Yin's "What Civ Means to Me" Essay Contest: Unopened Special Edition to the Winner!

[yin26]

Yep, I have an unopened Civ 4 Special Edition (still in the Amazon box, actually) sitting here in my house. Long story. I got two copies and have been waiting to figure out what I wanted to do with the second one. I could sell it, of course, but that's so dull.

So, I'm happy to announce the "What Civ Means to Me" essay contest. The rules are easy:

* I pick the winner any way I choose. I will, of course, take Poly reactions in to account as they come.

* The deadline for submission is December 18th, 11:59 p.m. (EST).

* Post your essay in this thread.

* Essays can be any reasonable length, but just remember: Brevity is the Soul of Wit.

* I can tell you now that I'll enjoy most any approach somebody might take (humor, drama, whatever) as long as the writing is engaging and generally grammatically correct.

* I will not penalize somebody whose first language isn't English. Obviously I'm saying the essay *must* be in English, however.

* Originality will count, too.

Finally --you might want to sit down for this-- I will also pay for the shipping cost. While I hope the winner will be somebody who doesn't already have Civ 4, ultimately that doesn't matter to me. If you already have Civ 4, you could sell this second copy, give it to a friend, or wrap it as a Christmas gift...whatever you want.

What's my motive? Well, it's safe to say that the Civ franchise has changed gaming for the better, and I think that some great essays from the gaming public might help celebrate the legacy.

Now get writing!

[Hengist]

.

[solo]

I was starting to become fond of Catherine until her armies swooped in and captured my capital.

[Raion]

I already have the game all the way back to ms-dos Civilization!
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Not a computer game anymore, but your story, your adventure, your Civilization, your Planet, and all of Time to the Present Future!
From the opening movie to the menu screen when the menu screen starts and the opening music starts on the menu screen, you know that somehow you are attached through humanity to this Planet, this Age, this Adventure, seemingly so calm, serene, and placid! No, this not a computer game anymore, but it will be your story about your Civilization! What will you do with your Civilization? How will it end? What will be your goals? There are six ways to win this interactive movie of your Civilization, so onward through the years you will care for your Civilization because you are, through the essence of your life, attached to this Time! No more game-like moving units around, but a game-like essence of building your Civilization through the story you unfold and tell.

However, it will take time, and a while to learn this new story and watch it unfold! This story however will not even qualify anymore as a computer game. It can not with this release of Civilization!
It will be a Civilization that bends to your every command, your every nuance, your goals, and your dreams.
As the Leader of your Civilization, your wit, your desires, your emotions must be met.
How you unfold your Civilization will be the story you tell!

As the Leader unfolding this story there will be many tales, many adventures, many hopes and dreams, all seemingly so involved that it will be Ageless and at the same time attached to Heaven above and Hell below, the Universe, your smallness in this Universe, and the countless years of Civilization lost in the echos of Time, itself!
Civilization calls you!
Hear the trumpets!
Hear the stomping of foot soldiers from years in the Past!
Hear the cities!
Hear the ancient sounds of Civilization!
Hear the call of years so long ago, and so near, and of the near future?
They echo throughout all the years of humanity!

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

What does Civilization mean to me?

Hmmmm, there is this old adage 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' This fact, more than anything else, is probably what has kept me out of politics-yet it has not prevented me from being deeply interested in both politics and power-oh, and history. So, to me at least, Civilization means an opportunity to at least get a sense of what it feels like to rule a real nation. In fact, it lets me do so without some of the largest downsides, namely that real leaders often get the nation they rule in whatever state their predecessor left it in, and with the clear knowledge that eventually Father Time will catch up with them, and they will have to hand on their legacy to someone else. In civilization, however, you get to start with a 'CLEAN SLATE', and get to run the country how YOU want-uninterrupted-for over 6000 years.
Now, what is most intriguing about the Civilization franchise, insofar as what it represents to me, is how it has evolved. From the rather static, iconic representations of Civ1 right up to the 3D 'Living World' of Civ4, we have been getting an increasing sense of the game existing within a REAL world. Additionally, the game has evolved in terms of how much you feel like you are running a NATION STATE. This started as a sort of 'City State' system in Civ1 and Civ2, where each city is almost completely independant of its neighbours. The introduction of strategic resources, civilization traits, cultural borders, internal trade networks and national wonders (Small Wonders) to civ3, however, gave a genuine sense of actually ruling an entire NATION-with its own agendas and goals-for the very first time. This has been further solidified with the introduction of religion, great people and the implementation of resources which boost the health or productivity of your entire nation-not to mention the revamping of traits and internal trade. Another area of evolution in civilization's role of letting me feel the 'power' of ruling a nation is the move from bland '1-size-fits-all' governments to the much broader and complex civics system-the way this and religion tie into the tech tree really gives you the sense of what difficult strategic decisions many early-and even later-rulers were often faced with. However, in line with this, the one area where I feel the genre has 'devolved'-in this sense-is that bad strategic decisions have very few negative consequences. Though 'gamey' the civil war system of Civ2, and the plague system of Civ3, at least made a decent effort to show a 'wanna-be' leader the problems rulers must face in dealing with 'the enemy within', as well as the one without. If you replaced the 'gamey' elements of civil war and instead based them on genuine internal difficulties generated by a leaders choices (religion, civics, war/peace and sheer size) then this would be a big step forward in my opinion. Same goes with plague (health over productivity and population, extensive trade over health risks etc).
Ultimately then, the meaning of Civilization to me is as an opportunity to 'play national ruler' without the fear of the corrupting influence such power would normally have. The Franchise has definitely succeeded in increasing and consolidating that sense of rulership, but ultimately needs to better model the bad-as well as the good elements of this-for a truly 'holistic' experience of leadership.

Aussie_Lurker.

[Stone-D]

No title, just bashed it out. Haven't checked for errors, so if there are any... ooops!

---

Picture, if you can, the moon. It is a cold, lifeless rock, fixed in an eternity of solitude above the larger rock known to the locals as Earth, which, in your mind's eye, you can see behind it, slightly to the left. The non-locals have a different word, one that is not quite so endearing, but this is one aspect of Earth that this tale will not explore.

Now, still in your mind's eye, dramatically zoom in to a nondescript crater on the side facing Earth. As you zoom in, you see two dark spots. One is larger, the other is moving.

Zooming in closer, the larger spot resolves into a middle aged gentleman with a balding head, wearing a short sleeved shirt. He is sitting on a deckchair. There is a pink parasol casting a shadow over him.

The moving spot turns out to be a lithe woman, wavey blonde hair spilling over a chic tailored black suit.

The man watched the statuesque figure slowly approach and grunted. "About time you showed up. What's with the look?"

"MY look? What about yours?"

The reply came back with perfect clarity, despite the fact that, to him, she was as yet little more than a spec on the crater's rim.

"What, this?" He peered up at the parasol. "A whim."

"No, I meant you."

"Oh, right. Yes. Its one of my personas."

"But its so... normal!"

"That's the point, my dea... gah! Switch to something else please!"

The amazonian wet dream, much closer now, smirked. "Ah, no. Good to see at first hand how effective it is, though."

"Is that the one you used on that idiot in asia?"

"Genghis? Its a variation. I was wearing much less, for a start."

"Yes, Genghis. Sounds like a damned disease if you ask me. Nice job there, by the way."

"Thanks. Look, Meion, what's this about? I've got things to do, you know."

"Sorry. I want to show you my latest accomplishment."

"If this interruption to my work is about that stupid entertainment sideline you've been wasting time on, you're going to know the true meaning of wrath. The Ustrian mentioned that you've been making kid's games! What was it, Pirate of the Carribean?"

Meion blushed. "That wasn't mine. And to be fair, Aktelon hasn't finished his work. Mine was just Pirates!" Somehow, he managed to pronounce the exclamation mark with no problem.

"Pirates! Kids games! When are you going to get serious, Meion?"

"Calm down, Bubs! This is about the other one, Civilization!"

"BEELZEBUB YOU LITTLE... Civilization?" She paused mid-screech. "Talk."

"heh, thought that would get your attention. It was released a month ago."

"And?"

"Runaway success. With just the right amount of bugs - that's flaws - to cause grief and despair without negating the popularity."

Beelzebub shook her head. "Don't care about that. What about the Players?"

"Increasing in numbers. They've already surpassed the central core that we had for the third version."

"Interesting. But how..."

"We added religion."

Beelzebub gaped. "You can't be serious."

"Deadly. Still in its infancy and very much experimental, but already we're seeing the effects amongst the players."

"Who's your watcher?"

"Apollo. He's gone into pure geek mode now, by the way. He's been running a 'fan site' for the past few years."

"I know. Well, what else is the Messenger going to do? Okay, have him speak to me soon. We need a full report."

"Wait one more week, then I'll send him up. I'm going to release a 'patch' which should rile up the natives even more, if I do it right."

"Okay." Beelzebub looked at him. "You know, that look is quite fetching actually. Maybe we..."

Meion went pale. "Errr... actually... um..."

She laughed. The sound was guttural, hollow, as if a hundred lead coffins in an underground chasm were being simultaneously slammed shut. "TOO EASY, MEION. ONE WEEK."

Beelzebub vanished. Moments later, after an introspective pause, Meion also vanished, leaving only a pink parasol and some scuff marks where they had trodden.

An hour later, the parasol also vanished.

[Metaliturtle]

Prepare yeself as Metaliturtle tries reverse psychology...


YIN!! Please keep the game, the last thing you want is someone enjoying your posessions. You should not only keep yours but come and try to steal my copy, that's the American thing to do anyway!

[SirOsis]

What Civ means to me?

No more ICS
A cardboard delicacy
Haute gastronomy

[Aro]

Great thread, folks. Yin. Great tales. And that's what Civ means to me. Real World, not that stupid falsification outside.

[Robert]

If civilization is love then I'm Cupido
If civilization is gass then I'm a car
If civilization is blood then I'm Dracula
If civilization is cheese then I'm a pizza
If civilization is power then I'm a computer
If civilization is broadband then I'm the world wide web
If civilization is food then I'm hungry
If civilization is war and hate then I'm Atilla the Hun
If civilization is crime then I'm a lawyer
If civilization is sugar then I'm a cup of coffee
If civilization is a beautifull woman then I'm all eye
If civilization is stripes then I'm a big fat woman in a white shirt
If civilization is love then I'm lonely and in need
If civilization is a cardboard box then I'm yin
If civilization is .net then I'm apolyton
If civilization is a cool soft breeze then I'm warm and sweathy
If civilization is a wrist then I'm a watch
If civilization is paper then I'm a pencil
If civilization is a floppy drive then I'm a floppy
If civilization is a caring mother then I'm a child in need of love
If civilization a spell checker then I'm CyberShy
If civilization is coffee then I'm drunk
If civilization is the CSU then I'm the CDU
If civilization is a battery then I'm a cordless optical mouse
If civilization is more then I'm less
If civilization is Romeo then I'm Juliet
If civilization is Troy then I'm a horse
If civilization is the Titanic then I'm a huge ice-mountain
If civilization is the sea then I'm Nemo
If civilization is Atlas then I'm the world
If civilization is 95 then I'm Windows
If civilization is Florida then I'm George W. Bush
If civilization is a hole in the ground then I'm Saddam Hussein
If civilization is WMD then I'm Collin Powel
If civilization is the wind then I'm a mill
If civilization is a knife then I'm suicidal
If civilization is The One Ring then I'm Gollum
If civilization is music then I'm a romantic night
If civilization is here then I'm not there
If civilization is civilization then I'm Apolyton
If civilization is chocolate then I'm a woman
If civilization is wireless then I'm a cellphone
If civilization is thunder and lightning then I'm Benjamin Franklin
If civilization is the west then I'm Columbus
If civilization is hate then I'm full of it
If civilization are glasses then I can hardly see
If civilization is infinite then I'm the universe
If civilization is a mother's breast then I'm crying like a baby in the middle of the night
If civilization is CO2 then I'm only human
If civilization is yesterday then I'm the day before yesterday
If civilization is hot then I'm space
If civilization is money then I'm a gambler
If civilization is installed then I'm unemployed
If civilization is Ta-dee-ta-dee then I'm intel
If civilization is death then I'm a graveyard
If civilization is an empty mailbox then I'm spam
If civilization is one more turn.... then I'm civilization

[Finarfin]

Blaine is a pain, and that's the truth.

[hexagonian]

Yin, make sure the winner doesn't have the game already, and is merely using this contest to try and make a quick buck on e-bay.

[NikNak]

Civilization is my time squandered. It is my possibilities stifled. It is my addiction enabled. It is my social life corrupted. It is my willpower betrayed. It is my knowledge enhanced. It is my abstract thinking nurtured. It is my leisure time occupied. It is my greatest foe and my best friend. It is me.

[DrrD]

I think, therefore, I Civ.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Hey, Hex, I can assure you that my personal motives are much more noble than THAT. Were I to get a new copy of the game, I would give it to my friend so we can play multiplayer games. Of course, being in Australia, I doubt muchly that Yin's copy of the game would do me any good-but I had fun writing my short essay anyway, which is reward enough !

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.