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    Victoria Becker

    Figured World Observation One

    Sid Meier's Civilization

    Note: The observations for this figured world took place over a course of 30 minutes. The timewill start based off of a real world clock since the game time advances several years at a time.

    F igured Worl d: A community with its own rules on how to behave .

    Relevant Background Information: This game is a war-based game where players choose anempire to play as and then build up cities and armies in order to conquer other empires. At thesame time, players must keep up their cities' happiness by having and trading "luxury goods".

    The empire you choose is from a list of options the game gives you. For example, Iusually play the Babylonians. But other empires to choose from are: England, France,China, Russia, etc. Basically, any country/ civilization in history can be played.

    The way you build up cities is, when you first start the game, you are giving one unit ofsettlers. They make a city, and that city can produce things, such as more settlers, or units for fighting. Each city you have can only make one thing at once, and each thingtakes a different amount of turns to complete.

    o By turns, what I mean is, there are different players in the game. So it is like anyother game, after you make your move in the game, the other players make theirmoves, and once they are done, it is your turn again.

    Happiness is important to have because it keeps your cities from uprising. You can have

    any level of happiness, but you want it to be 0 or higher. If it goes below 0, then thatmeans your cities are not happy. Happiness is obtained by luxury goods or building forthe city to complete.

    o An example of such a building is the circus which gives 2 happiness. Circusesusually take about 10-20 turns to complete.

    Appropriate Behavior/ Rules and Conventions: In this game, the rules on how to act oftenchange based on the situation. For example, if a player randomly declares war on other players, itis frowned upon. However, if another player attacks someone because they settled right on their

    border, then declaring war is acceptable. Changing religion is also acceptable, as is sending prophets to other empires in order to change their religion. Other things that are also acceptableis taking over certain areas, trading good with other players, making alliances, bribing city-statesand building fortresses around your territory. Another thing that is acceptable behavior is sendingspies into other cities. With spies every empire has them and sends them to spy on other players,even though players hate to be spied on. Also, even though it makes other players edgy andmight cause them to attack you, it is appropriate to advance your weaponry and technologies in

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    order to be ahead of other empires. Now, when it comes to communicating with other players, itis acceptable to demand goods from them only if you are stronger, otherwise they will get angryand attack you, it is also alright to ask them to declare war on somebody else that you find to be athreat as long as you are willing to help them in the war. Something else that should be done issending scouts to other territories to check out the land and find what else is on the map as wellas checking to see where other players are expanding to.

    Actors: People who have a specific role to play or something specific to do.

    Barbarians: Warriors that make encampments near cities and attack farms/ mines tosteal gold and other resources. Overall, they make the game a bit more difficult and takeup time to destroy. However, destroying them provides you with a reward of gold.

    o Barbarians are always opponent in this game. They dont affect how you play toomuch, but they do take time out to get rid of because they can become a nuisanceand attack you when you are busy trying to get ready to go to war with an actual

    player. (Barbarians arent r eal players, they are controlled by the computer and dorandom, bothersome things, such as killing your units)

    City-states: Cities that mind their own business and are neutral in conflicts betweenempires. They provide quests to complete for a reward of gold, influence or luxury good.And they will trade with you and come to your aid in a battle if you are their ally, whichyou can be if you donate enough gold to them to have a lot of influence points.

    o City- states dont usually affect how you play your game unless you are near them.The main problem with them is that if you get too close to them and arent theirally, then they can team up with an enemy of yours and they will pay the enemyto get rid of you. They are also bothersome because if they are allies withsomeone else and you attack them, then you are at war with both of them.

    AI Opponents: Other players that are played by the computer, the empire they play is purely random, however, their role is to be an opposing force in your quest for worlddomination. However, it is possible to become allies with opponents and have help intaking out certain empires.

    o AI opponents are always different, because they play a different character everytime. Also, they act different in every game, so you never know what they aregoing to do.

    Personal Avatar: Your empire, you can choose whichever empire you want. Your goal

    is to conquer the world and have the most advanced weapons, building, military and thehappiest people as well as the most gold.

    o The way you play will be different based on which empire/ civilization youchoose to play. This is because every one of them has a different bonus. Forexample, Babylon has archers early game and has a defensive bonus: Walls ofBabylon. And the Polynesians are able to travel across water immediately while

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    the other players have to research technology and make boat units in order to goin the water.

    Artifacts: Items that have significant importance to a character or group of characters.

    Luxury Goods: Almost immediately, the importance and need of luxury goods is veryapparent. Luxury goods include furs, pearls, crabs, gold, silver, ivory, cotton, wine andsome other items. These are all needed in order to keep the population of the city happyand keep it from rebelling.

    Ruins: These are good to find because they give the empire rewards such as extra faith oradvanced weapons/ technology. These are important to help the empire expand faster.

    o Ruins are just that, ruins, to explore them, you must have one of your units stepon them. When you do so, they will give a reward such as faith, culture, gold or amap. Faith and culture can be used to get a religion in your city along with otherthings.

    Natural Wonders: These increase the happiness of whatever city they are founded inand increase productivity, helping the city to grow and produce items faster.

    o When you discover a natural wonder and it is near your city, it will increase thehappiness of your city. They can also give you other bonuses. Some examples ofnatural wonders are the Barringer Crater, Old Faithful and Mt. Sinai.

    Communi ties of Pr actice: Small groups that share hobbies/ interests inside a figured world. Inthis case, groups that are inside civilization.

    City-states: All the city-states have the same views about staying out of other empires

    problems and keeping to themselves. Rebels: They do not always appear; however, rebels all try to overrun the city that theyare in when the happiness in that city decreases enough.

    Domain: Shared commitment/ actions for a community of practices interests/ goals.

    Thirst for Power: This domain is what drives many empires to declare war on eachother, as well as what causes groups like the rebels to fight back as they do.

    Need for Neutrality: This would pertain to the city-states. Some empires, or the city-states, prefer to stay out of everyone elses business.

    Practices of the Communi ty: Shared way a community of practice accomplishes goals.

    Exploring the Land: A main goal of every group in Civilization is to explore the wholemap and discover everything possible so that it is known where everyone else is.

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    o You can explore the land by sending out one of the units that a city has made tosearch the area. In doing so, the area appears on the map in the bottom right handside of the screen and you can see what is going on there. Some examples of unitsthat can explore the land are warriors, archers, or scouts. There are others,however, those are the main ones.

    Conquering the World: Every group wants to defeat the other empires in order to be theruler of the land.

    o The main way that you can conquer the world in this game is by domination. This basically means that you have to send fighting units to other peoples civilizations/cities and take them over. Every city has a health bar, and if it is destroyed, thatcity becomes yours.

    o Another way that the world can be conquered is by technology. This basicallymeans that you advanced your technology far more than the others. So you aremore advanced. Its kind of like how America is more advanced technologically

    than some third world countries, so we have better tools and what not.

    L iteracy Pr actices: Ways of communicating in the figured world.

    Chat Box: In Civilization, it is possible to talk to other players by using the chat box to typewhat it is you wish to say.

    Discussion Menu: When clicking on another players empire, there is a menu withdifferent things that can be discussed with that player. Such as training and diplomacy.

    The Observation One:1:05: One city is next to a river. The city has wheat, truffles, and cotton within its borders whichincreases the populations happiness. So far, there are two sets of warriors who have startedscouting in opposite directions. To the West, there are mostly mountains and other rivers. To theEast is desert and more wheat. The technology that is being worked on is animal husbandry sothat a worker can harvest the truffles and the city is working on producing a worker.

    1:10: The warriors going East have run into German warriors on the other side of the desert,however, they have yet to find any other settlements. The warriors going West still have nothingto report on. My worker has been completed and is now working on the truffles, but they will not

    be done for another 10 turns. Now, I am working on archery so that I can have bowmen as wellinstead of only regular warriors. Also, thanks to animal husbandry, I have found horses withinmy territory

    1:15: Besides the Germans, I have now also met the Iroquois. The Germans want to trade withme; however, they have nothing that I need so declined. I did however, accept their embassy asthey did mine so I can see where their cities are, they are far enough away to not be of any

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    concern for the time being. The same with the Iroquois. Besides them, I have met the Huns andwe have traded embassies as well as luxury goods, they gave me wine for some of my wheat, itwas a fair trade. As of now, I have two workers, 3 spearmen and 7 archers, with these, I have thestrongest military. I have also discovered mining and now have iron to make my army stronger. Inow also have three cities, and so my happiness is only 4.

    1:20: The Germans became a threat, they and the French teamed up and declared war on me,however, with my superior military I was able to keep them back and I even took over and

    burned down several of the French Empires cities keeping one for myself since it has usefulresources and is an easily defendable spot so no one else can attack it with ease. Once the Frenchwere defeated, Germany sought for peace immediately. I, however, do not easily forgive, so Iallowed us to make peace, but in exchange, the Germans had to give me all of their gold, two oftheir cities and three of their luxury goods which greatly increased my happiness. Unfortunately,due to the fighting, I had to recall my military units even though they were not done scouting;therefore, I have barely had the map explored. Also, I am not behind in education since I built upmilitary for the war instead of advancing things such as writing and mathematics.

    1:25: I once again went to war with the Germans because they started to settle cities right by medespite my protests, I won the war. The French were conquered by the Huns, so now it is just me(the Babylonians), the Huns, the Iroquois, the English and the Polynesians. I am tied with theEnglish for military strength, so I sent a spy to their city in order to gather information on theirfuture plans. As for everyone else, no other empire is a threat for now; nonetheless, I am sendingmilitary units over to the Polynesians because I want their land. It should be easy to take as I nowhave cannons and musket men. My happiness is at 15 and I am making 25 gold per turn despitemy large military.

    1:30: I am now making 50 gold per turn which is amazing due to the golden age that I hit. TheEnglish are no more because the Iroquois and myself took them out and the Huns beat me to thePolynesians. I do need some buildings that increase happiness though because mine is goingdown due to the size and number of my cities. If I don't fix that soon then a rebellion might startwhich would make me susceptible to attacks. Besides that, I have explored the map a bit moreand it seems that everything is on one giant continent surrounded by the ocean. I also now haveroads connecting every one of my cities, it did not take too long since I had 5 workers workingon the roads at one time.

    Observation Two:

    12:22: First off, I am playing a Babylon, and my first settler is on a coastline surrounded by jungle. The only good thing about this location is that there are two things of gems nearby whichare luxury goods and will increase my happiness as well as a thing of marble, which is alsoluxury good. There is also some deer, which will provide my city with food, and I have sent mywarriors out to survey the land around me. My first city is Babylon, and it is producing another

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    set of warriors and I am researching mining, which will take 17 turns. There is also stone in mycity limits which will increase production.

    12:27: My city finished the warriors, so now there are two sets of them exploring the land andthey have so far found more gems and two ruins, the ruins provided me with gold as well and

    survivors to increase my cities population. Also, I seem to be on some sort of peninsula since Iam mostly surrounded by coastline, nearby though, there are mountains, sheep, and cattle. Thesheep and cattle will be able to provide food if I build another city near them. Speaking of which,my city Babylon is now working to produce more settlers and I have finished researchingmining, and am now researching bronze working so that I will be able to chop own the junglearound me.

    12:32: While scouting, one of my warriors met Gandhi, the leader of India, he contacted me andwanted to put an embassy in my capital, but I refused. My other warrior found a spot that hassilver, gems and stone, it will be where my next city is which is where my settlers are headed

    now. Since my city finished with the settlers, it is now working on workers. Im also nowresearching masonry to mine the marble that my city has. Also, I found more ruins and they gaveme culture points and I had enough culture to adopt a policy, I chose liberty.

    12:37: The name of my second city is Akkad, and it is placed near silver, marble, bananas andstone. Im not researching writing and as for production, Babylon is working on workers whileAkkad is making more warriors, my happiness is down to two, so I need the worker to hurry upand be finished so it can work on the luxury goods and increase my cities happiness. Gandhi hasyet to speak to me again, and I haven't met anyone else yet.

    12:42: A great scientist was born in my city of Babylon, I had him construct an academy whichimproves my cities science per person, I also found where Gandhis capital Delhi is; far south ofwhere I am, which is good. I also have another settler on the way and have constructed a gemmine which brought my happiness from 2 up to 6, and next I will work the marble.

    - The great scientist is one of many great people that a city can have. There are alsogreat engineers and great artists as well as great prophets. They show up randomly inthe game depending on how advanced you are in certain fields. If you have a goodmilitary, you can get a great general which gives bonuses to fighting units produced

    by the city. While they great prophet will allow you to create a religion. The great

    scientist though, helps you to research a certain technology faster.12:47: Since I researched writing I can have embassies, so Gandhi and I exchanged embassies.This allows us to see where the others capital is. I am now researching animal husbandry so thatI can research trapping and work on the deer in my city. Besides that, I discovered some moreruins which gave me faith, a map of the area and some more gold.

    Observation Three (This is a continuation of observation two, but later i n th e game) :

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    2:05: Right now, I have three cities, Babylon, Akkad, and Dur-Kurigalzu. And I have built theGreat Wall around my capital, Babylon. As for other players, I have met the Songhai, Swedish,Iroquois, Romans, and India, and I have embassies in all of their capitals. At the moment I amresearching metal casting and my cities are working on composite bowmen and a library. Also, Ihave a worker constructing a road between my cities.

    2:10: Right now the Songhai and Romans are at war, and though they asked me to join in, I didnot. My ar my is not that strong yet as I havent been upgrading my military or researchingweapons yet. But I will begin to do that soon. I now have spices to add to my list of luxury goodsand I have both horses and iron within my city limits. Unfortunately, my happiness is down tothree, so I need to do something about that soon or else my people might start to rebel againstme.

    2:15: At the moment, nothing is going on; I am waiting for different things to finish being builtso that I can do other stuff. Though, it is apparent that I will have to go to war soon, I am running

    out of space because other empires are beginning to settle their cities extremely close to my own;only problem is, my military is the weakest right now. So until I make more units, there will not

    be much that I can do.

    2:20: The social policies I now have are liberty and tradition. Also, the road between two of mycities is finally finished so I now have a trade route between them that makes money. Besidesthat, I now also have another worker. One is working on spices and the other is making a pasturefor some horses. The research I am working on is physics which will give me the trebuchet and

    Notre dame.

    2:25: I have not started making a road to my last city so that all three will be connected. Roadsmake it so that people can travel from city to city faster. Also, I am finished making pastures forall my animals and I now have iron which is needed to make swordsmen.

    2:30: I have swordsmen, unfortunately, so do the other empires, however, I am catching upmilitarily, soon I'll have gunpowder though, and then I can make musket men which will be ableto overpower most of the units the other empires have. Besides that, the last road is still being

    built and I am building shrines in my cities so that my faith will increase. Once it increases farenough I will be able to create my own religion.

    Observation Four: ( This observation i s dif ferent f rom th e others because it is on a dif ferentkind of map and takes place later i n the game):

    4:00: Right now, I have 8 cities. They are places on multiple different islands and they are prettywells protected by some submarine units that I have. My research is very advanced. However,China is catching up, and that is only because one of their spies stole some of my technology.

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    - Each empire will get spies once they are advanced enough in the game. Spies can besent to other cities to gather information and steal things.

    4:05: China is mad at me right now because I caught that spy of theirs that was stealingtechnology and I killed it. They threatened war and I told them that I was ready and would not

    back off. Because of this, I have started building a lot more fighting units so that I can defendmyself when the Chinese attack. Besides that, I made another settler so that they can go buildanother city, that way, I will have more cities making stuff at once.

    4:10: As I suspected, China declared war on me. However, England joined them. Two of mycities are now under attack and because I built another city, my happiness went down a little bit.

    Not much besides that is going on though.

    - My happiness went down a little because for every city you build, 4-5 happiness islost. 1 happiness is also lost when a city grows.

    4:15: Way more units from the English and Chinese showed up than I was prepared for and theytook one of my cities. The other are still protected though and have been able to hold on. Soon, Iwill have flight, and then I will be able to bomb China and England from above and then maybethey will leave me alone.

    4:20: As I suspected, once I gained the technology of flight, China and England asked for peace.Im not giving it to them though. I took back the one city that they took form me, and now I amtaking their cities. They started it. And now that we are the only three left in the game becausewe destroyed all the other empires, this is my time to have world domination.

    4:25: I sent many units to the islands that England was on and destroyed all of its cities, some Ikept though.

    - What I mean when I say I kept them, is that when you kill a city, you have the optionto keep it and use, or you can completely destroy it by burning it to the ground.

    And now I need to go conquer China, and then I will have won this game. They are pretty toughthough and I have a smaller military than them since I lost quite a few units because I wasfighting a war on different parts of the map.

    About the Interviewee:

    I interviewed my boyfriend. His name is Justin, and the reason I interviewed him is because he is the person who introduced me to the game. Also, of all the people I know who playit, hes played it the longest. He also, in my opinion, knows it the best and understands theworkings of the game the game.

    Interview:

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    1.) What kind of behaviors have you observed while playing civilization?

    -- Totalitarian dictatorship, fascism, aggression, also, I have seen that a lot of people are

    incapable of accepting peaceful solutions and have child-like behavior.2.) How do you treat the other players when playing?

    -- Fairly, but as the inferior beings that they are.

    3.) Name the behaviors you think are okay.

    -- Peaceful actions, non-aggressive actions. Willingness to trade, cooperation.

    4.) Name the behaviors that are frowned upon.

    -- Submission, fear complacency, stupidity.5.) How often do other players act inappropriately?

    -- Occasionally.

    6.) How often do players communicate with each other?

    -- Very often.

    7.) Do players communicate when appropriate?

    -- Yes.

    8.) How often do you declare war on other players?

    -- Regularly, but only when necessary.

    9.) Why do you like Civilization over other games?

    -- Its the combination of all my favorite elements in one game: Military strategy,economics, trade, research and development (progression), as well as international diplomacy.