In this series of biographical profiles, I examine how the characters in Civilization: Beyond Earth, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and Pandora: First Contact would fare in the others' respective universes.
Summary of the universes:
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - the granddaddy of the genre (Sierra On-Line titles Alien Legacy and Outpost notwithstanding), the situation on Earth is dire with ecological devastation, war, economic chaos, and other disasters causing breakdown of human civilization. The UNS Unity is the last chance for the species to survive. The faction leaders were not chosen to be leaders, but were rather very competent, experienced people who took charge during the breakdown of Planetfall and started factions based on both charisma and ideological appeal. Tone: desperation, ideological struggle, promise of new Earth.
Civilization: Beyond Earth - Earth experienced the unelaborated Great Mistake, which was a catastrophe several decades back. Chastened, humanity rebuilt and pursued collaboration instead of selfishness, establishing several supranational blocs that were able to reconstruct in a way that seems more civilized than in past generations. However, scientists have discovered the similarly-unexplained Inflection Point, which basically hints at irreversible future catastrophe. So, some of these blocs have sponsored the Great Seeding, each sending their own sleeper ships (except for one generational vessel) to an unnamed planet in an unspecified system. The expedition leaders were all appointed and chosen by these refined, polite, perfect future blocs, and so were groomed for leadership. Tone: cooperation, optimism, shiny clean future that is only upset by the discover of Affinities later on in the colonization process. Also continuity from Earth, expressed both as the sponsors representing nations and cultures (but done in a broadly bland future way), and the victories involving returning to the homeworld to set things right there.
Pandora: First Contact - Earth is dominated by corporations (Noxium, Imperium) or private entities (Togra University, Divine Ascension, Ambassadors). The one national government mentioned is a clone dictatorship that took over China (Solar Dynasty). Despite the ecological destruction and economic inequality and general misanthropic tone of everything, the planet doesn't seem to be facing imminent collapse, and has actually developed the outer Solar System for raw materials and some space colonization. A.I. is advanced and used in government- ("in most regions, primitive Civil Service Artificial Intelligences take over a larger and larger part of society's operations, driven mainly by democratic populations determined to take power out of the hands of short-sighted, war-mongering governments"). Even as resource wars continue to be fought on Earth and in the Asteroid Belt, several sleeper ships and one generational ship crewed by ecological activists (Terra Salvum) are launched to Pandora in Tau Ceti. Tone: pulpy, parodic, colonization seen as an opportunity for existing factions to exploit a new planet away from Earth's watchful A.I. eye.
SMAC Fac Pack: A fan mod project made in the early '00s. Pretty much SMAC except the ideologies and leaders are both goofier than the original, and probably have less ideological appeal.