This is text version of video that I make. Sadly I cannot link to youtube video. But I'm still interest in your opinions.
So thanks to relis of Civilization 6 I start to wonder.
Why civilization is not only a King of 4X Genre, but practically category of itself?
Steam Spy show us that Civ 5 has over 9,7 milion owners. There is no other 4X game that came close to 2 million owners. This is like civilization is sitting on top of Mount Everest and cheers other games for walking up the stairs. So why is it? Why is there such a great gap between Civ and all other games?
The first obvious answer is brand. Civ has been with us for over twenty five years.
It has devoted fanbase that gets hype, creates fancontent and generates more hype. The Brand of Civilization is strong and it adds to the game status as a king of 4X genre.
This is a big part of Civilization's success, but not the only one. SimCity was also having a big brand but right now CitySkylines is considered by most to be a superior product. So why did Civilization stayed on top of 4X genre for over twenty five years?
Putting it shortly and simply Civilization's biggest plus is its premise.
The premise of leading a civilization from the beginning of history, through centuries, to the victory and domination over the whole world. You can battle with Julius Cesar and conquer Rome, flirt with Cleopatra and thanks to the mods kick ass of nazi Germany, drop the bomb on Stalinist Russia and prove once and for all that Polandball can into space.
Beside some freeware all other 4X games use either science fiction or fantasy setting. This premise of Historical base game makes Civilization unique, and it gives her very powerful advantages over other games.
So let's talk about what are those powerful advantages that Civilization have.
We start with the basics and their names are: mundanes, simplicity and familiarity.
Most if not all of the stuff in Civ is mundane, like radio. It is simple like farms that will give you food. And it is familiar like knights and castles. People understand them wich translates into wider audience grasping basics of the game and all inner dependencies.
To better illustrate my point here are some examples from the other games.
Stelaris has energy credits. Please think for a moment about the fraze energy credits. Since they are energy we can assume that they are generated in a power plant, and since they are credits they work as some kind of currency. Both this assumptions are actually true in the game. So the Energy Credits are both simple and familiar, however they are not usual type of currency.
On the other hand Endless Legend have Dust. If you are not familiar with Endless series you have no idea what dust do. It works like a gold. You generate it like gold, mining and trade, you use it like gold, paying for maintenance of buildings and units. For 98% of the game it is gold in everything but name. It is simple but not mundane or familiar.
To make more direct comparison. In civ we have Forests and Jungles as type of terrain. In endless legend there are 9 types of forests. Four of them provide identical amount and type of resources. To add to that, we have Enchantend Forest and Crystal Forests. Not mundane, not simple and not familiar.
You may think that this is something small. But this stuff adds up. Every unite, terrain type, technology. The more players are familiar with them the easier it is to understand and use them. In that regards it is very easy to grab basics in Historical 4X games. And Civilization is the only Historical 4X game.
Next advantage of Civilization is a progression through the ages.
What saddens me greatly is the fact that this is something that both SciFi and Fantasy 4X games could do very easily. But either never actually do this or implement it very poorly.
To give you some examples.
In Master of Orion, and all other space based games, you start with the smallest ship; probably Frigate, sometimes Corvet. Then you will unlock bigger and bigger ships. And that's all. You Frigate will look the same in the begining and in the end of the game. And of course it will have a resemblance to the biggest ship.
Contrast this with Civ were you can just look at units and tell what era are you in. Knights? Medieval. Musketeers? Renaissance. In Civ 5 the starting warrior can be upgraded in every era. Also you not only upgrade your unites to better one, but also unlock new ones. Range , cavalry, naval and finally air units. So not only Civilization upgrades old units in looks and statistic, but also adda new ones. It provides new elements to the battlefield.
This makes Science Fiction games feel static in comparison. Our units look the same no matter if we just started conquering galaxy or are about to end the conquest.
Part of the fun with 4X games is how far you bring your people. Look at how advanced my unites are, how big my empire has become/
Now I get that in SciFi games you have different species, that have uniquely looking units and you can upgrade them with different modules. But for the most part their graphical design is the only thing that makes them different. In Fantasy games like Endless Legend or Age of wonders each faction has truly unique units. Not only in look but in the gameplay. And that makes them far more interesting than just “You unlocked bigger ship”.
I really wish that both SciFi and Fantasy games would develop better timelines so you colud have at least some feelingof progress and development, beside unlocking bigger units.
The last advantage that push Civilization over any other game are Personalities. This is the hardest thing to get right when you are notmaking a historicly accurate 4X game.
Think about it. You can lead Rome to dominate ENTIRE world, or you can lead Psylons. You can kick ass as Atilla the Hun or Grumsh the Ugly. You can subjugate Aztecs or Meklars. The nations and leaders in Civ are recognizable. They have a character. To make this even worse, all other 4X games delude there personalities by including customization of their factions and leaders. This turns them from memorable personalities to just aesthetics. The biggest offender in that regard is the newest Master of Orion. In theory it has a great value in terms of designing its races personalities. Each race has a leader and advisor that are splendidly animated and voice-acted.
There are just two big problems. First. Some leaders and advisors are often completely out of sync.
For example Alkari are suposed to be dignity Bird Race. Their leaders look majestic and distinct. Alkari advisors on the other hand looks like a parrot crossed with a wacky sidekick from disney, that screeches every time he speaks.
Bolrati are proud Bears, and their leader shows this. Their advisor looks like an old veteran but whenever you are on research screen he speaks to you about learning new tricks like he was some kind of a circus monkey .
Almost all advisors try to be wacky sidekicks and many, many times instead of adding depth to the race it diminishes it. They are on every panel doing their thing: talking and advising. You will spend far more time with race advisors than with leaders. Leaders can be only seen in theaudience screen that you see very rarely. You will remember advisor not a leader. So you will not remember dignified Alkari, you will remember screeching parrot. You will not remember proud Bulrati, you will remember old circus bear that learns new tricks.
The second problem with races in Master of Orion is that there mechanical stats can be recreated perfectly in customization screen. So you can take stats of Psylons and give them then to Bulrati. This completely kill any personality between them.
Now I also want to mention Endless Legend because it makes great thing with its factions in terms of allowing a player to customize them. When you create custom faction you chose affinity that give you basics traits of that faction. For example. If you chose Broken Lords affinity you will get their aesthetic, their units and trait.
That trait is They do not consume or produce food. This is because Broken Lords are energy beings enchanted into their armors. They do not need to eat. Instead they consume Dust to create new Broken Lords. With makes them something between robots and vampires. On the other hand if you chose Cultist affinity, you will be able to have only one City. But every neutral faction that you pacify will add 2 citizens to your city, regardless of distance. This makes factions in Endless Legend far more memorable than those in the Master of Orion, despite the fact that Endless Legend do not have advisors voice acted or even animated. Leaders are barely moving, and as an introduction for to faction serves a short cutscene at the beginning of the game.
Now does Science Fiction or Fantasy 4X games can do all this point? The progresion and characters absolutly. With simplicity and familiriarity they will have little problem but nothing that good tutorial can fix. But Historical base 4X games must do it. They will have Historical figure, that ad personality and familiarity. There will be progression because without it, the whole premise have no sense. All stuff will be mundane. And it will play in to people fantasy of becoming leader of nation and ruler of the world.
Okey I will be finishing this video, I hope that you enjoy it. And what are you though on this issue? Do you agree or disagree? Pleas leave the comment. And have a nice day.
So thanks to relis of Civilization 6 I start to wonder.
Why civilization is not only a King of 4X Genre, but practically category of itself?
Steam Spy show us that Civ 5 has over 9,7 milion owners. There is no other 4X game that came close to 2 million owners. This is like civilization is sitting on top of Mount Everest and cheers other games for walking up the stairs. So why is it? Why is there such a great gap between Civ and all other games?
The first obvious answer is brand. Civ has been with us for over twenty five years.
It has devoted fanbase that gets hype, creates fancontent and generates more hype. The Brand of Civilization is strong and it adds to the game status as a king of 4X genre.
This is a big part of Civilization's success, but not the only one. SimCity was also having a big brand but right now CitySkylines is considered by most to be a superior product. So why did Civilization stayed on top of 4X genre for over twenty five years?
Putting it shortly and simply Civilization's biggest plus is its premise.
The premise of leading a civilization from the beginning of history, through centuries, to the victory and domination over the whole world. You can battle with Julius Cesar and conquer Rome, flirt with Cleopatra and thanks to the mods kick ass of nazi Germany, drop the bomb on Stalinist Russia and prove once and for all that Polandball can into space.
Beside some freeware all other 4X games use either science fiction or fantasy setting. This premise of Historical base game makes Civilization unique, and it gives her very powerful advantages over other games.
So let's talk about what are those powerful advantages that Civilization have.
We start with the basics and their names are: mundanes, simplicity and familiarity.
Most if not all of the stuff in Civ is mundane, like radio. It is simple like farms that will give you food. And it is familiar like knights and castles. People understand them wich translates into wider audience grasping basics of the game and all inner dependencies.
To better illustrate my point here are some examples from the other games.
Stelaris has energy credits. Please think for a moment about the fraze energy credits. Since they are energy we can assume that they are generated in a power plant, and since they are credits they work as some kind of currency. Both this assumptions are actually true in the game. So the Energy Credits are both simple and familiar, however they are not usual type of currency.
On the other hand Endless Legend have Dust. If you are not familiar with Endless series you have no idea what dust do. It works like a gold. You generate it like gold, mining and trade, you use it like gold, paying for maintenance of buildings and units. For 98% of the game it is gold in everything but name. It is simple but not mundane or familiar.
To make more direct comparison. In civ we have Forests and Jungles as type of terrain. In endless legend there are 9 types of forests. Four of them provide identical amount and type of resources. To add to that, we have Enchantend Forest and Crystal Forests. Not mundane, not simple and not familiar.
You may think that this is something small. But this stuff adds up. Every unite, terrain type, technology. The more players are familiar with them the easier it is to understand and use them. In that regards it is very easy to grab basics in Historical 4X games. And Civilization is the only Historical 4X game.
Next advantage of Civilization is a progression through the ages.
What saddens me greatly is the fact that this is something that both SciFi and Fantasy 4X games could do very easily. But either never actually do this or implement it very poorly.
To give you some examples.
In Master of Orion, and all other space based games, you start with the smallest ship; probably Frigate, sometimes Corvet. Then you will unlock bigger and bigger ships. And that's all. You Frigate will look the same in the begining and in the end of the game. And of course it will have a resemblance to the biggest ship.
Contrast this with Civ were you can just look at units and tell what era are you in. Knights? Medieval. Musketeers? Renaissance. In Civ 5 the starting warrior can be upgraded in every era. Also you not only upgrade your unites to better one, but also unlock new ones. Range , cavalry, naval and finally air units. So not only Civilization upgrades old units in looks and statistic, but also adda new ones. It provides new elements to the battlefield.
This makes Science Fiction games feel static in comparison. Our units look the same no matter if we just started conquering galaxy or are about to end the conquest.
Part of the fun with 4X games is how far you bring your people. Look at how advanced my unites are, how big my empire has become/
Now I get that in SciFi games you have different species, that have uniquely looking units and you can upgrade them with different modules. But for the most part their graphical design is the only thing that makes them different. In Fantasy games like Endless Legend or Age of wonders each faction has truly unique units. Not only in look but in the gameplay. And that makes them far more interesting than just “You unlocked bigger ship”.
I really wish that both SciFi and Fantasy games would develop better timelines so you colud have at least some feelingof progress and development, beside unlocking bigger units.
The last advantage that push Civilization over any other game are Personalities. This is the hardest thing to get right when you are notmaking a historicly accurate 4X game.
Think about it. You can lead Rome to dominate ENTIRE world, or you can lead Psylons. You can kick ass as Atilla the Hun or Grumsh the Ugly. You can subjugate Aztecs or Meklars. The nations and leaders in Civ are recognizable. They have a character. To make this even worse, all other 4X games delude there personalities by including customization of their factions and leaders. This turns them from memorable personalities to just aesthetics. The biggest offender in that regard is the newest Master of Orion. In theory it has a great value in terms of designing its races personalities. Each race has a leader and advisor that are splendidly animated and voice-acted.
There are just two big problems. First. Some leaders and advisors are often completely out of sync.
For example Alkari are suposed to be dignity Bird Race. Their leaders look majestic and distinct. Alkari advisors on the other hand looks like a parrot crossed with a wacky sidekick from disney, that screeches every time he speaks.
Bolrati are proud Bears, and their leader shows this. Their advisor looks like an old veteran but whenever you are on research screen he speaks to you about learning new tricks like he was some kind of a circus monkey .
Almost all advisors try to be wacky sidekicks and many, many times instead of adding depth to the race it diminishes it. They are on every panel doing their thing: talking and advising. You will spend far more time with race advisors than with leaders. Leaders can be only seen in theaudience screen that you see very rarely. You will remember advisor not a leader. So you will not remember dignified Alkari, you will remember screeching parrot. You will not remember proud Bulrati, you will remember old circus bear that learns new tricks.
The second problem with races in Master of Orion is that there mechanical stats can be recreated perfectly in customization screen. So you can take stats of Psylons and give them then to Bulrati. This completely kill any personality between them.
Now I also want to mention Endless Legend because it makes great thing with its factions in terms of allowing a player to customize them. When you create custom faction you chose affinity that give you basics traits of that faction. For example. If you chose Broken Lords affinity you will get their aesthetic, their units and trait.
That trait is They do not consume or produce food. This is because Broken Lords are energy beings enchanted into their armors. They do not need to eat. Instead they consume Dust to create new Broken Lords. With makes them something between robots and vampires. On the other hand if you chose Cultist affinity, you will be able to have only one City. But every neutral faction that you pacify will add 2 citizens to your city, regardless of distance. This makes factions in Endless Legend far more memorable than those in the Master of Orion, despite the fact that Endless Legend do not have advisors voice acted or even animated. Leaders are barely moving, and as an introduction for to faction serves a short cutscene at the beginning of the game.
Now does Science Fiction or Fantasy 4X games can do all this point? The progresion and characters absolutly. With simplicity and familiriarity they will have little problem but nothing that good tutorial can fix. But Historical base 4X games must do it. They will have Historical figure, that ad personality and familiarity. There will be progression because without it, the whole premise have no sense. All stuff will be mundane. And it will play in to people fantasy of becoming leader of nation and ruler of the world.
Okey I will be finishing this video, I hope that you enjoy it. And what are you though on this issue? Do you agree or disagree? Pleas leave the comment. And have a nice day.
