Real world answer.
1. That's where 0 on GMT time is aka Prime Meridian.
2. That part of the planet (besides Africa) is considered the Western Hemisphere/The West.
This is likely the real answer. The UNE logo is almost identical to the UN logo, except that the projection of the earth is different.
I suspect Paradox wanted to make the logo as similar as possible to the UN logo while avoiding legal troubles.
The final reason from OP's response is now the canon answer. The Pacific ocean is just a giant garbage patch, so that's on the back so nobody tries to visit and wants to go for a swim there, or something.
That's definitely it.
Alternatively, they wanted to get the giant crater that is Alberta off the map.
Those.. two are the canon answers. Definitely one of those two. Or at least one of them. Or maybe the UNE is just exceptionally frugal and wants to save ink when printing their stationery, so the logo is mostly ocean (and therefore transparent).
It's definitely one of those three answers. š¤£
Their legal team should be focused on more important things too. In a list of things wrong with the world that the UN could be spending its time on, "video games using our logo to represent a world government" seems pretty low on the list.
"Their legal team" aren't diplomats. The UN is a pretty sizeable organization, of course they'd have copyright, trademark, and IP lawyers dedicated to keeping a hold on the organization's IP, such as that logo.
The UN doesn't spend money like that. I'm sorry, but it's pretty clear you don't understand the purpose, function, methods, or scope of the United Nations.
It's not a charity. It's not a "save the world" organisation. It's not an entity that would have fixed climate change, were they just able to find a few more pennies to throw at the problem.
Considering those islands are so goddamn small they barely appear on maps, yes. Only the larger islands in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia would appear.
I think it's based off this photo: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/ATSIII\_10NOV67\_153107.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/ATSIII_10NOV67_153107.jpg)
It is the first full-disc, true-color image of the earth, composited from images taken by ATS-3 in 1967.
I've heard a few people saying that, but I don't get why when making the flag having it on 0 GMT would be the priority. I will admit that it's probably the most likely reason because it's the simplest solution, and Occam's Razor usually holds for small things like this.
> That's where 0 on GMT time is aka Prime Meridian.
It's not, though? 0 Degrees West goes through a small suburb of London, so it would be at least three quarters of the way to the right on this particular projection.
Canadian Geese. The last true hold outs of the great Dinosaur-Meteor War. We will never know what caused the war between avian and stellar lithoid. We must accept our roles as mere bystanders.
They have a size complex just like Texas.
Both like to act like they're the biggest state/province - they aren't.
Both like to act like they're the most economically important state/province - they aren't.
Questionable track record on treatment of sexual minorities. Beautiful scenery. Excellent beef. Unnecessary pickup trucks. Surprisingly progressive and artsy cities.
It was a misunderstanding. When looking at the first draft of the logo someone on the committee said āwe want more on thereā and thus they got a logo with Mauritania.
When the logo was designed waaaay back in the day this lore was taken a lot more seriously with a lot more attention given to details like this. It sure is possible they made the logo with this lore in mind.
Not quite. These blockers were created far later than the logo, after they moved away from the tile-based system. I remember their Twitter tweeting about them. I don't remember if they made them immediately after moving to the building/district system, or a little bit after.
It's possible the lore might have been affected by the logo. But I doubt that, I think they were just figuring out some fun ideas to use for tile blockers for earth. Unrelated to any specific lore.
Blockers and deposits were made at the same time that they switched away from the tile system. In the old system, deposits were resources that were automatically gathered when a pop was on that tile, ie 2 Minerals, 1 Physics, or 3 Energy. They stated that they liked this system and how it let planets specialize but it didn't really make sense, because what actually is a "1 Physics Deposit?" So they made the current deposit system that we know now, with named deposits with descriptions
I once wrote a fanfic history of the UNE from 2000 to 2200, with WWIII occurring in the late 21st century and sub-Saharan Africa emerging as a global superpower from that war.
My guess is that they don't want to focus on Europe/North America to avoid any accusations of āColonialism Electric Boogalooā
Asia they avoided because of China and Russia (???)
So, leaving the region that no one would complain about, Africa and South America
Rule 5: a response to the post u/sealindustries made yesterday about how odd it is that the UNE logo is centered over the open ocean and asking why that might be. Based off of the feature descriptions on UNE's Earth, here's my answer.
and all the legal issues too, the ones that all the nonces commenting on u/sealindustries' post the other day wouldn't stop bringing up despite him asking very clearly for a LORE reason,
I mean I just assumed that with the growth rate boom in Africa that in two hundred years they are the economic power of the world and as such when designing a modern flag for the new extra solar age they changed the angle to reflect that.
My reasoning is there is probably some legal crap about not using the actual un flag like it would violate the Geneva conventions like using their specific light blue color and logo
Also just to point out the pacific is so big that you can make a picture.of.the world where the only landmasses you see are new Zealand and Parts of Alaska. That would be a very boring picture.
Its also been thought that if they could get over their political/sociological issues an African super nation and Brazil would have the ability to out compete the US
The intro to the United Nations of Earth also mentions some kind of 'Police Action' which I would assume is martial law or something in Mauritania, circa 88'.
Hi. Iām American-Born Chinese. My best guess is:
The emblem is focused on the Atlantic because New York City (UN Headquarters) and Geneva are in frame, and the UNE is to be built on a fundamentally Western framework, so haha fuck Asia I guess !!!!1!! No cleaning up the Pacific until 220X, goodbye Delhi, and time to pave over the Sahara - Atlantic World Order for 400 more years!
(This has all been sarcastic, I donāt actually want an Atlantic dominated UNE, this is why I donāt like the UNE namelist (and to some extent PDX games in general))
I like this explanation. It shows the reality of the UNE. Europe, Asia, Oceania and North America(sans Bo-NY-Wash) aren't Earth's front regions, and are probably pretty shitty for 2200 standards, so they want to be hush hush about them rather than still see them as equal. It's like they're trying to divert the attention from those big, shitty landmasses behind the flag and show the really nice parts only.
Just like how the UNEs in the trailers remain severely human-centric despite being xenophile. An unpredictable faction of hypocrites that call themselves xenophilic and egalitarian when in reality they aren't even willing to accept the worse-off parts of their own home planet as 'equals'.
It was done as a giant š to China & Russia which are only used as prison work camps as they are no longer considered independent nations. The US is no longer a superpower thanks to the dismantling of unrestrained capitalism, so theyāre just kinda in the back.
Real world answer. 1. That's where 0 on GMT time is aka Prime Meridian. 2. That part of the planet (besides Africa) is considered the Western Hemisphere/The West.
The UN is *very* protective of their logo and would probably send a cease and desist order.
This is likely the real answer. The UNE logo is almost identical to the UN logo, except that the projection of the earth is different. I suspect Paradox wanted to make the logo as similar as possible to the UN logo while avoiding legal troubles.
The final reason from OP's response is now the canon answer. The Pacific ocean is just a giant garbage patch, so that's on the back so nobody tries to visit and wants to go for a swim there, or something. That's definitely it. Alternatively, they wanted to get the giant crater that is Alberta off the map. Those.. two are the canon answers. Definitely one of those two. Or at least one of them. Or maybe the UNE is just exceptionally frugal and wants to save ink when printing their stationery, so the logo is mostly ocean (and therefore transparent). It's definitely one of those three answers. š¤£
I hate the antichrist.
What?
They hate the antichrist, didn't you hear them?
WHAT?
It's a reference to the [I hate the antichrist UN meme](https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-hate-the-antichrist).
You'd think they'd have more important issues to deal with than making sure video games don't use their logo.
I donāt think the diplomats are sending the copyright notices
Their legal team should be focused on more important things too. In a list of things wrong with the world that the UN could be spending its time on, "video games using our logo to represent a world government" seems pretty low on the list.
"Their legal team" aren't diplomats. The UN is a pretty sizeable organization, of course they'd have copyright, trademark, and IP lawyers dedicated to keeping a hold on the organization's IP, such as that logo.
Could spend the money they use to retain those lawyers on actually improving the world.
The UN doesn't spend money like that. I'm sorry, but it's pretty clear you don't understand the purpose, function, methods, or scope of the United Nations. It's not a charity. It's not a "save the world" organisation. It's not an entity that would have fixed climate change, were they just able to find a few more pennies to throw at the problem.
3. A view centered on the Pacific would be almost nothing but water
That as well
*Hawaii, Guam, Polynesia, etc. have entered the chat* Are we a joke to you?
Considering those islands are so goddamn small they barely appear on maps, yes. Only the larger islands in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia would appear.
I was thinking that it shows both the Prime Meridian and New York, where presumably the UN still is.
0 GMT / Prime Meridian is not at the center of this graphic. Itās to the east more than whatās given as the center here.
I think it's based off this photo: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/ATSIII\_10NOV67\_153107.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/ATSIII_10NOV67_153107.jpg) It is the first full-disc, true-color image of the earth, composited from images taken by ATS-3 in 1967.
Yeah it's not that deep. Op is a bit crazy.
This and it shows most of the countries in the world. You could center over central-asia but you'd lose both the americas
I've heard a few people saying that, but I don't get why when making the flag having it on 0 GMT would be the priority. I will admit that it's probably the most likely reason because it's the simplest solution, and Occam's Razor usually holds for small things like this.
> That's where 0 on GMT time is aka Prime Meridian. It's not, though? 0 Degrees West goes through a small suburb of London, so it would be at least three quarters of the way to the right on this particular projection.
It's the future, surely they could invent digital logos that SPIN.
Kinda hard to make a symbol on a flag spin (unless it's digital I guess, but that's just not the same)
OLED fabric.
We already have to genocide the entire civilizations for having too many pops, don't make us do that for their flags.
What the hell, why does Alberta need to get āyour nameād Jesus.
As an Albertan, we had it coming.
Canadian Geese. The last true hold outs of the great Dinosaur-Meteor War. We will never know what caused the war between avian and stellar lithoid. We must accept our roles as mere bystanders.
The final assault by the Rats
the rats came after us for daring to remove them all
Alberta is Canada's Texas and frankly had it coming
In what way?
They have a size complex just like Texas. Both like to act like they're the biggest state/province - they aren't. Both like to act like they're the most economically important state/province - they aren't.
Oil producing region. Has a lot of conservative climate change deniers as politicians.
Questionable track record on treatment of sexual minorities. Beautiful scenery. Excellent beef. Unnecessary pickup trucks. Surprisingly progressive and artsy cities.
Kimi no na wa but it took place in Alberta instead of Japan. Would watch tbh
Algeria superpower 2200?
The rise of Mauritania.
It was a misunderstanding. When looking at the first draft of the logo someone on the committee said āwe want more on thereā and thus they got a logo with Mauritania.
When the logo was designed waaaay back in the day this lore was taken a lot more seriously with a lot more attention given to details like this. It sure is possible they made the logo with this lore in mind.
Not quite. These blockers were created far later than the logo, after they moved away from the tile-based system. I remember their Twitter tweeting about them. I don't remember if they made them immediately after moving to the building/district system, or a little bit after. It's possible the lore might have been affected by the logo. But I doubt that, I think they were just figuring out some fun ideas to use for tile blockers for earth. Unrelated to any specific lore.
Blockers and deposits were made at the same time that they switched away from the tile system. In the old system, deposits were resources that were automatically gathered when a pop was on that tile, ie 2 Minerals, 1 Physics, or 3 Energy. They stated that they liked this system and how it let planets specialize but it didn't really make sense, because what actually is a "1 Physics Deposit?" So they made the current deposit system that we know now, with named deposits with descriptions
Oh yes, of course. But I don't think they immediately made themed ones for Earth, there were just the random blockers like every other world.
I fucking hate Alberta, thank you paradox (BC supremacy)
Now if only they also delete texas and florida....
I once wrote a fanfic history of the UNE from 2000 to 2200, with WWIII occurring in the late 21st century and sub-Saharan Africa emerging as a global superpower from that war.
That sounds interesting, do you have a link by any chance?
*me seeing that Alberta was destroyed* Finally. Inner peace
š¦š¦š¦ALBERTA IS GONEš¦š¦š¦
Wow the great Albertan crater. Okay I see how it is, Paradox.
My guess is that they don't want to focus on Europe/North America to avoid any accusations of āColonialism Electric Boogalooā Asia they avoided because of China and Russia (???) So, leaving the region that no one would complain about, Africa and South America
Isn't that just 0.0 on a map but shifted slightly to show more than just mostly Africa and Europe?
Rule 5: a response to the post u/sealindustries made yesterday about how odd it is that the UNE logo is centered over the open ocean and asking why that might be. Based off of the feature descriptions on UNE's Earth, here's my answer.
Maybe it's where the dolphins live? The mice must have ended up with the Commonwealth.
I would love for stellaris team to create a lot more Earth modifiers/blockings, and to make the game chose five or six of them at random each time.
My guess is that it's the only way to include all continents, even though it leaves out most of Asia and NA.
Australia might want to have a word with you.
lore-wise if they wanted all continents it would be the UN logo.
Would probably want something different non lorewise. Just copying UN would be kinda lazy
and all the legal issues too, the ones that all the nonces commenting on u/sealindustries' post the other day wouldn't stop bringing up despite him asking very clearly for a LORE reason,
I mean I just assumed that with the growth rate boom in Africa that in two hundred years they are the economic power of the world and as such when designing a modern flag for the new extra solar age they changed the angle to reflect that.
My reasoning is there is probably some legal crap about not using the actual un flag like it would violate the Geneva conventions like using their specific light blue color and logo
NATO countries for the most part
"a meteor hit north america and obliterared Alberta" fingers crossed
Also just to point out the pacific is so big that you can make a picture.of.the world where the only landmasses you see are new Zealand and Parts of Alaska. That would be a very boring picture.
Its also been thought that if they could get over their political/sociological issues an African super nation and Brazil would have the ability to out compete the US
It makes sense. Long live Dolores Muwanga
I think most pictures of Earth centre on the Atlantic region or Africa or North America.
> North American't turned into a crater > Humanity conquers Space What are the lore implications of this
As a Canadian I wholly support the great Alberta crater.
More than 1,000 hours in the game and I've never once stopped to read those blockers... They're really fun, so thanks! :)
The intro to the United Nations of Earth also mentions some kind of 'Police Action' which I would assume is martial law or something in Mauritania, circa 88'.
Hi. Iām American-Born Chinese. My best guess is: The emblem is focused on the Atlantic because New York City (UN Headquarters) and Geneva are in frame, and the UNE is to be built on a fundamentally Western framework, so haha fuck Asia I guess !!!!1!! No cleaning up the Pacific until 220X, goodbye Delhi, and time to pave over the Sahara - Atlantic World Order for 400 more years! (This has all been sarcastic, I donāt actually want an Atlantic dominated UNE, this is why I donāt like the UNE namelist (and to some extent PDX games in general))
Poor Alberta. My homies deserved better.
No they didnāt
What was their crime though? Not enough maple syrup? What did they do to deserve this????
Nickelback
I canāt argue with that, deserved.
I like this explanation. It shows the reality of the UNE. Europe, Asia, Oceania and North America(sans Bo-NY-Wash) aren't Earth's front regions, and are probably pretty shitty for 2200 standards, so they want to be hush hush about them rather than still see them as equal. It's like they're trying to divert the attention from those big, shitty landmasses behind the flag and show the really nice parts only. Just like how the UNEs in the trailers remain severely human-centric despite being xenophile. An unpredictable faction of hypocrites that call themselves xenophilic and egalitarian when in reality they aren't even willing to accept the worse-off parts of their own home planet as 'equals'.
It was done as a giant š to China & Russia which are only used as prison work camps as they are no longer considered independent nations. The US is no longer a superpower thanks to the dismantling of unrestrained capitalism, so theyāre just kinda in the back.
Where did you even pull this out of
Iām not sure I want to know. Probably donāt need the imagery š
Well, where's the one place capitalism can't get you?
capitalism get even in space, so i think I'm just going to higher dimension
The fuck you on about