Civilization (video game)
Civilization is a computer game created by Sid Meier for Microprose in 1991. The game's objective is to develop a great empire from the ground up. The game begins in ancient times and the player attempts to expand and develop his or her empire through the ages until modern and near-future times.
Description
Civilization is a single-player game (although there was a separate multiplayer version called CivNet and both Civilization II and III have multi-player versions). The player takes on the role of the ruler of a civilization starting with nothing but a single Settler unit (sometimes two of them). The player attempts to build an empire in competition with a number of other civilizations (from 2 to 6 and up to 14 in latest versions). The game is rigidly turn-based and requires a fair amount of micromanagement (although less than any of the Sim games).
Along with the larger tasks of exploration, war and diplomacy, the player has to make decisions about which improvements or units to build in each city, where to build new cities, and how to transform the land surrounding the cities for maximum benefit. From time to time the player's towns may be harassed by "barbarians", units with no specific nationality or leader. These threats disappear later in the game when no unclaimed land is available for the marauding barbarians to settle.
Before the game begins, the player chooses which historical civilization to play. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, which only affect the very beginning play in earlier versions, starting with different advancements or more settlers, for example, but has a greater effect on overall gameplay in Civ III, affecting the speed of workers and the unit types available. As opponents, certain traits of specific civilizations do come through. The Aztecs are fiercely expansionistic, for example. Other possible civilizations include the Americans, the Mongols, and the Romans. Each civilization is led by a historical figure, such as Mahatma Gandhi (Indians) and Stalin (Russians).
The scope of the game is huge—larger than most other computer games. When the game begins, the player controls one or two Settler units, which can found new cities and also alter terrain and build improvements such as mines and roads and, later, railroads. The time at the beginning is 4000 BC, and, if you manage to last so long, the game forces you to retire in 21st century.
As time advances, new technologies are developed; these technologies are the primary way in which the game changes and grows. Players choose from, at the beginning, advances such as Pottery, the Wheel, and the Alphabet to, at the close of the game, Nuclear fission and Space flight. Players gain a large advantage if their civilization is the first to learn a particular technology, the secrets of flight, for example. Each advance gives access to new units, city improvements or derivative technologies: for example, the Chariot unit becomes available after the Wheel development, and the Granary building becomes available for building after the Pottery development. The whole system of advancements from beginning to end is called the Technology tree, or simply the Tech tree, a concept adopted in many other strategy games.
Players can also build Wonders of the world in all the epochs of the game, subject only to possession of the necessary knowledge. These wonders are often important human achievements of society, science, and culture in human history, ranging from the Pyramids and the Great Wall in the Ancient age, to Copernicus' Observatory and Magellan's Expedition in the middle period, up to the Apollo Program, the United Nations, and the Manhattan Project in the modern era. Each of these wonders can only be built by one civilization and takes up a lot of resources to build (far more than most other city upgrades or units). However, each of these wonders provides unique benefits that can be gained by no other methods. Wonders can also be made obselete by technological advances. See also List of Wonders in Civilization
The game can be won either by destroying all other civilizations or by becoming the first civilization to succeed at space colonization, in this case reaching the star system of Alpha Centauri. In the latest installment of the series, Civ3, other ways to win have been added, including cultural victory (buildings like Temples and Libraries add culture points to a civilization) and diplomatic victory (being elected United Nations Secretary-General).
Legacy
This game has been one of the most popular strategy games of all time, and has a loyal following of fans. This high level of interest has spawned a number of free versions, such as Freeciv and C-evo, and inspired similar games by other commercial developers, as well. It is generally acknowledged to be a pioneer in the genre of turn-based strategy.
Civilization II was released in 1996 and eventually spawned two expansion packs. A Multiplayer Gold Edition was released in 1999. The original version was designed by Brian Reynolds.
Civilization III was released in 2001, along with two expansion packs of its own which add multiplayer capability. The original version was designed by Jeff Briggs and Soren Johnson.
Civilization IV is being produced by the company, Firaxis, and is scheduled for release in 2005. The lead designer is Soren Johnson.
In 1992, Civilization won the Origins Award for Best Military or Strategy Computer Game of 1991.
Inspiration
Meier admits to "borrowing" many of the technology tree ideas from a board game also called Civilization (published in the United Kingdom in 1980 by Hartland Trefoil (later by Gibson Games), and in the United States in 1981 by Avalon Hill). The early versions of the game even included a flier of information and ordering materials for the board game. In an ironic twist, there is now a board game based on the computer game version of Civilization.
IP wars
Between Civilization II and III, Activision released a similar game Civilization: Call To Power. They acquired the rights to the name for a time and took advantage of it by releasing the game using the property in its title.
As of late 2004, Atari, the latest publisher of a Civilization game sold the intellectual property of the Civilization brand to Take 2 Interactive Software, who will distribute Civilization games under the 2K Games label. Take 2 went public with news of the sale on January 26 2005.
Similar games
In 1994 Meier produced a similar game called Colonization.
The game Alpha Centauri is also by Meier and is in the same genre, but with a futuristic/space theme. Many of the interface and gameplay innovations in this game eventually made their way into Civilization III.
Civilization's introduction
An introduction movie shows when a new game is started in Civilization I. The movie was added to give players something to look at while the game world was being created. Later editions of Civilization no longer include such an introduction, presumably because world creation can be done almost instantaneously.
Platforms
Civilization was originally developed for DOS running on a PC. It has undergone numerous revisions for various platforms (including Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Amiga and Super Nintendo) and now exists in several versions. Beginning with Civilization III, the game has been developed by Firaxis Games and published by Infogrames (now Atari). The upcoming Civilization IV will be published by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc..
Books
- Rome on 640K a Day by Johnny Wilson and Alan Emrich, ISBN 1-55958-191-3
External links
- The official Firaxis Civilization III website
- MobyGame's entry on the Civilization series
- Apolyton: site about most games in the Civilization genre
- Civfanatics: site covering Civ1, Civ2, and Civ3
- Freeciv: an open source Civilization-like game
- C-evo!: A public-domain Civilization clone
- Civilization FAQ
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