I have played every Civilization game since the original, and each one has proven a mini education for me. Civ is where I learned what monotheism and polytheism are, the requisite ingredients for gunpowder, and the world-changing effects of the invention of the printing press. This year, in Civ 6, I’m learning new words again with the concept of suzerainty over city-states, but more importantly I’m reminded of a timeless life lesson that’s more pressing today than ever: greed leads to unhappiness.
In our modern world, more people are obese than underweight. As a species, we’ve developed way past the point where scarcity was our biggest challenge, and we’re now faced with the counterintuitive problem of overabundance. There’s no bigger marker of that in the western world than the American Black Friday sales, an annual event that now stretches over multiple days and has extended into Europe and elsewhere. Black Friday is when you shop for everything you need and a great deal more besides. It’s the surfeit and excesses of Black Friday that I want to discuss in relation to Civilization 6.
Marauding barbarians are a signature feature of both Civilization games and Black Friday sales
The typical starting scenario in any Civilization game sees you taking charge of a small group of settlers looking to lay the foundations for a future empire. Once the first city is founded, each civilization starts out on its own path, whether that means arming up to pursue early conquests and fend off barbarians or focusing on cultural and scientific development first. Fending off marauding barbarians, I’m sure you’ll be aware by now, is a signature feature of any Black Friday doorbuster sale.
For me, Civ 6 has been the first game in the series where I’ve prioritized scouts for investigating as much of the map as early as I could, in order to know where those barbarians are and to benefit from encounters with friendly villagers along the way. In Black Friday terms, I’m scouting out each and every deal in order to know which ones will be most profitable for me to grab.