upcoming release of Gathering Storm, the second expansion for Civ 6, will include eight new civilizations to the game. While one or two of these new playable options have already been announced, several have still yet to be revealed. Given the timing, it’s a good time to look at the mistakes of the last expansion and learn some important lessons on how to integrate different and lesser known cultures into the game without falling into the same traps. Rise and Fall launched at the beginning of the year and included A First Nation, the Cree. It was led by Poundmaker; a first for the series and was another example of video games taking an interest in these often overlooked cultures. The hundreds of First Nation Canadian and Native American cultures have been misrepresented in the media since there discovery. While games and other media have started to take a more genuine interest in the groups, centuries of oppression, suppression, and exclusion have left the mainstream understanding of these cultures severely lacking. With Civ 6‘s complex alliance, trading and city development systems, it could have been a brilliant opportunity to celebrate and educate players about the Cree. Unfortunately, the Cree were not happy with how they were represented in the game. With over 200,000 living Cree people, they are one of the largest First Nation groups in the Americas, and their culture does not easily translate into a Civ game. Speaking to CBC News as the expansion was released, Milton Tootoosis, a headman… [Read full story]
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