Thanks for the episode! Just a couple of points on the AoW: Planetfall update:
1. First, the Medici were indeed from Florence – they started as a merchant family and gradually became the ruling family of all of Tuscany (the region where Florence is located). Their wealth was based on mercantile and banking activities, so I can see why Nate thought of them as Venetian.
2. I am almost certain the second family Nate was thinking about (and whose name he could not recall) were the Borgias (which, with the Medici, are the most generally “famous” Italian Renaissance family). They are generally represented in fiction as being quite “evil”/depraved (e.g., they are the bad guys in Assassin’s Creed 2), but I am not sure how accurate that is. They are also quite different from the Medici – they were actually of Spanish origin, and are most famous for their link with and influence in the Catholic Church rather than for mercantile activities.
3. Like Troy, I was a bit “puzzled” by how the faction was presented in the Developer Diary. I understand the point Nate was trying to make (i.e., it is interesting to have games which do not ignore problematic parts of human history); however, to me the developers gave the impression of simply picking elements of other cultures and historical times which they found “cool” and “evil” to create a “fun” faction – I do not think there was anything particularly deep or well-thought about it, or that they wanted to seriously engage with human history.
This is linked to a more general worry I have regarding Planetfall: while I have very high expectations, its tone is something I am not completely sold on. Based on what they have shown so far (e.g., the trailer, developer diaries, the pieces of lore associated with each unit shown) it seems to wander from quite serious to extremely silly – I am not sure there is an incredibly strong vision behind it. For instance, the lore surrounding the Kir’ko seems to be on the serious side, while the dinosaur-riding amazons appear extremely campy.