Title: World Domination by Culture: How the Civilization Game Series Can Help You Think about Fostering Cultural Competence and Critical Reflection in Your Library: Find out How Games like Civilization Can Foster Cultural Competence in Teens
Abstract: As a result of drawing masses of tourists to its national parks and museums, America is just a few turns away from dominating the world with a cultural victory. That sentence doesn't describe a personal belief that Yosemite National Park is somehow implicated in a massive global conspiracy. It actually describes the state of my current game of Civilization VI, the newest instantiation of one of my favorite game series, Civilization. If you are not familiar with the Civilization series, here's a rapid overview. Considered a turn-based strategy series, Civilization players take on the role of a leader of a great civilization in world history. The leaders and civilizations vary in the different games in the series, but the overall goal is the same--to build an empire to stand the test of time. Beginning in ancient times prior to the birth of Christ, players lead their civilization through the ages by founding cities, researching technologies, building and maintaining militaries, and establishing diplomatic relationships (or not-so-diplomatic feuds) with other civilizations. Unlike many other games that are based primarily on war mechanics, in Civilization brute force and superior military technologies is just one way of triggering the game's victory condition. Players can also achieve victory against other civilizations by winning the space race with superior technological knowledge, spreading their religion to the majority of the world's major city centers, or enamoring the world's tourists with its cultural wonders. In the game described earlier, my goal was to achieve cultural victory with the American civilization. As the American leader, I chose to invest resources in building national parks, museums, theaters, and other culture-generating amenities that draw tourists from my own cities and the cities of other civilizations. A player can the game with a cultural victory when their civilization brings more international tourists to their cities than any other civilization has domestic tourists in their own cities. Games like the Civilization series offer relatively unique opportunities for players to explore concepts like culture as part of a broader global ecosystem and as part of complex systems, for instance. They make visible how increased influence in one area--in the case of my game, an influx of global visitors to American museums and parks--has an impact on a broader global system. As America developed a cultural monopoly, people stopped visiting other parts of the world, and their cultures slowly became less and less visible. In the meantime, America became richer and held an increasingly greater influence on the people from other civilizations in the world. Civilization offers a simplified model for critically examining how culture works in the context of a globalized world. As a player of the game, it can be fun and gratifying to win by erasing the cultures of other players. In contrast, outside of the game I value living in a world with great cultural diversity. By engaging with the game's model of culture, players are afforded the opportunity to reflect on how increasing dominance by one group of people can affect the cultural visibility of other people and cultures. The Civilization series offers a refreshingly different perspective on the meaning and power of culture. We so often highlight exploring cultures as an opportunity to celebrate--and promote--greater diversity. We celebrate our own cultures and traditions but also want to foster in our students a love of learning about the cultures practiced by other students, communities, and countries. This is absolutely a worthwhile goal, and one I believe deeply in.The ability in Civilization for one civilization to dominate the world by spreading the influence of its own culture pervasively across the planet is a reminder that culture, while worthy of celebrating, is also an important component of worldwide phenomena like imperialism and colonialism. …
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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