A Russian Saga - Analysis

To start of I like this novel but let´s look at some details about it.

Game is called a Russian Saga and after the first chapter comes first problem with the game. You actually can´t play as the East Slavic culture. Instead you get to choose from Nivkh (region around Vladivostok), Chukchi (at Kamchatka), Nogai from central asia), Khanty (Siberia beyond Ural) and Saami (northern Scandinavia). Problem is none of those cultures are even remotelly Slavic which lead me to another point. Word Russian. Russian nation exists only since 16th century when Ivan IV. Grozny united landsof Rus. However at that time seat of power was in Muscovy. Here in the game seat of power is in Kiev which means the game takes place before Mongolian invasion hence the nation should be called Kievan Rus and its people weren´t Russian yet but we are still talking about East Slavic ethnicity. Difference between east slavic nations started to form only after the Mongolian invasion and when Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth captured western parts of region. Back to Kievan Rus. Here the ruler of the nation is reffered as Tsar however again that is only after Mongoloian invasion when Grand Principality of Muscovy united lands of Rus. Kievan Rus was Grand Principality and its ruler was reffered as Grand Knyaz. Anyway that´s all from me. Aside from those issues I still like the game.

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Some good points, I think. What would make a better name for it instead?

Well name Rus reffers to european parts of Russia. It would need just small tweek into original name and change it to Saga of Rus

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I believe a lot of liberties were taken so that those not familiar with the history and folklore would be able to relate to everything without a wall of text to explain both history and lore.

Mainly, people in the West are unfamiliar with everything you begin with, from Kiev to the Nivkh so, to make it easier for the intended target audience to understand with a minimum fuss a lot of liberties were taken by the authors.

I believe that if they desired the authors very well could have been more true to the historicity but that would have been much more work and they may not have had enough developmental time to do everything that needed to be done justice.

Totally agree with this.

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The things I am talking about are taught in History class in Elementary School so people are supposed to know that without walls of exposition on history.

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Except they are not taught in America (at the least) Elementary Schools. … sorry.

How about High School. Everyone is supposed to have that one too so they must be teaching it there.

No offense intended but in my experience, the only high schoolers taught (in America) any Euro history of the nature you are talking about are the advanced honors students. Even then, much is only touched upon like the Mongols invading. Such basics as you discuss are at the University level or higher.

When I say, most Americans know very little of Russian/Eastern Slavic history and such, I was serious. I’m pretty sure this extends into Canada as well but I’m not a product of that educational system, so I don’t know as much there.

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Disappointing, here are such thing considered as general history.

But in my opinion there is no better way how to teach history than trough games. It is like Johann Amos Comenius said: Best way to teach people is trough game.

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I think he’s making quite a bit of good points here it wouldn’t change the structure of the game radically. All of the day or just give a more historically accurate Coat of paint to the setting. That’s like having a game about the US where everybody’s colonial governors yet it’s 2010 I can see why this looks ridiculous to him. It may not be a huge deal to you but if you know the history of the nation it’s glaring in your face. An interest for you know the game the movie showing at the shared culture between Ukraine and Russia.

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Actually I could get trough all those points esxcept the cultures. Becuase seriously none of those cultures are even remotelly “Russian”. I would be very glad if the wauthors could explain to me reasoning why in the game titled Russian Saga you can´t play as person of East Slavic ethnicity.

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In the same retrospect later I was reading a book called Medieval Russia or the social history of medieval Russia and starts at Vladimir the great and that the death of Ivan the terrible. It’s like how he said colonial America even though it was an English and French Spanish colonies among with countless nations of indigenous tribes.

But the book is called Russia even though the majority of it’s about the Rus it’s one in the mind of their mindset of western perspective of eastern European culture.

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As for those other points you don´t even need that much of an expoition. You just need to say somthng among the lines of "I need to go to Kiev, the seat of power of Grand Knyaz, the ruler of Rus in order to ask for help … "

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I like that a lot and that’s a little Flair authenticity to it!!

Yes, I took AP World history for and don’t really remember anything besides the big stuff (early Civilizations, Roman Empire, some stuff with China, and Mongolian empire.) I honestly can tell you anything about Russia before the world wars.

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You forgot self taught history buffs “Strikes triumphant pose”.

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Some elementary schools don’t go very deep with history especially Russian History. Even if they do go over it they would probably learn about Peter the Great and possibly Ivan the great/Ivan the terrible.

Well these thing are not part of Russian history (well they are) but they are especially part of General history.

The discussion of calling it the Saga of Rus did come up at one point, but the decision to use Russia in the title instead, despite the anachronism, was based on the fact that we believe that there would be a discoverability and engagement problem with referring to Rus.

Most Americans would go “Rus? What’s that? Do you mean Russia?”

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