Outside Influences

After playing the game Civilization IV for the vast majority of the semester I have realized the success of a society is based off a great deal of factors some being luck others self-determined. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond discusses many of the factors that explain why some civilizations succeed while others fail. Some of the factors that a society controls would be military strategy, budgeting of nation’s resources, and allocation of laborers. However the factors that a civilization has no control over are far more interesting to me. For example Diamond points out: east-west axis, wild species, arable land and water, as well as ability to expand as all key factors that contribute to the success of a civilization. But these seemingly obvious factors based off luck are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues that shape and determine whether a society will prosper or collapse.
The history of Civilizations has played a role in being a gatekeeper of societies helping to determine which ones are allowed to go through and prosper and which ones have to collapse. This can be explained by if there is an opening for a Civilization to break through and become the super power of the world. For example during the high point of the Roman Empire there was no way any society could overtake them and there was little room for civilizations to become great before Rome set their eyes on it and took it over. Any dominate power would never let a civilization grow to a considerable size because then it could pose a threat and challenge their power. So it does matter the timing of a society to succeed and become dominate because if a world super power is reigning their supremacy over all lands it would be extremely difficult for a society to grow and become a player as a world power. And then to show the alternative, currently no single civilization is dominating the world. The United States, UK, and various western European nations have been the super powers. But recently no single society has shown a dominate force and decided to expand and suppress the will of other nations. So China has grown drastically in the past decade largely due to globalization of production and markets. And the timing has been right no power shot them down or made an active attempt to prevent them from growing, and this has allowed China to gain vast power and use their population and growing economy to exert themselves over the world.
The game however does not account for this. Sure civilizations around you can wage war and lead to your collapse. But there is no fundamental rule or principle in this game that helps to determine or control what civilizations have the power to bring you down. When I created successful civilization that exerted their power I simply had a strong build up of resources then used I my surplus of food and soldiers as well as other resources to dominate in battle and conquer new lands. So my point is that even though the game recognizes the influence of outside threats and forces. It fails to properly address the role of time in the rise of a society and how other cultures and neighboring civilizations play a role in effecting a building civilization.

fate of civilizations

The game Civilization IV basis its premise of winning the game around supporting a society through the ages and preventing it from collapsing from domestic or international conflict. However for me simply creating a civilization that stands the test of time is just boring, I just simply can not sit at a computer for a few hours just to sustain life. So throughout playing the game I picked up different strategies and employed different tactics to make the game more interesting and exciting for me. Most civilizations of mine that collapsed fell apart because of my bizarre and insane military tactics that I used in order for me to stay entertained. However the more I study actual civilizations that have collapsed in the past I am realizing that my tactics were relatively mild and conservative compared to tactics used by some societies before their collapse or demise.
For example many times I would spend a few generations creating a food surplus and improving my society’s infrastructure, in order to prepare my civilization for war. After years of build up I would go to war against all my neighbors and battle on many different front trying to gain as much power and territory as possible. This may seem absurd and may look like just a way I used the game to entertain myself, however when looking back in history one can draw many parallels between my fictional gaming war and actually societies. Once Hitler took power it took him less than a decade to create a World War and have Germany fighting a multi-front war that would drain a nation of its resources, prosperity, and young men dying in a vane effort. Also Napoleon of France built up a huge military and marched a million men to Moscow to show he could conquer everyone and anything. Sadly on a very small fraction of his men returned alive to tell stories of food and supply shortages, as well as under preparation for the cold weather that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of good men. Showing that my strategy of military build up then blitzing the enemy with everything I had was not madness nor an entertaining tactic, but a reality, a very similar scenarios to other civilizations that once were grand but eventually poor decision making led to their collapse.
One lesson that the game Civilization IV taught me was it only take one person, one totalitarian ruler to make poor decisions for a powerful world power to collapse. Normally when thinking about the collapse of a society and regarding Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel as well as Collapse you only think about a civilization as a whole collapsing. But what if the people really do nothing to contribute to that collapse it’s purely the work of abusive rulers who are motivated by personal gain and do not wish to serve the people. For example in Nazi Germany the average farmer worker and laborer increased productivity during the build up of Germany however that did not save the society, 99% of the population could be doing everything perfectly but it only takes a select few to decide the fate of a society.

vacation blog

Playing Civilization IV on my spring break vacation definitely gave me a different perspective and outlook regarding societies and why some succeed and others fail. Sure success of a society can be regarded as strictly its ability to survive and grow as well as withstand the test of time. But to me and anyone who enjoys a high quality of life I am sure they will disagree with that and argue for a society to truly be successful it needs to grow advance and present its citizens with opportunities to relax and have pleasurable experiences. Sure the civilization of Papua New Guinea has been around for over ten thousand years, but what enjoyment and pleasure do people living in that society get out of their life. Sure I am basing this logic that materialism brings happiness. But having a great time in south Florida on the beach made me realize how lucky I am to live in a successful civilization. When does a farmer living in rural Papua New Guinea get a break or a vacation? Never.
Jared Diamond’s new book Collapse as well as Guns, Germs, and Steel address the factors that lead to the success of some civilizations and the failures of others. However neither book adequately addresses that success is not completely based off longevity or survival. Ask any person wither they would live a prosperous happy life full of luxuries and die and age 70 or live a life of struggles and difficulties and die at age 80. The vast majority would prefer the prior and enjoy themselves and die earlier. So when studying civilizations it is important to consider that there is much more to most people’s lives then just waking up working, eating, sleeping, and doing it all over again everyday for the rest of their life. However the game Civilization IV like Diamond neglects to see more in civilizations and lives then just survival and technology.
Playing the game and eventually winning the game is strictly based off ones ability to have a civilization last the test of time and simply survive through the years. Sure technological and agricultural advances all help a civilization and grow, become stronger and increase the likelihood of survival, but does the happiness of the citizens mean anything. Currently throughout the world the most important issue to all people is the quality of their life. No one wants to just work and barely get by. Current societies are separated into either developed or developing nations, or 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world nations. The key separating factors that separate the higher ranked countries from their lower counterparts are the varying qualities of life that the nation can provide for their citizens.
So when I played Civilization IV from my balcony I realized that there was so much more to a society that this game totally neglected. Sure the game addresses the key issues that deal with strategy of developing a long living successful society, but what issues are most important to people living on this world know and the people who walked in our foot prints in prior generations. Many civilizations have been overtaken and succumbed to outside invaders, but does that really lead to changes that matter to the people. In the game being invaded and losing control over your lands means you lost the game and your civilization failed. But to the average American colonist did life change after independence was gained, did it really matter to the average Joe? Or for a person of the Roman Empire living in the outside territories of the civilization when the society collapsed did it really matter to them, to be quite logical they probably never knew anything changed. The game treats independence and home rule the end all. But would the average nonracial American want to be overtaken and enjoy the same quality of life, or maintain independence and live a short life span in hellish conditions? Sure nationalism and independence motivate some and are the end all. But to the average person people just want to be able to enjoy themselves in a happy high quality of life.
So when I realized how little independence and home rule mattered to me, I was able to determine that to lot of people the game Civilization IV left out a very important characteristic of successful civilizations, the overall happiness of the people living in that society. A great military with secure borders means nothing if the people are constantly in a day to day struggle to feed themselves and their families. Diamond gets away with ignoring quality of life as a factor of successful civilizations because dominance, technology, and resources are both characteristics of powerful successful as well as enjoyable societies. Therefore the factors that contribute to a high quality of life are normally the same as the factors that lead to a successful society.

This game really gets me thinking

After logging well over 30 hours of game play it became the game Civilization IV was not nearly as advanced of a video game as I had previously thought. I realized I had mastered the game and had a more than adequate understanding of why some civilizations are successful and why other collapse. So when my civilizations began to collapse after planning everything out to the tee and restarting the game well over a hundred times to better understand they way in which Civilization IV operates I discovered the artificial intelligence used on the more advanced difficulty levels of the game is flawed in the sense a civilization will collapse from no apart reason, basically it makes the game so hard by almost in a sense cheating. Sure everyone wants to be challenged when playing video games, but nothing is more annoying than when the game screws you over. Playing Civilization IV brought back old memories of Roller Coaster Tycoon, very similarly that game more difficult settings did the same thing.
Even though the artificial intelligence of Civilization IV can be extremely unrealistic and annoying the game still taught me valuable lessons this week dealing with successes and failures of societies. The most valuable learning experience in the game recently has been how to control a huge empire, such as the one possessed by the Roman Empire for so long. It seems so basic, controlling vast amounts of land, enemies being too afraid to start war, huge crop surplus, and technological advances. However controlling a huge empire is no cake walk. The more a society grows the more variables lurking and visible that can eat away and eventually lead to the collapse of a once great civilization. Originally, when first starting up a society everything goes relatively smoothly as long as you budget ones resources appropriately. Much like colonial America, never investing too much into military, new technologies, or westward expansion, but allowing, everything to grow steadily and evenly allowing for the build up of a great civilization. The Roman Empire was another prime example of this slow build up in all sectors of a civilization that allowed a balanced spread of power and slow expansion became rapid expansion, and rapid expansion led to the build up of the greatest, largest, and most powerful civilization the world has ever see.
One of my biggest problems is my impatience I know that I need to slow, and methodical in my decision making process to form a successful civilization, however it is always so tempting to make risky military moves to try to expand more rapidly than safely possible. Sometimes this works, investing a large majority of a society’s resources in the military will allow for a quick takeover of neighboring weak societies and sometimes this success can continue for an extended period of time. But if risky military endeavors don’t lead to the collapse of a society based strictly on conquering territories in an unorganized speedy fashion. Then the lack of resources allocated to other parts of everyday life, such as agriculture, city development, and improving technologies and modernizing will all contribute to the downfall of a civilization.
Playing the game just yesterday made me drew a parallel to modern times, and I posed a question to myself. Is our great nation, an extremely powerful civilization allocating far too much of our nations resources to military endeavors, and neglecting other necessary aspects for the success and continuation of a society? Any time in the game when I engage in multi-front wars and began to neglecting taking care of all the nations citizens, and ignore other necessities my civilizations always collapse. So with the United States engaging in a war in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the ever increasing amount of troops stationed outside the nation in war and conflict torn areas, is our nation going to experience the same fate as my civilizations in this simulation computer game?