The most boring vision of humanity’s future
The two powers in the Starfield setting are United Colonies, which is the Bureaucratic United States. Their opposite state is Freestar Collective, which is 19th century Texas.
Usually, when I describe the appeal of Imperium of Man (and 40K setting in general), it’s because it’s violently different from most sci-fi settings, where I say, derisively, space humanity is just Blue United States in Space. This description was meant to be a joke, but Todd Howard seemingly took it as a challenge . He made two competing visions of space America: the squeaky-clean and polished superpower whose main drawback is bureaucracy and the rough-and-tumble frontier nation where the highest law enforcement organ is literally a dozen guys in dusters.
Crucially, both of their capitals have a dedicated poverty district to ensure that a perfectly-balanced state of Makes You Think exists.
In the future, go-go dancers will be fully-clothed and look stupid as fuck.
Me, a Gamer: “I demand perfect realism in my space simulation game! No ladies. Nobody darker than an Italian is allowed to be in charge. And we take all our measurements in imperial units.”
Bioware Designer: “Okay, here you go. The inky void of space where it takes you six weeks to travel between large barren rocks, and you spend 90% of your day just trying to scavenge enough oxygen to keep from asphyxiating.”
Me: “This game sucks! Bioware has gone WOKE!”