The Civilization franchise has long been one of my favorites. My character on the NYMG banner, for example, is a play on a character from the Civ series. I love it. So of course, I had to buy Civilization VI when it came out. I’ve been playing it for a while now, and while I absolutely love the game, I can’t help but think of just how much this game, and this series, tells us about the state of humanity. I never noticed it until now, but I am gravely concerned about what this game tells us.
Civ has always been sublime to me. Players interact with humankind’s most prolific leaders; we build the most magnificent structures ever know; we are gods, benevolent or not. Civ also mimics civilization’s disregard for the Other, whether Barbarian, unknown enemy, or alien. Humanity’s fatal flaw is right there in black and white: we need each other; we will each other. Yet the benevolent of those among us found hope in civilization. We may face war, but we can be diplomats instead. We can be civilizations who focus on science or culture. Our religious beliefs don’t need to end in war, though they strongly tend to lean that way. The game may occasionally be playful, but most decisions had an appropriate gravity to them. This has changed with Civ VI, and I think the changes are very telling about our current state of humanity.
Sam Zucchi over at Kill Screen has written a wonderful and thought provoking review of Civ VI. Sam writes,
“What’s changed with the latest incarnation is that it seems to be pursuing levity over awe. Take, for example, the quotations that accompany each scientific discovery. These epigraphs have been a feature of Civilization since IV, but they’re never been so uninspiring. You can contrast the tone of that for the writing technology in Civilization V (2010)—John Milton: “He who destroys a good book kills reason itself”—with that in VI—Mark Twain: “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words”—and not feel as though there is something emotionally flat about the tech tree’s connotations. I mean, the sanitation technology quotes Life of Brian (1979)—“Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, roads, the freshwater system and public health … what have the Romans ever done for us?” It’s cute, but it’s not emotionally moving in the way the series has always tried to be.”
Sam could not be more dead on. Everything from the tone of quotes, to the graphics, to the additional actions point toward a levity that the series always had but was not dominated by. The tone was clever, not sarcastic.
We have always lived in a world where terrible shit happens, over and over, every day, especially to the most disenfranchised among us. Hatred, racism, violence, none of this is new. But we are at a point were humanity seems to fall into one of two categories: either they embrace this hate, or they are paralyzed by it. How can one move forward in a positive, hopeful way when no activism is enough? When the problems are so large? When so many people around us don’t care? The answer for many people: resort to sarcasm. The withdrawl away from humanity is very real right now. The retreat into jokes and cynicism, fueled by the disembodied way we consume our media via social media among other things, is having a very real impact on our ability to see humanity. We can’t see the beauty or importance of humanity because things are so awful for so many of us. We are scared at the current political and environmental disasters we face, and while that may not stop us from seeking refuge in a game like Civ VI, it certainly changes just how deeply we are willing to engage with it.
Poetry is a joke, sanitization is a joke, writing is a joke, war is a joke. Real people are dying. Our planet is dying. Why see the sublime in this world? At least this seems to be the underlying tone behind the new Civ game. It does not force us to see beauty and depth. It allows us to stay keep a callous engagement with humanity instead of acknowledging the good and the bad.
As I play through the game more today, I’m left a little saddened by the cartoony images and tenor. The beauty and sublimeness of humanity is why it’s worth fighting for, not something to be scoffed at.
Of course, the game still freaking rocks.
