Moving On Up to Victory!!

 Exchange and Trade in the Era of Ramses II

The civilization I decided to use for the rest of the semester is that of Ramses II. I chose this civilization for the fact that I have always had a deep interest in Egyptian culture and want to see how the Civilization 5 game manipulates history. I picked this civilization as well because I have always thought that it was one of the most advanced and cunning societies. I wish I would have been able to get the version of the game that inserted religion so I could have seen how that affected the game alas I was no able too. I hope that the more life progresses in the game some of the belief systems will peak through.  I enjoy the aspect of getting to live out my days as an Egyptian citizen, something I would love to have experienced. Where’s a time machine when you need one?! The victory approach that I am going to try and achieve would be the cultural victory. For the longest time I thought one of the ways to win was amazing the most land so I purchased a lot of tiles, turns out this isn’t true but hey I have a lot of land to use so that’s a plus.

In the game civilizations prosper by advancing up the technology tree and gaining culture. They prosper when the citizens are happy and well fed as well. They suffer economically when they are not producing any products that other civilizations want or need. I have experienced that barter plays a large role to make your allies happy. I have had to give up 250 gold coins multiple times to other civilization in a trade negotiation for peace and ability to cross through their lands. I have also gifted my units to city states. In order to stay in a city states good graces you can also connect them to a resource through trade, something I haven’t been able to do yet. You prosper more economically depending on the resources that you find, produce, and steal as well.

There isn’t any local exchange as far as I have seen in the game thus far. There is some regional exchange however. You can connect cities to cities and the produce created in both helps them. Exchange progress quicker with the advent of roads because the traders can move with more ease. Trade post can also be built, caution though is that is takes away food but does add gold.

As technology advances the ease of production and trade gets more efficient. The more advancements that are made the more wealth that can be brought into the society. Networks-economic, trade, and otherwise play a large role in the Civilization 5 game. Without these means of interaction the game would be null in void. Exchange of material and cultural goods is the bones of this game. The deeper one gets into the more you begin to realize that cultural difference and exchanges of different ideologies and acceptance are a big part.

There are not however any presence of pastoralists exchanging animals for grains from herders. All of the trade is city to city or city to city-state. As mentioned previously ecological disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, and earthquakes are not present so they don’t effect trade and exchange. I have also noted that they aren’t any raiders or burglars that try and steal goods for exchange.

Expanding on Population

                              After the class discussion about population in the game and after some feedback from Dr. Hosselkus I decided to post some more of my thoughts on population and the Civilization 5 game. I didn't really think about the aspects of population trends that the game did not have that we had discussed.
                           While looking at my notes I realized that some aspects of population growth like environmental phenomenon such as droughts are not present in the game. I know we discussed in class that they weren't any hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or the like. I realized as well that they aren't any weather phenomenons present in the game that would have an effect on population. There is no rain, snow, sleet or hail even. The fog that surrounds unexplored territory and the ever present sun, at least in my civilization, is the only weather.
                            While looking back on my game play I also realized that there isn't any designation in ages of the people in the game or gender for that matter. The only females that I have in my civilization show up when the advice is given about cultural matters. I am assuming this is different for other civilizations or in later ages because I know one student is focusing on female dominated civilizations or ones with females in charge. There aren't any children in the game either. The game lacks the process of birth and doesn't showcase the belief systems such as infanticide.

                           Urban plagues are not evident either. Cholera, dysentery, typhus and the like aren't seen.The only way you can know if a civilization is unhappy is with a small little red angry face . It's not this animated but you get the gist.

               There is also no evidence of people migrating internal or externally in the Civilization 5 game. The only movement of people completely is when I have gifted certain city states one of my units.  In some ways I guess that could count at emigration but forced.

              In Civilization 5 there are also medical related structures and facilities but for their actual purpose in real world treatment, such as diseases or for the hurt soldier, they are not used as such. They simply add to happiness or increase food.

                           

Patterns of Population Civilization 5 Style

                          Population plays a very large role in Civilization 5. I recently just experienced one of my cities starving. I tried to figure out how to provide more food for my people in that city but all I could find was that a worker will eat excess food. I am unsure of how to actually get food for my people. The population's of my cities tend to grow a great deal at the beginning after I first construct them. The more and more cities I have created the harder I find it to control the population. I haven't yet grasped how to manage them all, what type of people do what, and how many cities are too many?
                             I have found only a few ways to control population in the games 1) by gifting a unit to a city state and 2) I don't know if this is necessarily my own control, but citizens can be killed/stolen by enemies 3) and if they don't get enough food they can die. The game also allows the gamer to control population by letting you figure out what type of citizen you want to produce.
                             In the game one can see the stages of population that we learned about in class as well. Throughout a number of turns a civilization passes through a variety of eras/ages. Thus far in my game I haven't been able to get out of the Ancient Era. I perhaps need to concentrate on improving my technology or something. With each passing turn decades pass as well and new ideas/technologies/ and improvements are created/available which is not unlike actual patterns of population.
                            In regards to cities I have noticed that the game follows the trends that we have talked about in class. When I have a settler and click on found a city I find that locations where the game suggest I build a city are near a body of water, fertile areas that are conducive to growth and prosperity. Conflicts are an issue in the game as well. I have experienced being allies with cities states, losing those allies, trespassing in city states and trying to make amends with two different other civilizations while making them both happy. Governmental policies are starting to play a bigger role the longer I play. I have been helping myself create good relations with other civilizations by returning their captured units instead of keeping them for myself. I guess I will see how that strategy works for me in the end? Being the good guy doesn't always pay off.

World Civ Exploration Day 1 (September 4th 2013)

             I started exploring the World Civilization Game today. I followed the syllabus and went to the Civilopedia and read through several of the prompts explaining how different parts of the game worked. As I worked through them I began to realize that I needed to actually play the game to get a better understanding of how it worked. I am a learn from trial and error person especially when it comes to gaming.
            I decided to not start up an actual game. I did this when I first downloaded the game and well lets be honest my civilization was conquered because I didn't know what the heck I was doing. For this go round I decided maybe a tutorial would be helpful. I started out with the movement and exploration tutorial in which I was in the civilization of Alexander the Great and I was tasked with finding seven ruins. I worked through my turns slowly but surely and found all the ruins. Running through this tutorial showed me about the fog and helped me navigate my units more easily.
             The second tutorial I went through was the founding cities with the Egyptian Civilization. I enjoyed the added complexity of this tutorial in which I got to find areas that were more suitable for a city to be located and I got some exposure to what units could research and why each research such as mining, coal, animal husbandry etc...was useful and what could be gained from it.
              I started on the third tutorial which involved connecting civilizations together and creating farms,mines and making improvements. This civilization was the one with Caesar. It started out pretty good at first but I became confused on how to make "improvements" I got my people started on the farms right away and a few of the mines but I was stuck on how to improve anything so I decided to stop for the night and take a break and try again at that tutorial later.
          I am beginning to understand what research is needed when and when a city is founded what needs to be done. I am thinking that I am going to go with a more advanced Civilization because when I did my first trial run I chose the Iroquois civilization and couldn't really do too much.