Civilization 3: Educational Review

What does my ten-year-old son think he has learned from playing Civilization 3?


I’ve also posted similar videos covering Timez Attack and Crazy Machines.

8 thoughts on “Civilization 3: Educational Review

  1. Dibs on the rebel. It would have to be fundamentally different, as in when the rebel looks at a Civ 4 city’s squares, the possible actions are completely different – subversion, infiltration, recruitment – and perhaps even different based on what governmental structure the despot is using, the current level of revolutionary fervor, and the state of the respective military and rebel forces. A worker’s revolt won’t work in a democracy where unionization is prevalent, but a fundamentalist movement might. Slave uprisings in civs with the Slavery option enabled, etc.

  2. Or how about running both games at once?
    I play the despot, you play the rebel, and my goal is to crush the rebellion and yours is to overthrow me. We both see completely different interfaces, have different goals, and get a different game. When I spend more money on bread and circuses, you have a harder time recruiting demonstrators. When your followers take to the streets, I see civil disorder and my productivity nosedives.
    America’s Army has something similar — you always play the Americans, and the game shows your opponents with the uniforms and equipment of ememy forces. The other team sees themselves and their teammates as Americans. But in that game, each team has the same objectives, and the changes are just cosmetic.

  3. Now I’ve got a great idea. Build the empire in the normal Civ 4, then switch to Mike’s expansion pack, where you lead a worker’s revolution by careful organizing, pamphleteering, and arms smuggling between cities. When it succeeds, you switch back to the normal game, but now you have an inefficient police state.

  4. Civ 4 does include slavery and conscription into the game model, but this is a “god game” not a “peon game” so I don’t think it’s likely we’ll see your suggestion in the next expansion pack!

  5. I suppose it’s best that he learns about the downsides of mass starvation in Civ 3 than through personal experience.
    I still haven’t seen the game that allows you to play as a serf, slave, or indentured servant. I suppose it would get repetitive as well as frustrating.

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