where pretty much every culture is represented.

 

[4Tran]

If we count strategy games we might as well count Civilization where pretty much every culture is represented.

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Sure, why shouldn't we do that?

 

[Hella]

Rome is waaaay overdone. It's time to explore other ancient civilizations.

Like, I wouldn't say no to a game set in ancient Rome, but any other ancient civilization would be waaay more interesting.

 

[Echo]

Mesopotamia when.

Gilgamesh.
Semiramis.

The cradle of Humanity.

 

[Dr.Phibes]

well, that would make more sense in a roman setting...

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There's always Qvadriga.

 

[Bosh]

Okay, but there's countless other cultures/civilization that don't even get that. So no, Rome isn't underrepresented. It gets more airtime than the vast majority.

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One big reason why though is we have a ton of first & third party sources for them. Unfortunately we have lost a lot of sources for Ancient Civilizations over time as someone would take over and destroy previous records , or just lost due to preservation /and or not being written down (passed orally and then lost). It's not even just stories about ____ conquered _____ , but tons of records on trade, storage and how people lived .

That's not to say we don't have sources for other ancient civilizations but the more info you can draw on the easier it is to produce something.

China's growth into the gaming industry should help as it can further push ancient Chinese history besides the 170-300ish AD (Romance of the Three Kingdoms ) era which is the main go to for games

 

[SofNascimento]

China's growth into the gaming industry should help as it can further push ancient Chinese history besides the 170-300ish AD (Romance of the Three Kingdoms ) era which is the main go to for games

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It's more likely that we would simply have more games on the Three Kingdoms era. When AC go the East, for example, which I believe will happen after the Vikings game, I would be really surprised if it's not Three Kingdoms period.

We do have Jade Empire though.

 

[Nightside]

Outside of strategy games definitely. But there are a lot of other ancient empires/cultures that could be inspiration for some fresh settings and ideas. Would love something based off native American or African legends for example.

 

[KorrZ]

It's used a ton in strategy gaming which is nice as a huge Roman history buff like me, however it's definitely underrepresented as a setting in AAA games.

 

[4Tran]

It's more likely that we would simply have more games on the Three Kingdoms era. When AC go the East, for example, which I believe will happen after the Vikings game, I would be really surprised if it's not Three Kingdoms period.

We do have Jade Empire though.

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Jade Empire is a bad example because it doesn't have much Chinese flavor at all. The game doesn't have the kind of mythology or conflicts that are emblematic of either Chinese literature or history. It just feels like the writers cribbed a few ideas from kung fu films and added them to their otherwise standard fantasy story.

Also, while historical works are popular in Chinese novels, film, and TV shows, it's not very popular in Chinese-made video games. The actual preference is for fantasy works. There were even complaints when Total War: Three Kingdoms came out that CA was better at portraying Chinese history than actual Chinese developers are.

 

[RedSwirl]

Note that you're talking about Norse Mythology as a source of inspiration as opposed to the thread being about Ancient Rome as a setting. One of these is much more broad than the other and if we accept Greco-Roman theming, then these games would probably come pretty close to the Norse Mythology ones.

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If you want to get really technical, there's the theory stating both mythologies, along with a bunch of other ones, are actually descended from the much earlier but unattested "Proto-Indo-European" mythology that also eventually split up until like 400 languages across Europe and Asia.

According to the theory, Zeus and Tyr were originally the same guy. Some proponents of the theory think Vedic mythology (from India) is much closer to what the "original" mytholgoy was and may in fact even be that original mythology.

I think it would've been sort of interesting if God of War 2018 at least acknowledged the connection, like the connection between the Greek Sisters of Fate and the Norse Norns, or how the Runic and Greek alphabets are related.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Mesopotamia when.

Gilgamesh.
Semiramis.

The cradle of Humanity.

Click to shrink...

I could go for another Somer Assault/Mesopotamia game.

http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HTML_Games/Mesopotamia.htm

 

[The Ethereal One]

I feel like European cultures in general have gotten more than enough representation even majority of fantasy settings are European influenced. We barely see anything from Native American, Mesoamerican, Indian, Maori, African civilazations. It's like they didn't even exist.

 

[Sub Boss]

No, i prefer new ones (or based off old ones but very, very twisted, more fantasy

 

[Richietto]

Rome is represented just fine. You have to look at it relative to everything else, and when it comes to representation, like most things, middle eastern countries, African, and south american are woefully underrepresented as settings.