When did you first start playing Civilization?

[seancolorado]

I was never a massive gamer growing up, so I had never even heard of Civilization until I saw some guy named "Johnny Superbman" Let's Play Civ 5 as Rome on YouTube.

It looked so exciting so I immediately started playing it and I've been a CivFanatic ever since.

The question in the poll is "When did you first start playing Civ?" but the real point of this thread is to ask:

1. How did you first hear about Civilization?

2. What got you into it/kept you into it as a loyal fan?

Oh, and I'm posting this here because I want to see the response strictly from those who have loved the game enough to stick with Civ all the way to Brave New World. EDIT: Interested in everybody's timelines, but particularly want to hear from those who have stuck with it since the beginning

 

[VisageTDI]

Started with Civ 3, it was first turn based strategy game I played. I've been playing a lot of games and am member of several gaming forums, so it was hard to miss it.

Played C4 a lot, then only dabbled in C5 vanilla. When G&K came out and totally reworked the game, played it for a while but kinda switched to MP games like BF3 and SC2 after that. Then BNW came and I'm hooked again.

 

[JustinianIV]

GnK for me, shortly after it was released. I think I remember trying Civ IV once 5 years ago, but my computer couldn't run it well enough, and the game didn't seem good enough to be worth the bother. Don't shoot me.

 

[Vidszhite]

I started at civ3, played the crap out of that game. I think I lost my first game on Settler, haha. I played lots of civ4 too, but civ5 really hooked me. Something about 1upt felt a lot less stupid than stacks of death.

BNW might well be a brand new game it changed so much. Ideologies are fun as hell now.

 

[neev]

In 1997, with Civ II. A friend gave me his copy and told me "You should play this, you're going to like it." My first game lasted 25 hours in a row, it consumed me entirely (I was 15 years old). I had never played something like this, the feeling was unique : growing your empire, conquering other civs, launching your SS, the music, the advisors, the land... everything was as it was tailored to meet my tastes. A giant slap in the face at the time.

I then stuck with the series, all these years. I like all Civilization games, although II & IV are my favourite. I really thought the series was lost with Civ V Vanilla (I'm one of these people who think it was a complete disaster at the time), but they managed to salvage it brilliantly : I had a lot of fun with G&K but especially with BNW, even though it still needs a bit of fixing.

And now I can't wait for Civ VI (or a SMAC II, but it will never happen).

 

[Socratatus]

I think it was around 1985 ish, Civ1, at college. It was on those new fangled things called computers. We couldn`t get enough of it. The sounds, the graphics, the ability to rule your own Civ against other AI like STALIN!

It was amazing, I kid you not. Even my parents liked it cos I could say it was educational. I wanted to phone all my friends on the mobile, but I forgot the mobile phone was still too big and expensive to use and no ordinary person owned one yet. So I ran to their houses instead!

 

[blackcatatonic]

1. How did you first hear about Civilization? About 1997, Civ II for me as well. I was 11 years old and just starting to get into computer games. I've played every iteration since, including both Call to Powers, except Revolutions and the Facebook game.

2. What got you into it/kept you into it as a loyal fan? My late father. I used to talk to him about my strategies in my current games. The first Civ I bought myself (rather than him buying them for my birthday/Christmas) was CiV, which came out a matter of days before he passed away. I'm sad he never got to see it, but I think he would have preferred Civ IV anyway!

 

[VainoValkea]

I played a lot of computer games with my father as a kid in the early 1990's. One day my father got a copy of Civilization II (I hadn't even heard of Civ) from somewhere and I started playing it. I hadn't asked for it. I wasn't waiting for it. I didn't even know it existed. It blew my mind. And became one of my favorite games until Civ IV and beyond. (edit: I also played Colonization a lot, maybe even more than Civ II)

My loyalty stems from the fact that I pretty much grew up playing Civ II and loving it. The game was rather impressive to a young lad like myself since I was getting bored with the war-only approach of many other games, even if Civ II's diplomacy AI is as stupid as can be. I liked building an empire, waging war and laughing evilly when backstabbing someone who capitulated to me a few turns ago. However, I also respect the fact that Civ V is well-designed game, understanding that just slapping on more stuff for the next round doesn't always produce a better game. Nothing beats good game design, especially nowadays when graphics and writers are prioritized over good ol' quality mechanics. Civilization is the only commercial game series I still like, every other one having become disappointing at some point of their lives.

 

[kaltorak]

Civi1. I played a lot, but it's been so long ago I only remember 2 moments.

Building my first city in my very first game. Had no idea about resources, so I built it in a cell surrounded by water except for 1 side. thought it would be very defensible. Also remember I was rome.

The other thing I remember is finding an AI city of size 11. I was amazed. It was london, and I think I even remember I was france. Having no idea about resources or even workers, 11 seemed impossible for me ^^

Well i also remember when a friend showed me the game at his home. A game where everything was black, except a small area with units that were squares with a painting. And I said: wth is this crap!
Then I don't know why I ended up trying it and.... thousends of hours and almost 20 years

 

[Heinage]

1. How/when did I first hear about it?
It would have been the early 90s. In New Zealand. I may have been 6 or 7 and I remember playing Civ I with a friend on his computer. It was the most amazing thing. Moving chariots, meeting the Mongols, researching the wheel.
I was sad when it was time to go home. As a child though, I soon forgot all about it and it wasn't until the early 00s that I heard about Civ III, I think through my sister and her boyfriend who played multiplayer. That was in Holland.
I continued playing Civ III throughout uni years back in NZ and then onto Civ IV as a massive fan, and into Civ V as a civ fanatic. The rest is history.

2. What kept me into it as a fan
It's Civ. No words I say will do it justice. Best. Game. Evah.

 

[JustinianIV]

2. What got you into it/kept you into it as a loyal fan? My late father. I used to talk to him about my strategies in my current games. The first Civ I bought myself (rather than him buying them for my birthday/Christmas) was CiV, which came out a matter of days before he passed away. I'm sad he never got to see it, but I think he would have preferred Civ IV anyway!

This is one of the beautiful things about Civ. It's a game that is accessible for different generations.

 

[Scott Jegg]

Civ 1 on the Commodore Amiga, but I only ever played at settler level, and always played ont the earth map. My first time playing that kind of game, and for some reason I loved doing that over and over again. I used to love going the Aztecs and getting loads of land to myself. I was always end up nuking half of Europe to try and win. There used to be a cheat where you could get a worker to finish its work in one turn. I always did that.

Played some civ 2, which was a total change, but I never really got into it. I remember thinking it was so cool with the adviser videos... the drunk military advisor. My dad had only recently got a PC at that time, so it wasn't really mine to play games on.

Civ 3 passed me by I think. Don't remember much about it. I seen some screens of it the other day and I'm sure I did play it at some time.

Civ 4 I really tried to get into. I had BtS and tried to learn more about the game, but I still found myself ambling through games and I don't think I ever finished a game. I tried to learn about the different economies of cottages and specialists, but I think it was all a bit overwhelming and I never really enjoyed it that much. I think I would usually get to renaissance times and jack it in.

Civ 5 is the first game I've really enjoyed and play a lot. It's certainly more accessible than previous versions with what some might say is a "dumbing down", but it works for me. I play a lot and feel like I really understand what's going on now.

My pal at school use to have Civ 1 on the PC. He told me about it and got me into it. I loved it straight away.

I wouldn't say I was a loyal fan up until now, even though I've played most. I like this type of game, but apart from the first game, I haven't really loved it until civ 5.

 

[Volapyk]

Civ 1, my father used it to teach me English and history, as much as you can teach a 4 year old boy anyway

 

[VainoValkea]

Civ 1, my father used it to teach me English and history, as much as you can teach a 4 year old boy anyway

Video games are very good for education. I was very young when I started playing Civ II, and English isn't my native language. Thanks to the large, verbose manual and the delightful online reference manual Civilopedia, I learned the language very fast. It is a miracle, really, how fast children learn, when the means of learning are clever and fun.

 

[wigwam]

1. How did you first hear about Civilization?
2. What got you into it/kept you into it as a loyal fan?

When the original Civilization came out, I was seven and my family didn't even own a computer (all of you '90s kids just shivered in horror, I'm sure). A couple of my wealthier friends did have computers, though, and I was introduced to games at their houses—Lemmings, Railroad Tycoon, Commander Keen, and Civilization. A couple years later, my fourth-grade classroom had the Mac version of Civ on one of the computers, which I would shamelessly hog every time it rained and we had to stay inside for recess.

By the time Civ 2 came out, my family had a computer, so that was the first Civ game I actually owned. By then I was generally more into shooters than strategy games, but I always had a soft spot for Civilization. I loved the procedurally-generated worlds, the emergent reinventions of world history, the endless replayability. My best friends at the time were all into Civ 2 as well—it was pretty much the only game we could all agree on, with the possible exception of Red Alert—and we'd play huge marathon games together. Civ 2 was also the first game I downloaded mods for and tried modding myself.

I got Alpha Centauri when it came out, enjoyed it, but never bought the expansion—1999 was a ridiculous year for games, and Alpha Centauri didn't really hold my attention compared to Homeworld, Freespace 2, The Longest Journey, System Shock 2, loads of awesome Quake and Half-Life mods, etc. (I didn't even play Planescape: Torment until years later).

When Civ 3 came out, I was in my last year of high school, getting into music, going to parties, generally trying (with fair-to-middling results) to be cool. I spent more time that year playing Mario Kart through a haze of smoke in friends' basements than I did at home with Civ 3, which I dimly remember being kind of a disappointment anyways, a big step backwards after SMAC.

I slept on Civ 4 for a while—I was playing WoW when it was released, and I didn't really have time for other games—but I finally picked it up around the time the first expansion came out, and eventually got really into it. Apart from the Half-Life 2 episodes, the Portals, and the occasional relapse into WoW, Civ 4 (and especially mods like FfH2) was pretty much the only game I played for a good five years. And then I finally caved and bought Civ 5 the year after it came out, and have clocked an embarrassing number of hours on it since.

I guess what keeps me coming back is the same thing that drew me in in the first place—getting to rewrite all of world history over and over again, having the game come up with these incredible stories you help create—plus a certain nostalgia factor. I've been playing Civilization for almost three-quarters of my life; it's the one game I've stuck with all through the years. My tastes changed, and then I stopped played games, and then I started again, and then I mostly stopped again, and now I'm kind of starting again (what with all these great Kickstarter projects/nostalgia traps promising to take me back to 1999). But Civ has always been a constant.

2. What got you into it/kept you into it as a loyal fan? My late father. I used to talk to him about my strategies in my current games. The first Civ I bought myself (rather than him buying them for my birthday/Christmas) was CiV, which came out a matter of days before he passed away. I'm sad he never got to see it, but I think he would have preferred Civ IV anyway!

Sorry to hear about your loss. I used to play this old turn-based wargame called Steel Panthers with my dad. He was always big on boardgames, but a little mystified by my love for computer games. And then along came this one (rather boardgame-like) computer game that really struck his fancy—it was a great bonding experience. He eventually had to uninstall it because it was keeping him up until 3:00 in the morning and affecting his work, actually!

 

[Bibor]

On Amiga 500, later played the AGA version on A1200.

 

[livsbrand]

I always thought Civ was a series I should play, I think no matter when I had started playing I'd still be a fan today. I found my first Civ in a bargain bin this January, Civ V. My very first game was a hotseat game with my girlfriend. She picked India and I picked Siam. We both wanted elephants. I had my settler explore a bit before finding some suitable wheat to settle on. She hit a culture ruin with her settler and decided it was probably a totally OP spot for a city. My first single player experience was a domination win with Russia (double uranium!!!). Settler difficulty. Continents. I agreed to help Askia fight Sully in ten turns, but attacked Askia instead. Glorious. I played a couple more SP games before I quickly followed up with G&K.

I've been a big gamer for most of my life, except for a break between ages 18~23. I've always played lots of different games but I have to admit Civ V is pretty much the only game I've played during the last 6-7 months, leaving the likes of Bioshock: Infinite collecting dust. Perhaps I will make room for some RPGs in the future, but right now I just can't get enough of Civ.

 

[acjvanv]

I had to look up the screenshots, but I think I started with Civ2. I remember playing Colonization a lot and I think that is how I got to the Civ series eventually.

Turn based strategy has always been my favorite so I kept coming back to it with every new release, and still do. Civ, Jagged Allliance and later the Commando's series. I don't wanna know how many hours I've put into that. Although way way back it all started with point-and-click adventures offcourse.

 

[Merciorum]

Civ 2: Test of Time was my first, though I've since played 1. I was only a young whippersnapper at the time.

Then came 1, then 4, then 3 (the latter two I got together in the Civ Chronicles box-thing), then 5.

I kept at it because it was immensely fun, because it was something my brother and I would play on multiplayer, and because it was the only game which allowed me to play history, so to speak. The latter role has largely been replaced with Paradox games in recent times, but I do still like the whole history-empire-building nature of Civ. And the aforementioned "it's incredibly fun" part.

 

[Rob5000]

I started with Civ 1 for the SNES and immediately became obsessed. Only got to try Civ 2 a handful of times as I didn't have a pc at the moment, only a mac. Then came a long hiatus, where I would play Civ 1 off and on (still on the snes). Then, about 6 years ago my brother gave me Civ 3 - I HATED IT. Building cities was horrible, because if you wanted to build a city far from your capital you'd get a corruption penalty and it would basically be useless. A few months later my girlfriend bought a copy of Civ 4 and she got me into it - mildly. But what really did it was Rhyes and Fall - amazing mod that really opened my eyes.

Finally came CIV 5 - also hated it at first as they removed religion and alot of key elements. But when GnK, and then BNW, came out, the love-hate relationship was over. The bond was established. CIV for life lol.