Chiyochan
King
no, just no, its a game, it would be a terrible teaching tool for history, civ in general has a very lackadaisical version of the way history works, in short, its very gamy, and not at all like real history functions, rhyes more so,
Civilization is a game which people who like history might play, but it is in no way shape or form a good learning tool beyond the snippets of information provided in the pedia, and if thats the best argument, why not save a step, and read about them yourself?
now on the other hand, while rhye would be a terrible system to do it in because its already all automated, in a political science class, civilization could give their students wonderful hands on experience of running a nation together such as in democracy games, might even have a pit boss with different classes playing. so in that vein, if one could build a mod that would let a teacher add in and adjust a map according to the goings on in the classroom, (things like unrest and what not which might not be represented well in the game, such as religious strife, or who knows what, say if you opt for slavery, you might have to decide who to enslave, such a thing would be ripe for civil war without forces to ensure order right?) an ideal learning aid wouldn't have too much of a clear goal like a regular civilization game, it would have to be somewhat sandboxy, and each item parodied to provide opportunities for differences in political agendas to emerge,
for example, why have things like libraries and aqueducts give leaders health improvements they can see before they build them? instead, the teacher might decide when a new technology could surface, or how much an X could affect a Y rather than the games arbitrary decision, the real world doesn't have 'balance', things aren't 'fair', this could perfectly illustrate how important advisors and leaders educations need to be, if they decide to invest in an expensive aqueduct, they themselves need to make sure it will be a good decision, certainly not to have a game tell them it would be.
ultimately this is very important because from a video game design philosophy this is at best risky and at worst bad, real life doesn't often give you instant gratification, thats what video games provide that is so entertaining, they are interactive, they produce instant results, while your peoples happiness might be rather quickly swayed, the immediate effects of building a national monument are dubious, especially when one thinks of things like the colossus or stone henge, the latter is actually an astronomical device. the immediate effects of building a library could also be slowed by other factors.
finally, if one likes to include warfare in such a game, a classroom could easily count as a city representitive, perhaps they have their own needs and wants? their own identity? why should they follow you? why should they swear their alligence to you? what do you provide to them? and is their cultural identity satisfied by your actions? do they feel represented or repressed?
Tl;Dr, history: no, Political science: very yes.
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