This is the crux of all 4X games, however each step might be emphasised, re-presented, or complicated. From “humble beginnings”, players manage a fledgling empire as they explore the map around them, expand their territory outwards, exploit the land for its resources and eventually exterminate all rival empires. Whether descriptively or prescriptively, this overview encapsulates the core strategies of many games since then. Naturally, the other players will be trying to do the same, therefore their extermination becomes a paramount concern” (Emrich, 1993, p. In other words, players must rise from humble beginnings, finding their way around the map while building up the largest, most efficient empire possible. I give MOO a XXXX rating because it features the essential four X’s of any good strategic conquest game: EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate. The four Xs refer to the first four words of my title, a genre name that has stuck since it was coined in 1993 by Alan Emrich in a preview of Master of Orion, a game released in the same year by MicroProse: While this example is particularly relevant to postcolonial lines of thought due to it being a direct representation of a significant historical moment in colonialism, its key elements such as gameplay, goals and characterization are typical of the 4X genre of videogames. In 100 turns (each turn representing a period of months: the first turn is in January, the second in April, the third in July, the fourth in October) the civilization with the highest score is declared the winner (see “Victory Conditions” in Figure 1 for how points are scored in this scenario). Or, the player may defend Africa from the Europeans as Cetshwayo kaMpande of the Zulu, for instance. Jules Grévy leads the French, Otto von Bismarck the Germans, Giuseppe Garibaldi the Italians, and so on. Players choose one of 12 leaders with corresponding empires.
This is, of course, not the historical so-called “Scramble for Africa” of the late 19th to the early 20th century, but the beginning of a staged scenario in Sid Meier’s Civilization V. Her mission: explore Africa, expand her territory into it, exploit its riches, and exterminate those who conflict with these aims, be they native Africans or rival Europeans. Queen Victoria commands the English Empire’s expansion into inland Africa, already controlling a handful of settlements around its coast and on the near coast of Europe: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Lagos, Accra, Freetown, Gibraltar, and Victoria. The introduction to the “Scramble for Africa” scenario when playing as Queen Victoria. Postcolonialism, empire, imperialism, history, education, affect, technological determinism, homogeny, Civilization V Introductionįigure 1.
To conclude, I will consider what implications this has on the use of 4X games like Civilization V for education and the conception of history in the minds of the players, drawing on other recent scholars who have similarly problematized the series. For this study, I will read the game’s goals and mechanics through postcolonial theorists such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, and then turn to affect theory to consider what role the player takes in writing this history. This co-opts non-colonial societies into imperialism, while in the process silencing their histories.
L 3 civilization v backgrounds series#
With many studies lauding the series for its educational capacities I argue that with an affective turn to the role of the player, the game’s homogenization of narratives of societal progression reinforces a Western-centric notion of history. “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate”: Affective Writing of Postcolonial History and Education in Civilization V by Dom Ford AbstractĬivilization V as one of the most successful and definitive works of the 4X videogame genre presents a clear narrative of empire-building that, I will argue, is problematic when set against postcolonial theory.
0 kommentar(er)
