Inquiry into the History of the Development of EB

[mamik_yev_konak]

Hi community. This is for the most part directed toward the current developers of Europa Barbarorum. I've been playing this game for a long enough time now but have never inquired seriously into the origins of EB and everything related to that thought. But I'm hoping to present (if possible, hoping dearly!) EB, how it works, what makes it so special for so many people, and the history of the development of EB in a class of mine which, simply put, looks at world history though games (from ancient board games to modern card or video games and so on).

In short, where can I start looking in order to get a decent in-depth idea of some possible answers to these questions and more? Thank you in advance.

-Vartan

[Durnaug]

Hi,

1. I have snipped this section from the Wikipedia article

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Development

The Europa Barbarorum project began in January 2004, eight months before Rome: Total War's release,[34] when the Europa Barbarorum development team who were following the game's development became concerned that its "barbarian" factions such as the Gauls were being portrayed inaccurately.[4][35] The Europa Barbarorum team felt that such factions' representations in Rome: Total War conformed more to a sensationalist Hollywood stereotype than to historical fact, maintaining that ancient "barbarian" cultures are often judged and possibly misunderstood based on an interpretatio romana or interpretatio graeca due to the nature of ancient historiography.[15] The true nature of these civilisations, says the Europa Barbarorum team, is better revealed through archaeological evidence and what remains of their own ancient texts.
The developers of Europa Barbarorum tried to convince the Creative Assembly (CA), the developers of Rome: Total War, to alter their depiction of the period to make the whole game more historically accurate.[15] Whilst some suggestions were taken on board and adopted in the final release of Rome: Total War, most were disregarded by the Creative Assembly due to publisher pressures and financial expediency. Some Europa Barbarorum members continued to offer their services as historical advisers but due to inherent concerns over intellectual property rights, the Creative Assembly declined the offer.
Having exhausted this avenue for change, the Europa Barbarorum members then resolved to modify the game themselves upon its release. Once Rome: Total War was released, the Europa Barbarorum development team immediately began work on the modification, recruiting a large team of volunteer skinners, modellers, coders, and historians to have the modification better reflect historical reality and subsequently commenced research and preliminary work for the modification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Barbarorum

The wikipedia article contains lots of references to development team posts. For example, here is a link to an interview with one of the team...

http://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/mods/...wk/index.shtml

Sample from the interview...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Ace: So, Khelvan, when did your team decide to start this project, and why did you start such a daunting task? I heard you actually began the modification before Rome Total War was even out!
Khelvan: The EB team originally gathered together about 16 months ago, when early previews of Rome: Total War were shown. The original team members were dismayed at the portrayal of non-Greek and non-Roman factions. The intention was to gather a large body of historical information from which CA could pull details to make their depiction of these factions more realistic. Unfortunately the team quickly realized that the company was not willing to change its direction based on historical accuracy, and so the early EB members prepared to make a mod of their own. This effort evolved over time into remaking the entire campaign.

So that is one way to get some development information: chase the sources in the wikipedia article.

2. Do extensive searches on this site and Totalwar.org.

3. There is introductory development history information in the twcentre wiki system but probably repeats a lot of the stuff from wikipedia...

http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Europa_...story_and_goal

4. Make a note of the names of the main developers and track down their forum posts. Maybe even direct questions at them!

Good luck!

Durnaug

[Durnaug]

You could also create a timeline starting from the setup of the community through to the commencement of work on EBII. Basically a list of important dates for EB Then you will make this interactive and put it on the web otherwise we will echelon your proverbial! I have no idea what that means either.

[mamik_yev_konak]

Thanks Durnaug, I appreciate it.

[James the Red]

"Whilst some suggestions were taken on board and adopted in the final release of Rome: Total War, most were disregarded by the Creative Assembly"

Id like to know what suggestions were taken on board.