Cybernetic loops of Civ VI
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Fragmented Memory Through Videogame Cybernetics
The Double Bind of Cultural Feedback Loops within Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate
the 4X Genre and Civ VI
- Explore: Find nearby resources and potential places to settle cities.
- Expand: Settle cities around your empire to expand your nation.
- Exploit: Harvest resources within your empire to turn them to your advantage.
- Exterminate: Defeat other empires in order to claim their resources and win the game.
History-play-spaces
The game bases itself on historical attributes:
Players actively engage with historical events and play as a historical leader such as Gandhi or Cleopatra.
“playing in these (hi)story-play-spaces means occupying a larger role in the process of historical narration, in comparison to most other forms of history. The player is both narrator and audience. In historical games, doing also means writing.” (34).
-Adam Chapman in Digital Games as History (2016)
Gaming as an unique medium to engage with history ?
Why Civilization VI?
Individual/Collective
Collective memory refers to the shared pool of memories, knowledge and information of a social group that is significantly associated with the group's identity.
The argument of Jeffrey Andrew Barash (2016)
Collective memory is detached from ‘in the flesh’ encounters between two people who have a different background.
Collective Memory
"(...) The foundation of a state or the occurrence of other politically significant events most frequently lie beyond the possibilities of what any living individual might have experienced and remembered” (44).
A Fragmented Loop?
Barbie Zelizer (2011) argues that memory functions as a series of concentric circles which are interlinked with each other:
Memory as a Loop?
Delivery of Memory
“Organized in mediated systems, news delivery works by parameters that favour the broad over the narrow, the simple over the complex, the uniform over the differentiated, form over content. Consequently, when memory moves into the global flow of news, it by definition loses some of its locality, internal variation, nuance, and particularity.” (Zelizer 2011, 28).
Connection to Civ VI
Do we see a change when memory is delivered through videogames as a history-play-space?
Five Victory Conditions
Science
Domination
Cybernetic Gameplay
Religion
Culture
Score
Civ VI as a Cybernetic System
The core gameplay mechanics of Civ VI consists of constant feedback loops where the player actively makes choices in how to progress.
Cybernetic Gameplay
For every win condition, players need to manage multiple resource yields in order to win succesfully.
Production - Gold - Culture - Science - Religion
External Feedback Loops
but even managing your civilization to the point of perfection will lead to active reflection because of the AI of other civilizations.
Reflection Through AI
- Annoying them further could lead to a declaration of war or other ways in which the AI actively blocks the progress of the player.
- Players are therefore encouraged to keep surrounding civilizations satisfied by actively changing their strategy according to the demands of the AI.
Players as Active Agents
History-play-space
- Players, whether through choice or through simply what their gameplay skill allows, configure the story space and produce particular narratives" (34).
-Adam Chapman in Digital Games as History (2016)
- Players actively engage and create their own histories during a gameplay session which could be seen as an active reflection on how history is formed.
- There is a constant reflection on gameplay actions through feedback loops to enforce critical thinking on the effects of certain actions as a historical leader.
Could we argue that Civilization VI simplifies history in order to have people reflect on how historical narratives are shaped?
A Fragmented History
History is simplified (too much) in order to fit within the cybernetic system of the game. These abilities also nudge towards a specific playstyle.
Fragmented History
The game bases itself on collective memory and further abstracts it so it suits the cybernetic gameplay system. Thus, the collective memories are simplified even further.
Double Bind of Historical games
On one hand, historical strategy games offer unique opportunities for players to reflect and understand how history, in a general sense, is formed.
Conclusion
On the other, this comes with the problem of further simplifying complex and personal memories into mere gameplay mechanics that do not cover the complexity of collective memories.
Thus, Civilization VI is both restrained and liberated by videogame mechanics that engage with history.