About

Civilization (officially known as Sid Meier's Civilization) is a franich of turn-based strategy 4X video games and tabletop board games mainly produced by Canadian designer and developer Sid Meier.

Gameplay

In all titles within the franchise, the player must explore uncharted territories, train and utilize a wide range of units, construct a network of cities, research new technologies and compete against or forge alliances with other civilizations through different times of history on a macro-scale, from the prehistoric era up to the near future. The end objective of most games in the series is to win by military conquest, cultural dominance, scientific breakthrough in interstellar exploration and other achievements of supremacy.

History

In 1980, Francis Tresham designed and released the Civilization board game, a historical turn-based strategy game for two to seven players in which each player must gain population tokens, territories and various types of commodities over successive turns in order to grow and expand his/her empire across an area centered around the Mediterranean Sea. In 1981, Avalon Hill acquired a license from Hartland Trefoil to sell the board game in the United States. In 1991, MicroProse, a video game publishing company founded by Canadian developers Sid Meier and Bill Stealey, obtained the license from Avalon Hill to use the name "Civilization" for a video game based on the concept.

Civilization

In 1991, MicroProse released Civilization, a turn-based single and multiplayer strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bill Stealey, initially for DOS on PC, and later, on Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, PlayStation and Super NES, among others. Inspired by Tresham's board game, Civilization was designed with an objective to "build an empire to stand the test of time," with its arc and mechanics of gameplay heavily influenced by history of civilization spanning from the ancient times in 4000 BC to modern and near-future eras in the post-21st century.

Civilization II

In 1996, MicroProse released Sid Meier's Civilization II as a sequel to the original title, initially for the PC and later ported to Sony PlayStation. While similar to Civilization, the second title brought various changes to the abilities and strengths of units, civilizations, world wonders, specialized tiles and the technology tree, as well as a visual switch from a top-down view to an isometric representation and a major improvement to AI gameplay. It also introduced entirely new concepts, such as firepower and hit points for combat units, automated function for select civilian units and a strategic advisory group known as the High Council. Following Atari's acquisition of MicroProse, the game was re-released for Microsoft's newer PC operating systems, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, in 2002.

Civilization III

In 2001, Firaxis released the third title in the series, which was designed by a new duo of video game designer and programmer, Jeff Briggs and Soren Johnson. While designed on the same model of gameplay mechanics, many aspects of Civilization III were significantly improved and more sophisticated in comparison to the previous titles. One of the major features introduced for the first time is Culture, a rating concept that is deeply tied to the player's territories and each of his/her city's sphere of influence over local terrain.

Civilization IV

In 2005, Firaxis released Civilization IV, which was designed by Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier. As with previous titles, the game largely improved on many pre-existing aspects of gameplay mechanics and unit functions, with a major overhaul of the concept of Religion that can have an impact on government civics and diplomatic relations with other civilizations. The game features seven religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Taoism). Civilization IV also introduced modding capabilities by allowing users to customize and modify various mechanics of the game, including a Software Developer Kit and The World Builder, a custom map designer.

Civilization V

In 2010, Firaxis released the fifth title in the series. Civilization V further built and expanded on the main pillars of the franchise's key game mechanics and objectives, including more diversified pool of civilizations and technologies, while some elements from Civilization IV and its expansion packs were removed or changed, including the concept of religion and espionage (though they were reintroduced in its expansions), the combat system and the city's self-defense capabilities, tile improvement and border expansion. It also introduced a new type of AI-controlled non-player entities known as "city-states" with whom the player can trade, conquer or forge alliances with.

Legacies

Many developers and designers who were involved in the development and production of series went on to create their own brands of strategy games, including Civilization I co-designer Bruce Shelley's Age of Empires, Civilization II lead designer and programmer Brian Reynolds' Rise of Nations and Civilization III co-designer and Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson's Spore.

Reception

Nearly all official titles released under the name Sid Meier's Civilization have been met with critical acclaims and positive reception from the players. The Civilization series has been praised as one of the most important and addictive strategy games of all time. As of February 2016, the series has shipped 33 million total units.

Civilization VI Chief Poundmaker Controversy

On January 2nd, 2018, the Civilization VI team posted a blog introducing a new character, Chief Poundmaker (Pitikwahanapiwiyin), to the game.^[17] Chief Poundmaker was leader of the Cree Nation in the 19th century, beginning in 1873 until his death in 1886. The blog post painted Poundmaker as a peace seeker who wished to nonviolently work with the Canadian government, but was wrongly accused and tried for treason.

While some were excited that the first Canadian territory represented in Civilization was led by an indigenous person,^[18] Poundmaker Cree Nation Headman Milton Tootoosis was critical of the inclusion. Though he was initially excited about the representation, he later stated the portrayal "perpetuates this myth that First Nations had similar values that the colonial culture has, and that is one of conquering other peoples and accessing their land. That is totally not in concert with our traditional ways and world view."^[19]

Tootoosis' comments generated dialogue on Twitter, where users discussed the pros and cons of the inclusion and representation of indigenous peoples in Civilization. In response to Polygon's tweet about the comments, Twitter user @goldenjoooe said that perhaps Tootoosis lacked context on the game, pointing out that previous iterations of the game had made Mahatma Gandhi a war mongerer (shown below, left). User @dougb541 countered that while that point was valid, Civilization was contributing to an overall larger issue surrounding Native Americans being underrepresented and misrepresented in media. The controversy was covered by Twitter Moments^[20] and Polygon.^[21]

Related Memes

Nuclear Gandhi

Nuclear Gandhi is the nickname given to the Indian historical figure Mahatma Gandhi as portrayed in the Civilization franchise. Among the fans of the games, Gandhi has gained much notoriety for his obsessive nuclear warmongering, in stark contrast to the pacifist reputation of the real life counterpart.

Search Interest

External References