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Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

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Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#21

TL;DR Man plays a single Civ II game, locked in a 3-way stalemate, for 10 years (2000 in-game years). He asks reddit for advice on ending the stalemate, posting his savegame. Quickly a community forms around it. Fans post not only strategies but also art and fiction. The game and related discussions have also been added to collections in the Stanford University Libraries.

Thank you for this. The signal-to-noise ratio of the article was dangerously low for my attention span ;)

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#22
post #2

I love how this sim makes you a tyrannic psychopath. As if one man was the Nation and that people had no rights on their own lives and could not have a free will. These games are wrong on so many level. Some RPG can transform your psyche, like the jail experiment in SF has proven. Civlization/colonization have let me with a bitter taste in the mouth as a player once I realized how it was making me think, in the real…

The famous Stanford Prison experiment has numerous methodological flaws[0] and is most likely hokum, and Phil Zimbardo, the director of this study has exhibited numerous moments of questionable ethics. Including sleeping with and marrying one of his research students. [0] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201...

The article you posted seems to be a summary of the findings (as well as a poorly-concealed advert for a book) and doesn't mention any methodological flaws. Am I missing something?

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The famous Stanford Prison experiment has numerous methodological flaws[0] and is most likely hokum, and Phil Zimbardo, the director of this study has exhibited numerous moments of questionable ethics. Including sleeping with and marrying one of his research students. [0] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201...

The article you posted seems to be a summary of the findings (as well as a poorly-concealed advert for a book) and doesn't mention any methodological flaws. Am I missing something?

No.

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#24
post #2

I love how this sim makes you a tyrannic psychopath. As if one man was the Nation and that people had no rights on their own lives and could not have a free will. These games are wrong on so many level. Some RPG can transform your psyche, like the jail experiment in SF has proven. Civlization/colonization have let me with a bitter taste in the mouth as a player once I realized how it was making me think, in the real…

For me Civilization was my introduction to realpolitik. Before playing it I had genuine difficulty understanding why or how wars ever happened. Maybe it is psychopathic - but it's long been observed that the behaviour of corporations would be psychopathic if seen in a human, and the same is true for nations. The best games hold a mirror up to (one aspect of) reality, and Civilization does exactly that. Indeed part of the reason the story in the linked article is so compelling is the fear of something like it happening in the real world.

PS: I have been wondering about playing Muv-Luv for a while. But that article is very badly written. It must have been heartfelt for the writer, but they haven't managed to convey what makes it so special to them.

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#25
post #24
post #2

I love how this sim makes you a tyrannic psychopath. As if one man was the Nation and that people had no rights on their own lives and could not have a free will. These games are wrong on so many level. Some RPG can transform your psyche, like the jail experiment in SF has proven. Civlization/colonization have let me with a bitter taste in the mouth as a player once I realized how it was making me think, in the real…

For me Civilization was my introduction to realpolitik. Before playing it I had genuine difficulty understanding why or how wars ever happened. Maybe it is psychopathic - but it's long been observed that the behaviour of corporations would be psychopathic if seen in a human, and the same is true for nations. The best games hold a mirror up to (one aspect of) reality, and Civilization does exactly that. Indeed part of…

I was playing Civ 5 a while ago and had good relations with my neighboring civs. I tend to aim for science or cultural victories, so playing nice works well.

Come to find out I had no iron resources. Without iron I could not progress and would be unable to defend myself agains barbarians let alone another civ (like that backstabbing Napoleon!). I could have tried to trade for the resources, but didn't really have much to offer in exchange and would make for a volatile supply.

Meanwhile, my good friend just to the south had loads of iron, but almost no troops... I've never felt more dishonest than when I crushed his civ to take his iron. The military buildup I needed to do so along with the new iron resources ended up essentially forcing me to choose the military domination victory path.

The game forced me to switch from peacenik to expansionist military force crushing all who opposed me.

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#26
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several options to play (and win) peacefully if you so choose, even while other nations battle it out around you. If anything it teaches temperament, resource management, and how to turn failures into learning experiences - the last of which is considered important for being successful in business.

I once participated in a Civ-style, turn-based, global game for a Political Science class, and, full disclosure, I was easily the most controversial person to have participated up to that point. The way the professor set up the game it actually had grade-implicating consequences. The class before mine essentially sat down in a giant circle and worked together to solve the 'built in' problems so they could maximize th…

Actually sounds like a problem with the class scoring system.

Rational actors will maximize their returns, and in a game that has a set number of rounds, the equilibrium won't be met unless there are returns and costs associated to each round.

Your professor should have graded on a running score, per turn, so that there would have been a reason (other than reputation cost with class peers) for the teams to collude up until the end. It would have also been more realistic for the course, since a decade of continued existence is considered more of a win for a political nation than some final tally at year 2050.

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#27
post #18
post #2

I love how this sim makes you a tyrannic psychopath. As if one man was the Nation and that people had no rights on their own lives and could not have a free will. These games are wrong on so many level. Some RPG can transform your psyche, like the jail experiment in SF has proven. Civlization/colonization have let me with a bitter taste in the mouth as a player once I realized how it was making me think, in the real…

The book "The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks was inspired by the computer game "Sid Meier's Civilization" and it paints a picture of a profoundly dysfunctional empire which is governed by the use of an elaborate game. Mark Zuckerberg recently recommended the book, but it's highly thought of by SF fans generally. ("Civilization" was a development of "Railroad Tycoon", an earlier PC game inspired by the boardgame se…

Just to correct myself: it's Banks's later book Excession which was directly inspired by Civ. The video game hadn't yet been released when "The Player of Games" was published, and I can't provide evidence that Banks was aware of Railroad Tycoon or its predecessor board games.

"Excession" is a good book as well, and appears to draw on email mailing list culture. http://www.tor.com/2015/03/06/on-iain-m-banks-and-the-video-...

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#28
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Crusader Kings 2? It's a strategy game which tries to simulate all the people from courtiers to kings all with their own motivations.

Last night, I was playing Crusader Kings 2 as the Byzantine Empire. I had just conquered Jerusalem in a holy war (after the Catholics failed to take it in a crusade, ha!) and everything was good. I had tons of money rolling in, I was secure in my realm with a son groomed to inherit, and I was thinking about expanding further south to take Alexandria. I figured it was a good time to call it a night at about 11:30pm. I…

I'm adding this one to my "Games to Play" list.

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#29
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several options to play (and win) peacefully if you so choose, even while other nations battle it out around you. If anything it teaches temperament, resource management, and how to turn failures into learning experiences - the last of which is considered important for being successful in business.

I once participated in a Civ-style, turn-based, global game for a Political Science class, and, full disclosure, I was easily the most controversial person to have participated up to that point. The way the professor set up the game it actually had grade-implicating consequences. The class before mine essentially sat down in a giant circle and worked together to solve the 'built in' problems so they could maximize th…

My high school world history teacher ran a game like this for the class. He booked a whole week for it. After two days we had destroyed the world in a nuclear war. He made us sit quietly in class for the rest of the week as punishment! What a great lesson though in how terrible people can be.

Re: Player stuck in an eternal Civ II war

#30
post #21

TL;DR Man plays a single Civ II game, locked in a 3-way stalemate, for 10 years (2000 in-game years). He asks reddit for advice on ending the stalemate, posting his savegame. Quickly a community forms around it. Fans post not only strategies but also art and fiction. The game and related discussions have also been added to collections in the Stanford University Libraries.

Thank you for this. The signal-to-noise ratio of the article was dangerously low for my attention span ;)

It's a human interest story, and a very interesting one.
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