Maybe I'm being unfair, picking on a game as delightful as Stardew Valley. Flawed though it may be, it is at least well-intentioned. Some other games don't seem to care one whit what sort of message they get across. Some of those games are Sid Meier's Civilization titles. And this, again, is an area where I can't complain too much. I've only really played three in the series, Civilizations V, VI, and Beyond Earth, but between those I've expended some nearly 5500 hours, as Steam has clocked it (this excludes any time played offline, which probably rounds me up a few hundred hours). I won't be discussing Beyond Earth here, since it isn't terribly relevant, and doesn't have some of the same problems I have with the mainline titles. Those two, though. Hoo boy. Do I have some words. Civilization, is, as the name suggests, a game that seeks to replicate the experience one might have as the immortal ruler of a broad caricature of one of Earth's great civilizations. It is not to be taken in any way as educational in this regard. It may feature historical figures, but these really are just caricatures, given attributes based on a suburban American WASP's understanding of these people's histories and cultures. If any knowledge is to be gleaned from playing these games, it is of this understanding of the world. We learn pretty quickly, for example, that this understanding is firmly rooted in the European experience of the past. For starters (at least in V and VI, fully expanded), a standard game's timeline is divided into the following eras: Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, Modern, Atomic, Information, and with the Future era added in VI. Ancient? Okay. Pretty generic. It is a Latin-rooted word, but just means the stuff that came before. The long-ago. So, whatever. Now, Classical starts getting iffy. There are eras in non-European cultures referred to in this way, like the Mayan Classic Period, but these don't always line up with what the game considers the Classical Era. This is the time that things like mathematics, drama and poetry, currency, and iron working are developed. You know: the classical stuff. Still, not completely eurocentric. But then there's the Medieval Era. And here, two hands are simultaneously played: first, that this game clearly believes all history revolves around European history; and second, that it also believes in a particular model of that history that places particular importance on its more imperial-colonial aspects. I mean, say what you will about the Crusades, but a few city-states in Palestine are nothing compared to the sort of conquest and control that preceded and followed that age that is really only a mere an interim, hence "medieval". So, naturally, we follow that with the Renaissance. Even if you choose to play as an indigenous leader and culture that developed on the other side of the planet in totally different ways under totally different circumstances, you too can experience the wonders of the Renaissance. Banking, siege tactics, and the Divine Right of Kings. Not only are you free to learn of these things, you are required to. Because there is only one path through this narrowly-defined history. It has its branchings and weavings, but it is ultimately singular. You want to explore space? Well, you're gonna have to build castles first. But, don't worry about discovering the wheel if you want to build railroads. Just make sure you've done both if you want to go to Mars. You don't need railroads to go to Mars, of course, but you do need them to go to the Moon, and you can't very well go straight to Mars without putting an Apollo lander on the Moon, now can you? But, maybe you're less concerned with technology. Maybe your society is more focused on things like conservation and environmentalism. Noble goals, to be sure, but you are going to have to gain an understanding of colonialism beforehand. Yes, even if you're that indigenous people thousands of kilometers away from the source of that concept. This isn't about history, though; it's about the aesthetics of history. Just, like, the vibes, y'know? Never mind the facts, because the facts are different on every playthrough. Maybe the Maori will colonise England this time. Maybe they'll just be good friends. But they will both have to learn how to do colonialism if they want to learn to do environmentalism. But that doesn't come until the Information Era, and we haven't even talked about what comes after the Renaissance (which the Maori, like the English, must go through). It's the Industrial Era, of course. Because the whole world is all about mass production and dynamite and such. Then comes the Modern Era, because you've probably messed up an entire generation with things like artillery. And you've probably repeated that mistake, so the Atomic Era, I guess? You get the gist, though, right? No matter who you play as, the history you live through is the one European colonial powers lived through. It doesn't even matter the resources you find in your lands. You might never see a horse once in five millennia, but you can't develop systems of education until you know how to ride one. Horses are just so important, after all. And not only is the history the same, but so, too, are the goals, and the methods by which you achieve them. There are a few different ones, but each of them entails but one measure for greatness, and this usually involves some sort of subjugation. Be it military conquest, cutural hegemony, or religious supremacy, in order to Stand The Test of Time™, you must bring every other society under your influence or control. This is the real lesson of Sid Meier's Civilization: not anything to do with history or society, but that the developers believe that the most important thing in them is a European brand of violence that is the yardstick against which all people are measured, and of which, in the end, all but one will be found wanting.