The Aggressor Sid Meier's CIVILIZATION VI
About the game
The game “Sid Meier's CIVILIZATION VI” was made by “Firaxis Games” and was published by “2K GAMES” in 2016.
It belongs to the genre of “Global Strategy”. It is part of the series "Sid Meier's CIVILIZATION".
It features both single-player and multi-player mode.
The game is classified by the database as one with a “Dynamic Aggressor,” a “Historical Setting,” and an “Active Player Role."
About the Aggressor Categories
Aggressor Type: Dynamic
- This game features the “Dynamic Aggressor.” This means that the game allows for a flexible engagement with the Aggressor role, i.e. that actors within it change whether or not they are perceived as an aggressor. This type of game often features a way in which aggression is measured by a game-internal parameter and makes aggression a conscious decision that players can choose.
Setting Type: Historical
- This game has a historical setting. It is placed here by adhering to a point in time, persons or events of history, or a place recognisable by the player audience. It does not mean that the history simulated works deterministically to play out exactly like its real-life equivalent but that a historical world in the broadest sense is created.
Player Agency: Active
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In this game, the player's agency towards the Aggressor(s) is enabled by the game and they are able to take actions. This can include resisting the Aggressor or acting as one themselves.
Individual Assessment
As the series of “Sid Meier's CIVILIZATION” is a big title in the global strategy genre, and much talked about by historians as well, there is much to be said and that has already been said about the game. As a “world history" simulation, players choose a historical faction that they play for over the course of human history, starting from a single city turning sedentary until the near-future. It features multiple victory conditions that also have non-violent options, yet it still adheres to the “4X” formula. For this database, the most interesting part is the Aggressor realisation: it is dynamic, as players decide whether or not to go to war and every faction can be an Aggressor. The game measures this by letting players generate the “Grievances”-parameter through which players generate a malus when expanding aggressively. It also predetermines play-styles for specific factions, making e.g. the Mongols under Ghengis Khan much more prone to warfare than the Polynesians.
Further Reading:
Donecker, Stefan. „Pharaoh Mao Zedong and the Musketeers of Babylon - The Civilization Series between Primordialist Nationalism and Subversive Parody“. In Early Modernity and Video Games, herausgegeben von Florian Kerschbaumer und Tobias Winnerling, 105–22. Histoire, Band 50. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.
King, Matt. „The Possibilities and Problems of Sid Meier’s Civilization in History Classrooms“. The History Teacher 54, Nr. 3 (Mai 2021): 539–67.
Mol, Angus A. A., Aris Politopoulos, und Csilla E. Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke. „“From the Stone Age to the Information Age”: History and Heritage in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI“. Advances in Archaeological Practice 5, Nr. 2 (Mai 2017): 214–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2017.9.
Navarro, Daniel. „Civilization or Hegemony: Playing Empire in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI“. Playing The Past, 2. November 2021. https://www.playthepast.org/?p=7763.
Nolden, Nico. „Gebietsreform. Überraschend macht eine Neuerung Civilization VI zum besten Reihenableger - trotz einer trotteligen KI“. In Verspielte Vergangenheit. Texte aus sieben Jahren AKGWDS, herausgegeben von Aurelia Brandenburg, Peter Färberböck, Anna Klara Falke, Eugen Pfister, und Tobias Winnerling, 257–78. Game Studies. Glückstadt, 2023.
Pobłocki, Kacper. „Becoming-state. The bio-cultural imperialism of Sid Meierís Civilization“. Focaal - European Journal of Anthropology, Nr. 39 (2002): 163–77.
