The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
I've always found the idea of using Civ as a teaching tool laughable. I'm interested in history, and have learnt close to nothing from it.
Any educators out there that have used Civ3 to teach?
- Thread starter jb1964
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The Last Conformist said:
I think its just meant to provide an interest in history and not actually something you can really learn from... Some of the paradox games are probably more useful as a historical tool as the events are all real is just occasionally not everything will happen exactly.
In my opinion Civ 3 is a huge step forward as a teaching tool from Civ 2.
Thanks to resources and their placement playing Civ 3 gives a very good idea about why certain things happened during history and are still very much happening. Actually, I don't think any country's educational system offers such a sincere and unbiased view into history of politics.
Also, the differences between each civ's traits and UU's give the player an incentive to try out different civs and is therefore pretty much forced to learn at least the leader names and a few city names.
All in all, I'll have to say I've picked up a thing or two during my years of playing Civ!
Thanks to resources and their placement playing Civ 3 gives a very good idea about why certain things happened during history and are still very much happening. Actually, I don't think any country's educational system offers such a sincere and unbiased view into history of politics.
Also, the differences between each civ's traits and UU's give the player an incentive to try out different civs and is therefore pretty much forced to learn at least the leader names and a few city names.
All in all, I'll have to say I've picked up a thing or two during my years of playing Civ!
Laughable? As a teacher, I know high school students who can't tell me on what continent Germany resides (not kidding). After playing Conquests -- WWII for about 10 hours, they have a VERY good idea about world geography that a semester with their geography teacher didn't come close to giving them.
Then there are some historical issues: What about the difficulties Germany experienced trying to conduct a war on two fronts? Does the game reveal these? (oh yes). What was Spain's involvement in the war? Did Germany have troops in Africa during the height of the war? Where in Africa? How hard would it be for America to send planes to help Britain? How easy was it for Germany to conduct the bombing raids over London--strategically and geographically?
All these questions involving WWII and a ton more can be answered just playing the one scenario.
Open your mind!
UnnamedPlayer
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2007
- Messages
- 54
i have learned from stuff that's historically accurate like campaigns in age of empires. there are many of those, many custom-made.
civ's editor just lets you make a map. while i learned some geography (16 most important cities for 16 empires)... it can't really teach history.
even with long historical information that civ 4 gives (civilopedia entry for worker gives me 5 paragraphs on workers in history instead of all the worker actions and turns
)... i never read it
civ's editor just lets you make a map. while i learned some geography (16 most important cities for 16 empires)... it can't really teach history.
even with long historical information that civ 4 gives (civilopedia entry for worker gives me 5 paragraphs on workers in history instead of all the worker actions and turns
)... i never read itcivverguy
Emperor
Civ3 is what got me interested in history but it did not teach me much.
Othniel
fighting for Achsah
I was already a history freak before I got hooked on Civ, so I haven't really learned much new through it. Of course, the historical twist of Civ is a very interesting part of the game and helps to keep my Civ-addiction too strong... 
That said, I think Civ functions similar to other strategy games, only perhaps better, in that it can develop some strong strategic thinking skills, especially when played at the higher difficulty levels. I can see business training applications because Civ teaches attention to detail, necessity of efficiency, economies of scale, creative problem-solving, and long-term strategic focus. It also can train someone how to do business modeling, making projections like "based on how we go with this decision, what are the potential ramifications to our empire (business) 50 turns (6 months) from now?"
I mean, shoot, tons of the top players use Excel spreadsheets to chart out the most efficient empire growth decisions! I've gone that route in my own games and have seen my gameplay skills increase dramatically. More importantly, as I'm now at a job-seeking stage in my career as part of the Finance profession, I know many employers desire applicants with strong business modeling skills using Excel. I can honestly say I think Civ has helped me a bit in that area.
Of course, I would never claim that Civ is an all-encompassing business training tool, nor one that people should spend tons of time on. Civ has tightly controlled variables to deal with; RL is much more complicated. Civ is tool only, but I think it's a pretty decent one.
The trick is to just remember that living is much more important outside of the Civ universe than inside it.
That said, I think Civ functions similar to other strategy games, only perhaps better, in that it can develop some strong strategic thinking skills, especially when played at the higher difficulty levels. I can see business training applications because Civ teaches attention to detail, necessity of efficiency, economies of scale, creative problem-solving, and long-term strategic focus. It also can train someone how to do business modeling, making projections like "based on how we go with this decision, what are the potential ramifications to our empire (business) 50 turns (6 months) from now?"
I mean, shoot, tons of the top players use Excel spreadsheets to chart out the most efficient empire growth decisions! I've gone that route in my own games and have seen my gameplay skills increase dramatically. More importantly, as I'm now at a job-seeking stage in my career as part of the Finance profession, I know many employers desire applicants with strong business modeling skills using Excel. I can honestly say I think Civ has helped me a bit in that area.
Of course, I would never claim that Civ is an all-encompassing business training tool, nor one that people should spend tons of time on. Civ has tightly controlled variables to deal with; RL is much more complicated. Civ is tool only, but I think it's a pretty decent one.
The trick is to just remember that living is much more important outside of the Civ universe than inside it.
Bestbank Tiger
Deity
Just do important world events in Civ-speak...
Babylonian civilization destroyed by Persians.
Persian civilization destroyed by Greeks.
Greek civilization destroyed by Romans.
Roman civilization destroyed by Barbarians.
Same for scientific discoveries, wonders, etc.
Babylonian civilization destroyed by Persians.
Persian civilization destroyed by Greeks.
Greek civilization destroyed by Romans.
Roman civilization destroyed by Barbarians.
Same for scientific discoveries, wonders, etc.
Ansar
Détente avec l'été
No, but my education has been made easier thanks to Civ (well, at least in the History department). 
ecuwins
Emperor
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2006
- Messages
- 1,315
The lessons I take with me from games like civ are not really history related. Playing this game causes me to come up with a plan and execute it -- which does have value. You must also remember to do things as well -- check for riots upon growth, switch the newly worked forest tile over to a food tile upon growth in a settler factory, shield overruns, ect. Some of these things require you to use some math -- also educational.
So these games can really keep your mind sharp if you let them. I know we all like a relaxed game here and there but there are days when you want a real challenge. Bump up the difficulty and try to be as efficient as possible.
So these games can really keep your mind sharp if you let them. I know we all like a relaxed game here and there but there are days when you want a real challenge. Bump up the difficulty and try to be as efficient as possible.
Rising Star
Warlord
Before I got drummed out, I used Civ to teach military strategy.
Snarkhunter
Prince
On a related note, I have been re-reading Jared Diamond's =Collapse= & =Guns, Germs, and Steel=. His discussion of resources, use and abuse of, & other problems of advancing civilizations strikes an eerily familiar chord from the few Civ games I played. I could see using this--briefly--to demonstrate the problems and choices people have to make during development, but you'd want to cut the games short once you got to a reasonable comparison with what was going on with the AI, or with multiplayer, perhaps.
kk
kk
