Crusader Kings 3 Devs Renamed Kiev to Kyiv After Attack on Ukraine
The strategy game Crusader Kings III has received a mod undoing one of the changes introduced in update 1.51. It's about the English notation of Kiev, which was recently changed to be closer to the Ukrainian language.
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Not only the creators of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 have changed the spelling in their game in connection with the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Some time ago Crusader Kings III received update 1.51 full of various improvements.
Crusader Kings 3 pushes Russian out of Kiev
In addition to AI, culture fixes and the addition of a tribal court and many new events, the game received one intriguing change. Kiev in the English language version is now "Kyiv".
- As in the case of the subtitle of the second STALKER, the issue is most likely related to the current conflict in Ukraine. "Kiev" is a transliteration from Russian, and "Kyiv" from Ukrainian. Until recently, the former notation was treated as traditional for historical reasons, and was common even during the Soviet era.
- However, after Russia's attack on Ukraine, "Kyiv" - so far functioning mainly in official letters as the official English name of the capital - started to replace "Kiev" also in geographic dictionaries, airports and online publications (via The Guardian). This is meant as a way of showing respect for Ukrainians by using notation and pronunciation taken from their language.
Mod improves Kiev fix
We have to admit that the change has not caused much of an uproar on the Internet, at least in comparison to the "improvement" of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's title. Some are too busy creating a Ukrainian superpower by eliminating Russia from the game (via Reddit).
Nevertheless, there were Internet users who did not like this change. Disgruntled players can download a mod that... restores the previous spelling of the city's name. Just check out Steam Workshop.
- Users interested in the mod consider the disappearance of "Kiev" from CK3 as a politically motivated decision. As they write, Paradox Interactive should now take on other "obsolete" names as well (e.g. Constantinople).
- In the comments on the mod's card, users also point out the historical context, i.e. the fact that the Ukrainian language did not exist in medieval times, in which the action of the game takes place. Ergo: the notation "Kiev" is most correct here. The proof is Kievan Rus, which is the spelling used in English almost exclusively. Only a few publications use "Kiyvan Rus".
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Author: Jacob Blazewicz
Graduated with a master's degree in Polish Studies from the University of Warsaw with a thesis dedicated to this very subject. Started his adventure with gamepressure.com in 2015, writing in the Newsroom and later also in the film and technology sections (also contributed to the Encyclopedia). Interested in video games (and not only video games) for years. He began with platform games and, to this day, remains a big fan of them (including Metroidvania). Also shows interest in card games (including paper), fighting games, soulslikes, and basically everything about games as such. Marvels at pixelated characters from games dating back to the time of the Game Boy (if not older).
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