Houses and real-life nationality

[Blender McBiscuits]

Do you think that, say, the Japanese tend to prefer the Kuritans more? And the Chinese with Liao? Indians with Marik? I dunno that the USA really has much in the way of representation except as dubiously-ancestored Europeans. Davion and Steiner both aligning best with my white-person European ancestry. But mostly I like Steiner cos the first Battletech game, The Crescent Hawks' Inception, had me as a Steiner. Citizen I mean, not a member of the family, although I count Katrina among my close, personal friends (even if she doesn't).

There's also something indefinably boring about the Davions. Even their name! They're not massively distinguishable from each other though are they? The Steiners are a bit more aristocratic but it hardly screams from them.

Is anything known about this? Do foreigners even play Battletech and Mechwarrior, whether tabletop or computer games? It'd be interesting if it were the case, it'd be interesting even it it wasn't the case! Perhaps it's more with the way the games portray it. The goodies and protagonists are nearly always Davion, or less-often, Steiner.

I don't play tabletop but do players tend to show big preferences there? And I haven't read the books, if I'm gonna read a book it likely won't be a licensed property. I'm not gonna dedicate reading effort to reading merchandise! Just has always seemed like a waste of time to me, whichever the franchise, but I suppose more so with nerd-fi. I enjoyed Iain M Banks's stuff when he was writing, and breathing. Asimov, Philip K ♥♥♥♥, and a few others, plus Alan Moore, Pete Milligan, and Warren Ellis in comics. Nothing with superheroes though generally. Certainly not straight superhero stuff, with just a couple of exceptions.

Anyway... are the books and other media written from the points of view of "other" Houses? Ones that aren't Davion (or even Steiner!). I didn't see the Battletech cartoon, wasn't shown in my country. I checked an episode or two out online years later, and it wasn't amazing though better than it could have been, better than most licensed cartoons. I suppose cos it wasn't about kids' toys but rather adults' kids' toys.

Look forward to your opinons!

[pete]

The books are rubbish and should be avoided at all costs. Your retinas will thank you for missing the cartoon.

[Cursed Hawkins]

House Marik's a mix of "North America,Europe and Asia" nationalities.
House Liao's likely more towards Chinese in culture.
House Steiner's likely made up of German nationalities since they take pride in their German nobility connections.
House Davion likely are made up of American nationalities since they see themselves as "protectors of liberty" and are even originally descendants of "French and English nobles" something that can also tie the American nationalities
House Kurita are likely full on Japanese in culture along with some other Asian nationalities mixed in.

[Bovril Brigadier]

For starters you'll not really get much of a picture reading the novels. Second, a lot of this depends really when and what you read regarding Sourcebooks and how far you want to break things down.

Capellan Confederation for example started out as mostly Russian and Slavic in overall influence before Chinese culture became more dominant.

Draconis Combine are literally full of weebs. Emulating Japanese culture but not actually as much Japanese blood as you'd think. There is quite a bit of Arab in there as well which kind of explains the whole weeb thing.

Federated Suns, aside from being more French than English, has quite a large portion of Indians that gets overlooked. Quite a number of little semi-autonomous States in there that get glossed over.

Free World Leagues is one hell of a melting pot as it near enough has everyone, however there is a lot of Spanish, Italian, Czech, Slovak, and Austrian in there alongside a mix of American. It's arguably easier to say who isn't represented by the Free World League.

Lyran Commonwealth everyone keeps calling German but conveniently ignore that the Tamar Pact is mostly Pakistani-American and the Isles of Skye is all Celtic, so loads of Scots and Irish. House Steiner is arguably closer to the old British Empire in culture right down to the whole IRA problem.

That's just skimming by the way for starters without even touching the Periphery. Reality is though Houses are less about ethnicity and more about what kind of culture you identify with.

Also going on about "foreigners" playing Battletech, you better start saying thanks to Central and Eastern Europeans each night for keeping the IP alive.

[Insano-Man]

Originally posted by Strayed:

Also going on about "foreigners" playing Battletech, you better start saying thanks to Central and Eastern Europeans each night for keeping the IP alive.

This is probably just a me thing, but I always had a strong association between BattleTech and Australia. I was introduced to it by an upside-downer, I only ever heard about it from Aussies, and one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the subject is an Aussie.

If someone told me that BattleTech was a national sport down there, I wouldn't even blink.

[Cursed Hawkins]

Originally posted by Strayed:

For starters you'll not really get much of a picture reading the novels. Second, a lot of this depends really when and what you read regarding Sourcebooks and how far you want to break things down.

Capellan Confederation for example started out as mostly Russian and Slavic in overall influence before Chinese culture became more dominant.

Draconis Combine are literally full of weebs. Emulating Japanese culture but not actually as much Japanese blood as you'd think. There is quite a bit of Arab in there as well which kind of explains the whole weeb thing.

Federated Suns, aside from being more French than English, has quite a large portion of Indians that gets overlooked. Quite a number of little semi-autonomous States in there that get glossed over.

Free World Leagues is one hell of a melting pot as it near enough has everyone, however there is a lot of Spanish, Italian, Czech, Slovak, and Austrian in there alongside a mix of American. It's arguably easier to say who isn't represented by the Free World League.

Lyran Commonwealth everyone keeps calling German but conveniently ignore that the Tamar Pact is mostly Pakistani-American and the Isles of Skye is all Celtic, so loads of Scots and Irish. House Steiner is arguably closer to the old British Empire in culture right down to the whole IRA problem.

I quoted what the career mode uses to describe the great houses along with a rough estimate about the culture based on behavior and paint schemes of their mechs.

[NeverADullDoor]

I think at the point the BT universe is at, genetic lineage is far less important than cultural heritage; even if you told me 99% of the population of the Taurian Concordat have ancestors originating from sub-Saharan Africa and/or Indonesia, I'd still call it Space Texas, because "hippity hoppity, get off my property" echoes throughout time and space in a Texan accent.

As for who plays what and why, I think that's largely down to the player. Some people might find an affinity with a culture that's a vague facsimile their own, or some other RL culture they're interested in, but it could just as easily and as often be the case that someone plays a certain house or clan because it's known for using certain mechs or tactics; I'm not Chinese myself, and I'm certainly not communist, but I must confess a certain fondness for Capellan "stealth" mechs and the ludicrous idea of black ops carried out by 4 story robots. Meanwhile, I'm a massive weeb, but I hate the Dragon, so I'm not really interested in playing DC.

[fawkee]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleTech
everything you need to make yourself smart about other things in the BT lore.

[Blender McBiscuits]

Yeah I prefer sarna.net but that doesn't really answer the question about real-life people's cultures and their preferences for Battletech cultures, does it? I'm probably looking at the wrong bit of Wikipedia or something.

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Blender McBiscuits:

I dunno that the USA really has much in the way of representation except as dubiously-ancestored Europeans.

in the great houses? sure. i feel the clans, though, are spiritually closer to the US. especially with ghost bear playing american football. there are also parallels in "leaving civilization for a new world beyond the frontier," "religious reverence for their founders," "turning everything into a competition," and "war is our everything."

as to playing something resembling my nationality, i do not. i'm a capellian, in game. i'm from the US in real life. i fight for liao for two reasons: 1. their emblem is very close to the unit crest of the US 7th cavalry, in which i served. 2. it's the most "decepticonian" faction available.

[Cursed Hawkins]

Originally posted by Thundercracker:

Originally posted by Blender McBiscuits:

I dunno that the USA really has much in the way of representation except as dubiously-ancestored Europeans.

in the great houses? sure. i feel the clans, though, are spiritually closer to the US. especially with ghost bear playing american football. there are also parallels in "leaving civilization for a new world beyond the frontier," "religious reverence for their founders," "turning everything into a competition," and "war is our everything."

as to playing something resembling my nationality, i do not. i'm a capellian, in game. i'm from the US in real life. i fight for liao for two reasons: 1. their emblem is very close to the unit crest of the US 7th cavalry, in which i served. 2. it's the most "decepticonian" faction available.

Quoting what's used to describe the great houses for Career mode, House Davion is likely to be viewed as the representative since they view themselves as the "Protectors of Liberty" similar to how the U.S view themselves as the "Protectors of Liberty"

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Cursed Hawkins:

Quoting what's used to describe the great houses for Career mode, House Davion is likely to be viewed as the representative since they view themselves as the "Protectors of Liberty" similar to how the U.S view themselves as the "Protectors of Liberty"

many nations view themselves as that. france as a quick and dirty example. this makes since as the US ideal of "liberty" mostly comes from france, originally. even nations that do not have much in the way of personal liberty have claimed that title.

no need to try to fit a square peg into a round hole by reason of a notional title. after all, the davions have a nobility, ministries instead of departments, and run themselves like the UK more than the US. their capitol is also "new avalon," a VERY british name.

the davions even use the pound as their money.

i say again that the US does not have a direct analog in the great houses, because the very concept of a nobility goes against our most basic ideals. the US has more in common with the clans than any great house.