Civilization (series)

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Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games produced by Sid Meier. Basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, guiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory to the present day. By January 26, 2005, the Civilization franchise had sold more than 5 million copies since its first release more than 15 years ago.^[1] As of March 12, 2008, the Civilization franchise has sold over 8 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive.^[2][3]

All the titles in the series share a more or less equal gameplay method. Each turn allows the player to move any of his or her units on the world map, build new cities and units, and/or initiate negotiations with the computer-controlled players. In-between turns, computer players can do the same. The human player will also be asked which technology is to be researched in the background for the next set of turns, consuming points generated from, among other things, each city.

Technologies usually allow the player to build new units or to improve their cities in new ways, ultimately increasing that city's "happiness rating." Technologies can also be traded to the computer players in exchange for having them sign a treaty or similar. Before being able to order his/her units to attack those of another player, the player must first declare war more or less formally on the other.

Most Civilization games have a victory through conquest option (destroying all the other players' cities), building an interstellar space ship option (each part being built as a unit) and winning by score. Civilization III added the possibility of winning by domination (having two-thirds of the worlds landmass within their borders), diplomacy (the computer players like the human player so much that, after any city is improved with the wonder "The United Nations", they elect them Secretary-General of the United Nations, then promote them to Leader of a World Government), and culture (when the game considers the sum of all the player's cities' culture points makes the player's culture a worldwide influence).

Contents 1 History 1.1 MicroProse 1.2 Court battle over the Civilization brand 1.3 Infogrames and Firaxis 1.4 Take-Two 2 Main series 2.1 Compilations 3 Other games 4 Fan games 5 Board game adaptation 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

[edit] MicroProse

In 1991, after acquiring the rights to the name "Civilization" from Avalon Hill^[4], MicroProse, founded by Sid Meier and Bill Stealey, published Civilization^[5]. Sid Meier was the game's designer^[6]. In 1993, Microprose was bought by Spectrum Holobyte^[7], but the two companies remained separate. In 1996, MicroProse released Civilization II, whose game designer was Brian Reynolds^[8], and also in 1996 Spectrum Holobyte consolidated the company under the name MicroProse and in a reaction to Spectrum Holobyte's decision to fire the majority MicroProse's staff Brian Reynolds, Jeff Briggs and Sid Meier left MicroProse and founded Firaxis^[9].

[edit] Court battle over the Civilization brand

In 1980, Francis Tresham designed the Civilization board game and published it through his company Hartland Trefoil, and in 1981, Avalon Hill obtained from Hartland Trefoil a license to sell the Civilization board game in the US^[10]. In April 1997 Activision acquired from Avalon Hill the rights to the name "Civilization" on its PC games, and seven months later Avalon Hill and Activision sued MicroProse over copyright infringement because of the name "Civilization"^[11].

In response to the lawsuit, in December 1997 MicroProse bought Hartland Trefoil, which was the original designer and manufacturer of the Civilization board game. This move sought to establish "MicroProse as the preeminent holder of worldwide computer game and board game rights under the CIVILIZATION brand"^[12]. Then MicroProse in January the following year sued both Avalon Hill and Activision for false advertising, unfair competition, trademark infringement, and unfair business practices as a result of Activision's decision to develop and publish Civilization computer games.^[13]

In July 1998 Avalon Hill and Activision decided to settle the case against MicroProse out of court, under the terms of the settlement MicroProse kept all the rights to the Civilization brand, Avalon Hill had to pay MicroProse $411,000 and Activision acquired a licence from MicroProse to publish Civilization: Call to Power, released in March 1999.^[14][15]

The reason Avalon Hill accepted the unfavorable settlement is because Hasbro was already negotiating the acquisition of both Avalon Hill and MicroProse. So less than one month after the settlement on August 1998 Avalon Hill was bought by Hasbro^[16], on this same month Hasbro also bought MicroProse for $70 million^[17]. That means that at the end of 1998 the Civilization franchise belonged to Hasbro.

[edit] Infogrames and Firaxis

In January 2001, the French company Infogrames bought from Hasbro, for $100 million, its subsidiary Hasbro Interactive^[18], which included the rights to the Civilization franchise, the rights to the Atari brand^[19] and Hasbro's Game.com handheld game console.^[20][21]

Hasbro Interactive was renamed to Infogrames Interactive, Inc.^[22]

Civilization III was released in October 2001 by Infogrames Interactive. In May 2003 Infogrames officially renamed Infogrames Interactive to Atari Interactive ^[23]. Civilization III was developed by Firaxis and had Jeff Briggs as game designer.

[edit] Take-Two

Take-Two bought the rights to the Civilization franchise from Infogrames in 2004 for $22.3 million.^[24][25]

In October 2005, 2K Games, a Take Two subsidiary, published Civilization IV, which was developed by Firaxis and had Soren Johnson as game designer.^[26]

Take Two bought Firaxis for $26.7 million including possible performance bonuses in November 2005.^[27] So as of 2008, Take Two owns both the developer and the publisher of the Civilization franchise.

[edit] Main series

• Civilization (1991)
• Civilization II (1996)
  • Civilization II: Conflicts in Civilization (1996), the first expansion pack for Civilization II.
  • Civilization II: Fantastic Worlds (1997), the second expansion pack for Civilization II.
• Civilization II: Test of Time (1999), the original plus new scenarios and improved detail, including the ability to continue play on an alien landscape.
• Civilization III (2001)
  • Civilization III: Play the World (2002), the first expansion pack for Civilization III.
  • Civilization III: Conquests (2003), the second and final expansion for Civilization III.
• Civilization IV (2005)
  • Civilization IV: Warlords (2006), the first expansion pack for Civilization IV.
  • Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword (2007), the second expansion pack for Civilization IV.^[28]
• Civilization Revolution (forthcoming, 2008)

[edit] Compilations

• Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition (1998), includes Civilization II and its two expansions: Conflicts in Civilization and Fantastic Worlds.
• Civilization III: Gold Edition (2003), includes Civilization III and the first expansion, Play the World.
• Civilization III: Complete Edition (2005), includes Civilization III and its two expansions: Play the World and Conquests.
• Civilization Chronicles (2006), includes all the games from the main series from the first Civilization to Civilization IV.
• Civilization IV: Gold Edition (2007), includes Civilization IV and its first expansion Warlords.
• Civilization IV: Complete Edition (2007), includes Civilization IV and its two expansions: Warlords and Beyond the Sword.

[edit] Other games

• Colonization (1994), created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier while still at MicroProse.
• Master of Magic (1994) published by Microprose.
• CivCity: Rome (2006), a city-building strategy game inspired by the series.

When Sid Meier left MicroProse in 1996, the Civilization series was still part of MicroProse's portfolio, leading to a period of legal limbo that included the following games:

• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999), created by Sid Meier's team at Firaxis Games.
  • Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (1999), an expansion pack to Alpha Centauri.
• Civilization: Call to Power (1999), created by Activision.
• Civilization II: Test of Time (1999), created by MicroProse.
• Call to Power II (2000), sequel to Civilization: Call to Power. Due to licensing issues, Civilization could not be in the title.^[29]

[edit] Fan games

• Freeciv (1996)
• C-evo (2006)

[edit] Board game adaptation

• Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• GamaSutra history of Civilization
• Civilization series at MobyGames
• The Civilization Wiki

v • d • e Sid Meier's Civilization series Official series Civilization (CivNet) · Civilization II (Test of Time) · Civilization III (Play the World · Conquests) · Civilization IV (Warlords · Beyond the Sword) · Civilization Revolution Related games Colonization · Master of Magic  · Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Alien Crossfire) Other games Civilization: Call to Power · Call to Power II · Freeciv · FreeCol · C-evo · CivCity: Rome