Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 9, Thursday, 3-10

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Class today was meeting in the computer lab.

"Okay," Alex said. "I apologize, first of all. We're taking a brief hiatus from the syllabus and typical class matters, this week. Class will return next week in its full discussion glory."

She held up a box. "This week, we're playing a computer game. One that starts you as the leader of a very small civilization -- just a few settlers in a town -- and asks you to conquer the world, all the while making decisions about what technologies you would like to pursue and how best to keep your citizens happy."

"So." She nodded at them. "You'll encounter some of the pitfalls we've discussed here, and hopefully that means you'll learn something. Shall we?"

Comments

Play the Game - NAT09

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

For those of you who never played the wondrous glory that was Civ II, there is a clone of it called "Freeciv" that is available for online playing here (http://www.freeciv.net/).

(I haven't actually tried playing the Freeciv variant, but fair warning, Civ II is more addictive than most street drugs.)

Re: Play the Game - NAT09

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

Eventually, Alexander figured his way out around the computer game.

...that didn't mean he was going to be very good at it, though, and many groans and sighs and "Zounds!"s were ensuing from him as his Civilization failed to flourish. He hoped he didn't sound like he was making excuses to put the blame on the format and not the leader...

Re: Play the Game - NAT09

[likes_scoundrels]

Leia started playing.

And quickly found herself thoroughly addicted.

Re: Play the Game - NAT09

[thinkbetterofme.livejournal.com]

Faramir settled in front of the screen and made a face. He had figured out the basics of a computer so far, but... They were merely basics, mostly from watching other people us it.

The game was just strange and he was soon lost.

Re: Play the Game - NAT09

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara's civilisation was lost to errant keystrokes three times before she finally gave in and pulled off her gloves to use the keyboard.

Things went somewhat better after that.

Re: Play the Game - NAT09

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall manged to build himself a large and thriving civilization that was peaceful but well-defended. He attributed his success to good delegation (i.e. letting the computer "advisers" automate as much as possible).