Okay, just a quick one. Are there any games set in the past which have a believable setting, and that includes correct social dynamics, structures, period clothing, grooming and attitude to sex?
A side note about fantasy worlds (which include magic). I'm not talking about them. Fantasy has its own problems, mainly because developers are shit at creating a believable world. Their setting is usually "medieval Earth but with magic." (Same trope like elves are humans, just slimmer, taller and with pointy ears). Magic would have such profound effect on the world, making it "our world but with magic" is a cheap and lazy cop out.
I'm asking if there are any believable games set in historic time periods. I certainly didn't find any, maybe you can help.
Just to quickly cover the bullet points in an example of a medieval setting, assuming the main character is a noble:
• Social dynamics: Feudalism. You own some estates, but you also have a feudal lord. No conscription, the war is a privilege of the few, who fight to preserve their right to the land. You subjects cannot be recruited to fight in your wars and they have immunity to politics. Wars are fought by men, and only men train to fight. Knowledge, economy and politics are limited to only some social classes and handled by clergy, professional clerks and high profile traders. Women of sufficiently high birth have broad access to knowledge and many can read and write (as opposed to their knight husbands who are usually illiterate).
• Structures: As in architecture and how the world looks like. Crop rotation means that fields look very different and create colorful strips of land when viewed from afar or from above. Castles are uncommon. They're a defensive structure and are not built where there is no risk of invasion. Nobles live in manor houses. If they do own a keep, it's not likely their permanent house, only temporary if they're besieged and expect to wait it out. The keep is certainly not a huge structure with floor area of thousands of square feet (or hundreds of square meters) spread across multiple levels, but they're very modest. Most have no external walls and only consist of a fortified keep with a single common room. If you take a look at the Tower of London, which is one of the largest castles of its time, the external walls enclose a fairly huge area, but its floor space is similar to a large house today, but only because it was meant to hold out a siege, so it needed to house defenders and field workers to provide food.
• Period clothing: Sure, fancy dresses. But no underwear, no lingerie, nothing. Underwear wasn't a thing until the 19th century. Underpants were worn by common prostitutes and young girls.
• Personal grooming: Attitude to bathing was constantly changing, so no specific advice can be given. But shaving? Men only and head only. Nobody shaved or waxed their pubes, armpits, arms or legs. Two reasons: No tools existed to do so cleanly and safely; Pubic region was not for show, so it didn't exist as a topic to be discussed.
• Attitude to sex: No contraceptives means no free sex. Having sex=having babies and having babies requires money, time and effort. Without a husband to support her, a woman would be unable to get food and basic necessities. Unless a woman was a blathering idiot or under duress, she would not willingly engage in an affair. Concubines? Sure, if you're a king or a very high ranking noble, but this is hardly a glamorous job and religion is out to get you. Unofficial mistresses? Goes back to what to do when a baby comes, she gets disposed of and goes back to her family and now she has to explain herself.
I know it has the trappings of a very boring adult game if you want it to include popular themes like a harem and fucking everything that moves, which brings me to the point: Why even make an adult game set in a historic time period when that time period is completely not conducive to the game you're making?
It's like building a plane, only you want it to be a submarine, too.
A side note about fantasy worlds (which include magic). I'm not talking about them. Fantasy has its own problems, mainly because developers are shit at creating a believable world. Their setting is usually "medieval Earth but with magic." (Same trope like elves are humans, just slimmer, taller and with pointy ears). Magic would have such profound effect on the world, making it "our world but with magic" is a cheap and lazy cop out.
I'm asking if there are any believable games set in historic time periods. I certainly didn't find any, maybe you can help.
Just to quickly cover the bullet points in an example of a medieval setting, assuming the main character is a noble:
• Social dynamics: Feudalism. You own some estates, but you also have a feudal lord. No conscription, the war is a privilege of the few, who fight to preserve their right to the land. You subjects cannot be recruited to fight in your wars and they have immunity to politics. Wars are fought by men, and only men train to fight. Knowledge, economy and politics are limited to only some social classes and handled by clergy, professional clerks and high profile traders. Women of sufficiently high birth have broad access to knowledge and many can read and write (as opposed to their knight husbands who are usually illiterate).
• Structures: As in architecture and how the world looks like. Crop rotation means that fields look very different and create colorful strips of land when viewed from afar or from above. Castles are uncommon. They're a defensive structure and are not built where there is no risk of invasion. Nobles live in manor houses. If they do own a keep, it's not likely their permanent house, only temporary if they're besieged and expect to wait it out. The keep is certainly not a huge structure with floor area of thousands of square feet (or hundreds of square meters) spread across multiple levels, but they're very modest. Most have no external walls and only consist of a fortified keep with a single common room. If you take a look at the Tower of London, which is one of the largest castles of its time, the external walls enclose a fairly huge area, but its floor space is similar to a large house today, but only because it was meant to hold out a siege, so it needed to house defenders and field workers to provide food.
• Period clothing: Sure, fancy dresses. But no underwear, no lingerie, nothing. Underwear wasn't a thing until the 19th century. Underpants were worn by common prostitutes and young girls.
• Personal grooming: Attitude to bathing was constantly changing, so no specific advice can be given. But shaving? Men only and head only. Nobody shaved or waxed their pubes, armpits, arms or legs. Two reasons: No tools existed to do so cleanly and safely; Pubic region was not for show, so it didn't exist as a topic to be discussed.
• Attitude to sex: No contraceptives means no free sex. Having sex=having babies and having babies requires money, time and effort. Without a husband to support her, a woman would be unable to get food and basic necessities. Unless a woman was a blathering idiot or under duress, she would not willingly engage in an affair. Concubines? Sure, if you're a king or a very high ranking noble, but this is hardly a glamorous job and religion is out to get you. Unofficial mistresses? Goes back to what to do when a baby comes, she gets disposed of and goes back to her family and now she has to explain herself.
I know it has the trappings of a very boring adult game if you want it to include popular themes like a harem and fucking everything that moves, which brings me to the point: Why even make an adult game set in a historic time period when that time period is completely not conducive to the game you're making?
It's like building a plane, only you want it to be a submarine, too.
