Location: Bedroom
Device: Laptop
Time: 1 hour
Before starting the game, I looked up the manual for Civilizations online and was overwhelmed by the amount of information there was. I briefly read about how to keep a city happy / a major from repeatedly fleeing. It mentioned something about moving my military away from the city. Later on, I found that the advice didn’t seem to work.
I checked out the Civilization 5 version and after I positioned a city (as well as explored the area), I realized that I was isolated on an island again. Instead of starting a new game, I returned to one of the games I previously started. I returned to the same game from session three that involved a Roman tribe and a leader named Giovanni. During this session, I was able to improve my city a couple times by improving its appearance and construction out of three options: Doric columns, Middle Eastern architecture, or a castle-like expansion. I selected the early Greek/Roman look both times.
During the game, I captured a city called Canton until it was reclaimed by the Chinese after a barbarian attack. There was civil disorder in my main city called Bachi a Noi which involved in non-stop notifications about the major fleeing the city. I positioned the soldier units farther away from the city, hoping that the civilians and the major would somehow be happier (with the manual instructions in mind). It didn’t work and I didn’t want to take the time to consult the manual a second time. I received about 26 notifications overall, before barbarians killed most of the soldier units around Bachi a Noi and conquered it. That ended the game.
During these last few sessions, I played different versions of Civilization and discovered very few differences between them. Its core dynamic, according to the chapter from the Challenges for Game Designers reading, is primarily building and territorial acquisition (pg6). In the game, I had to focus on both advancing my civilization and territorial protection (or expansion). I wouldn’t play this game on my own free time mainly because of how slow it was and the pixelated appearance.