Are people who play civ smart, or am I an elitist?

[Magma_Dragoon]

I am familiar with vector calculus, but not smart enough to understand tensors very well.

 

[krc]

I am familiar with vector calculus, but not smart enough to understand tensors very well.

I don't know. That's a long way from generalizations of etale cohomology to topoi.

 

[tommynt]

when reading this forum the answer is definaly: NO!

when playing mp with top people its mainly graduted students so proly the crowd is bit higher educated and bit older as average gamer.

but again when reading this forum (general mainly) i see 12 year old cool kids only.

 

[danaphanous]

I'm elitist I guess. I only play a few games with any regularity and they are always the building/creative type games. I can't stand mindless or pointless ones. The only two I currently play are Minecraft and Civilization Series. They never grow old--everything else I get tired of quickly. And yes--I look down a little on those that spend hours on shooting/swiping/or seemingly pointless games.

On the flip side I can see why those who don't want to think too hard when they're relaxing could wonder why anyone would ever play civ V or why minecraft has a point.

 

[seanflokstra7]

I'm elitist I guess. I only play a few games with any regularity and they are always the building/creative type games. I can't stand mindless or pointless ones. The only two I currently play are Minecraft and Civilization Series. They never grow old--everything else I get tired of quickly. And yes--I look down a little on those that spend hours on shooting/swiping/or seemingly pointless games.

On the flip side I can see why those who don't want to think too hard when they're relaxing could wonder why anyone would ever play civ V or why minecraft has a point.

The good thing about Minecraft and Civ V is that they're almost eternal. There's so much to do. Minecraft basically never ends, and Civ V is really big(achievements, HOF, finishing all scenario's with all civ's)

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

If you have a friend to grump with, any game is loads of fun.

 

[Sonereal]

This is just a thought. But I have a hard time not looking down on people who play mindless games like Candy Crush and such... does that make me a bad person? I just seems like you have to be kind of smart to play Civ V well... I think a lot of the kids I teach would just be bored playing... they just wouldn't get it. Maybe I don't give people enough credit.

Yeah, it does make you a bad person.

It would be like me looking down on CivV players for not playing CivIV or Victoria 2.

The chain keeps going up until you're left with one guy who can play Dwarf Fortress in his sleep.

 

[Aristos]

when reading this forum the answer is definaly: NO!

when playing mp with top people its mainly graduted students so proly the crowd is bit higher educated and bit older as average gamer.

but again when reading this forum (general mainly) i see 12 year old cool kids only.

Careful with generalizations: right now, you sound like one of those 12-year-old-like mindsets.

There are great people in this forum, and also the other side. Some are 60 year old with a master brain; some are teens with a very well honed neural network. The other side is also represented well: there are 45 year old people with a 8-year old mind, and teens with their scales upside down.

Careful.

 

[reddishrecue]

In multiplayer, it is not that obvious to see graduates, the same with the forum. All you said is I look at these people. I am watching these people. If people in multiplayer aren't 12 year old cool kids, then it doesn't mean that people in both of these areas are anonymous alcoholics. In the esrb ratings fo some civilization games, it clearly says that these games have alcohol and tobacco references. I often play multiplayer and I'm not a graduate.

 

[Fabio1701]

I think there's likely a very poor correlation between game difficulty/complexity and player intelligence. A professor might want to play Candy Crush because they'd like some mind-numbing down time, and an average teenager might play Civ because they have no other outlets through which they are mentally stimulated. Sid Meier in his 2010 GDC keynote address labelled civ-players 'egomaniacs', and I think that's more likely accurate than any reflections on the academic superiority of civ-players as a whole. Of course, egomaniacs are by no means necessarily unintelligent, but there's probably a general tendency to overestimate one's own faculties, at the expense of those whose preferences are different.

we are definitely egomaniacs.

with regards int, I think civ on the simplest levels is just as dumb as candy crush, but indeed sometimes people want to let loose a little on the brain stuff. I have an MSc and consider myself broadly knowledgeable on world affairs and quicker on the uptake than the average person, however my play level varies between King and Emperor depending on my mood, and can only afford 6 hours of play per week.

 

[DarthSheldonPhD]

I've pondered this before, is intelligence related to propensity to be drawn to civ...

My initial conclusion was that I know that my IQ is higher than average, and I'm drawn to civ, therefore the answer must be yes.

But sadly I realized that my second conclusion was significantly more valid: If I were smart, I'd be doing something more productive with my down-time...

 

[SnowKomodo]

We're spending literally weeks of our lives playing a video game. Nothing smart about it in my opinion

 

[Aristos]

we are definitely egomaniacs.

Sid fell short of the truth.

We are MEGALOMANIACS.



... which makes me think: Firaxis is now much more than a game developer. They have a philanthropic role and obligation to humankind. They better keep us hooked to the digital version... imagine one of us getting to a position of super-power, say president of the US... huge "reset of global population" coming....

 

[Aristos]

We're spending literally weeks of our lives playing a video game. Nothing smart about it in my opinion

“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!”

― Benjamin Franklin

 

[Crushingdeth]

Interesting question...I think it may have more to do with personality type...introvert vs. extrovert. When recharging one's "battery"...in terms of physical or mental energy...introverts generally draw on individual activities (gaming, reading, writing) to gather that energy...whereas, extroverts generally draw on social activities, usually people orientated activities (parties, social events, going out). In that respect, I don't think "smart" has much to do with the type of person playing Civilization. On the other hand, though, playing computer games does increase the level of critical thinking being used (analysis, synthesis, evaluation) which translate into real-world applicable skill sets...and that is a good thing.

 

[civ54lyfe]

i would guess that an average Civ player at least has a better attention span than say, an average dedicated candy crush player/mindless time waster gamer/even FPS player. also imo a Civ player is more likely to have some kind of sense of history or interest in it, vs the same category as above.

but none of that speaks directly to IQ. would be a cool study to see the results.

 

[Fabio1701]

but none of that speaks directly to IQ. would be a cool study to see the results.

The only way to really get a good sample would be to work with Steam to get access to user accounts and require users to list IQ, may cross reference with other steam users in other game genres. While listing IQ would not likely happen, Steam is pretty cool with regards to helping social research so maybe a nice idea for someone's PhD or Master thesis?