I watched an episode of Jerry Springer today. It was one where a man had cut off his own legs and was dressing as a woman. Additionally, he insisted he would always wear women's clothing, even though it meant that he could not see his daughter. When asked if that was selfish he replied "No its not selfish, its just what I want to do." (which is the very definition of selfish, only consideration is what he wants).

I realized that at this point, no cultural achievment in the American Civilization will ever actually net us positive points. I think we are only gaining negative culture going forward simply because of the amount of things that are eroding our culture.

So I was inspired to turn this into a game concept for a mod;

Like a "Great Entertainer" unit, only it would be named "Springer" that is spawned. While Jerry Springer is not single handedly responsible, he certainly epitomizes the decline of civilization.

The unit can create a special 'building' which reduces your culture and provides a bonus to gold every turn, or be used like a special entertainer for a single "Culture Hit"/Big Gold return. With enough of these, you could actually generate negative culture. (representing all the Jerky Boys, Jackass, Rad Girls, Fear Factor, Youtube, Jerry Springers cumalative effects)

In a twist, you can use this unit on your opponents territory to reduce their culture (but they get the gold) or their city in the same manner you could send a missionary if you have open border agreement. Think of this as when England sends Sascha Baron Cohen over to America.

While this won't set the game on its ear, I think it helps illustrate that eventually decadence sets in to almost every civilization and thats when it begins its decline. (that and too much reliance on a single resource that eventually is surpassed technology wise and they refuse to adapt).

Yes. Since every American watches the Jerry Springer show and only the intellectual elite criticize it for being lowbrow. And since reality TV causes us to lose our national identity (which is what culture represents). You do realize that negative culture would require American citizens to actually stop considering themselves American, right?

I've got one thing to say: Listen to the text:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMnU80vk71U

You may have a point, and it doesn't just happen in the US.
Decadence is only one aspect of decline, however. Whenever
an alien demographic gains the majority, such as foriegn slaves
in ancient Rome, or leftist whakos in the media, that culture is
probably in decline.
Consider the premise of Mark Stien's book, America Alone. In
most European countries, Moslems will make up the majority demo-
graphic in less then 10 years. Native Europeans haven't been spawning
their 2.3 kids, but the Moslems have. In effect- Islam will have conquered
Europe without firing a shot.
While this is pretty scary, it could lead to some interesting game play, in that,
if you are a Republic, maybe your cities should rebel faster, unless you
can maintain a certain amount of culture points versus alien influence.
(be it religion or a native population of a conquered city) Maybe the only
way to afectively go on a conqering spree is to play as some sort of police state.
(The Soviets were butchers, but they kept thier Islamic vassel states in
check, until Afghanistan...)

Population dynamics are an interesting topic. Definitely, increased education and economic wealth also lead to less kids and more disagreement. I think the natural disadvantages that come from prosperity would make for an interesting tension throughout the game. But then, a lot of people don't like the idea of being "punished" for success -- no matter how realistic.

Why not treat Culture the same as population growth the more you have the more it takes to maintain also get rid of the limit on max range for borders, if done that way after the numbers are redone to fit the new style it could look mostly the same as before except when you lower your slider or lose some buildings makeing culture after a while the city range might shrink if it had grown far enough to need that extra. (kinda makes me think of the boom towns that got really big after finding some high value trade goods or something and shrank to almost nothing after the goods dried up)

Maybe the way to aproach culture would be to have positive and
negative aspects to it. Having too much of the enemys population in your city would give you 'bad' culture. This would subtract your culture points. (Maybe
the game already does this) Building a theatre maybe should generate more income, but have a negative aspect on culture in a republic, but a positive
aspect in a police state (as it can be used for propaganda). Temples that are foriegn to your state religion should definatly have negative culture.
There should be two types of universitys- the privately funded and the state funded. In a republic , the state funded university would be a black hole
financialy and have negative culture (but give you more science),
while the privatly funded would have positive culture and cost nothing (but maybe
less science for balance). In a police state, while the university would still be
the financial black hole, but it would have positive culture (propaganda again).
Boy, where would you stop with this...:confused:

Before they come up with negative culture, they should probably make culture more useful in the first place.