Playing ‘Civilization’: a decade of peace and war

I started playing Civilization at number II, sometime in the year 2000, so I was literally “late to the game” — it was about six years old by the time I picked up on it through a friend. Like I said, I’m not a huge gamer, and the last time I’d done any PC gaming it had involved multiple bouts of dysentery and the loss of several wagon wheels, so Civ II didn’t come easily to me. The game seemed overly complex and involved, its barrier to entry higher than I was prepared to climb, but early on, one thing snagged at my attention: the fact that it was a turn-based game. This fascinated me, and I remember that after my first near all-nighter with the game, I lay in bed falling asleep, plotting out turns for the morning.