time for something new

to tell the truth, i'm beginning to get bored with civilization iv. so in order to combat this unfortunate occurrence, i have started to experiment with different scenarios and strategies. what i have employed in my most recent campaign, is the strategy is total and complete isolation. i begin the game normal in all respects; i forge a capital city, begin raising an army and accruing resources. however, i have limited my number of cities to 4, and have decided not to trade with anybody...under any circumstances. i have in a sense, cut myself off from the rest of the world.

what i have discovered, is exactly what we have learned to expect from our teachings in class , and from what we are supposed to read. this leads me to believe that what we are being taught, for once, is not a load of shit. thank god. but anyways, back to my campaign. substantial amounts of time have passed, and i have noticed that i am extremely far behind what i normally am. this is a controlled experiment, mind you. i am the greek empire, as usual, and have played in the exact same fashion as i always do. but due to the fact that i have employed extreme isolationism, i am falling further and further behind the rest of the world.

while playing this, i noticed that this situation is pretty damn close to a civilization of people that we learned about early in the course. the people of papa new guinea come to mind. much like my civilization, the people of papa new guinea have thrived as a people for thousands of years, but have never made the leap passed hunter-gatherers. now in my campaign, the people naturally begin to farm, but still are substantially sub-par in all other respects. papa new guineans have spent centuries in isolation, and if you allow me to employ a cliche, "stuck in time." because i refuse to trade, i'm just waiting for mansa musa or theodore roosevelt to get pissed off enough to beat the living hell out of me. i figure it's only a matter of time before it's game over.

Strange Similarities

while playing one of my original campaigns, i have experienced much success in being the most advanced country in many aspects of the game. according to the score that is kept on the right (what i've always thought to be the 'advancement meter'), i have always been extremely far ahead of the curve. it hasn't appeared, and doesn't appear that any nation can hold a candle to my civilization.

at the beginning of the game, i hit the ground running. i began making giant leaps and bounds in terms of the military, religious, cultural, educational, and productive aspects of my empire. however, i have noticed an increasing trend in my campaign. it is that some of the nations that i am competing against and trading with are suddenly creeping closer to becoming my economic equal. the gaps are closing quickly, and for a while, i struggled to come to terms with this strange phenomenon.

however, it dawned upon me that this situation posses uncanny similarities to today's global situation regarding the united states and the progress of other countries around the world. since the beginning of globalization in the 1960's, the united states has remained so far ahead of the rest of the world that it gave us a false impression of invincibility. this is no longer the case. the united states, just like my empire in the game, is still advancing at a respectable rate, but due to direct foreign investment and development of standards in otherwise impoverished nations, they are progressing that much faster.

i feel that this is exactly what is occurring in my game. i have been trading extensively with the russians, and because of it, they have been given a boost in terms of economic progress. china is predicted to overtake the united states economically in the near future, and it is likely that russia will do the same to me in the game.