'''Civilization Fanatics Center''' (abbreviated '''CFC''' and '''CivFanatics''') is a fan web site for the [[Civilization (computer game)|''Civilization'']] series of computer and video games published by a variety of companies (depending on the game), including [[Atari]], [[Firaxis]], and [[Microprose]]. It is owned and operated by user Thunderfall, who founded it in 2000.
Civilization Fanatics' Forums is the 194th largest bulletin board on the World Wide Web as tracked by Big Boards, with over 4,300,000 posts and 100,000 members.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://rankings.big-boards.com/?p=all | title=Big Boards | accessdate=2006-09-02 }}</ref> It was voted second best fan web site of 2005 at Voodoo Extreme. <ref>{{cite web| last=Howarth | first=Robert 'Apache' | url=http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/673/673505p1.html | title=Best Fansite 2005? | publisher=Voodoo Extreme | date=December 05 2005 | accessdate=2006-07-13 }}</ref>
==History==
In the beginning, CivFanatics was a small personal homepage hosted by [[GeoCities]] (1998) and later on by [[XOOM]] (1999). The old site title was Civilization Fanatics' Page, part of the Thunderfall Impressions site. After the site was moved to Strategy Gaming Online in March 2000, the site was renamed to Civilization Fanatics' Center. The current form of the CFC web site took shape after the move to Strategy Game Online, as server resources were no longer an issue, thus being able to offer bulletin boards and file downloads. The forum initially catered to players of [[Civilization (computer game)|''Civilization'']] and ''[[Civilization II]]'', while later on experiencing the first big influx of new members just prior to and during the release of ''[[Civilization III]]''. A subsequent influx has arrived due to the release of ''[[Civilization IV]]''.
==Games==
CFC currently mainly supports the fan communities of the following computer games:
*''[[Civilization IV]]''
*''[[Civilization III]]''
*''[[Civilization II]]''
Also the following fan communities are present to a certain degree:
*[[Civilization (computer game)|''Civilization'']]
*''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]''
*''[[Sid Meier's Pirates!]]''
*''[[Galactic Civilizations 2]]''
*''[[Rise of Nations]]''
*[[Chess]]
*[[Colonization (game)|''Colonization'']]
*''[[Master of Orion]] ''
*[[Call to Power|The ''Call to Power'' Series]]
*[[Diplomacy (game)|''Avalon Hill's Diplomacy'']]
*''[[Sid Meier's Railroads]]''
==Forums==
===Forum rules===
The forums have a comprehensive list of rules, along with a number of moderators. CFC is "family friendly" and threads which do not conform to the rules have been known to be deleted before even accumulating any replies.<ref name="Pressa">{{cite web| url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumrules.php | title=CivFanatics Forum Rules v4.1 | publisher=Civilization Fanatics Center | accessdate=2006-05-27 }}</ref>
===Forum structure===
The forum is split into seven main groups, each containing individual forums. Each of these subforums may contain further subforums, and, in some cases, sub-sub forums.
The ''Civilization'' subforums were created to facilitate conversations about [[MicroProse]]'s and [[Firaxis]]' games ''Civilization I'', ''II'', ''III'', and ''IV''. Each game has its own subforum group which includes subforums for strategy, ideas and suggestions, creation and customization, [[multiplayer]], and demo games. Along with the forums for the Civilization games are subforums for other games like ''[[Galactic Civilizations II]]'', ''[[Sid Meier's Pirates!]]'', ''[[Rise of Nations]]'' and ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]''. Other Games is also home to a subforum for forum games. This sub-forum does not contribute to post count and allows the members to play many small games.
The Colosseum section contains subforums for topics not covered in other sections of the forum. It includes Off Topic, home to almost a third of all posts at the forum. It is a place where people go to discuss non-''Civilization'' related topics; in fact, many posters who no longer play the game still post frequently in the Off-Topic forum. These topics range from 'light' such as "favourite music style" to 'very heavy' like "If abortion should be a crime, how should we punish the woman?" The majority of the topics are either [[current events|news-items]], [[religion|religious]] discussions, [[political]] discussions, or general interest topics. Several other popular and long-running threads or thread series include the [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=175839 Babe Thread], the [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=182407 Evolution vs. Creationism Thread], the [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=155542 Member's Photos Thread], and [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=60908 What Are You Reading, Again?] (a thread where poster post the current books they are reading.) In addition, a number of "Poster X's . . ." threads have been made in which a poster invites and answers questions about a group to which he or she belongs (usually a religion or occupation). The Colosseum section also includes subforums for World History, Computer Talk, Sports Talk, and Humor and Jokes.
There are two other subforum sections; The CivFanatics group is home to the subforum for site feedback and the discussion of front page news. Site feedback allows active member feedback regarding CFC. Forums in the Project & Mod Development are hidden. The forums here consist of mods in the Private Beta Version stage, where only the specific [[Mod (computer gaming)|mod-development]] teams can go to work on their mods away from public criticism and outside ideas. Private forums allow teams the ability to formulate his or her mods without being constantly bombarded with questions and unsolicited help. Exceptions in this category include the public forums for the "Fall from Heaven", "Rhye's and Fall of Civilization" and "The Ancient Mediterranean MOD" Civilization IV mods.
==Other activities==
===Game of the Month===
The "Game Of The Month" (or GOTM) was a concept first started in February 2001, for Civilization II - the [
http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/index.shtml Civilization II GOTM]. The idea behind this concept is for a number of players to play a game, all using a common starting save file. Players then compare their results and discuss strategies. The competition has now been extended to [
http://gotm.civfanatics.net Civilization III GOTM] and [
http://gotm.civfanatics.net Civilization IV GOTM], and most recently to a [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=189 Civilization (original) GOTM]
===Democracy games===
The idea of the "Game of Democracy" is often attributed to the user "Duck of Flanders", although there is some belief that it was in fact conceived from a conversation between users "CornMaster" and "Alcibiates Of Athenae." The first democracy game (played in Civ II) started in December of 2001, just after the release of Sid Meier's Civilization III. CFC has hosted seven Civ III [
http://demogame.civfanatics.net/ democracy games] ("demogames" or "DG"). Right now, there is a Civ IV [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=161/ democracy game] under way.
CFC has participated with its own team in the ''[[Civilization III Play the World]]'' Multisite Democracy game (MSDG) and the ''[[Civilization III Conquests]]'' Intersite Democracy Game (ISDG). The MSDG consisted of eight teams in a straight fight for the crown, and the ISDG consisted of 2 semifinals of 5 teams, with the first 2 teams eliminated from the semifinal eliminated from the competition. CFC was placed fifth in the overall positioning in the MSDG after the game was abandoned, and was eliminated in the second semifinal in the ISDG finishing fourth in the game of five. The opponents were teams from other Civilization fan web sites, as well as a team formed by [[Firaxis]], the creators of the game. CFC also participates in a 14 fansite Civilization IV Intersite Democracy Game. Due to the number of participating teams there are 2 semi-finals of 7 fansites. The game itself is hosted by a different Civilization fansite; [
http://www.evo-games.net/Home/viewforum.php?f=241/ Evolution games.]
In addition to competing against other teams, CFC also hosts a Multi-Team Demogame (MTDG) which hosts democracy games with all the teams consisting of CFC members. There is one for [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=149/ Civ III] and one for [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=181/ Civ IV].
===Hall of Fame===
Through all the releases of Civilization, players have been able to track their conquests, exploits and wins in a personal hall of fame screen. CFC Halls of Fame (HOF) extend on this principle, where single player games are ranked in tables against one another. This started with the [
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/hof/ II High Score HOF]. [
http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/index.php III HOF] originally started as a high score table, but was later enlarged to include tables for each victory condition and mapsize. It's also the home of the QuarterMaster's Challenge, where players must complete every victory condition, win at every difficulty level and play every mapsize. IV-HOF is currently in Beta, as the permanent site is under construction.
===NES===
The "Never Ending Story" (or "NES") concept was first made by member 'uknemesis' in early 2002 in the Civ III subforum, as a story written collectively by members of the forum. It later turned into more of a "strategy game" format with member 'das' being most often credited for it, though 'stalin006' is occasionally credited as well.
Ultimately, however, the modern NES was created by EQandCivfanatic in Return to Our Roots NES 2, which created the Fresh Start NES, as well as numerous modern rules (that have since then been revamped).
The idea behind 'NESing' as the modern, most common game type, is that it is started by a moderator (not to be confused with forum moderators), who specifies the type of NES (explained below), the background (if it exists), and so on. They also post rules (which the players have to abide by, or they will be ignored and reported to the forum moderators), stats (which define the basic statistics of a nation), and other valuable information.
The player joins the NES, choosing his nation. They then more or less roleplay as that nation, engaging in active diplomacy with other players and their nations (comparable to diplomacy in the real world, though NES diplomacy is necessarily less realistic, for the players do not have as much at stake as real world leaders), posting stories (usually awarded a bonus for each story), and, often considered the most important in the modern NES, sending orders, which are instructions on what the nation is supposed to do.
The moderator takes the various instructions from player nations, and inputs the results of these decisions into the stats of each nation. They also run the various non-player-controlled (NPC) nations in the world, and then, taking the results of the combined orders, writes up an update, in order to inform the players what has occurred in the world as a result of their instructions. This is accompanied by a map which includes all the changes since the last update.
Soon after the first NES began, Never Ending Stories got their own subforum in the Civ III Stories & Tales subforum. It has evolved into a strategy game, with many different types. These include:
*Fresh Start: Players create a nation from scratch (often based on real world nations, leading to some anachronisms), and lead their nation from the starting point (originally 4000 BCE and now more often 2000 or even 1000 BCE), up to the modern age. This NES type, however, is notorious for dying before its goal of reaching the modern age, with only a few legendary NESes reaching it. To many people Fresh Starts are the keystone of NESing. This was the first type of NES.
*Random Map: Similar in rules to a Fresh Start, but on a non-Earth based map. Unlike other NESes, Random Map NESes feature large numbers of un-historical nations with in fact all or nearly all nations being un-historically based. This has recently gained popularity, mainly due to the success of [
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=180683 LINES II], started by user 'Lord_Iggy'. Some argue that 'Lord_Iggy' pioneered what should be considered a new genre in NESing, the 'Cradle' NES. Cradle NESes use a non-Earth map, but unlike other Random Map NESes, only a certain area can be seen by the players in the beginning with the rest in darkness. In order to expose more of themap, players must discover it. The area that is shown at the beginning is known as the 'Cradle of Civilization,' hence the name 'Cradle NESes.'
*Historical: A NES that starts at a certain date in human history. Players pick from real nations to lead, and are encouraged to roleplay them in a realistic, historical fashion, though the NES will inevitably diverge from real history significantly.
*Alt-History: A NES with an [[Alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] timeline. These have recently gained immense popularity due to the NES2 series begun by user 'das.' Because of the prevelance of Alt-History NESes three threads have been dedicated to the subject. These threads experience extremely high participation and at this time NESing and Alternate History come hand-in-hand.
*Fantasy NESes: Can have magical elements, or other fantasy elements incorporated. Players can play anywhere from a nation to a character, depending on the ruleset.
*Hybrid or Misc. NESes: Many others NESes fit here. They are either a combination of two types of NESes, such as ChipNES03 (hybrid Cradle-Fantasy NES) created by user 'Swissempire', or other Misc. NES', made popular by the user 'Daftpanzer.'
The people that partake in never ending stories are known as "NESers" forming a type of autonomous subculture within the subforum. The "NESers" often have references to NES in their titles and signatures, and wear it as a badge of honor. This often leads to a quirky sense of humor resulting from the numerous "in-jokes" that have formed around NESing.
One of the most prominent among them is how various species of animals have been patronized by several users, and used to explain away mishaps or mistakes in the update. This originated with a complaint in one of 'das' NESes in which the moderator declared that an attack over polar terrain was halted by polar bear snipers, which quickly led to other players and mods alike claiming their own animals. This often leads to inexplicable wars on the side of the NES, typically between [[polar bear]]s and [[penguin]]s, but occasionally involving [[sea otter]]s and [[giant panda|pandas]],and [[Leperchauns]] (all of them assume powers beyond their actual abilities in the real world; for example, polar bears are "known" for flying tiny, [[FTL]] [[helicopter]]s, while penguins "often" bombard the planet from orbit). While these have no actual bearing on the update, they often trigger a bout of stories and jokes about the wars between these beings.
*[
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=21473 The First Never Ending Story]
*[
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=69 NES Forum]
*[
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=169043 NESing Guide]
*[
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=120611 ITNES] Ancient thematic NES
*[
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=121845 StkNES5] Longest running NES
*[
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=183372 Alternate History Thread III] Current Alternate History Thread
===Chat Room===
Civfanatics also has an official IRC chatroom: #civfanatics on irc.irc-chat.net. While the chatroom is intended to Civilization-based conversations, it often strays off topic. The chatroom community is significantly smaller than the forum community, including a number of forum lurkers.
The Civfanatics chatroom staff is different from the forum staff.
==Subculture==
As with any large community, CFC has a number of longstanding subcultural jokes. Among the more prevalent are:
*[[Spear|Spearman]] Beating [[Tank]] - this is a reference to the combat engine in the ''Civilization'' series, especially ''Civilization III''. In that version, due to the (often maligned) probability calculation it was possible for a weak, [[obsolete]] military unit such as a spearman to defeat a stronger, more advanced military unit such as a tank, much to the frustration of human players using the tank. Thus on the forums, "Spearman beating tank" became an analogy for any situation in which an unlikely and frustrating outcome befell anyone, or conversely, when one member "[[pwn]]ed" another. Because of its popularity, a "smilie" icon was designed by the user Crazy Eddie to show this.
*Giant Radioactive Monkey - Threads with polls often incorporate a reference to Giant Radioactive Monkeys as the "other" and/or "joke" option.
*[[April Fools]] Avatar Swaps - Shortly before April 1st, various forumites will exchanges each other avatars and signatures. They are suppose to then post in the "style" of the user they exchanged with. They rarely do, however.
*"Warning: Poster is..." - A tradition that started when several [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] posters, led by Zarn and spread by CivGeneral and others, began to mention their faith on their [[signature block|signatures]], with the sig line "Warning: Poster is Roman Catholic! Reply at your own risk!". It has since been used by posters of many different religious and political backgrounds, and spawned a number of satirical versions.
*CFC has spawned several spin-off forums, some of which focus on the game as well while others are purely Off Topic (in the Civilization context) forums that only serve the purpose of maintaining a community of like-minded people. Among these forums there are public ones as well as invitation-only ones with restricted membership, for example to exclude minors.
*Mafia - Popular in the section dedicated to forum games, an online version of [[Mafia (game)|Mafia]] is frequently played using posts and private messages.
==References==
<references/>
==External links==
*[
http://www.civfanatics.com/ Civilization Fanatics Center]
*[
http://forums.civfanatics.com/ Civilization Fanatics Forums]
[[Category:Civilization franchise]]
[[Category:Computer and video game websites]]
[[Category:Internet forums]]
[[es:Civilization Fanatics Center]]
