BALTIMORE — Following a recent patch to “Civilization VII,” Firaxis Games has confirmed that they have disabled all warmonger penalties when playing as Israel.
“We strive for realism,” said Creative Director Ed Beach while interviewed on the street without warning. “Our approach to turn-based strategy games is to reflect every nation’s trademark culture and attributes. For France, you can build the Eiffel Tower. For Israel, you can drop white phosphorus on a hospital without the United States getting mad.”
Designers at Firaxis have reportedly spent months developing the unique units, buildings, civics, and buffs of the Israeli civilization without breaking the game’s meta.
“We had to jump through some hoops on this one, that’s for sure,” said Game Designer Joe Weinhoffer in a candid interrogation. “Israel is unique in our lineup in that it doesn’t follow practically any of the rules, laws, regulations, expectations, morals, or restrictions of our other more modern civilizations. So, we baked that into their core gameplay! For example, their unique unit ‘20-Year-Old IDF Soldier’ is extremely effective against civilians.”
Gamers have unsurprisingly mixed opinions about the update, with many voicing both support and condemnations regarding the controversial civilizations addition.
“I want to start by saying that I am NOT antisemitic,” said clearly antisemitic Civilization player Brianna Fineman. “I just don’t think that it’s cool that people can play as Israel and commit war crimes and stuff. I mean, I know all the civs in this game committed war crimes at some point, but most of those happened a while ago…so that’s fine I guess”
At press time, Firaxis has already announced another patch that will tweak Israel’s ability to break ceasefires without waiting for a cooldown.
