Package Maintainers Flags policy

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On 05/19/2009 09:23 AM, Jesse Keating wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 15:47 +0100, Ewan Mac Mahon wrote:
>> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 10:25:23AM -0400, Colin Walters wrote:
>>> A list of current countries doesn't solve the problem.  Let's take for
>>> example Freeciv, which was cited earlier as having flags as a core
>>> part of the experience (I'd disagree, but anyways).
>>>
>> The problem with FreeCiv is that the only distinction between a city or
>> unit of one nation and one of another is the flag[1], so there doesn't
>> seem to be any simple way to remove them. They could be replaced with
>> different flags graphics, but they'd all have to be distinct; you
>> couldn't just use (e.g.) the Fedora logo for every nation.
>>
>> There's also the fact that FreeCiv in particular contains Tibet as a
>> playable nation; even if the flag were removed, I don't think refering
>> to the Tibetan nation would pass muster in China. That being the case
>> we're either going to need to go a lot further than removing just flags,
>> or accept that generic Fedora won't be 'China safe', in which case we
>> might as well leave the flags alone.
>>
>> Ewan
>>
>> [1] e.g:<http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/File:Big_window.png
>
> That's a pretty big reason why games such as FreeCiv should stick to
> fictional countries and fictional flags.  It avoids all of these issues.
>
Using real countries does add value to freeciv (I'm not the only one 
that clicks a country and reads about all the great leaders from there, 
right?  Right? Anyone?  Bueller? ;-)

It's also unavoidable in other games that are meant to be simulations as 
opposed to equally weighted wargames.

-Toshio