Civilization and History

[demon59]

IIRC, in the original British version of the board game, the designer went to great lengths the keep players from identifying their "civilizations" with historical counterparts. He didn't want the players' knowledge of specific civilizations' histories to color their game play. To that end each player's tokens were differentiated strictly by color, and no civ names (Greek, Roman, etc.) were used.
The American edition added graphics to the tokens, appropriate for historical civilizations, as the marketing department at AH didn't think American gamers would respond well to the original level of abstraction.

[Jonkie]

First off let me thank you all for your valuable input. It is much appreciated.

I have to be brief right now because I have classes to attend. Tonight (CET) I will post a more in debt insight into what I am doing.

The goal is not to try and acces the historical correctness of Civilization as this would serve no point like some of you have pointed out. The goal is to look at something that is history related. The goal is to present a 'historical' product that was created outside of the academic world. I need to look into any ties that it might have to this academic world. I need to reflect on how history is being implemented in a more 'popular' way from a viewpoint that the academic world has/or is losing touch with other forms of history. So the idea is to basicly present how history is used/implemented into a game. It is by now means a paper in which I have to pass a gudgement.

Thank you for your help so far, I will reply on the posts later on as mentioned.

I will be happy to post the content of my paper later on.

[Chopper]

That is the best question I have ever seen on a Forum of any description and the responses overwhelm me. The quality of the question can often be measured from the responses. It shows both the quality and tact, discretion and detailed understanding of the designers, users, testers, generally all involved, including forum posters to elicit the response we have seen. Congrats all.

[Chopper]

Jonkie

I believe the reasons for a Beyond the Sword version of Civ IV speak loudly enough for a treatise on why we needed a BTS v (Vanilla or Warlords) based on history in the first place. Regardless, I look forward to your paper. It should be published here at Apolyton.

Perhaps the obvious differentiation is "Trade". History loves the outcome but doesn't often enough reference the process issues for the main reason for a lot of conflicts is "Trade" or lack thereof.

[Jonkie]

While examining the following post I got to thinking that maybe I am approching this from the wrong angle. I am looking for history outside of the academic world. While there is some history to be found in civilization. It has been observed by most of you that the world in civ is to random and maybe only wonders, great people and scenario's are historical. While this was not nessesarily a rulebreaker it did make my job a lot harder. But I chose civ because I was a fan. The whole time a much better subject was staring me in the face. What subject could be better than this forum. As seen above this forum is obviously a place outside of the academic world where people are practicing a form of history. The history does not lay in the playing of the game itself but the links that the players make in their minds and on this forum. That I can participate in the subject makes it that much more interesting. Note that will not be a witch hunt in which I check the things people say to see if they are historicly correct ( if historical correctness even exists is quite the hit topic atm).

Ofcourse before I can do this I would like to ask the permission of the admins to do this?

And I will need to consulted with the professor teaching this course to change my subject. But they are usually flexible about this sort of thing.

I would like everyone to voice their opinion on this subject and if all goes well I will be starting new thread with more infomation about this project when and if I get the various permissions. In the mean time any answers to the original questions will still be usefull.

[Solver]

Sure enough. Feel free to post another related thread here