I play the Civilization for the gameplay. I play the Alpha Centauri (+ expansion) for the ideas.  Sid Meier delivers a science fiction game that places social and political philosophy front and center; while I like starships, laser cannons, and robots, I wish more sci-fi games had followed suit.

Double Dracula,

I disagree with a number of your observations in regards to the factions. Colonel Santiago doesn’t strike me as having S+M overtones. I also find it strange that you complain about her, and in the next paragraph complain that ‘women are always the nurturers.’

You describe Pravin Lal as Middle Eastern and Muslim. He’s Indian and I’d guess he’s Sikh. How do you get to ‘this guy symbolizes the beliefs of the stereotypical muslim if America had fallen?’ (I’m not even sure what you mean by this)

I do agree with you that using a Chinese man as the face of the Hive is problematic.

Crimsonclone,

“Also making the faction motto 'the right to bear arms' is a bit strange when no one is really disputing that fact.”

Agreed.

” On the Gaian's, somewhat paradoxically that eco-friendliness means they have greater freedom to pollute and terraform the planet which tends to be necessary to build up strength when bordered by the more agressive factions. It seems wrong to build boreholes and the like when playing them but what can be done when you end up with the Hive as a neighbor. “

I believe the game would be a bit better if the Gaian’s were limited to less environmentally dangerous technology. Galactic Civilizations has something like this in that depending on your alignment, certain technology becomes available, so good civilizations never get the chance to build the slave pits or death star.

ILR,

”Thinking about the factions a bit more, only Morganites, U.N., and Hive strike me as fully realized, even though each of them has some minor inconsistencies.”

I’m of the opinion that all of the factions were fully realized, though I agree that they had inconsistencies mechanically.

” The Hive is the only faction based on ethnicity, the strongest of human bonds.”

Is the Hive based on ethnicity?  I never got that feeling.  

” As for the Believers, I could never see Christendom and Ummah uniting under the same banner. The major polytheistic religions would also be left off the faction completely. Perhaps the add-on could have included an Islamic faction?”

Unity is launched because of major destruction and upheaval on earth. I believe when the pods crash land, they only have about a hundred people in them, and the timeline of the game is difficult to pin down, but could last several hundred years. So, a small group of mostly Christian creates a society under one powerful and charismatic leader who then guides them for several generations. I could see any number of religious ideologies springing from that.

” The Spartans are an odd bunch. I can't see how their raison'd'etre - survival instincts - could be neglected in any of the other factions. Survival is always imperative, the classic Maslow's hierarchy needs to be rebuilt from ground up in an alien world. All the other factions have a clear goal to aim for, what are the Spartans planning to do in 200 years by comparison? Do they consider themselves to be on an interstellar camping trip? They fill a nice niche in the game from a game mechanic perspective but I have trouble finding anything substantial in their faction character.”

I don’t think the factions have goals but preferred lifestyles. Gaians want to live in harmony with their new world. Morganites desire wealth and luxury. The Hive wants the individual to serve society. The Spartans want  security and discipline and find it through militaristic means.

brainygamer:

” I'm admittedly a narrative nut, so I'm probably prone to constructing these story elements in my mind whether they exist in the game or not. In the case of SMAC, I think they're embedded into the game in ways that encourage exploration, but a player can also pretty much ignore them and focus on strategic gameplay.”

When I find myself up at 3 am, playing a few more turns, I tend to construct elaborate scenarios around the seven leaders. Like, what if they were the senior officers on Voyager and stuck in the Delta Quadrant? What would Friends look like with these guys? What if you transported them to  a fantasy setting?

Did you ever read the novels?

David:

” I had the Spartans next to me, so I was afraid I was going to have to fight a lot; after a little skirmish at the beginning, though, we stayed on cordial terms.”

The only time I’ve had problems with the Spartans is when I’m playing the Peacekeepers. I usually play Gaians, which means Santiago insults me a half-dozen times, but then wants to be my BFF. I picture Deidre and Santiago painting one another’s toenails on the weekends.

That's the general duality of sci-fi literature as well. My friend's wife dismissed the whole genre as 'laser cannons and starships' (which some of the boilerplate stuff certainly fits into) but there's lots of very insightful social analysis from the likes of Lem, Clarke, etc. to be found. Lots of Gulliver-style satirical commentary as well. The Firaxis guys were definitely well-read and it shows in Alpha Centauri.

Civ IV mod Fall From Heaven goes in this direction as well. Some of the 'factions' are ridiculously overpowered in some parts of the game and similarly overwhelmed in others. There are agnostic leaders who make it impossible to convert to any religion (which offer significant bonuses), for example. Balancing is always an issue and what's tolerable in a free mod would likely be seen as a glaring flaw in an official title. Witness the lengths Blizzard has gone and continues to go to make sure their RTS games are balanced.

That being said, I'd prefer to see even more distinct factions in this game although this was a major break from the uniform civilizations in Civ I and Civ II in its time and well-done especially in the original Alpha Centauri. I'm not too high on the add-on factions.

As with a lot of things in this game, it is not explicitly stated anywhere. I just look at the high degree of unification that the Chinese people have kept up over the millenniums and I have a hard time imagining that such a collectivist state as The Hive could be anything other than a distinct Han Chinese entity when they have Yang as their leader. Maybe there are some quotes in the game that are attributed to non-Chinese characters affiliated with The Hive, but I can't remember any.

The Hive offers no particular abstract ideology. I could see a Turkish scientist, for example, joining either Gaians or The University, or other factions during planetfall but never opting for The Hive. They have nothing in common.

Yes, the smaller scale makes a lot of things plausible. The chaos in Unity breakup. A small initial group. The first few grueling years after planetfall during which all malcontents will have conformed to the consensus ideology or been banished/killed.

As a side note, it's interesting to see Sister Miriam's theology evolve over the course of the game. She starts highly suspicious of the technological advancements required to stay alive, proceeds through cautious pragmatism ("If this is required to keep the Lord's word alive in this planet, so be it") to a curious new-age hybrid in some of the late mid-game Secret Project videos.