Amanda's Thoughts

The Tasks of an Economic Society

2007-04-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

According to Heilbroner the tasks of an economic society are (1) to organize a system that will assure the production of enough goods and services for survival and (2) to create distribution of the products so more production can occur. I am trying to keep these tasks in mind while I am creating and running my civilization. I am following the first task of assuring the production of goods and services by locating my cities near resources and on or near rivers and coastlines, creating many farms, cottages, lumber mills, mines, watermills, workshops, and plantations. I also and creating many workers and settlers to work in these areas and make the products of goods and food. I am following the second task of creating distribution for my products to be able to make more by building many roads, boats, and trading networks. This time I am also using my manual to help out. This should aid me in making the right decisions for success in my civilization. By following Heilbroner's as well as Sid Meier's manual's advice I think I should do pretty good in this game this go around.
In the real world it is important for societies to follow the same two tasks as mentioned above. These are the basics for survival and if a population is unable to meet these minimum requirements then they will not last very long. This was explained by Richard Diamond, when he talks of the people of New Guinea. They are not able to produce enough food to distribute it there for there was no surplus and growth of the population. The population only did was barley enough to survive. This population was a living society but far from an economic society.

If at first you don't succeed try and then try again!

2007-04-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

Ok... well I was successful in my first game, not so successful in my second game and this is going to be round three. I am hoping that third time is a charm :). I am going to try to not get my civilization quite so big so fast this time. I think it will be in my benifit to have fewer, stronger cities than a lot of cities that I have not a clue as to what is going on within them. I choose the continent of Europe, being the English empire under the rule of Elizabeth. I choose this area because of the beneifits of the water all the way around and the limited ability for other civilizaitons to attack me. One fear that I have is that I will be left behind technologically because England is seperated from the rest of Europe. During my second game I really didn't try (actually I was trying to prove a point and fail It worked), but during my first game which I ended up making it all the way though I really tried. It was confusing and I didn't really know what to expect so I think I won on accident haha. This time I want to win because I know I made the right decisions. I am going to focus on building up the agriculture as well as my civilization's economy and technology in the hopes of become a powerful civilizaiton yet again.
Being located seperate from the rest of Europe has helped out England in the past, in real life, so hopefully it will work the same way for me, in my game.

Location Location Location

2007-04-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Through my civilization game playing time I have learned that location is key in the success of a civilization. This reminds me of the known slogan of "location, location, location". The location that I am specifically talking about is waterfront. There are many beneifits of having a civilization near the water, the most important being: fertile land, maritime food and resources, trade transportation, and security. Land near a body of water tends to have more nutrients and tends to be more fertile. This is key to a good amount of farming land. With fertile soil a farm will flurish, allowing the city to obtain food surplus. If a city is not placed near a body of water then the crops are not as flurished, meaning that the soil isn't as rich. Case in point, a river bed is a much more desireable place to establish a city than a desert. This is why a key point in the game is to choose a continent that has a lot of opportunities for good land. Another feature of waterfront is maritime food and resources. This is specifically fishing and gathering of sea creatures such as fish, crab, shrip, lobster, etc. These goods can be consumed and/or tranded for other desired goods. Along with food supply, waterfront allows for easy transportation. This can be good for trade and transport as well as miliarty. This feature can be imperative in the economy of a civilization, providing easier trade networking and easier shipping of goods. Having bodies of water for trade allows the civilization to trade with not just the other civilizations of the area but in other continents because of the ability to get to them. This can provide your civilization with a stable economy but also with new technology and resources that they might not have been able to obtain because of the different resources availiable in different continents. The other side of the transportation concept is military. With water ways it is easy to transport a large military force to other places at the same time and often at a faster rate than if they were to travel by land. One last benifit of having waterfront is security. This is true because you can have a navy that protects your waterfront from invaders but mainly because if you have the water on one side of your civilization that means that you are on the end of a continent. This is important because if you were in the center then you would be surrounded by neighboring civilizations, making you easier pray for an enemy to surround you. Being on the end allows you to not become surrounded.

Barbarians

2007-03-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

So when I was reading other's blogs in order to make my required comments I noticed the trend once finished was to make a city and not do anything to make them happy just see what happens. I decided to give this a try... not a good idea. My game lasted maybe 15 turns. It was taken over by Barbarians which I think is funny because my city had nothing, so I have no idea why these barbarians would even want my pathetic city. I put one settlers, two workers and one farm. By doing this experiment I realized that a city can not survive without protection. The settlers could not defend themselves against the barbarians because their job was to work the farm. With the limited population and resources the people were not able to specialize and create food surplus, as I learned from Jared Diamond. It is neat to test out these theories that we re learning in class to prove that they are true even in a simulation game. Even though I created a farm, these people were really only still hunter gathers because they were not able to create the needed food surplus.
In Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs, and Steel", he talks about New Guinea and how they are behind in the world today because they are not able to create food surplus. They are able to survive because there is a larger group than just 3 people so they can defend themselves better and the whole area is unable to create food surplus because of the land they were given and the plants on it.

Yay Success!!

2007-03-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

I am finally done with my first game of Civ. I made it all the way through the game without being defeated and was the most powerful civilization in my game. I am very impressed with myself because I really thought I was going to die off rather quickly. I am really excited to being trying new tactics even if I know they will not lead to success, but rather test my theories. Over the last 30 or so turns I really focused on advancing my cities technologically and scientifically. I figured this would give my cities the upper hand. Without my consent my cities captured others which was pretty cool. I learned that technology leads to success and rapid growth. I know that technology comes from the roots of guns, germs and steel but what I am going to focus on is the technology and its expansion. At the beginning when I could research things like machine guns or something like that (which I thought was huge technology at the time) it would take a long time and the benefits wouldn't be seen for a while. As I gained the knowledge and research of many technological things the time it took to research them was less. At the end the amount of information my cities could gain was endless. It was really neat to watch my cities grow and modernize. Having the technology allowed my city to become impassable and to dominate my little world that I helped to create.
This is true in the real world today. Many countries that are stuck in the third world setting are having a hard time moving up in the world's technology because they don't even have the basic things needed like food surplus. The first world countries like the US are dominating because we have modern technology that is growing exponentially, even more rapidly everyday. Each new piece of technology is used to help find/create the next newest thing and so on.

5th Civilization Post

2007-03-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

I am almost done with this game! I have made it to the modern era. It is very interesting to see the computer's impression of 2008. The game is moving at a very quick pace now. I currently have about 40 turns left in the game. This week I have focused on building up my civilization's technology. I have researched refrigeration, hospitals, ecology, railroads, flight, computers, hydro power as well as coal power plants just to name a few. By making all of these technology improvements in my civilization of 20,000 souls has reached the position of impassable. I am assuming this means that with the few number of turns left and the strength/size of my civilization there is no way that any other civilization can take over mine. Looking at the map, I have control of almost the entire continent of Africa.
In real world perspective technology is important. Technology allows countries to become powerful not only economically but militarily as well. With high technology many countries want to trade to receive the technology as well. Who ever has the technology has the power.

4th Civilization Post

2007-02-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have almost beat the game! I am so excited to only have 80 turns left... although once I beat the game I have to start up another so I am not really sure why I am excited. Anyways... my subject this week is power. In my last blog I was considering ending the long war I was involved in with Alexander. I was concerned about doing this because I didn't want to be seen by the other empires as a weak target, so I thought of another way to end the war. I used power to make Alexander surrender. When any empire wanted to trade something with me I would allow the trade but only if they entered war with Alexander. I had about 5 empires along with my own pounding on Alexander, who was the smallest empire to begin with. This forced Alexander to come crawling to me to ask for an end to the war. So in the end I got what I wanted and even more. After the war was over all of the empires saw me as the strong leader and they all wanted to be on my good side, offering very generous trades. During this time I also discovered steel, oil, rifles and removable parts. Everyone wanted to trade for those goods but I kept them for myself. This allowed me to be the most powerful in terms of production as well as military. The game started moving along very fast with the new technology.
The lesson learned this week is to gain control: strategize. To keep control: keep your strategies to yourself. By out smarting the empire Alexander I was able to remain on top and profit from the war.
This type of power by numbers and forcing of surrender has been seen many times in history. A specific example is WWII. During WWII the main axis powers of Germany and Japan were out numbered by the main allied powers of the US, the Soviet Union, China and the UK. After the axis powers surrendered the US along with the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers.

3rd Civilization Post

2007-02-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

Recently I have begun war with the empire Alexander and I am beginning to regret my decision. War is expensive and it is slowing the development of my civilization because all of my efforts are going to expanding my armies and defences. I thought that the war would be a quick war due to the fact that my empire is significantly larger than Alexander's but it has been going on for quite a while and I am getting a little bored. I keep getting notifications that the enemy has been sighted close to some of my cities and I am keeping my cities fortified to be ready for attack but it just seems like they are not ever going to come and attack. Hopefully this war will not be the demise of my civilization because I am looking forward to entering the modern age. I have lost quite a few of warriors that to the enemy but I have yet to loose an entire city. If I continue to loose money and the enemy doesn't come any closer I might be tempted to end the war. I am skeptical to end war because then the other civilizations will think that I am weak and most likely attack me.
A worldly example of an expensive war is the war in Iraq. This war has put the US in emince debt. America is in over it's head in Iraq and has put so much time and effort, not to mention money that if they were to pull out now with unfinished business all of their efforts would have been for nothing. Hopefully the war in Iraq as well as the war in my game will both end successfully.

2nd Civilization Post

2007-02-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

This game has become addicting! I am still not quite sure what I am doing as I play but my empire is still strongly in the lead. I believe that I have seven cities right now and have discovered many new things such as technology, religion, and an alphabet. Within my cities my workers have built many things such as light houses, Stonehinge, the Pyramids, and temples. My cities are doing very well at the time being. I have made it to the Medievil Era so that is an accomplishment. I have open borders with many neighboring cities and have come accross them through my scouts as I navigate the unknown areas in search of new sites for new cities. One of the neighboring empires, Alexander, was unhappy with my decision to have open borders with one of their enemies so they gave me the option to either sever trading relationships with the enemy or go to war with them. I chose to go to war and they are on their way to my civilization right now. I keep getting the message saying that the enemy (Alexander) has been spotted close to some of my cities. I am excited for something to happen in my game, hopefully it will end well. Right now I am focusing on building the strength of my warriors and archers as well as keeping my cities fortified so they are ready for an attack. I chose the option of going to war because Alexander was the smallest city in the rank so I figured I can out number them in time of war.
Even though my empire out numbers Alexanders I still have to be alert. I learned that having the larger number of warriors does not always promise defeat. I learned this from the reading and documentary from Diamonds book. Diamond demonstrates this with the Mayan civilization being destroyed by the Spaniards. The Mayan people largely out numbered the Spaniards but the Spaniards were more skillful. The Mayan were not ready for the surprise attack that they received. This is why I am building my warrior size as well as keeping my cities fortified so they are ready for an attack and will not go down the same way the Mayans did.

1st Civilization Post

2007-01-31T12:12:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed learning how to play Civilization. I have found it quite challenging not necessarily due to the elements of the game but just because I am not very game savvy. I choose to start the Egyptian society and right now am the highest ranked out of the other "empires" on my game, so I guess I am doing something right. I learned that for every city it is important to first establish workers then warriors. Then once those positions are filled then they can build farms, granaries, boats, etc. Once the city is being developed then I developed scouts to find new areas to establish new cities. I am up to 5 cities right now and they are doing well. I have been asked to go to war a few times but have turned the gesture down, deciding to keep peace for the time being. I figure that I need to have stronger cities and armies before I take them to war. I did accept an offer to have open trading boarders with another empire. So far that has been helpful because we have been trading pottery and technology. I think if I keep maintaining the peaceful relationships with my neighboring empires I will do just fine.
I knew to start of by ensuring safety and food to my cities would be the best way for survival by reading the novel "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. In his novel he addresses a question that was placed to him by a New Guinean: "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" (Diamond 14). His answer was not that the people of New Guinea were less smart than those in abundant areas; but that it had to do with location. Diamond believes that if way back when, man could not transition to farmers from hunter gatherers then they would be behind technologically. The start to a great civilization is "food surplus". Once a group of hunter gathers can create surplus food then they can stay in one location. With a food surplus, not everyone has to hunt and gather allowing them to become specialized in some type of trade. This is how technology progresses.

Source

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999.

first time ;)

2007-01-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

OK... I have never used a blog before so this is my first attempt. Hopefully I will be writing paragraphs upon paragraphs of insiteful thoughts on my blog page... we shall see :)