Monday, May 12, 2014

Three Fundamental Conditions of Human Existence

The three fundamental conditions of human existence are Humans in all places and times interact with the natural environment Humans in all places and times interact with one another  Humans in all places and times develop and act upon ideas Does the game reflect these fundamentals? If so, how so? Also use this post to reflect on your overall experience with the game. Does it effectively portray the nature of historical change?  The...

Monday, May 5, 2014

Spiritual Life and Moral Codes

Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Spodek approach to studying world religions in two different ways. Much like them, the game also presents world religion in a unique way that does not follow history. FFA follows a horizontal integration approach with world religion. Horizontal integration meaning he looks how the religions are connected to each other across space and time. In the early parts of chapter nine, he examined the early rise of...

Episode #3-6

I have updated more videos. I have released episodes #3 through #6. They are updated on my menu as well (hover over Videos and go down to My Gameplay). My Recent Videos are automatically updated as I upload videos on YouTube. I recommend watching the videos in either 720p or 1080p. I do not record on the best settings (unfortunately).  Sad part, it is only turns 60-133. Barely over 60 turns and it turns into four episodes. Oh well,...

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Technology and the Environment

Technology and the Environment is used in every aspect of the game. To start, Technology is the running drive for the video game. By upgrading technologies in the tree, you can advance your civilization further. The further your civilization, the more advantages the player will have. I have seen games where I've achieved two eras before the person advanced one era. This is all based around technology. Click here to see the image in full detail. Technologies...

Saturday, April 19, 2014

YouTube Problems and Future Episodes

As some of you guys (for those that are out there?) know, I'm uploading my video gameplay to YouTube and posting it to this blog. Well, YouTube has recently become more of a problem as the end of 2013. YouTube is sending out more copyright notices to YouTube content creators (even beginners like me). These copyright notices are flagged when their automated system determines that the file uploaded may contain music or footage claimed under a...

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Artistic Endeavors

Zhong Zeduan (1085-1145) Spring Festival Along the River What do you think about when you read the word 'Art'? Do you think paintings, statues, or expression? Here is the definition of art: art /ärt/ the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. For me, it is not easy to define...

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Society and Its Categories

Society and Its Categories is not easily defined into Eras, compared to the other themes. Rather, I think it is more important to list the types of categories people can be associated with. These categories include the following: Kinship Familial Gender Age Class Political Religion Race Throughout history, people categorize other humans for the sake of organization. I think it is human nature, across the globe, to put people into categories. Most...

Friday, March 28, 2014

Politics and Power

*Late Submission Politics and Power has very interesting connections, and I'm making between three different things. Also, I'll attempt to answer these questions: What roles do politics play within your civilization? What roles does diplomacy play? How are power struggles represented in the game? First, let's look at the three connections. Politics and power of modern day China Politics and power in Civilization V with China Comparing...

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Episode #2

I just released Episode #2. I will try to release as many as I can during the course of the semester. I'll keep account of how many turns I've made for the future posts. Here is my game: Civilization: China (Wu Zetian) Map Type: Earth Map Size: Huge - 12 players and 24 city states Difficulty: Prince (Normal) Game Pace: Standard The civilizations that I am fighting against I have picked. They are as follows:  Japan England Germany America France Korea The...

Episode #1 and Technical Difficulties

Episode #1 is out on YouTube. You can check it out on the front page by clicking Videos -> My Gameplay -> Episode #1. I will upload more as I capture more footage and upload it to YouTube. I had a lot of difficulty these past couple of days trying to A) Capture the gameplay and B) Edit the footage. I am using Mirillis Action! to record PC gameplay. Up until the newest released version (1.18), I couldn't record any of the footage....

Culture, Culture Everywhere

As I've stated before, this blog is for a college class. We have a choice between doing a blog or traditional paper. In our classroom, there is 7 other students that are doing blogs. In our last post, we had to choose what kind of victory we want to aim for in Civilization V. After going through everyone's blogs, I've noticed something. Everyone* is going for cultural victory. (*Only including those that have posted about it) I think...

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Economics and Networks of Exchange

China (中国), also known as the People's Republic of China (or Republic of China if you want to debate the "real" China), is an important country in today's age. They lead the world in many aspects. They have the second largest military budget, world's largest population, ever expanding cultural influence around the globe with their networks of exchange, and striving for my scientific progress. With this in mind, I think I want to take a different...

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Initial Experience and Patterns of Population

My first experience of the game (Civilization V) started at the beginning of this semester with this class. That being said, I am familiar with RTS (Real-Time Strategies) and PC games that are similar to this game (Command and Conquer, Age of Empires). The game's combat isn't intense compared to other games I played, but that is the point. Civilization V is an experience about building an empire through other means other than war (fresh new...

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Beginning of Civilization Journey

This blog is about my experience with Sid Meier's Civilization V in connection with my college class, WH305 World Civilizations. The blog posts will be about connections between real civilizations and the one I play (just one civilization for the class). I will try to include gameplay video of my civilization, with highlights (one game can last 8+ hours). This is my early experience with the game. The videos I make later will be highlights...