Do your politics influence your game?

[gsmoove23]

Just curious, after getting into a few political discussions in these forums I started to notice that my personal political feelings are similar to my game strategies. I always take the peaceful route avoiding war at all costs. I prefer Democracy, I almost never raze cities and I think I used a nuke once and I felt guilty afterwards. Now this might mean I take the game to seriously, but I was wondering if other people had the same experience.

Any warmongering, nuke tossing lovers of George W. out there? Please understand I didn't start this thread to have heated political discussion, there are plenty more good threads for that, just for curiosity, so don't take offense George lovers.

P.S. this is my first thread, hope I chose the right forum.

[Alex]

My political feelings do not influence directly my game strategies. I don't like war, and I tend to emphasize the peaceful growth of my civ, but those are basically general trends that nurture my game style, not rigid paradigms. If I have to use a nuke or if I have to backstab my opponent, I'll do it, no guilty afterwards.

[sabrewolf]

Re: Do your politics influence your game?

no... not at all...

allthough i concider myself a builder, i'll fight a war if i urgently need a resource or an oponent is getting too powerful. also, i don't care who the enemy is. even if i have more sympathies for that civ in real life... in the game it doesn't matter.

however, in real life i'm pacifistic and against any kind of unnessecary violence.

[WarpStorm]

In my case, no. I play the game as a game by the rules of the game. For example, I usually build a peaceful, defensive, cultural empire, who only goes to war when someone else starts it or has a resource I really want. These are not necessarily my personal political or personal leanings (they aren't)

[aahz_capone]

Hmmm... interesting point....

For me it depends on whome I am playing. I tend to alter the politics when I'm playing to the characters of the civs. My personal historical motives rule more of my game then my personal political motives.

However, when PTW comes out and we all play multiplayer, I might just try playing as me. It would probably help during diplomacy sessions.


Oh, and welcome to the forum, gsmoove!

[ChrisiusMaximus]

I hate politics full stop so I guess not influenced,Im usually the builder but I will take space resources etc from others if necessary, have used nukes if ive been attacked with them so usually stockpile 5 or 6 just in case.
Not sure if having nukes acts as a deterrant to others though but thats why I have the.

If Im strong enough Ill go to war on a bully nation or get as many others as possible to cease trading with them to weaken them financially.

Once I played as Rome with ROP with Japan and completly surrounded there territory with units to stop the babylonians from crushing there last 2 cities.The babs were a little annoyed with me but decided not argue with my MA.

On one other occasion I gave a city in my borders to Egypt just before the Aztecs wiped out there last city to save them,later I invaded the Aztecs and liberated some Egyptian cities and reinstated Cleopatra in her former capital.Unfortunatly she sneak attacked me later so I took back my city and let the Aztecs finish her off for good.

[gsmoove23]

Hmmm, 5 posts, thats not bad. 4 people who say their game isn't influenced yet play a fairly peaceful game. When I got on this forum I was suprised by all the warmongers out there. Its obvious people get different things out of this game, I for one tried domination a few times but found it boring, partly because the AI uses such pitiful strategy.

I'm not completely against war, even starting them if I need to, I just tend to shy away from long wars and outright conquering and I prefer being sneaky. I like when there are powerful AIs to negotiate with and tend to lose interest when everyone starts disappearing. I do hate nukes though and I'll usually expend alot of effort trying to stop other civs from getting them if I have the chance.

But Chrisius, Man! You take the cake. Any warmongers out there?

[Trifna]

Generally, I play to make my civ the better possible, thus I consider peace, technology, advancement, acceptance of other civs, etc.

But if I'm not in the mood of really playing "my" civ, I may just play to wreck havoc... Like suddenly nuking the greatest opponent cities around amd raze them

[zeh]

Well, I like to be a peacefull builder, and expand my empire without wars. With the time, I've learned that a strong military force is needed to secure my way of play the game, but I try keep it as a secure force, and not as an invasion army.

I do this as much as possible, but the game situations, sometimes, goes to some point that is impossible to avoid a war, and if the war is with someone that have somthing I want (land, resources, luxuries), then I will not lose this chance of 'improve' my empire.

[Palaiologos]

My whole game evolves around the preparation for the next war. However i NEVER backstab,Nuke or abandon someone. You have supposedly given your word!!. This more reflects my personal character than my political beliefs.

I am a right-winger in politics, if anyone cares.

[SanPellegrino]

No, not at all.
I consider myself a nice guy with compassion and respect for other people, but at Civ I am a real bastard My Civ personality is more like a mixture between Emperor Nero and Saddam Hussein.

[gsmoove23]

a right-winger who is always preparing for war and considers morality important.. then of course I will backstab from time to time(although I hate to) and I'm a left-winger so maybe I should stop this train of thought.

You're probably right, its not politics so much as your own personality which has the most influence on the game, although I'm sure personality also has an influence on your politics.

[Bella Hella]

abso-friggin-lutely, my politics affect my game. so do past experiences within the game. examples:

environment:
- all pollution must be cleaned up immediately.
- shoot for ecology (after computers and rocketry) so i can build mass transit centers right away (uh... and i'm on the way to MA)
- no coal plants, ever. it's either hoover dam, or if i don't get it, the non polluting plants.
- i usually unintentionally have a "wildlife preserve" somewhere in my empire. this is just a couple squares of forest, unrailroaded. this generally happens when i have some plains squares that aren't within any city limits. i just forest and road them, and it looks cool. i always forest any tundra/plains/grassland squares i'm not using. it looks better if you DON'T build roads and just leave it totally wild, but you need access to those squares in case of pollution.

happiness/culture:
- i like to get every cultural/happiness improvement in my cities. i don't like my people to have to live in some podunk little town with no fun.

the quest for knowledge:
- after my period of tech whoring has come to an end and i can do my own research, every town gets libraries, universities and research labs. i like to have a super science city, too.
- i don't hesitate to spread the word to the unedumacated civs, if they can pay for it. unless the research is something that provides a wonder or better unit, it's traded equally.

truth, justice and honesty:
- nope, i don't backstab other civs.
- no nukes, except for experimental purposes. or, hypothetically, if i had enough money and resources to build enough nukes to take out the entire WORLD, enough units to destroy all improvements and take and raze their cities, and enough workers to clean up all that pollution. i am DYING to try this - eliminate the other civs and make the world a paradise for MY civ, with my main empire as the center of the world and little "vacation spot" cities here and there (in luxury/resource areas).
- i try to stay on good terms with everybody, and rarely engage in trade embargos.
- beating up the bully. if one civ starts messing with my little friends, i'll call them out.

persia:
- i've recently decided that persia must die in every game. they're ALWAYS a problem, and, well, i'm the solution.

diversity:
- one of my new favorite things to do is to embrace other civs' culture into my own. in other words, not raze cities, but show the citizens there "the light" and have a sort of melting pot of a civ. i like to make captured workers join my cities instead of using them as slaves. i've recently been contacting the other civs, buying their workers and adding them to my population.

aesthetically pleasingness (?):
- not really "politics" persay, but one of my policies is to try to make my empire as nice looking as i can. i don't sacrifice growth or production, but i like to have, say, farms on the outskirts and mines closer to my cities (i pretend they're suburbs).

ok, sorry for the long post. i'm done! i think i get WAY too into this game. but this is something i've thought about a lot.

[Traelin]

Re: Do your politics influence your game?

Originally posted by gsmoove23
Just curious, after getting into a few political discussions in these forums I started to notice that my personal political feelings are similar to my game strategies. I always take the peaceful route avoiding war at all costs. I prefer Democracy, I almost never raze cities and I think I used a nuke once and I felt guilty afterwards. Now this might mean I take the game to seriously, but I was wondering if other people had the same experience.

Any warmongering, nuke tossing lovers of George W. out there? Please understand I didn't start this thread to have heated political discussion, there are plenty more good threads for that, just for curiosity, so don't take offense George lovers.

P.S. this is my first thread, hope I chose the right forum.

Well gsmoove, if you had to guess whether or not my politics influence my game, what would you say?

Seriously, yes they do, although I never really thought about it until you created this thread. Let me break it down for ya:

1. I get VERY annoyed at the non-environmentalist philosophy of the AI. Damn it, I'm sick of cleaning up their mess, and I'm sick of them nuking the entire world into desertification. I will anything necessary to stop the AI from using nukes. Since I tend to share the same political ideology IRL WRT the environment, I guess I play the same way.
2. I am a warmonger, probably one of the biggest out there. But not for the sake of warmongering. If the AI backstabs me in ANY way, or if they pull that cheesy land-grabbing routine near me, they're finito. Plus, Civs that stay in Communism for the sake of war irk me, so I keel them too. Yeah I'd be like that IRL too I guess. Not Pinky and the Brain, but not a conciliatory type guy either.
3. I NEVER backstab the AI, not unless it gives good reason to. Like if they attack one of the AIs I'm trying to nurse, if they've backstabbed me before, or a variety of other reasons. IRL, your word is only as good as you make it, that's my philosophy.

So I guess my personality does come out in Civ, although I never really gave it much thought until now.

[Lunacy]

My politics definitely affected my game when I first started playing Civ3 which wasn't too long ago - 2 months maybe. I was playing at the chieftain level - trying to avoid wars, building culture, being friendly and environmentally conscious (I would even feel guilty about cutting down forests for those extra shields) - then when I started playing at the higher levels it became harder and harder to avoid wars. In one warlord game a couple of weeks ago I got to the modern age and won a space race which was what I wanted but I saved the game before actually winning just so I could try the different types of victories. I got the UN one and then I figured I'd go for a domination one so I started using nukes. I had a couple of dozen ICBMs - was TOTALLY horrified and guilt-ridden once I used the first one then everyone declared war on me - I started launching the others and it became...a lot of FUN!

Now I actually play different types of games depending on my mood. Sometimes I want to just play a relaxed game so I setup one where I'll hopefully be able to do more building than fighting. Sometimes I'll go for the huge map with lots of civs though to be honest CONSTANT fighting gets on my nerves. I like to be able to build some things other than military units.

It's funny how even though it's just a game it can really be disconcerting to find yourself doing stuff you normally wouldn't do in a million years.

Lunacy