Civilization is another great example of a player base who learns a lot from the complex details of a game.
I’d like to share what Sid Meier’s Civilization game has taught me about business and strategy.
For those of you who need to become more familiar with the game, as its name implies, you take on the role of civilization ruler to build an empire competing against others. Apart from exploring the map, and conducting diplomatic and warfare activities, the player has to build cities and make improvements, manage people and resources, develop technologies, and build an army inclusive of defense systems. This game’s scope is insanely broad; it covers all historical periods starting 4000 BC and ending with space-age in 2100 AD. The level of detail that went into creating it is astonishing, and it boosts player’s learning with much historical and factual data. It takes time and commitment to master the game, the good news is that those skills are transversal to business so it’s not for nothing.”
Here are five practical business lessons I learned from the game over the years:
STRATEGIC THINKING
Like in business, you have to know which victory path you plan to pursue at the beginning of the game because it guides all your subsequent choices. Without a clear strategy, you get lost in operational and development needs, and eventually, everyone else beats you to it. It helped me to learn to make a habit of evaluating the risks and always developing alternative scenarios.
COMPETITION
To beat them, first, you have to learn how to play with them. If you want to be ahead in the game, you build relationships with other competitors. Explore them, even team up to co-develop each other as a group until you gain enough strength to take the lead. Alliances amongst players are made with the intent to be broken eventually; players must be keen to determine if they are playing or getting played.
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Like any enterprise, your empire needs resources, and those are scarce. Your task is to assign and schedule available resources most efficiently and economically correctly. Math is pretty simple when you look at it from this perspective: if you splurge on one sector, you will fall short in the other(s). But that’s not always the case, especially when you build up things that will generate more income, but it’s essential to do it at the proper time
TIME AND PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
It is the key to winning. When you master this lesson, there’s no stopping you. Setting priorities is the most challenging task even to professionals, a lot of things are going on simultaneously, and you can easily get lost in them.
CULTURE AND PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
Happiness is measured in the game. It represents the citizens’ approval rating of you as the leader and the choices you make; it holds you accountable for your choices. It’s essential to boost morale and keep your people happy, and you cannot win without it. In the game, just like in real life, this becomes more prominent in crisis times and, if ignored, can cause serious setbacks.[Ćosić, Teodora]
In this article the author breaks down 5 things she learned from this game that can be applied in a business environment. As someone who has played this game, I can attest that there are useful things I’ve learned from the game, from small historical facts to very basic macroeconomic principles. There’s a stigma that all video games are useless and a waste of time. For a lot of games that may be true. However, there are many games out there that can help teach useful and transferable information. Most games share a common trait and that’s the ability to captivate and deeply engage certain audiences. I think the author circles an underlying principle, the idea that games can be engaging but also help teach players practical skills and information. What can games like Civilization inform us when designing a way to help boost confidence and understanding of personal finance?
Ćosić, Teodora. “What Sid Meier’s Civilization Game Taught Me about Business.” N2Growth, 10 Feb. 2023, www.n2growth.com/what-sid-meiers-civilization-game-taught-me-about-business/.
