Sid Meiers Civilization III: Complete Fact Sheet
Developer: Firaxis Games Publisher: 2K Games Platforms: PC Release Date: October 2004 Sid Meiers Civilization III: Complete is the ultimate Civ III experience delivering the most up-to-date version of this award winning game, along with both of the expansion packs: Civ III: Play The World - the updated and enhanced multiplayer expansion pack and Civ III: Conquests offering great new Civs, Scenarios, and Features. Civilization III: Complete provides more ways to win, more ways to explore, more strategies to employ, and more exciting modes of play all on 3 CDs in one little boxnirvana! Sid Meier's Civilization III is an exciting journey through time where players are challenged to create their own version of history as they match wits against the worlds greatest leaders and build, expand and rule a world dominating civilization to stand the test of time. New Strategies for Victory New Combat Options: Finer Levels of Control for Enhanced War Making Capabilities Greatly Expanded Diplomacy: Conversational Interface and "Bargaining Table". New Trade System: Reflecting the Central Role it Played in Mankinds Development New Technologies, Wonders of the World, and Great People Expand the Scope of the Game New Concept of Culture Easier to Use Interface and Streamlined Management Screens: Better Control of Your Civilization Full Set of Scenario Editors: Unprecedented Customizability The World Is More Alive: New Innovative World Map Generator The Most Detailed and Beautiful Art, Animations and Sound Ever Found in the Genre New Strategies for Victory You can still achieve victory by winning the space race or through military prowess and now you can plan the expansion of your empire and ultimate victory through: Diplomatic finesse: Become Secretary General of the UN or a ruthless trade baron through shrewd diplomacy.
Executive Plaza III / Suite 1100 / 11350 McCormick Rd / Hunt Valley MD 21031 Tel 410.891.3001 / Fax 410.891.3015 / www.firaxis.com
Sid Meiers Civilization III: Complete Fact Sheet
Cultural domination: Elevate your Civilization's status by creating a Culture that is the envy of other Civilizations.
New Combat Options Provide Finer Levels of Control for Enhanced War Making Capabilities Leaders: When your military is victorious in battle, great leaders may emerge who can create and command armies. Armies: Collections of different military units that act as one, massive unit. Air Missions: Conduct multiple types of air missions including reconnaissance, interception, and strategic and precision bombing. Bombardment: Pound the enemy with long-range fire from artillery and battleships to reduce units and city walls to rubble. Conscription: Employ the draft changing citizens into militia units. Greatly Expanded Diplomacy with a Conversational Interface and "Bargaining Table". Bargaining Table: Players can mix and match an infinite array of deals involving money, resources, luxuries, alliances, workers, maps and paying tribute. New Trade System is Integral to the Game Reflecting the Central Role it Played in Mankinds Development Integrated Trade system: Resources are required for building certain units and researching certain technologies and luxuries are used to increase the happiness of your people. Securing them is a new and interesting challenge. Resources and Luxuries: Important resources and luxuries are concentrated in strategic areas of the world to create a realistic and contentious race for raw materials. Trade Routes: Luxuries and Resources are moved along trade routes (on land, sea and air) that may be vulnerable to enemy attack and diplomacy. Trade routes must be protected. New Technologies, Wonders of the World, and Great People Expand the Scope of the Game. New technologies: New techs can lead to existing and New Wonders. o Laser leads to Quantum Mechanics
The Arts: a new type of technology that players dont have to build, but they provide special benefits that lead to cultural wonders. o Music Theory leads to Great Cathedral o Free Artistry leads to Great Playhouse Small Wonders: These are minor wonders of the world that each civilization can build only one of: o Epic of Gilgamesh leaders more likely to emerge out of battles o Forbidden Palace allows two capital cities per civilization o Intelligence Service players can build spy units Great People: Important Historical figures emerge and convey special benefits o Great Scientists allow you to complete technologies immediately o Great Artists create works of art, contributing to your cultural score o Great Leaders form and lead armies or complete great projects New Concept of Culture Now players can dominate a game by developing their Civs Culture, which is the impact of their nation's philosophy and arts on the world. Culture is now critical to the success of your civilization and gives rise to: Expanding Cultural Boundaries: As a citys influence in the world grows, due to Libraries, Temples, Wonders of world, and so on, your borders expand, giving you control of more and more area. Resistance: during war citizens of captured cities with a high culture rating resist the new regime and may refuse to work. Assimilation: citizens of a Civ with a strong culture retain their original nationality until assimilated into the new nation. Nationalism: enables a civilization with a strong cultural rating to mobilize its population and conduct total war. Great Artists: strong cultures produce great artists capable of creating great works that enhance your cultural power. Easier to Use Interface and Streamlined Management Screens give you Better Control of Your Civilization The Main Screen is Easy to Use: The player interface is streamlined to emphasize the play area and to reduce clutter. New City Management Screen: The city screen is combined with the main map,

New Advisor System: Your six friendly advisors (Foreign, Domestic, Military, Science, Cultural, and Trade) have all the information you need to make critical decisions and give you the ability to assign tasks for all your cities at once. They also give advice and help to new players learn the game. Build Queues: Set up build queues for units, improvements, and technology, which allows for greater flexibility in managing your empire. Full Set of Scenario Editors Allows Unprecedented Customizability Includes AI settings and scenario rules modifications that allow for customization of: Rules: Easy editing screen allows you to alter the rules, edit unit capabilities, city improvements and Wonders, to make the game a completely different experience every time. Maps: Create unique maps on which to play Civilizations: Build your own civilizations and cultures The World Is More Alive New World Generator: A new world generation algorithm creates more realistic and tactically interesting maps. Barbarians are more realistic: They have names, encampments that can be found and eradicated, and disappear over time. The Most Detailed and Beautiful Art, Animations and Sound Ever Found in the Genre. Innovative new mapping system: Our new innovative tiling system with over 2,300 distinct tiles to create the land, coasts, seas, hills and mountains, brings you the most detailed and beautiful world ever found in a turn-based strategy game. Cool Units: Every one of the 80+ units, from the lowly warrior to the formidable Aegis Cruiser, is meticulously modeled and animated in 3D, with over 170 frames per unit. Animated 3-D historical leaders: Some of historys greatest leaders will smile with delight and frown with disgust at you during diplomatic interactions. The music changes over time: Our original scores will reflect the sensibilities and sounds of each historical era.
Sid Meiers Civilization III: Play the World Rise to meet new challenges as you battle eight new Civilizations and Leaders in the exciting expansion pack to the game that many consider the greatest of all time! With exciting new single and multiplayer features, Civilization III: Play the World pits you against the best Civilization players from all corners of the earth. With new online modes of play like "turnless" and others, the battle for the ultimate in bragging rights will be intense! Also included is a powerful Scenario Editor, giving you access to scenarios created by the thousands of members of the Civilization III: Play the World community. Play scenarios created by others, or build your own -- replayability is now truly limitless with the new benchmark in strategy gaming! Game Features Eight new Great Leaders including: Genghis Khan Temujin, King Hannibal, Queen Isabella and King Brennus will challenge your diplomatic and combat skills Eight new Civilizations: Each Civilization features new units for even more strategic depth Multiplayer: Face off against the best Civilization players worldwide with multiplayer scenarios like Elimination, Domination, Regicide and King of the Mountain Multiplayer Modes: Includes Turn-Based and Simultaneous game types and appearing for the first time in a Civilization game, a Turnless mode. Complete Game Editor and Scenario Support: Includes feudal Japan and World War II unit paks, and allows players to create scenarios from any time period. New Map and Terrain Features: including airfields, outposts, radar towers and new tile sets to customize your maps

Sid Meiers Civilization III: Conquests The second expansion pack to the highly successful Sid Meiers Civilization III, Conquests delivers nine professionally designed conquests that let Civ fans re-write history and build even more incredible empires. Conquests takes players on a provocative journey through the ages as they pursue victory in nine of the most famous adventures in history. The conquests include Mesopotamia, Rise of Rome, Fall of Rome, Middle Ages, Mesoamerica, Age of Discovery, Sengoku: Sword of the Shogun, Napoleonic Europe and World War II: Pacific Battle. The conquests include new victory conditions, Wonders of the World, terrain elements, resources, city improvements and governments, offering exciting variations in the quest to rule the world. Conquests also includes Play the World and features improved multiplayer support. Conquest Descriptions Mesopotamia Mesopotamia starts the player at the dawn of civilization, learning the basics for survival in the world. The Mesopotamia scenario features: 2 New Governments Tribal Council, and Oligarchy. 5 New Improvements Burial Mounds, Amphitheater, Alchemists Shop, and others. 1 New Resource - Stone Quarry 7 Playable Civs Medes, Phoenicians, Mycenae, Egypt, Hittites, Babylon, and Sumeria Unique Tech Tree- Built around basic survival and construction of Epic Wonders Wonder Victory Condition Game reaches its completion when all wonders have been constructed. Victory Points A scoring system that rewards for not only battle, but also for expanding, and empire building. Rise of Rome Guide the Legions of Rome and conquers the Mediterranean or if you are up for the challenge, lead Carthage and do what Hannibal could notTurn back approaching Roman juggernaut. Rise of Rome features: 3 New Governments - Tribal Council, Oligarchy and Imperialism.
Sid Meiers Civilization III: Complete Fact Sheet
2 New Improvements Infirmary, and church 2 New Resources Olive Oil, and Silver. 4 Playable Civs - Rome, Carthage, Macedon, and Persia; 4 AI only Civs Celts, Goths, Egypt, and Scythia. Unique Tech Tree Focuss around advancement of the Roman Legionnaires and militaristic progression. Domination Victory Condition Game is won when 20% of the Terrain and 50% of the population of the world is owned by a side. Locked War Peace between the Romans and Carthage is an option your people will not allow.

Fall of Rome Rome is divided and its grip on the Mediterranean is loosening. Take control of one of the raging barbarian tribes and tear down the empire. Fall of Rom features: 2 New Governments - Tribal Council and Imperialism 4 New Wonders St. Peters Basilica, Hagia Sophia, Scourge of God, and Justinians Leadership 2 New Resources Olive Oil and Silver 8 Playable Civs Celts, Anglo-Saxon, Franks, Huns, Ostrogoths, Sassanids, Vandals, and Visogoths; 2 AI only Civs Eastern and Western Rome. Unique Tech Tree Emphasizing barbaric offensive power and expansionistic strategy. Elimination Victory Condition Any Civ to lose 8 cities will be destroyed. Victory Points - A scoring system that rewards for not only battle, but also for expanding, and empire building. Middle Ages Lead your zealous followers on Holy Crusades to Jerusalem; Pillage the European Coastline with Longships filled with Berserkers; or Defend the Holy Land from invaders. The choice is yours. But beware of the devastation of the Black Plague. 5 New Improvements Port, Joust Arena, Manor, Monastery, and Mill 6 New Wonders Bayeux Tapestry, Magna Carta, Notre Dame and others. 3 New Resources Tar, Quarry and Wool 13 Playable Civs: o 4 Viking- Kievan Rus, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ; o 4 Catholic Germany, France, England, and Burgundy ; o 4 Muslim Abbasids, Cordova, Turks and Fatimid Caliphate; o Byzantines ; o 5 AI only Civs Poland, Maglar, Bulgars, Castile and Celts
Unique Tech Tree A diversified tech tree which grants each of the 3 Civ types unique advantages. Domination Victory Condition Game is won when 25% of the Terrain and 25% of the population of the world is owned by a side. Victory Points A scoring system that rewards for not only battle, but also for expanding, and empire building Reverse Capture the Flag As a Catholic Civ earn extra victory points by transporting your Holy Relic to the city of Jerusalem. Mass Regicide Protect your 3 king units, because if they die, so does you civilization.
Mesoamerica Appease the gods in this savage scenario by conquering your enemies and sacrificing their people to the gods. 1 New Government Blood Cult 7 New Improvements Sacrificial Altar, Stela, Ball Court and others. 8 New Wonders Siphans Tomb, Temple of the Sun, Temple of the Moon and others. 7 New Resources Maize, Exotic Birds, Cacao Plant and others 3 Playable Civs Aztec, Maya, and Inca; 3 AI only Civs Moche, Olmecs, and Toltecs Unique Tech Tree Built around the bloody history of Central America. Enslavement - Enslave your enemies units as workers. Ritual Sacrifice Sacrifice your captured to appease the gods, intimidate your enemies and increase the culture value of your cities. Domination Victory Condition Game is won when 35% of the Terrain and 50% of the population of the world is owned by a side. Cultural Victory Condition Game is won when 1 city attains a cultural value of 2000 or when your entire civilization obtains a value of 7000 Age of Discovery The bountiful new world has been discovered across the ocean. Obtain its riches and for your civilization, but beware of the natives. 3 New Governments Catholic Monarchy, Protestant Monarchy, and Blood Cult 13 New Improvements Spice Factory, Tobacco Plantation, Sugar Plantation and others. 10 New Wonders Dias; Voyage, Luthers 95 Theses, Temple of Kukulcan and others 2 New Resources Silver and Tobacco

Sid Meiers Civilization III: Complete Fact Sheet
8 Playable Civs England, France, Aztec, Inca, Maya, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain; 1 AI only Civ Iroquois Unique Tech Tree Built around colonization of a new world and control of its resources. Enslavement - As the Central American civilizations, enslave your enemies as workers. Ritual Sacrifice - As the Central American civilizations, sacrifice your captured to appease the gods, intimidate your enemies and increase the culture value of your cities. Capture the Treasure- As the European civilizations, colonize the rescources to produce treasure units. Return these units to you capital for gold and victory points. But beware of pirates! Victory Points A scoring system that rewards for not only battle, but also for expanding, and empire building Cultural Victory Condition Game is won when 1 city attains a cultural value of 4000 or when your entire civilization obtains a value of 20000
Sengoku - Sword of the Shogun The warring clans of Japan have emerged. Guild your clan strength and honor and unite Japan under 1 Shogun. 7 New Improvements Noh-Kyogen Theatre, Izumo Shrine, Fief Establishment and others. 3 New Wonders War Council, Trade Network, and Kabuki Theater. 2 New Resources Jade and Sake. 8 Playable Clans - Date, Mori, Uesugi, Hojo, Miyoshi, Oda, Imagawa, and Takeda ;10 AI only Clans Chosokabe, Ichijo, Matsunaga, Mogami, Otomo, Ryuzoji, Saito, Shimazu, Tokugawa, and Urakami Unique Tech Tree Focused on strategic military units and the arrival of Portuguese traders with gunpowder. Ninjas, Monks, Samurai and Shoguns. Whats not to like? Upgradeable King Have your shogun advance from a 2/2 unit to a 13/13 unit that can enslave enemy units to Samurai. Regicide- If your shogun is struck down in battle your nation will surely fall. Diplomacy Victory Condition - Have the other Clans back your shoguns might to obtain a Diplomatic Victory Domination Victory Condition Game is won when 35% of the Terrain and 35% of the population of the world is owned by a side.
Napoleonic Europe The General Napoleon has mustered his forces and is looking to unify Europe. Can you guide his hand or stop his forces? 1 New Improvement Public School. 7 Playable Civs - Prussia, Russia, France, Britain, Spain, Ottoman Empire, and Austria; 5 AI only Civs - Denmark, Kingdom of Naples, Sweden, Netherlands Unique Tech Tree Focuses around the emerging might of artillery and swift attacks of cavalry. Locked Alliances France and Denmark form the French Coalition while the British align with Naples the Netherlands and Portugal. Locked War The members of the French Coalition and the British Coalition will never accept peace from the other, only surrender. Domination Victory Condition Game is won when 40% of the Terrain and 40% of the population of the world is owned by a side. Victory Points A scoring system that rewards for not only battle, but also for expanding, and empire building War World II- Pacific Battle a day that will live in infamy. Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor, pulling the USA into the Second World War. Attempt to claim victory in the most epic naval war this world has ever seen 4 Playable Civs United States, Japan, China, and the Commonwealth ; 1 AI only Civ - Netherlands Unique Tech Tree Emphasizing the naval combat, air combat, fearless kamikaze, and the arrival of the A-Bomb. Locked Alliances The allied forces of China, the United States the Commonwealth and the Netherlands. Locked War- Allied forces will only accept surrender from the Japanese, not peace. Victory Points A scoring system that rewards for not only battle, but also for expanding, and empire building Domination Victory Condition Game is won when 66% of the Terrain and 46% of the population of the world is owned by a side.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2003 by authors, Utrecht University and Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any forms or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, filming, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holders.
10.ON THE BORDER: PLEASURE OF EXPLORATION AND COLONIAL MASTERY IN CIVILIZATION III PLAY THE WORLD

Sybille Lammes

ABSTRACT Games like Myst, Civilisation and Anno 1602 are centred around the virtual travelling of the gamer through
unknown worlds. The voyage s/he undertakes often hinges on notions of colonialist exploration, turning the gamer into a traveller who surveys and masters unknown domains and learns to control techno-scientific principles along the way. Since such games are related to a mentality of colonialism, questions should be asked about how such
games can be located in its discursive formation. This paper will shed light on these questions by analysing Civilization III and my experiences of playing this game.
KEYWORDS (Post)colonialism, science, ethnicity, appropriation
The past is always altered for motives that reflect present needs. We reshape our heritage to make it attractive in modern terms; we seek to make it part of ourselves, and ourselves part of it; we conform it to our selfimages and aspirations. (David Lowenthal, The past is a foreign country)[20]
NO-MANS-LAND Leader 1 I hear the sound of wind and see some desert soil. As if a camera moves forward while staying close to the ground, more landscape comes into view and I am taken past a vast surface with palm trees and loose stones scattered on it. Then an estuary comes into sight. I can see ships sailing and people moving on the quays. A group of seagulls flutters up, uttering shrieks of alarm, as if they are disturbed by my presence. To the left of the water, two small towers stand with fires burning on top of them. They must be beacons. Behind the beacons I can distinguish a round building, partly shrouded in mist. It is clearly under construction since half in scaffolding and surrounded by some dispersed building stones. Or is it falling to pieces and am I looking at a restoration? Now the view tilts to the right and spirals up, turning around the building. It reminds me of the painting of the tower of Babylon by Brueghel, but then it is comprised of an accumulation of different architectural styles: starting off with the big stone blocks at the bottom, the tower consists of classical Greek, Roman and Gothic style elements, ending in a glass mirror walls at the top that look like part of a skyscraper. Judging by the hoisting crane that stands at the very pinnacle of the building, the construction is not finished yet. When the spiraling camera has reached the summit it tilts even higher to a half-clouded sky.
q Computer Games Exploration 121
Suddenly a plane flies into view from the right, making a roaring sound. A title is superimposed over the again empty image of the sky: Sid Meiers Civilization III.
fire their guns while some of them simultaneously jump over the wall. Now a shot follows where things are seen from above. Again travelling forwards, my eyes pass over cauldrons filled with red boiling liquid. I can look over a railing into a deep space, which seems to be a factory. A slight feeling of vertigo steals upon me. I can see a lump of heavy looking material rigged up. It obscures the view for a moment and the computer screen turns black. Then I can look into the immense space beneath, where a big conveyer belt is in use and people are pushing trolleys. Another shot of a plant follows. I am at first not sure whether the pillar construction, through which the shot takes me, is of yet another factory building. Then it is becomes clear that I am taken to a different place: I can look upwards and see a space rocket. The title of the game is superimposed over this last image: Civilization Play the World.
Leader 2 A male looking foot lands in the mud and leaves a footprint. The colour of both mud and skin are of a light brown shade. The shot travels forward, staying close to the ground. I hear the sound of water and a river comes into sight. On the riverbank a woman is retrieving water with a bowl. The shot moves on, still showing the landscape from a low level. Now I can see more legs and some huts with thatched roofs. A slightly stooped man leaning on a stick comes into frame, while another man enters a hut. Behind the huts a road can be discerned. The long track continues to the road, where a cartwheel comes into view, followed by a fireside and more male legs.

In the next shot more legs follow, now seeming to belong to marching soldiers on a flat dry surface. I cannot see their faces or upper bodies, but their uniforms suggest that they are part of a Roman legion. In geometrical movement the legs march to the right, come to a halt, and then moves towards the player/viewer. The camera journeys through the rows of legs and sweeps up some steps. At a similar speed the next shot trails through a muddy field in which poles with sharp points are planted in disarray. Still from a low position I see hairy legs and hear low human sounding grunts. Men are fighting using shields clubs as weapons. A heavy wooden vehicle enters the battlefield. The following shot shows a long dry stonewall with green trees behind it and a field in front of it. Soldiers seek shelter behind the wall. I can see their faces. They hold muskets and seem to be wearing uniforms from the time of the so-called American Revolution. They
Liminal scenes The above-described scenes stem from Civilization III (Civ3) and its follow up Civilzation Play the World (Civ3PtW). When the player starts the game up they follow immediately after the logos of the company.
They are a no-mans-land between playing and not playing the game. The player can at this stage only watch or glance at the screen in a passive and maybe slightly distracted way. Referring to the title of this paper, they bring you both to the border of Civ3 and are bordering on the game-world and other-worlds. When you have passed these landscapes the game can begin and you can become a true player who has some control over the game. These transitional landscapes whet the players appetite and make promises about what is to follow. They give an indication of what to expect when entering the game. As such they are steeped in references that are important for understanding the cultural meanings
ON THE BORDER: PLEASURE OF EXPLORATION AND COLONIAL MASTERY IN CIVILIZATION III PLAY THE WORLD
and the rules of the game.
Civ3 Voyage to the sky By starting off both leaders with a trailer/pan/ crane shot the spatial mobility of the game and the omnipresence of the would-be player are immediately emphasised. Travelling and expansion are thus established as important parameters of the game and of the players activities.

In the Civ3 leader which I first described, the voyage centres around the travelling to, and swirling around one high rising building. While the view starts at a low level it ends high up in the sky above the building. At the beginning there is nothing, just soil that looks like desert sand. Then some vegetation and the first human remnants (building blocks) can be recognized. For an instant, at the riverside, human activity can be discerned. Then these activities make place for a long spiraling shot in which only traces of past human activity are shown: starting with remnants of what seems to be an Egyptian construction and ending in the present conception of Western Modern architecture. At the very end of the shot human activity can be discerned once more when the plane comes in view and the tour is brought to a close by the title of the game: Civilization. It is more than clear that the aspirant player is presented with a concise and rather linear history of Western culture through this sightseeing tour. The tower functions as a monument of the genesis of Western civilization, a locale that the player is invited to visit, to build and to explore. It forecasts a voyage in which the player starts with nothing but barren land and ends at the pinnacle of white modern Western culture. This culture and the progress of the player are imagined as an evolution from nature to culture in which specific past civilizations are literally envisaged as building blocks for modern Western culture.
Tower of Babel By making a reference to the biblical story and image of the tower of Babel, a contradictory and paradoxical message about civilization is brought to the fore. On the one hand this alludes to the Judeo-Christian creation myth of the Babylonian attempt to build a ziggurat to reach God. According to the bible, this brought about the interference of God who prevented this blasphemous attempt by letting the builders speak in different tongues. It resulted in the scattering of people over the world, where those with the same tongue formed separate groups.[1] Hence this Babylonian image gives a Christian aura to the game that normalises demarcations between cultures. The player is invited to a Christian voyage in which the homogeneity of a specific culture seems to be right and unquestionable. On the other hand one shouldnt forget that the tower of Babel in Civ3 is far from a uniform piece of work. As a contemporary creative anachronism [19], it promises a re-writing of the Biblical story. Viewed in this light, this tower of Babel entails a sacrilegious dimension, altering the genesis. In this new book of life different languages are involved and are the key to a higher Christian civilization. They all serve however a monotheistic western culture that is presented as the pinnacle of a stable and progressive civilization.

Civ3PtW While the voyage through time in the former leader takes place in one shot spiraling up to the sky, the leader of Civ3PtW contains more shots that show different areas and eras. However when juxtaposing all shots, a similar movement from down to up can be distinguished and a similar linear narrative seems to unfold, this time stripped from it Christian overtones, while in a way more conservative.
This leader also starts with a barren landscape, but this
q Computer Games Exploration 123
time it does not take long before human presence comes into scope. A foot leaves a footprint: the beginning of travel, narrative and history. Shortly after this, a settlement is shown that seems to be based in prehistoric time. The hut, the wheel chart and the fire are marks of the human culture of the settlement. Hence the beginning of civilization is being related to settling down and the invention of fire and the wheel. Time goes fast and the next three shots take us from a Roman legion to a chaotic and medieval battlefield, ending with the American civil war. Then humans leave the landscape, while we are taken through the industrial revolution. The last shot show us astronautics as the last stage of human development. Analogous to the tower in Civ3 the sky is the limit. While the voyage up to the tower did at least leave some space for paradox and anachronism, such possibilities are now more limited. The history of civilization is not only presented as linear and uniform instead of heterogeneous[23], but also as a white and male process. Giving the people in the first settlement a mixed colour and gender maybe a feeble attempt to leave space for ambiguity, neither referring to the Black Eve theory or to the contested idea of white Europe as the cradle of civilization. But this rather doubtful strategy does not hold up for very long. The people in the following shots are all white and male, both suggesting that this is the main targeting group of the game as that they were the main players in history. Furthermore, since these men use technologies like tanks and guns, techno-scientific progress and the military apparatus are strongly linked to their historical progress. Thus the game promises to replay a myth in which non-westerns and women are not part of cultural history, but belong to nature and therefore cannot be seen. A myth in which expansionism, science, masculinity and whiteness go hand in hand and are naturalised.[12, 24] Indeed, playing the world promises to be a very particular enterprise.

But let me remind you that we are still in no-mans-land. Some expectations may have risen, some rules predicted, and some roles suggested. But identity politics change and become messier once you have crossed the border and you enter the world of Civ3 to become an active player.
ENTERING THE WORLD To enter the real game and become a player, I still have to fill out some forms at the frontier. So I press a button after the leader, indicating that I want to start a new game. On top of the screen it says, Choose your world. Underneath this virtual signpost I have to indicate some preferences. It makes me a bit nervous (me, playing the world?) but also eager about what will happen after the form has been completed. I turn the repetitive sound down.
There are several options that I can choose from: World size, Barbarian Activity, Climate, Temperature and Age. I decide for a standard world with a lot of islands that are warm and wet. What keeps puzzling me however is what the category Barbarian Activity may mean between all these geographical classifications. So I reach out for the manual. It says that, apart from the random option, there are four levels of Barbarian activity to choose from: I can opt for villages if I really hate Barbarians, in which case the Barbarians are restricted to their encampments. The other levels are gradually giving less restrictions to the Barbarians, ranging from Roaming, and Restless to Raging. The latter most difficult level is explained as follows in the manual: You asked for it! The world is full of Barbarians and they appear in large numbers. Daunted by this last description, I opt for Barbarians that are roaming, in which case settlements occasionally appear. [16] The Barbarian tribe is introduced as being part of a
larger category that mainly consists of geographical and geological options. Hence Barbarians are introduced as belonging more to nature than to civilization. This implication is further reiterated by the fact that the term Barbarian has become a current synonym for savage, inhumane and beastly behaviour. Thus a strong association is made between the modification of natural settings and controlling these Barbarians. Furthermore, they are seen as more controllable when they cannot move and are confined to their settlements, hence making their degree of movement correlative to how dangerous they are. The equation that the player has to make between the Barbarians level of nomadic activity and the threat they pose, points to a western mentality in which nomadic behaviour is placed on the periphery of culture as the other.[6] Furthermore, that they are grouped together with non-human categories such as climate and age, indicates that their wildness can also be related to a specific western metaphor of science. As scholars like Merchant and Harding already stated in the 80s about the relation between gender and science, in western metaphors of science the other is often conceived as raw material that has to be explored and controlled. The other, which meanings mostly fluctuate between nonwhite, woman and animal, is seen as wild and passive material that has to be controlled, tamed and scrutinized. [12, 21] Although I would not go as far as subscribing to the conclusion of Harding and Merchant that this ideal can be seen as part of a masculine scientific epistemology, in the game this scenario is indeed set up. Not only are the Barbarians presented as a wild tribe which has to be controlled, they are also presented as similar to scientific measurable entities, hence presenting them as the subject rather than the object of science and firmly situating them outside civilization, i.e. outside culture. The game thus subscribes to a western ideal in which scientific and colonial endeavours are closely intertwined.[24]

Passing Having ticked the boxes on the form, the game can finally start. At least, that is what I think. But a new screen pops up called player set up and another form has to be filled in. I clearly havent understood the bureaucracy of this world yet. This time, the options on the screen are dazzling and I flick frantically through the manual for help. I have to choose my civilization and rivals from a row of about twenty options, which qualities are summarized in terms like industrious, expansionist and religious. It strikes me that the manual indicates that in a expansionist cultures Barbarian villages are more lucrative and that religion makes anarchy last one turn. [16] But I cannot fathom the consequences of these qualities yet and have to concentrate on choosing from all the options on the screen. The civilizations range from Romans to Koreans and Americans. It makes me wonder how all these cultures from different times can figure in one game. I can choose one of the civilizations as mine and a max of five others as rivals. I am looking for the possibilities to choose allies as well, but no such option exists. On the screen I can also tick more than ten Game Rules. Since I am not so keen on militaristic games I choose to un- tick the box Allow Military Victory. The others rules range from Accelerated production, to Capture the Princess and Allow cultural conversion. I am curious about the function of the princess amidst all these rules and choose for that option. All decided upon, I press the button in the right corner. PLAYING THE WORLD I am an Aztec Indian The next screen is mostly black with a little patch of green land in the middle. I must have finally crossed the border. The depicted patch of land is seen from a slightly tilted birds-eye perspective. I can see also see a figure with a white long dress standing in the middle of it. She must be the princess. Some information is sum-
q Computer Games Exploration 125
marized in a pop-up box on top of the screen: It is the year 4000 BC. Your ancestors were nomads. But over the generations your people have learned the secrets of farming, road building, and irrigation and they are ready to settle down. The choices that I have made previously are also summed up in this box. I am an Aztec Indian and my name is Montezuma. As a despotic ruler I have three enemies: the Americans, the English and the Spanish. It also states that my people are militaristic and religious and that they have invested absolute power in me, expecting that I can establish a civilization that can stand the test of time.

choose the symbol for building from the latter row of buttons and call my first city Mestophile. A city with some buildings emerges on the green patch of land. A depiction of a female head is shown underneath the city-landscape. When I try to understand what this head means by clicking my mouse on it, it only prompts the head to change into that of a veiled woman accompanied by a smiley symbol. Around Mestophile all kinds information appears. It mainly seem to concern details and statistics about the situation of my state in terms of military and cultural progress and production. Overwhelmed once more by the overload of information, I turn my attention to a new figure that has emerged in the middle of my city on the spot where the settler used to stand. It is a male looking worker. Like the settler who built my city, he is enclosed by a circle. This appears to mean that I can activate him. And indeed, I am able to move this figure with the help of my mouse towards the vast dark area around my city. The darkness he enters subsides to make place for more landscape with mountains, lakes and trees. This is fun: I can send my people out to retain land from oblivion. Since I can now see the princess again and since she also has a circle around her, I try to move her as well. This does not prompt her to shift however. It only activates her to give off a giggling sound. As if I tickled her. As is suggested by the computer, I press the spacebar. Then I decide to build a mine and send my worker just outside the city borders (marked by lines) and click on the symbol for mining. He starts to dig. A head looms up, accompanied by a text: Sir, the borders of Mestpohile expand because of his high culture. Indeed, the square around my city has widened. I begin to wonder what is meant by culture, the more since I only have built a mine so far, so again I turn to the manual, that states the following: Culture represents the impact of your civilization s customs, art, and philoso-
Moving territory When I click the pop-up box away a new figure enters the screen, right at the spot where the princes stood, as if she has disappeared into thin air. The superimposed figure looks more muscular and wears a military looking green uniform. A white circle surrounds him. In the right down corner a new pop-up indicates that this is a settler. It also specifies the year I live in, the kind of terrain I occupy and the civilization of which I am the despotic ruler.
In the left corner another box shows an even smaller little spot of green surrounded by black. When I move my mouse over this image, the bigger green patch on the screen also shifts. I figure that this is a kind of map. On the screen I can also distinguish some buttons with symbols: three in the upper-left corner and at least five in the bottom-middle of the screen. I point my mouse to the buttons and I learn that the ones on top of the screen are pointing to the world outside the game, i.e. they can be used for saving and quitting the game as well as to consult the Civilopedia, the help function. With the aid of the manual I understand that the ones at the bottom are meant for actions within the game, such as building, exploring and military actions. I

phy in the countryside surrounding your cities, and is represented by borders. I am quite proud of having achieved this so quickly. I have another helper by now, a jaguar warrior and I send him out to explore some huts that I can see on the territory outside my land. As soon as he arrives at the spot the huts disappear and a pop-up informs me that the Zapotec tribe has taught us pottery. Curious what this is supposed to mean in term of civilization, I turn to the Civilopedia. It shows a tech tree that consists of all kinds of inventions and indicates how these are related to each other. In this tree-like structure pottery is connected with an arrow to mapmaking. A bit puzzled by this, because I thought that I was in the process of making a map already, I look for extra clues in the manual. The subsection Climbing the Technology Tree explains that this is a tree of advances and that by choosing a line of pursue carefully, new discoveries will be eventually announced by my chief investigator. This is interesting: I just have to set goals and my scientist will automatically make discoveries. [16] In a time span of about five minutes of playing the game, I havent only learned a lot about the basic rules and required skills of the game, but I have also had a lesson in how these parameters are connected to cultural notions. The imagining of borders seems to be pivotal in this framework. Borders are meant to expand in Civ3, that is if you want to win. As the scholars Jenkins and Fuller already noted in 1995, this ideal of expansion can be related to a western colonial metaphor of discovery. Discussing Nintendo and cyberspace in terms of travelling and new frontiers, they locate this metaphor in a specific American nostalgia for the past when white settlers colonized America. Replaying this metaphor is according to the authors a means to counter a contemporary sense of America as oversettled overly familiar and
overpopulated and to satisfy the desire to recreate the Renaissance encounter without guilt. [11] Although, this American nostalgia for new frontiers and open spaces is undoubtedly part of Civ3s attraction, the game has a more global and complex meaning as well. One can distinguish two kinds of borders in Civ3: the obvious borders around the chosen civilization, and the borders which separate the filled in territory from the unknown and untouched black space on the screen. Both borders share the quality of shifting, or more precisely expanding when the game is played well. Hence the exploration of the world goes hand in hand with the expansion of your own realm. This fits seamlessly into a European colonial attitude towards homeland and colonies. In this view, colonies function as a primitive resource that should expand to enable the homeland culture to expand, yet not being fully recognized as part of it. In the game this stance is for example reiterated by the fact that you can visit a village of huts outside your domain and absorb their knowledge or culture to bring it back home and expand your borders, whilst the village itself still not belongs to your territory and simply disappears when it has lost its function. Seen in this light, Civ3 also entails a pleasure in playing the old fashioned European (male) colonizer who expands border by mapping the outside world, hereby simultaneously strengthening the borders of his own metropole. Civ3 thus bears on several white western histories of exploration and expansion at once and can therefore better be called a postcolonial game. As the participatory observation above shows as well, this enterprise is more linked to space than to time. As Jenkins states for Nintendo and Friedman for Civ2, it can be best described as a spatial story in which there is a continual transformation of place into space, as the blackness of the unknown gives way. [10, 11] According to Friedman this retreating blackness can

q Computer Games Exploration 127
also be connected to a new sensory digital and cybernetic experience in which the player identifies more with the map, always playing from a Gods eye perspective than with characters: Simulation games are maps in time, dramas which teach us how to think about structures of spatial relationships.[10] Friedman may have a point when it concerns identification in games compared with identification with characters in film and television, although also then it should be added that the identification processes in these old media have a cybernetic side in the sense that the user/viewer identifies with an apparatus.[15] What he however forgets is that such an omnipresent position is at least analogous to the position of the player of board games which involve spatial strategies. Furthermore the way of seeing he talks of, can also be related a wider western discourse of the visual that strives to represent a Godly perspective and which genealogy has roots in Renaissance western painting and is in that sense is not just new. [5] The mapping and making visible of unknown spaces maybe partly understood in terms of a shifting sensory perception, it surely can also be related to a postcolonial mentality. As Douglas argues in relation to American history and Civ3, it is a way to cope with a paradoxical colonial past, in which the occupied land is described as virgin land hence uninhabited despite the peoples that already live there. By labelling these natives as wild and belonging to nature, they become invisible and unthreatening. According to Douglas this way of coping can also be discerned in the the way Barbarians pop up out of nowhere, as well as in how the villages with goody huts disappear once they are explored [8] But again, Id like to de-Americanise this interpretation slightly. As I have shown, the wild unknown and unpredictable can also be related to a more broad and complex Western historical attitude in which non-settled cultures are conceived as outside culture and are not
capable of building their own tech-trees. The trailer at the beginning of Civ3 doesnt deliver false promises when it comes to the ethnocentric view the game has on civilization: it starts when one settles and expands, meanwhile appropriating the cultural and economical capital of others in a unmarked and white norm.[17] That the game refers to a colonial past and does so by emphasising space is clear. But it does something more with this past than just replaying it in a safe way. It reshuffles it. This reshuffling can be seen in its temporal representations. As an Aztec leader I can have Americans as enemies and develop space travel. Time is a slippery thing in the game and history is not what it used to be. This fluidity of time may be linked to a postcolonial and contemporary disorientation of belonging. At a time were great groups of people from mainly poor countries have migrated to the land of former colonizers, history cannot be easily retold in a singular way. Civ3 show this postcolonial bewilderment by making time anachronistic. It nevertheless counters this unsettled feeling by emphasizing the uniformity within borders and making space and nations unproblematic categories. It thus still strives to overcome this heterogeneity of civilization. Seen from this perspective space is represented as in accordance with dominant ideologies, whilst time has a more unstable character in the game and is played out differently. It is at this temporal level that culture becomes messier and paradoxical qualities of postcolonial cultures seep through.

CHANGING THE WORLD Civ3 offers the player opportunities to experience the highly contested ideology of appropriation and colonial expansion in a place outside daily life [7]. To a great extent its encoding is pushing the player into a dominant postcolonial structure. But as the above account of time, as well as my analysis of the tower of Babel show, the game also presents opportunities to twist make fun
of, or doubt this myth. Such possibilities arise more than once in Civ3. I can be a leader of an ancient culture and beat the Spanish colonizer, thus changing western history. Moreover, the unbridled megalomaniac and militaristic thrust of Civ3 and the incorrect jokes that pop up, can at times be ideologically over the top and absurd. It is at these moments that the game can turn into parody or pastiche and ideology is de-naturalized. The notions of pleasure as coined by Fiske may help to understand this side of the experience. Pleasure then relates to the possibility of the player to converse with ideologies and change their meanings, i.e. decode the game differently. [4, 18, 26] As Saxe phrases it in his article on games and violence: () it is like a postmodern power ritual, where players gain a visceral sense () without ever actually doing a thing, except spending their money, focusing their eyes and playing with a few buttons and a joystick. [25] Most players will visit the world of Civ3 as such a power ritual: not changing ideologies in a subversive way, but expressing and tasting a post-capitalist power in a cathartic pastiche of the postcolonial world. The landscape of Civ3 can also be appropriated in a more drastic manner. This happens when gamers make so called mods and patches.[15, 22] More than often such changes are quickly incorporated in new releases of the game, thus changing from subversion into co-modifications.[13-15] However, some of these changes remain too shocking to get included. Amongst the many websites dedicated to the game, there is for example one that offers a Guerrilla modification pack, including Palestine with suicide bombers as a special unit.[3] Another site proudly announces that the patch in which Hitler is the leader of Nazi Germany is now also available for Civ3.[2] How problematic or sick such alterations may be accord-
ing to some of us, they do point to the limitations of the game and what really remains shrouded in darkness. Their makers being illegal immigrants who threaten to change notions of civilization.
REFERENCES 1. Genesis 11.
2. Civilization fanatics center: Fascist patch for Civ3. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread. php?s=&threadid=8394 Last accessed: September 2003 3. Sweens32s guerrilla tactics: A modification pack for civilization III.http://www.casperfusion. com/civ3/ gtm/ Last accessed: September 2003 4. Beavis, C., Computer Games: Youth culture, resistant readers and consuming passions, in Research in education: Does it count?, (Adelaide, 29 November 3 December 1998), Australian Association for Research in Education annual conference. 5. Berger, J. Ways of seeing. Viking Press, New York, 1973. 6. Braidotti, R. Nomadic subjects: Embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory. Columbia University Press, New York, 1994. 7. Caillois, R. Man, play and games. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1961. 8. Douglas, C. You have unleashed a horde of barbarians!: Fighting Indians, playing games, forming disciplines. Postmodern culture, 13, (1) (2002). http://alpha.furman.edu/~cdouglas/barbarian.htm Last accessed: August 2003.

q Computer Games Exploration 129
9. Fiske, J. Television culture. Routledge, London, 1989, 230-36 10. Friedman, T. Civilization and Its Discontents: Simulation, Subjectivity, and Space, in Smith, G. ed. Discovering discs: transforming space and genre on CD-ROM, New York University Press, New York, 1999, 132-150. 11. Fuller, M. and Jenkins, H. Nintendo and New World Travel Writing: A Dialogue, in Jones, S.G. ed. Cybersociety: Computer-mediated communication and community, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1995, 57-72. 12. Harding, S. The science question in feminism. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1986, 111-35. 13. Hebdige, D. Subculture: The meaning of style. Routledge, London, 1988, 90-99. 14. Herz, J.C. Gaming the System, in King, L. ed. Game on: The history and culture of videogames, Universe, New York, 2002, 86-97. 15. Huhtamo, E. Game Patch - The Son of Scratch? Game plug-ins and patches as hacker art. http:/switch.sjsu.edu/CrackingtheMaze/erkki.html Last accessed: July 2003. 16. Infrogames, F.G. Instruction manual: Sid Meiers civilzation III. More CIV than ever, 2001, 13-14, 1718, 93-94. 17. Lipsitz, G. The possessive investment in whiteness: How white people profit from identity politics. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1998. 18. Lister, M., Dovey, J., Giddings, S., Grant, I. and Kelly, K. Gameplay, in New media: A critical introduction, 2003, 260-286.
19. Lowenthal, D. Creative Anachronism, in The past is a foreign country, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, 363-412. 20.Lowenthal, D. The past is a foreign country. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, 348. 21. Merchant, C. The death of nature: Women, ecology, and the scientific revolution. Harper & Row, New York, 1990. 22.Overholt, E. Video game subcultures: Cracks, cheats and mods, 2002.http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/curriculum/lci/magazine/s_02/eric/ Last accessed: August 2003 23.Poblocki, K. Becoming-state: The bio-cultural imperialism of Sid Meiers civilization. Focaal, European Journal of Anthropology, (39). (2002), 163-177: 165. 24.Restivo, S. and Loughlin, J. The invention of science. Cultural Dynamics, 12, (2). (2000), 135-49. 25.Saxe, J. Violence in videogames: What are the pleasures? CommOddities, 2, (1). (1995). http://www.umass.edu/communication/resources /commoddities/papers/joel.shtml Last accessed: August 2003. 26.Walkerdine, V., Thomas, A. and Studdert, D. Young children and video games: Dangerous pleasures and pleasurable danger, Centre for Critical Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, 2000, 1-7.