The parameters of the game had to be nimble and not tailored to a narrow understanding of history. Meier insists that his priority in shaping the world of Civilization was simply creating an enjoyable experience for the player. On the strength of its success and ubiquity, it’s worth considering what Civilization suggests to its consumers about the world, about the past, and about human societies. It’s safe to say that the game is now embedded rather broadly in our popular culture.
SID MEIERS RAILROADS VIDEO SERIES
Since its launch in 1991, the series has sold 33 million copies worldwide. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Civilization, and this week, the release of Civilization VI.
SID MEIERS RAILROADS VIDEO MANUAL
Sid Meier, the architect of the series, told me with a laugh that the manual “made the game feel more substantial, it made the box heavier.” There’s something of a paradox here: the game builds upon a vision of the real past while offering players the sense that they are remaking the past altogether. The first Civilization shipped with a hefty manual, the “Civilopedia,” that not only catalogued the elements of the game, but seemed to sketch the contours of human history. It is too constrained by history (or at least history as imagined by the game’s designers) and the innumerable details needed to render such an exhaustive vision of the past.īut even if the game isn’t aiming for historical realism, it conjures the impression of the real. On the other hand, a game like Europa Universalis, which boasts many more variables than Civilization, has remained even more niche because it is too realistic. More action-packed RTS versions of the Civilization concept lack the depth that makes it so engrossing. It’s why Civilization has been more successful and abidingly popular than the host of competitors it spawned. That balance has remained as the series evolved from its ancient 2D tiles to its bold present of hexagons and 3D graphics. The alchemy of the Civilization series has always been found in this balance of scales, embedding the smallest decisions in the largest accomplishments. You learn “technologies” like Ceremonial Burial, tweak tax rates, build sanitation infrastructure, feed and placate a fickle citizenry. And yet the work of the game is more managerial than magisterial. Surveying the arc of human history, you trundle your armies over cities, settle continents, and shape the destiny of a people. Every version of the game begins with the same wide-open promise: a settler, a worker, a few tiles of visible land, and an ocean of darkness-all the ingredients of a world ready to be discovered and made anew.įew gaming experiences take you on such a sweeping journey while demanding nit-picking, almost fussy attention to detail. The Aztecs can build the first nuclear bomb. Abe Lincoln can lead war-bands against Mahatma Gandhi’s phalanxes. The game’s approach to the past has always been playful. The pleasure of Sid Meier’s Civilizationseries is that it is at once tantalizingly grand and endearingly granular. The following essay was published by Kill Screen, the video game arts and culture magazine, and co-funded by Longreads Members. Kanishk Tharoor | Kill Screen | October 2016 | 13 minutes (3,204 words)
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