Originally published on Trevor Trove on May 11, 2016
Civilization VI has been announced and will release on October 21. As a long-time fan of the franchise going all the way back to the original game, I’m afraid I’ll probably be losing many hours to this one later in the year.
Civilization is one of those games I always point to when people deride video games as nothing more than frivolous, over-priced nonsense. The care and attention to detail that has been put into those games over the years taught me more about the history of the world than I actually remember from classes in high school.
It’s where I learned about historical world leaders and civilizations. I would spend hours upon hours building magnificent cities and cram as many Wonders of the World into them as I could. Those games are probably the first instances I had of learning about different philosophies and religions. And I spend hours reading about the elements and battle units featured in the game in the various Civilopedias over the years.
Growing up, my sister and I would play seemingly endless games, taking turns and nearly always forming alliances where we would meet and share each others technological advances in order to gain the edge over the rest of the world. She rarely had the patience to go through an entire game though and eventually I would take over and play for both of us. Still, those long sessions together are some of my fondest memories gaming with her, probably second only to our Pokemon adventures.
I have a better understanding of the world around me thanks to Civilization and I’m ecstatic that the game has continued to touch so many lives in all of its different permutations over the years.