Civilization: China
Difficulty: Settler
Game Speed: Normal
Yes, I returned to China. I don't have to explain this; one only has to read my previous blog about my enormous success as China to understand my motivations. The more pertinent issue is whether or not my game is going better, worse, or about the same as my first attempt playing China, and why. But first, I must explain my premise for the game.
I'm conducting an "experiment" with the percentage of my imperial coffers going toward technological research, cultural research, and wealth accumulation. In the past, I've started the game with 50% percent going towards technology, dropping it to 30% when I gain the ability to research culture (which gets its own 30%). I hadn't given this practice much thought until I read someone else's blog (http://nautilus009.blogspot.com/), which mentioned upping the amount of resources going to technological research when the game entered the Industrial Era. This got me thinking, and so when I started my latest game I decided to do something different and see what happened. This game, I started my technological research at 70%, only lowering it to 60% when I discovered music and received the ability to research culture, to which I allocated just 10% of my resources. I would have kept the percentage higher, but this resulted in me accumulating a negative amount of gold per turn, which I did not think would be beneficial.
What do I expect increased technological research to achieve? My main thought was of Heilbroner, who on page 118 briefly discusses the importance of investment expenditure to economic prosperity. In an economic context, investment "means devoting labor and other inputs to the creation of capital goods" (Heilbroner 74). Capital goods are "the stock of tools, equipment, machines, and buildings that society produces in order to expedite the production process" (72), and Heilbroner makes the interesting point that they "give people mechanical and physico-chemical powers of literally transhuman dimensions" (73).
With the definitions out of the way, back to the point: Essentially, the more resources a society invests in the production of capital, the more prosperous it will be. I took technological research to be the Civ equivalent of capital investment, since it allows you to use more advanced, more productive tools in the expansion of your empire. And so, I reasoned that if I focused on technological advancement I would be more prosperous than in previous games.
Was I right? It's a little too early to tell, but I have definitely advanced faster: I reached the Modern Era in 1815. The first time I played China, I didn't get to the Modern Era until 1900, and I didn't even get there in my last game, only entering the Industrial Era in 1914. My population is lagging behind a little since the last time I played China, but I've just discovered flight and built some bombers, which offer great opportunities for conquest. I'm optimistic about my experiment. For results, tune in next week. I promise it will be exciting. ;)
References:
Heilbroner, Robert L. and William Milberg. The Making of Economic Society. 12th ed.
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2 comments:
I like how you've decided to play more of an economically motivated CIV than jsut conquest. Do you have any plan to actually win the game or is this just to experiment to see what it can do for future games?
shannon, you're just too smart with all your econ jargon in your blog. i'm a little jealous. i think we all are getting a bit restless with the game and it's ultimate goal of conquering the rest of the civilizations on the "planet." i can't wait to see how your experiment works out, especially since it seems like you're a playing the part of the fed in this round of the game as opposed to the rule of a dictator that seems to be built in.
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