I did something I haven’t done in years today. I made the mistake of firing up Civilization, ignoring the risks of its well known time distortion field, and found that I had lost 4 hours. (needless to say this wasn’t any of the 7 things I absolutely was supposed to get done today, oops) But it did give me an interesting idea on how Civ could be expanded.

I’m not a very good Civ player, I play it meditatively rather then strategically, and sort of like an over grown version of SimCity. I discover interesting terrain, build cities, and construct Jane Jacob’s Economy of Cities style stories about them. I could really do without the whole warfare aspect of the game. Which is why I love Civ III.

First, the terrain is more varied with the new luxuries and strategic resources. Not only that but you get to act out a sort of Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court scenario; you’re opponents have never heard of iron, saltpeter, or uranium, but you have, and you can make educated guesses about where it might show up in the next age.

Second, the is an alternative to warfare for taking over cities, culture! I love the idea of culture, you can dominate the world without ever firing a shot. (though occasionally one of your client states has to fire a short for you, and a surgical blitzkrieg to control key resources isn’t out of the question)

The Problem

Still I got to thinking this afternoon. Here I am in the 12th century of my Iroquois monarchy. I’ve had two golden ages, built most of the wonders of the world, control most of the games luxuries, and am generally the unquestioned global super power, and have been as long as anyone can remember. So why aren’t cities defecting to my culture in droves? All of which made me think of a proposal for two new technologies, a new unit, and a new wonder of the world.

Propaganda

Propaganda has existed through out the ages, but lets say it really gets rolling with Luther and the printing press. Propaganda allows you to build pamphleteers who work something like diplomats did in CivII. They should be a zero strength unit, that when moved onto another civ’s city makes a “culture strike”, either increasing the number of unhappy citizens, or swaying them to look favorably upon your civilization. (or perhaps suppressing the culture production of targetted city). Almost certainly wouldn’t work while your at war with the people. (after all “hearts and mind” strategies are almost always dismal failures) It might allow you to build monuments, which act as culture “re-broadcasting” posts. (which might look like little standing stones, or minarets, or flag poles depending on your civ)

Advertising

Advertising is the next generation of propaganda, when it has become all pervasive and normalized, and is no longer viewed as a form of violence. It almost certainly depends on the radio, and might not be available until the modern era. On top of whatever other effects advertising has, it allows you to build the new wonder of the world, “Hollywood”. Hollywood dramatically increases the range of your civilizations culture, making it possible for cities anywhere on the globe to flip, no longer just those nearby. In particular any city which is the source of a trade route is particularly likely to succumb. This is all balanced by the fact that it is very late in the game when you get Hollywood, and most cities have been established for multiple centuries, and are deeply steeped in their own culture. Advertising also makes the minor wonder (meaning each civilization can build it), “TV culture” available. TV culture allows you to get most of the increased commerce and research benefits of democracy, without having to deal with war weariness, and with only a minor bump in corruption.

So I’m a self confessed media geek, but I think it would make the game much more interesting.

Gone alas are my days of hacking Civ I, where I would spend hours sitting there in ResEdit, twiddling hex to create interesting new effects. So you’ll have to petition Sid for this all.