Civilization Gameplay (Post 1)

Day One

I played Civilization in my room, on a laptop for about an hour. My first observation was that both the keyboard or keyboard with mouse options in addition to the pixelated screen hinted that the game (the version that I’m playing) was originally produced in the 90s.
I encountered some technological issues, especially with changing the screen on the website to full screen (I couldn’t switch between the two) and I had to refresh the page a few times.

I created a civilization by choosing a nationality, I chose Egyptian. I had the opportunity to name my own Egyptian city, which became Anitarus. I named the ruler Anubis. Next to the name slot, there was a picture of a bearded man. Regardless of the name I would’ve chosen, it would have been gendered by that image. Almost immediately, Civilization is presented as a game for the male gender.

After naming my city and its leader, I positioned Anitarus close to the ocean and then chose an advancement for it out of several options. I could choose masonry, the wheel, or currency (those were not the only options). I selected one of them and initiated the development of my Egyptian civilization. Every so often, I would choose another development from a list. Each time, a screen appeared with information and a simple explanation about the advantages of my choice, whether it was mysticism or the wheel.

Once I established my city, I could move individual units of soldiers around the area with the arrow keys. However, each unit was limited to one movement, so covering a large space of land was both slow and tedious. When my units faced enemy or ally units, movement of surrounding my units was further restricted. Below is a screenshot of this particular instance.

I encountered the ruler of Russia, who was presented by Stalin, right before meeting Elizabeth I as the ruler of England. I even met the Americans, who were represented by Abraham Lincoln. This combination of leaders revealed the intention to provide a familiar face to a specific nation for a young age group. Due to both the simple explanations for developments like the wheel and the simultaneously existing leaders from different moments in time, I came to the conclusion that Civilization was created for preteens.

During my first hour with this game, I started war with England, broke a peace treaty with the Russians, captured a city called “Kiev,” seized Moscow, and lost Anitarus to a random attack by barbarians.