Anyone want to help?

[benstandby]

I'm going to write a "prospectus" for my project in ANTH-599 Independant Study. I have chosen to do an ethnography on the civ3 PTW multiplayer community.

A prospectus is a description of the game that is tailored to someone who has NEVER played a video game in their life. Plus my research questions and methods and some other stuff that you don't want to hear about.

If anyone can help, please email me at bensshow@hotmail.com



Thanks, guys



... and girls

[Oerdin]

I could use some help figuring out how I got creamed in my last game.

[eris]

I prefer not to send email from my private account. So I'll post a reply.

Try something like this. (This is a challange I have tried to meet before in describing to non-gaming why I am addicted to this strange map-looking thing on my computer.)

Civilization is a game that gives the "feel" of guiding a culture from its earliest start as a tribe of settlers up to modern times. It is NOT an exact simulation of history. It has its antecedents in pre-computer military stategy games where tiles representing military units of various strengths were moved across maps representing historical or imaginary battlegrounds. Civilization adds an additional factor to that military strategy by allowing the player control of various economic and cultural aspects of their empire. This is done through the concept of a collection of "cities" that make up an "empire". Each city has a surrounding area of geography that affects its capabilities and production.

The player then makes a series of decisions regarding the cities and the improvements made to the surrounding geography. For example, an area might be "irrigated" to increase food production which increases population in the city. An area might be "mined" to increase the production capability of that city. "Roads" can be built to increase mobility of units and the commerce of the city. The production and commerce go to create and support military units, such as ancient age spearmen and archers or modern age tanks and infantry as those become available. The production can also go to improvements in the city, these improvements can increase the happiness of the citizens, the military defense of the city, or the production capacity of the city. Each decision involves a trade-off of factors that can sometimes be quite subtle and intriguing.

All of this is overlaid with considerations of concepts such as Diplomacy, Scientific Research and Culture impact, each concept affecting all other aspects of the game

The overall balance of decisions leads to the acheivement of various "Victory" goals. The standard victory, going back to the military strategy antecedents, is a military one. If you conquer and eliminate all other civilizations, you have won. Other victory conditions involve Diplomacy, Scientific achievements, or Cultural dominance. The choices allow for different playing styles and different outcomes from one game to another.

The game starts with a large selection of historically based Civilizations: England, Carthage, China, Egypt, and many others. The Civilizations each have initial characteristics and starting advantages that add to their having individual "personalities". Some are militarily aggressive, some are oriented towards scientific research, some are oriented towards cultural dominance. On top of these starting personalities, the player adds an individual personality based on the accumulation of decisions made, pushing towards a commercial empire, making a giant military, or whatever style of play the player chooses.

This wide variety of decisions represents a complexity that can daunt the beginning player, but the complexities have been reduced to a relatively few set of controls and menus that allow the player to choose what level of control they wish to exert over their Civilization. Some players will want to "micromanage" the tiniest details. Some players will allow the citizens and workers to make many of the decisions themselves. Everyone can find the level of play that is satisfying to them.

The end result is an immersive "experience" of being in an epic story starting at 4000 BC and moving to 2050 AD (unless you win earlier!), of being a guiding light for your people and achieving superiority over the world despite many obstacles, unexpected events, and of course, all those other Civilizations that are trying to do the same thing.

Civilization III PTW changes the experience by elevating from player vs computer Civilizations, to player vs player. As complex as the computer players may be, they are still not as complex and devious as another human. Many people have found that this option adds a whole new set of challenges to a game with many levels of challenge already built in.

So, what would you do if you were Cleopatra, leading your people towards their rightful destiny? Would you make war? Would you build a commercial empire that no one else could ever match? What compromises would you be forced to make along the way? Try Civilization III and you might find out.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I could use some help figuring out how I got creamed in my last game.

Post it in the strategy forum, and I'm sure several people will download it and offer advice.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Oh, and eris, that's a pretty damn good description of Civ.

[vmxa1]

I think Oerdin was just pulling our leg.

[Theseus]

eris, that was great!

[Paddy]

Eris, you got talent there, hope you do not mind if I borrow your description to send to my family... let them know what I have been upto for the past eleven years....

[benstandby]

Originally posted by eris
Civilization is a game that gives the "feel" of guiding a culture from its earliest start as a tribe of settlers up to modern times. It is NOT an exact simulation of history.

This is a really good description. I hadn't thought of it like that.

Originally posted by eris Civilization allow[s] the player [to] control... various economic and cultural aspects of their empire. This is done through the concept of a collection of "cities" that make up an "empire". Each city has a surrounding area of geography that affects its capabilities and production.

Wow, well said.

Originally posted by eris
Civilization III PTW changes the experience by elevating from player vs computer Civilizations, to player vs player. As complex as the computer players may be, they are still not as complex and devious as another human. Many people have found that this option adds a whole new set of challenges to a game with many levels of challenge already built in.

True that.

All of this said, I didn't mean I need somebody to actually write the description for me, but yours includes elements that mine lacked which was why I posted here. Thank you. Let me know if I can quote you.

If anyone wants to help in later parts of the research (meaning play games with me and just keep track of a few things as you go), please email me at bensshow@hotmail.com

Thanks

Gotta love the threads

[Panag]

hi ,

, why dont you talk to some of the newseditors or owners , .........


have a nice day

[eris]

Originally posted by benstandby


Wow, well said.

All of this said, I didn't mean I need somebody to actually write the description for me, but yours includes elements that mine lacked which was why I posted here. Thank you. Let me know if I can quote you.

Thanks

Gotta love the threads

All that I put up on the forums is presented to the comunity as a gift. I do not have the strategic analysis skills that others exhibit, but I do have some skill with words and an occasionally unique viewpoint. We all give what we can. Your original post talked about the Civ community. This-giving-what-you-can is, in my mind, at the heart and the backbone of that community. And I do appreciate the kind words in folks' responses to my description. The responses and their tone are part of the community, too.

Use what you find of value with all my blessings. (Just so long as you don't share these secrets with the Babylonians, who are my main irritant (read "target") at the moment.)(he I have to consider the Americans, the Vikings and the mongols, who are setting up a hitory of cooperation among themselves and could become sort of alliance. That would be inconvenient, possibly painfully so.)

[benstandby]

I didn't get the response I needed in order to do the project as scientifically as I wanted, so I've switched focus.

I am now doing an ethnography of communication on Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, focusing on the honor code and how it is enforced. Also, I'm taking an etic behavioral perspective in order to avoid biased interview results that justify certain behaviors.

I'm sorry this project didn't work out. I really wanted to study this community.

Oh well, maybe for my Doctoral thesis. At the graduate level, I'm just too strapped for time for a civ3 project to work.

[Japher]

Ah, young Jedi, do not stray from your path. Fame, honor? A Jedi craves not these things...