Everything I've read about the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas seems to say that they were past the tribal stage. They lived in cities, were ruled by monarchs, and had a number of achievements in the arts, architecture, engineering, etc. But when I played EU3, which is supposed to be about history, they are depicted as tribes with absolutely no technology whatsoever. Right now I'm reading The Maya, Eighth Edition by Michael D. Coe and now I'm pretty sure that the EU3 depiction of the Americas is horrendously inaccurate, but I was reading about the Magna Mundi game the other day and they have them depicted as tribes too, although in their game they're supposed to be more capable.

So the popular notion, even among history buffs, seems to be that the Mesoamericans and Incans were tribal and I'm wondering where that comes from. Do people just assume that they were tribes because they were Indians and they used stone tools or am I wrong and I don't understand the difference between a tribe and a state? I don't dare ask the Magna Mundi people because they seem touchy on the subject. I did try to argue that the Mayans should be given a higher level of government and I even included an excerpt from my book about their society and politics but the devs just ignored me.