Oxford University

[Janos]

Oxford is a fantastic university. You shouldn't be narrow-minded and biased. I agree that Harvard and Yale are among the finest in the world, and i would love to go to Uni in the US - but Oxford is a brilliant university, let's not take that away from it.

 

[mhl30]

This is giving in to Kevins goading but I'm sure I remember some sort of Rugby Football event being played between the two universities. I know that Oxford tedious style of play and the advent of the professional game does limit interest down to a couple of million of television viewers but apart from introducing a few cheerleaders I'm not sure what how Kevin would improve the event.

 

[KevinTMC]

...but apart from introducing a few cheerleaders I'm not sure what how Kevin would improve the event.

Mmm...looks like a good start, but you're right, the cheerleaders and marching bands and mascots (both animal and costumed-human) appear to be absent.

And on-campus venues for the match--seating at least, oh, 80,000 or so--would help greatly in providing atmosphere. Those tend to get a bit spendy, though; and I know space can be at a premium in ancient university towns. I'd hate to have to knock down more than two or three medieval quads to accomodate a ginormous stadium that would, after all, only be used a half-dozen times a year. Perhaps most of the parking could be moved off-site?

-- Kevin​

P.S. I didn't mean to be "goading" anybody, and most of what I am saying is with tongue firmly planted in cheek. (And that goes triple for the bit about knocking anything down.) Just trying to amuse myself and spread a little good humor around the boards while I try not to go completely insane this week at work...and try to come up with a way to get the "Baba Yetu" song out of my head for at least a whole hour at a time.

 

[The Great Apple]

This Oxbridge rivalry thing is fun but missing a little something.

I know. You guys need to get yourselves some football teams. (Yes, I have American football in mind...but in a pinch I suppose any suitably violent non-American flavor of football would do, such as rugby or Aussie Rules.) You would be able to have spectacular annual showdowns, suck in a bunch of people who never even went to uni in the excitement...

I've already mentioned the boat race on this thread. www.theboatrace.org

It is estimated that about 250,000 line the banks of the River Thames to watch the Boat Race each year, while the event also attracts a worldwide television audience running to tens of millions.

If that's not a spectacular annual showdowns sucking in a bunch of poeple who never even went to uni I don't know what is!

There are also annual varsity matches of all description. Pretty much any sport you can think of (excluding some American ones, I'm not sure we have American football, or Baseball), is played - Rugby, Football (soccer), Hocky, Chess, Tiddlywinks, Fencing... even Aussie Rules the list is endless.

Oh, and Oxford already has a 12,500 capacity stadium, and Cambridge a 9,217 capacity. Not quite 80,000, but it ain't bad .

We could use some mascots and cheerleaders though...

 

[Hunter717]

i know Oxford is a great university etc, but Cambridge had Sir Isaac Newtonn which is why that was originally included. alot of major break throughs have occured there, like the discovery of DNA, and in manchester university, where many of the experiments to discover what was inside an atom took place. as good as oxford is i think that it has less effect on the scientific development of England, than Cambridge.

 

[whb]

Oh, and Oxford already has a 12,500 capacity stadium, and Cambridge a 9,217 capacity. Not quite 80,000, but it ain't bad .

Twickenham, where the annual Oxford v Cambridge rugby match is played, has a capacity of 75,000 and once the south stand redevelopments are finished it'll be 82,000. Nicely beating his 80,000 requirement.

 

[ritterpa]

Oxford is a fantastic university. You shouldn't be narrow-minded and biased. I agree that Harvard and Yale are among the finest in the world, and i would love to go to Uni in the US - but Oxford is a brilliant university, let's not take that away from it.

You go to university in Europe, but you go to college in the states. Even if that college is a university!

btw, it's total crap that Grinnell College isn't in Civilization.

 

[mhl30]

Yep why bother building a Stadium if you can just use the National one. Probably a difficult concept for those from the USA to understand as they are to scared to play sports played anywhere else.

 

[Rosscifer]

I was wondering what had caused Fireaxis to include this second rate Oxonian institution (is it even a university) instead of Newtons fine and well loved University. After thinking long and hard I could only come up with two explanations, firstly the wonder was less good now and therefore could no longer justify being named after Cambridge or secondly fireaxis wanted to encourage people to start modding and by including something as unpallatable as Oxford people would be encouraged to try and remove it as quickly as possible, as I certainly will. Does anyone else have any ideas?

You're British aren't you?

 

[aquavit]

Is this the best college rivalry jolly old England has to offer? Color me unimpressed. I've seen more enthusiasm at West Virginia/Marshall games.

Ha, I'm guessing your not a Marshall grad as you have to at least have two brain cells left to rub together to play Civ.

 

[KevinTMC]

Yep why bother building a Stadium if you can just use the National one. Probably a difficult concept for those from the USA to understand as they are to scared to play sports played anywhere else.

I'm a Georgia fan...so I am not the person, and this is not the week, to try to sell me on the benefits of playing big games at a neutral site.

And you're right, the phrase "why bother building a Stadium" is hard to understand in the contemporary American context. We're so keen on building new stadia that we blow up the old ones before we've even finished paying them off (e.g. the Kingdome) so we can put up more new ones faster.

And I thought that sharing public venues were more of a Continental and/or lower-division thing anyhow. You'd never see a ground-sharing arrangment like Roma and Lazio have in the Premiership, would you?

Now, veering back on topic...with so many of us being so passionate about our schools, it'd be nice if we were given the opportunity to name the great university wonder when we build it. Heck, why not other wonders as well...it'd be a cheap and easy way to let the user add a little personal color to his world.

-- Kevin​

 

[Nad]

You can count me in for an Oxford vs Tabs Civ 4 event.

I'm very happy that the finest educational establishment in the world has been included.

Although, as everyone knows, the best college is clearly Lincoln. It barely needs to be stated.

 

[ritterpa]

Ha, I'm guessing your not a Marshall grad as you have to at least have two brain cells left to rub together to play Civ.

I always smile when I see grammatical errors in a post that makes fun of another's intelligence...

 

[Truronian]

I think they should have made the 'great University' small wonder customized to each civ. So England would have Oxford, the USA Princeton, Egypt could have the Great Library etc.

I also think the universities should be displayed graphically in a square outside the city radius. So if London built Oxford university it would appear as a university town in a tile outside of the main city.

 

[whb]

And I thought that sharing public venues were more of a Continental and/or lower-division thing anyhow. You'd never see a ground-sharing arrangment like Roma and Lazio have in the Premiership, would you?

There's a tradition of staging big 'event' games at the national stadium - eg the FA Cup Final at the Millenium Stadium (or Wembley again from next year). Similarly the promotion play-off finals are all played at the national stadium.

Twickenham hosts England's international rugby matches, and the big 'event' rugby games. Hence the fixtures list for Twickenham currently reads:

12 Nov England v Australia
19 Nov England v New Zealand
26 Nov England v Samoa
6 Dec Oxford v Cambridge
4 Feb England v Wales
18 Mar England v Ireland

(But incidentally, Reading, who are likely to be a Premiership team next year, share their stadium with London Irish RFC, and both Everton and Fulham have considered ground-sharing with other Premiership teams.)

 

[megabrainz]

I also think the universities should be displayed graphically in a square outside the city radius. So if London built Oxford university it would appear as a university town in a tile outside of the main city.

Slightly[*] off-topically, I kinda favour this approach in general. Not necessarily for wonders, but it seems weird to me that a city takes up exactly the same number of tiles as a village. From what I can gather, the cottage/hamlet/village jobbies remedy this a little. But I'd still like to see a genuine sprawling metropolis.

[*] Ok, very.

 

[balearicrazy]

Oxford Uni has also come joint top in a poll of the best universitys in the world. Cambridge sucks.

Although I'm not getting invovled in the whole Oxford - Cambridge argument however I work in Structural Engineering and Cambridge is considered by far the worlds best university for that subject, as it is on many subjects.

At the end of the day, they are both fine universities. One of Sid's siblings (does he have any??) probably went to Oxford.

 

[Truronian]

Slightly[*] off-topically, I kinda favour this approach in general. Not necessarily for wonders, but it seems weird to me that a city takes up exactly the same number of tiles as a village. From what I can gather, the cottage/hamlet/village jobbies remedy this a little. But I'd still like to see a genuine sprawling metropolis.

[*] Ok, very.

I agree with this, though I'm not sure how it could be imprelemented well (maybe the city could merge with built towns for an extra bonus(commuter town))

 

[Plotinus]

But Oxford University doesn't sit outside Oxford! It doesn't even have a campus! Most of the town centre is taken up with the university, and everything else just has to squeeze in where it can fit.

What always amuses me is the way Americans refer to universities as "schools". A "school" is somewhere where children are educated.

 

[mhl30]

One of Sid's siblings (does he have any??) probably went to Oxford.

I know that he's released the game with a few bugs but there is no need to be quite so insulting.

Happy Civving