Get the theme right

It probably depends on each person's individual reaction. Ticket to Ride's board has incorrect geography, and some people are upset by it. But it sells like hotcakes anyway!

I'd say that getting your research right is worthwhile up to a point. Stop researching (don't add more details) when it stops enhancing the game; and feel free to bend the facts if adhering to the facts would degrade the playing quality of the game.

I would agree that getting history correct isn't always an issue. If you are going to re-fight the Battle of Waterloo, you don't want Wellington to have a guaranteed win, or there'd be no point in playing.

Another example: Polynesian explorers did not really spread throughout the South Pacific in the manner shown in Tongiaki. The author of Tongiaki was an expert in that subject before he turned to game design; but he rightly gave priority to the game and not the history.

Johan may have a point concerning religion. Get the tenets of any major religion wrong, or represent one without the respect its adherents feel it deserves, and you may have a lot of upset people who won't like or buy your game.

But it's worth remembering that it's nearly impossible to say "Nice weather we're having" without upsetting somebody. Make a game about a religion, however accurate and respectful, and some folks will be upset that you "trivialized" their faith by turning it into a game, while others will be upset that you're promoting a religion that differs from their own.

You can't please everybody. Make good games with as much theme integrity as they can hold without becoming worse games than they need to be. Accept that some people won't like the result. I don't see any better course than that.

There's a big "yeah, but" here. History buffs often care about accuracy more than playability, or perhaps rather they won't care about playability if the accuracy isn't there. There is a longstanding complaint from a few members of the rec.games.board community that the German plane miniatures in Axis and Allies are the wrong kind of plane. To which I say "who cares?", but for someone who really cares about accuracy, it's a serious setback.

I think the bigger target to shoot for is historical plausibility. You shouldn't allow for situations that couldn't have happened historically. For example, a game where the British bribe George Washington not to fight, or something like that. You shouldn't do this kind of thing unless you make it very clear that you're deliberately playing fast and loose with history to achieve some other goal (satire, e.g.). If you're claiming to make a historically-based game, you have to at least be plausible.

Another shortcoming can be putting the emphasis in the wrong place. There's a game called "Atilla" that has been criticized because it's a game of political jockeying, which seems out of place in a game about the bloodthirsty huns. So sometimes, slapping on a historical theme where it doesn't belong can be a bad move.

But it's worth remembering that it's nearly impossible to say "Nice weather we're having" without upsetting somebody. Make a game about a religion, however accurate and respectful, and some folks will be upset that you "trivialized" their faith by turning it into a game, while others will be upset that you're promoting a religion that differs from their own.

I would go one further than Rick, and recommend that one should not design games about a religion that one is not an adherent of. Why? Because I think that being accurate and respectful will be very difficult to achieve if you don't care very deeply about the belief system you're attempting to simulate. It could come across like you're pandering to a particular demographic just to rack up game sales.

I would also call in general for a more respectful portrayal of religious believers in games. It's common at a societal level to think that it's ok to take cheap shots at believers, and I've seen that reflected in games and gamers. Negative stereotypes about believers abound, but since there are a lot of gamers who are believers, choosing not to incorporate these stereotypes into one's games would be a good move.

But in a way, incorrectly handling the tenets of a particular faith would be seen as almost as bad, if not worse, and so I'd advocate proceeding with extreme caution into those waters.

Just my thoughts.

-Jeff