Great work everyone!
One more time here's a full list showing the popularity* of the 34 civs from "vanilla", Warlords, and BTS with the civfantics community...
60 civfantics have listed their top 10 favourites (to play/want to play); this is a good sample size. So, survey says:
The top 10 favourite civilizations for civfantics to play are:
1st) The Egyptians = 34 votes
2nd) The English = 33 votes
3rd) The Romans & Russians = 30 votes each (i.e. a tie)
4th) The Indians = 25 votes
5th) The Carthaginians, Chinese & Germans = 23 votes each
6th) The Dutch, Inca & Japanese = 22 votes each
7th) The French, Greeks & Persians = 21 votes each
8th) The Mali & Vikings = 19 votes each
9th) The Arabs & Celts = 17 votes each
10th) The Byzantines & Mayans = 16 votes each
Looks more like top 20!
- and the rest in order too:
The Ottomans & Zulu = 14 votes each
The Aztecs, Babylonians & Portuguese = 13 votes each
The Native Americans = 12 votes
The Americans = 11 votes
The Ethiopians = 10 votes
The HRE & Mongols = 9 votes each
The Khmer = 8 votes
The Koreans = 7 votes
The Spanish = 6 votes
The Sumerians = 3 votes
Lowest showing BTS civ: Sumeria
Lowest showing Warlords civ: Korea
Lowest showing "Vanilla" civ: Spain
Highest showing BTS civ: the Dutch
Highest showing Warlords civ: Carthage
Highest showing "Vanilla" civ: Egypt
*: 'popular' being loosely defined as among the top 10 preferred whether in play, by concept, and of course as per personal taste.
My comment on the results:
A larger survey would probably be more conclusive regarding the popularity of civs people like to play, but 60 is statistically a good sample size. Egypt has always been the greatest icon of the game, and it comes as no surprise it is at the top. Likewise Rome ranks well, and the non-ancient civs of England and Russia have ranked very highly too - higher than I expected, I thought that the Chinese would be at least as popular as England. But then again, the civs from "vanilla" are more likely ranked by playability over any other civ, so it may be that China doesn't play as well as England?
The BTS civs have yet to be released and not everyone has Warlords (I'd imagine most players do). Rankings of civs from Warlords are possibly more influenced by taste than mechanics right now - it is hard to say. (This survey isn't that thorough on distinctions anyways. Next one I do will possibly be more comprehensive.) Regarding the civs of "vanilla", why does Spain rank so low in popularity to play? I know Spain is often reviled as an AI opponent; but does that influence the choice to actually play as Spain? Or is it simply that the Spanish UB and UU do not perform as well as those of most other civs?
A civ's popularity to play can change with each iteration of the game, based on that civ's mechanical performance, and I suppose that factor more than anything will affect future marketing on civs in future expansions or versions of the civilization franchise. Thus, the Dutch of the BTS expansion are ranked best of all BTS civs based on player anticipation which itself is based on player game knowledge synthesizing pre-release information on that civ. But once people play the BTS expansion, we could see big shifts in civ popularity if there are surprises in civ playability! That will be fun to find out!
As I mentioned in a previous post, Sumeria doesn't look so "hot", but perhaps that'll change after July?
Do these votes reflect what civs people want in their game? Well, only partially because while some civs may/may not be popular to play, we also have to consider those civs people like to play
against. For example, the Mongols, a "vanilla" civ, do not rank high as a civ to play, but they have been a staple of the civilization franchise from the beginning, they were historically a very important force in changing history and as such probably more popular as an AI controlled civ to play against. This survey doesn't account for the popularity of AI controlled civs; at a later time, it would be interesting to see which civs civfantics prefer to play
against - the favourite rivals! Then comparisons between civs to play and civs under AI control could be made and the results could be enlightening! But that is for another thread another time
I will consider a new survey of top 10 civs in the coming fall, once people have tasted the goodness of BTS; I'm looking forward to this expansion and the outcome!