Civilization (Video Game Series)
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Civilization is a franchise of turn-based games created by Sid Meier. It is one of the most popular turn-based strategic games, with its most recent release, Civilization V selling 9 millions copies world-wide [1] Civilization, the first in its series, was first released in 1991, while the latest expansion pack edition of Civilization V, called "Civilization V: Gods and Kings," was released in June 2012. [2] Civilization V is available on both Mac and PC, while Civilization Revolution, released in 2008, is available on the Xbox360, PS3, Nintendo DS, and also mobile platforms such as iOS. [3]
Contents
Game Overview
The main point of the game is to “Build an empire to stand the test of time”. Players can choose leader of which civilization one wants to become. Depending on which edition of the game one is playing the number of civilizations increases. The first game of the series Civilization offered players 14 different civilizations to choose from while the latest edition Civilization V has to offer 34 different civilizations. There are also 8 different levels of difficulty. [2]
In the most popular game mode, for a single player, players can pick the size of the map, the length of the game, and the difficulty level and how aggressive the barbarians will be. The game starts in the year 4000BC. Usually a player has two or three units, depending on the civilization, including one, which has to be a settler in order to build the first city. After building the first city, a player has access to foreign 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 that can stand the test of time. 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 posted on diplomatic and military situations. That helps players to know if other empires might attack them and if so if they are ready to protect themselves. [4]
Since Civilization is a turn-based game one has to wait till every other civilization ends their turn in order to make their next moves. This way of playing leads to very long and entertaining games. Civilization is well known from its “one more turn” mode, which is reached after year 2050, when the actual scoring game is ended. It can be very involving for a player. One of the players called Lycerius has been playing one game, in Civilization II, for over ten years. He reached year AD3991.
[5][6]
How to Win
In Civilization, players can win in multiple ways, such as: cultural, diplomatic, domination, science time, conquering other civilizations, achieving diplomacy pacts with other civilizations or wining the race to the moon. Here are the exact ways of winning in Civilization 5 [4]
- Cultural, in order to achieve cultural victory a player must complete five branches of social policies.
- Diplomatic, a player can achieve this type of victory by researching “Globalization” and construction of the United Nations. After that all players in the game are going to vote for the United Nations leader. If the player will be voted then one immediately wins a diplomacy victory.
- Domination, the last player who will be in control of its own capital city can achieve this victory.
- Science, one can achieve this victory by learning all necessary technologies in order to build a space ship parts, then building them and moving it to its capital city.
- Time, the game will end automatically at the end of year 2050. At this time points will be calculated based on empire achievements. After that, a player can still play but one cannot change the result of the game.
Major Releases
| Title | Year | Note |
| Civilization | 1991 | First Civilization game ever |
| Civilization II | 1996 | |
| Civilization III | 2001 | |
| Civilization IV | 2005 | |
| Civilization V | 2010 | Latest edition of the full game not including extension packs |
| Civilization Revolution | 2008 | The first game developed for mobile platforms such as iOS and gaming systems |
| Civilization World | 2011 | A Beta version of a game created for Facebook |
Ethical Issues
Violence
Similar to games like Call of Duty, Civilization can be described as a violent computer game. It is different than first person shooters as there is no blood on the screen, but in some ways Civilization might be considered more brutal, as players can destroy whole cities or other civilizations with a large assortment of weapons, including nuclear bombs. Each time the user tries to conquer another player’s city, the user has an option to either occupy it or burn it. Either of these two options could be considered unethical, since war itself is not an ethical action.
It should be noted that all violence can be avoided when playing Civilization. There are ways to win the game peacefully and even form alliances with other factions so as to limit war. However, most players condone violence in Civilization as it is the most timely way to winning.
Cheating
Cheating is another ethical issue related to this game. One example is observed in the ethics of politics in the game. Since a player interacts with leaders of other empires, there are several opportunities to cheat on these leaders. Although players can promise to help other empires by accepting a gift from other leaders, they can go against that leader at a later point on in the game. Players do this by attacking other leaders or breaking research agreements. Players can also spy on other empires. One can learn about other civilizations’ research plans, development plans or more accurate demographics. Players can also try to develop international conflicts by stealing different technologies or units. Making these unjust diplomatic decisions while playing the game raises an important question: do your actions in the video game have some effect on your perception of, and behavior within, the real world?
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ CivilizationV Official Site Information
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Civ Fanatics Community [1]
- ↑ Civilization Revolution Official Site Home Page
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Civilizaton Official Wiki Site [2]
- ↑ CNN Tech, 10-year-long video game creates 'hellish nightmare' world
- ↑ Guardian UK, From Civilization to Big Brother: how a game recreated Orwell's 1984 It turns out that if you play Civilization II for long enough, you enter a world very much like Orwell's 1984. Coincidence?
