![\"In](\"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Civ-2-Government.png\")
<\/a>While this is the first time that Civ<\/em> has included a mechanic called \u201cideology,\u201d the series has touched on the subject in different ways since its inception.\u00a0 Earlier games allowed the player to choose between different forms of government like monarchy, communism, and democracy.\u00a0 While these were certainly very simple abstractions, their procedural implementation makes for an interesting commentary on post-Cold War American views on the world.\u00a0 Some governments are more \u201cadvanced\u201d than others, with democracy sitting atop the pile.\u00a0 Communism is aggressive and militaristic, with fundamentalist religious states being even more so.\u00a0 Perhaps significantly, democracy in early Civ<\/em> games tends to be less about a government run by the people and more about capitalism.\u00a0 The main appeal of democracy in terms of gameplay is that it gives you flexible tax rates and tons of trade.\u00a0 In fact, the only mechanic that reflects a government of the people, the senate preventing the player from declaring war, is a definite disadvantage for the player \u2013 a problem to be worked around (either through espionage or by controlling the United Nations), rather than the core tenet of the democratic ideal.<\/p>\n In Civ V<\/em>, as Emily has previously noted<\/a>, the previous models of government were replaced by the various social policies trees.\u00a0 This allowed for a much more nuanced and customizable form of government (although as Emily points out, some previous options like slavery were removed).\u00a0 Unlike previous models, however, adding a new social policy is almost always a benefit with no strings attached.\u00a0 Rather than making conscious trade offs, such as sacrificing military flexibility for citizen happiness, the optimal strategy in Civ V<\/em> is simply to accumulate as many social policies as you can.\u00a0 Having a culture with a republic is good, but having a culture with a republic, a monarchy, and a meritocracy is even better.\u00a0 In fact, the only negative effects you can incur by adopting a new policy is when you open a tree that is incompatible with another you have invested in, such as rationalism and piety.\u00a0 Brave New World<\/em> makes few changes to this aspect of the system, aside from multiplying the number of potential bonuses associated with your final choice of ideology\u00a0 (although science and religion are no longer mutually exclusive).\u00a0 Although the social policy system is a far more interesting mechanic in most ways, it also presents a much less robust and less critical view of ideology.\u00a0 It is perfectly acceptable to have a\u00a0 culture that has supposedly embraced ideals such as universal suffrage, while still being run by an oligarchy, or create a socialist state that maintains the aristocracy and landed elite that have existed for thousands of years.<\/p>\n Of all Sid Meier’s grand strategy games, the one that I find presents the most interesting model of ideology is outside the Civilization<\/em> franchise proper.\u00a0 Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri<\/em>, created just after Meier left MicroProse to co-found Firaxis, is different from the Civilization<\/em> games not just in its extraterrestrial setting, but in its much darker, more cynical tone.\u00a0 Rather than the utopian premise of creating a perfect society that underlies most Civ<\/em> games, Alpha Centauri<\/em> is set after civilization on earth has collapsed and humanity\u2019s last hope, a mission to colonize another world, has broken up into squabbling factions vying for power.\u00a0 Perhaps it is this more pessimistic tone that makes Alpha Centauri’s portrayal of ideology seem more realistic and human.<\/p>\n While each of the factions essentially represents a competing ideology, such as environmentalism, capitalism, or militarism, the player’s society is not set in stone upon choosing a faction.\u00a0 As the game progresses, the player is able to choose her faction’s ideological stance, via the \u201csocial engineering\u201d screen, on a number of issues, including politics, economics, and the society’s vision of the future.\u00a0 Each of these choices has both advantages and disadvantages.\u00a0 For example, a free market economy boosts the production of wealth, but increases damage to the environment and creates unhappiness amongst the underclasses.\u00a0 A green economy is very efficient and protects the environment, but tends to restrict growth.\u00a0 Choosing certain policies also affects the player’s relationship with other factions.\u00a0 Choosing scientific knowledge as your society’s primary value, for example, will anger the religious faction, making peaceful relations more difficult and potentially igniting a war.<\/p>\n The most compelling aspects of Brave New World’s<\/em> ideology system seem to build on the mechanics from Alpha Centauri’s<\/em> social engineering.\u00a0 While there are still no inherent drawbacks for adopting an ideology or ideological tenet, competing ideologies now influence other nations in a similar, though much more complex way.\u00a0 Unlike other social policies, the player’s choice of ideology is subject to public opinion.\u00a0 If the people don’t like the ideology that is forced upon them, it creates unhappiness.\u00a0 If this discontent grows, it can eventually grow into a revolution and force the player to adopt a different ideology, even if that ideology is less than ideal for her long-term strategy.\u00a0 Public opinion is in turn influenced by the culture of other nations.\u00a0 If another nation with a differing ideology generates a large amount of tourism (the mechanical representation of cultural influence exported to other nations) in your country, the people will naturally begin to favor adopting such ideals themselves.\u00a0 Ideology also influences the way that diplomacy plays out in the world congress.<\/p>\n Although Brave New World<\/em> may not address many of the aspects of ideology that seem to be somewhat lacking in the social policy model, it does make a number of new and interesting scenarios possible in Civ V<\/em>.\u00a0 It is now possible for a game to involve the fall of communism (or democracy, for that manner), through societal pressure rather than war, allowing a more varied, and maybe even more authentic feeling, alternate history to emerge.<\/p>\n Also, for those who might be interested in comparing different Civ<\/em> titles for themselves, the Humble Bundle has rather serendipitously launched the Humble Sid Meier Bundle<\/a> today, which contains a number of different Civilization<\/em> games, including Brave New World<\/em>.\u00a0 And as always, Alpha Centauri<\/em> can be found on GOG<\/a>, free from pesky DRMs.<\/p>\n Ian Bogost, (2006). Videogames and Ideological Frames<\/cite><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Videogames are inextricably bound to ideology.\u00a0 In most cases, this is not by design, but simply because game developers tend to create virtual worlds that reflect the particular way in which they see the real world.\u00a0 As Ian Bogost (2006) has noted, these ideological frames are rarely explicit, making itContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":4411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[44,362,28,361],"coauthors":[311],"class_list":["entry","author-christiansen","post-4410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-civilization","tag-game-design","tag-game-mechanics","tag-ideology"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Civ-V-Ideology.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4419,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410\/revisions\/4419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4410"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=4410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>References<\/h2>\n