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Originally Posted by theJuice
Maybe this belongs in a separate thread, but can anyone actually explain the appeal of Civilization? It sounds silly, but I've just heard this series always spoke of with such reverence and respect, so many stories of people playing it for hours and losing track of time etc. Always put it off for various reasons throughout the year, but recently decided to d/l Civ4 if just to see what all the hoopla is about.
I've always been a big PC Gamer, like all types, but I tended to favor more faster paced RTS games, IE starcraft, love the speed and insane macro/micro required at high level play, never saw the draw of slower games like Civ. Seemed boring to work on things like economy and building roads and libraries and stuff, maybe I just didn't see it in the right context.
What exactly do you DO? Is their a main, arching storyline that ties the game together, or is it like a bunch of random maps? Like, I chose a country or race and create an empire and then attack my opponents? I always hear people say they create cities and upgrade technology and stuff, but what is the purpose? Do you like start a match, create a city, and then go onto a different map and do it over again? Always been confused, if someone could explain it in a little bit of detail, it would be much appreciated.
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as mentioned there is not technical goal. essentially you are playing to win through the victory conditions mentioned in other posts. in the first couple civ games you pretty much had to be militaristic to win, there wasn't much else aside from the space race. but they added the concept of culture in civ3 and then expanded on that and diplomacy to really let you be a peaceful neighbor and still win.
the game is very slow paced and strategic. its not like an RTS game where you have to be super efficient with your gameplay. its the long term strategy that really causes it to be addictive. because of the turn based nature, you are always waiting for the proverbial next turn to come so you can do something new. thats what gets addictive. "i will play 1 more turn so i can discover this technology" or "one more turn and i get a new unit and can attack these guys" and then the turns just keep coming and its 4 hours later.
there's also always been a large community out there creating custom content. that helps to increase replay value. in the past it was basically just custom maps, but in civ 3 you could do custom units and techs and improvements. in civ4 you can mod darn near everything. so having tons of scenarios and modpacks increases the replay value and ups the addiction factor.