Difference between revisions of "Civilization (Video Game Series)"
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Revision as of 07:06, 22 April 2019
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Civilization is a series of turn-based games created by Sid Meier and developed by Firaxis Games. Civilization VI, the most recent game in the series, sold over 2 million copies worldwide in the first 6 months after its release in October 2016[1] Civilization, the first in its series, was first released in 1991, while the latest expansion pack of Civilization VI, Gathering Storm, was released on February 14, 2019. [2] Civilization VI is available on the PC, iPad, and Nintendo Switch, while Civilization Revolution, released in 2008, is available on the Xbox360, PS3, Nintendo DS, and also mobile platforms such as iOS. [3]The series has sold 40 million copies. [4]
Contents
Game Overview
The main objective of the game is to “Build an empire to stand the test of time”. Players choose a historical civilization and choose to play as a leader from that civilization. As the series has gone on, the number of civilizations has increased. The first game of the series, Civilization, offered players 14 different civilizations to choose from while Civilization VI offers 39 civilizations[5].
In the most popular game mode for a single player, players pick the size of the map, the length of the game, and the difficulty level and how aggressive the computer will be. The game starts in the year 4000BC. Usually a player begins two or three units, depending on the civilization, including a settler who builds the player's the first city. After building the first city, a player has access to foreign affairs advisors, cultural advisors, military advisors, diplomatic advisors and scientific advisors. Each of them is important because they help players to build a well-balanced empire. Players can use them in order to decide which technology they want to discover, what unit or which building one wants to build in a city, or who they want to trade with. Advisors also keep players informed of diplomatic and military situations that a player may need to respond to. [6]Since Civilization is a turn-based game, the player has to wait until every other civilization ends their turn in order to make their next move. This time between turns means that games can take several hours. Civilization is known for its “one more turn” mode, which is activated after reaching the year 2050 in-game when the actual scoring game is ended. One player, Lycerius has been playing one game, in Civilization II, for over ten years. He has reached the year AD 3991. [7]
How to Win
In Civilization, players can win in multiple ways, such as cultural victories, conquering other civilizations, or winning a space race. Here are the exact ways of winning in Civilization 6 [8]
- Cultural, achieved by attracting a large number of tourists to the player's civilization.
- Religious, achieved by making the player's religion the dominant religion across all civilizations.
- Domination, achieved by conquering the capital city of all other players.
- Science, achieved by researching advanced technologies and completing a series of space missions.
- Time, achieved by having the highest score when the game ends automatically at the end of year 2050. After that, a player can still play but cannot change the result of the game.
Major Releases
Title | Year | Note |
Civilization | 1991 | First Civilization game |
Civilization II | 1996 | |
Civilization III | 2001 | |
Civilization IV | 2005 | |
Civilization V | 2010 | |
Civilization Revolution | 2008 | First game developed for mobile platforms such as iOS and handheld gaming systems |
Civilization World | 2011 | A Beta version of a game created for Facebook |
Civilization VI | 2016 | Latest edition of the full game not including expansion packs |
Ethical Issues
Value Ethics and Violence
Structural Bias
The entire point of playing Civilization is to follow the user's own ambitions and seek power in a virtual world. Some critics are concerned about how games like Civilization teach people to act toward others who they share "civilizations" with in real life. Civilization largely focuses on how civilizations have been built in the fashion of the typical Western society--by developing a nation-state with an aristocracy. However other forms of civilization have existed for thousands of years. The game does not allow players to, for instance, build a nomadic society like in the Tibetan or Mongolian fashion. Instead, players must practice Dark Age "democracy" by establishing a handful of nobles who control the fates of all the common people and fight amongst themselves for more power. Players are encouraged to view the events of the game as a virtual chess where no one really matters except the king. As one article explains, in Civilization and similar games, there are no friends, only allies of convenience.[10] This has interesting ethical consequences for how players may idealize concepts of war, violence, and civil expansion, both past and present.
Cheating
Civilization's gameplay is vulnerable to cheating through means such as politics, deception, and theft. Since players interact with leaders of other empires, there are several opportunities to cheat or deceive these leaders. There are no means of holding players accountable to the agreements they make with leaders, and this enables players to breach agreements with leaders later on in gameplay -- ultimately reinforcing unethical behaviors. Players can also spy on other empires by learning about other civilizations’ research plans, development plans, or more accurate demographics to gain unfair advantages. Within the game, players can also try to develop international conflicts by stealing different technologies or units to purposefully create tension and halt peace among nations. The lack of barriers to such in-game behaviors enable players to make unethical choices without consequence throughout gameplay.
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ Chan, Stephanie. “Civ VI was a large contributor to Take-Two’s net revenue growth.” Venture Beat. May 23, 2017. https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/23/civ-vi-was-a-large-contributor-to-take-twos-net-revenue-growth/
- ↑ ”Civilization VI: Gathering Storm Available Now.” Civilization. February 14, 2019. https://civilization.com/news/entries/civilization-vi-gathering-storm-new-expansion-release-date-pc-february-14-2019.
- ↑ “Civilization VI.” Civilization. Accessed April 22, 2019. https://civilization.com/buy/#civilization-vi/civilization-vi-standard-edition/united-states
- ↑ Civilization Revolution Official Site Home Page
- ↑ "Civilization 6," Wikipediak accessed April 22, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_VI
- ↑ >"Advisors",Civilizaton Official Wiki Site, accessed April 22, 2019, https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Advisor.
- ↑ Frum, Larry, "10-year-long video game creates 'hellish nightmare' world." CNN Business, last modified June 19, 2012 http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/18/tech/gaming-gadgets/civilization-ii-ten-years/index.html/.
- ↑ "Victory (Civ6), Civilizaton Official Wiki Site, accessed April 22, 2019, https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Victory_(Civ6).
- ↑ "Civilization," Civilization, accessed April 22, 2019, https://civilization.com/.
- ↑ https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/11/why-everybody-wants-rule-world