As my last blog I wanted to generally compare the way that all of the decisions you make in the game, relates directly to what earlier civilizations had to do as well. Trading, what to grow, what not to grow, what to concentrate on, religion or no religion, and the list goes on and on. As you saw in my earlier blogs, my concentration was on the most important subjects I felt were the crucial points in creating a successful civilization. War, trade, relationships, and expanding cities borders and the number of cities I felt were the most important issues that will determine what the ending result of your civilization will be.
The game is a great way to compare real life situations from early time to this day and age. The way you communicate with people, other businesses, and enemies is an issue that is important throughout history and today. The game teaches you to learn the in and outs of your civilization and how important it is to learn from your mistakes and work harder to get back on your feet when making a mistake. I have learned a lot playing this game, and felt it was a positive learning experience so that I can use what I learned about creating something to everyday life in business and relationships.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
blog #5
One subject that has been hard to comprehend and master is the way to trade with other civilizations. At first you would think that either you can just trade or not trade with another group. In fact it is much more complicated. Every decision made about trading and creating relationships can affect the future of your civilization. If you decide to deny a trade with a certain group of people, it could cause war. If you decide to trade a lot with a certain group, they could ask you to go to war with someone else. If you ask for someone else to go to war and they don’t, it could change your relationship with them. If you ask them to go to war and they do it could be a perfect way to get one civilization out of the way.
All of these factors have to come into mind when deciding what to do when it comes to trading and relationships. I know for a fact, that when I decided to start trading at first, I could only think of positive things to come in the future. But instead, I did not want to make a couple certain trades in a row because it did not benefit me, and ended up creating an enemy. Of course like I said in my earlier blogs, I do not want to go to war because I have had a bad experience with it, and have decided there is nothing good to come out of it. So right away I corrected my mistake by making most of the trades that they wanted in order to stay far away from war.
This game is more about luck and praying that nothing happens to your civilization, it is about your knowledge about your surroundings and the people around you. If you know what the civilizations around you are doing and how they are doing, you can in return work to surpass them or create things they do not have which can lead to some positive trade. This knowledge is crucial to the success of your civilization, and without knowing your surroundings; you can be caught off guard in more ways then one. I am curious to find out what challenges will come my way in the future of my civilization, and if I am well prepared enough to overcome them.
In relation to real life in today’s time and in ancient times, knowing the people or competition around you is the only way you can succeed and become better. When it comes to business, athletics, relationships, or anything else you can think of. If you do not have knowledge of your surroundings, it will be impossible to gain an advantage and surpass them in the long run.
All of these factors have to come into mind when deciding what to do when it comes to trading and relationships. I know for a fact, that when I decided to start trading at first, I could only think of positive things to come in the future. But instead, I did not want to make a couple certain trades in a row because it did not benefit me, and ended up creating an enemy. Of course like I said in my earlier blogs, I do not want to go to war because I have had a bad experience with it, and have decided there is nothing good to come out of it. So right away I corrected my mistake by making most of the trades that they wanted in order to stay far away from war.
This game is more about luck and praying that nothing happens to your civilization, it is about your knowledge about your surroundings and the people around you. If you know what the civilizations around you are doing and how they are doing, you can in return work to surpass them or create things they do not have which can lead to some positive trade. This knowledge is crucial to the success of your civilization, and without knowing your surroundings; you can be caught off guard in more ways then one. I am curious to find out what challenges will come my way in the future of my civilization, and if I am well prepared enough to overcome them.
In relation to real life in today’s time and in ancient times, knowing the people or competition around you is the only way you can succeed and become better. When it comes to business, athletics, relationships, or anything else you can think of. If you do not have knowledge of your surroundings, it will be impossible to gain an advantage and surpass them in the long run.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
March 6th blog
My main topic for the past blog was about war and the positives and negatives... moving on, i have started to recognize all of the things i have to do in order to develop my civilization and culture. Not only my defences, but instead, work on religion, law, art, science, and everything that will make my cities grow and become a smarter, spiritual, and in return stronger.
I have been accomplishing many of the strategies i had set my mind on doing such as building as many cities as possible, and also have taken care of the necessities of life such as food, gold, writing, and so on. The benefits of my many cities has helped me regrow my civilization after the stupid war i decided to start for no reason. i can break up certain cities to do certain things... one city is dedicated to building workers, one for my army, one for settlers and explorers, and the others for objectives that are important at the time. This strategy has helped me do the best i can in producing what i need. I'm sure other civilizations in real life have used these strategies, because in order to take care of certain necessities while also researching and experimenting, you need more then one area or city to work with all of these objectives. You need to space out your needs and in the end every city will benefit from one another.
I don't feel like I'm up to par with all of the civilizations surrounding me, but i know with all of my cities working together, i will be able to catch up with the times, and eventual surpass them in the long run.
I have been accomplishing many of the strategies i had set my mind on doing such as building as many cities as possible, and also have taken care of the necessities of life such as food, gold, writing, and so on. The benefits of my many cities has helped me regrow my civilization after the stupid war i decided to start for no reason. i can break up certain cities to do certain things... one city is dedicated to building workers, one for my army, one for settlers and explorers, and the others for objectives that are important at the time. This strategy has helped me do the best i can in producing what i need. I'm sure other civilizations in real life have used these strategies, because in order to take care of certain necessities while also researching and experimenting, you need more then one area or city to work with all of these objectives. You need to space out your needs and in the end every city will benefit from one another.
I don't feel like I'm up to par with all of the civilizations surrounding me, but i know with all of my cities working together, i will be able to catch up with the times, and eventual surpass them in the long run.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Feb 25 post
Since I decided to be arrogant and start a war as I told you in my last blog, I have been rebuilding and trying to figure out what went wrong with my army ever since. Maybe my civilization was just not developed enough or maybe I didn’t plan my attacks well enough, or maybe the other civilization was just a lot smarter then I was. I won’t find out until I decide to go to war again (which I am planning on doing so I can get my self confidence back). I think that unless your civilization is completely developed and stronger then any others, there is no reason to go to war, it will only hurt you in the long run.
I think that even if I did win my first war, all of the damage, time, and people put into winning the war, would not have been worth it. I would have been better off just sitting back and playing the good guy who shares with everyone and doesn’t upset anyone. These are the types of things I am learning by playing this game. Every decision that a civilization makes can have its positives and negatives in the long run.
I’m sure civilizations in the early times went through the same decisions that I am going through with right now, for example in guns germs and steal it is explained how the Europeans took over the Indians in American. But what if the Indians were the ones with the new diseases or more powerful weapons, it was all chance, and the Europeans came out on top lucky for them.
I hope to find out how my civilization recovers and if I can ever become strong and powerful enough to take my chances with another war. This time I will be able to learn from my mistakes and wait for the perfect time to strike. Failure is not an option. Oh yeah.
I think that even if I did win my first war, all of the damage, time, and people put into winning the war, would not have been worth it. I would have been better off just sitting back and playing the good guy who shares with everyone and doesn’t upset anyone. These are the types of things I am learning by playing this game. Every decision that a civilization makes can have its positives and negatives in the long run.
I’m sure civilizations in the early times went through the same decisions that I am going through with right now, for example in guns germs and steal it is explained how the Europeans took over the Indians in American. But what if the Indians were the ones with the new diseases or more powerful weapons, it was all chance, and the Europeans came out on top lucky for them.
I hope to find out how my civilization recovers and if I can ever become strong and powerful enough to take my chances with another war. This time I will be able to learn from my mistakes and wait for the perfect time to strike. Failure is not an option. Oh yeah.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Feb 18 post
While playing the game, I tried to think about diamond and how he explained why some civilizations prospered and many others did not. Sure, some of the civilizations have not succeeded or advanced in any ways just because there out of luck and don’t have any resources or animals to work with, but the main reason I feel that a city or entire civilization would not survive is because of there decision to farm or hunt and gather.
I did not put much work into hunting or anything of that sort, and instead I tried to advance in farming and fishing, and certain things that can be done while not moving around. Doing this helped my cities grow in population and in territory. Not having to worry about hunting and gathering, helps with other things, such as the time to research in other fields of science, mathematics, astronomy, or religion.
After making my civilization pretty strong, I thought I should try to go to war and see just how hard it is to win a battle or take over another civilization. Right away I realized that it what not as easy as I thought it was, and I ended up making peace with them before I got destroyed. Now I have to concentrate more on rebuilding like I did in the beginning rather then advancing more in things that were not scarce. I also ended up losing two of my cities that were not well developed or defended well enough.
I did not put much work into hunting or anything of that sort, and instead I tried to advance in farming and fishing, and certain things that can be done while not moving around. Doing this helped my cities grow in population and in territory. Not having to worry about hunting and gathering, helps with other things, such as the time to research in other fields of science, mathematics, astronomy, or religion.
After making my civilization pretty strong, I thought I should try to go to war and see just how hard it is to win a battle or take over another civilization. Right away I realized that it what not as easy as I thought it was, and I ended up making peace with them before I got destroyed. Now I have to concentrate more on rebuilding like I did in the beginning rather then advancing more in things that were not scarce. I also ended up losing two of my cities that were not well developed or defended well enough.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Feb. 5th civilization entry
When comparing the game (civilization 4) and the book “Guns, Germs, and Steel” along with real history of civilizations, there are many things that are similar. When starting your own civilization, you got to make all the decisions that can affect what the outcome of your cities will be. Should you farm or hunt, explore or be stationary, build or research. All of these decisions affect what you can and cannot do later on.
One thing I enjoyed was deciding whether to work with other civilizations or go to war. Obviously at your early stages of construction, going to war is not even an option, and you must do whatever it takes not to go to war or else you’re screwed. I made sure I didn’t get into any wars by sucking up to the other civilizations that were stronger then I was, by making whatever trades or agreements that they wanted.
Once getting the hang of this game, it becomes addicting, and can definitely teach you all about how difficult it was to start up and keep a civilization running. I chose the Greek empire as my starting point, and my location seems to be very good. I have forests and jungles, lakes, rivers, and large amounts of land to work with. I haven’t gotten very far in the game yet because I’m just getting the hang of playing and just learning the little things that can help with the growth of my civilization; like building as many cities as I can and expanding my land. This will hopefully help produce a larger population, and in return increase my economy, religion, sciences, and territory. In later blogs I will be able to post what has helped me and what has not, and compare that with what other civilizations have gone through in the past and what desicions they could have made that would have changed their future.
One thing I enjoyed was deciding whether to work with other civilizations or go to war. Obviously at your early stages of construction, going to war is not even an option, and you must do whatever it takes not to go to war or else you’re screwed. I made sure I didn’t get into any wars by sucking up to the other civilizations that were stronger then I was, by making whatever trades or agreements that they wanted.
Once getting the hang of this game, it becomes addicting, and can definitely teach you all about how difficult it was to start up and keep a civilization running. I chose the Greek empire as my starting point, and my location seems to be very good. I have forests and jungles, lakes, rivers, and large amounts of land to work with. I haven’t gotten very far in the game yet because I’m just getting the hang of playing and just learning the little things that can help with the growth of my civilization; like building as many cities as I can and expanding my land. This will hopefully help produce a larger population, and in return increase my economy, religion, sciences, and territory. In later blogs I will be able to post what has helped me and what has not, and compare that with what other civilizations have gone through in the past and what desicions they could have made that would have changed their future.
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