Civ 4 – Dad & Daughter Explore History
As I sit here blogging, Dad is showing our 9 year old daughter the various civilizations that are available as starting civs in Sid Meier’s Civilization IV. The English regents to chose from are: Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. (Interestingly, there are 5 different female regents to pick from, out of a total of 18 civilzations.)
Each monarch has a nice portrait (in period costume) with a small description of the characterists of their civilization:
Elizabeth I is recognized as Philosophical and Financial, while Victoria is noted as Expansive and Financial. Nice little stepping off point to a mini-history lesson.
They’ve just started, so we may have more actual commentary later. At the moment, my daughter’s astute assessment is that the game is likely to take ‘6.5 hours, or forever.’ Is it possible that she has baby memories of the Avalon Hill board game and endless days of Civ parties? Maybe this is more an observation about her father and his proclivity for gaming?
Overheard comment:
Daughter: “Why would you want slavery? Slavery is bad?”
Dad: “Well, it has a use in the game, and later on you can also get emancipation.”
Daughter: “Oh, so it’s useful?”
From there a conversation ensues about the way people respond to slavery, and the dynamics of slavery across other civilizations.
I expect in a few hours we’ll have to force her to go to bed, but I think we’ve got a few hours of history left in us….
