Monday, May 7, 2007
Life Lessons
Today I think Econ has taught me a very good life lesson, as I sit here at the end of the semester trying to see how many blogs I need to catch up, playing the game is easy, doesnt take anythign but to sit down and write a blog that reffers to economics and the blog, and the then take time to read other peoples blogs and comment on them, takes time. And at the end of the semester when you have to pack up and study for exams and hand in final papers, I didnt seem to make time to make up all my blogs. The Oppurtunity cost of procrastination this time was the inability to complete my blogs on the gaming. It wasnt a hard tradeoff as in the moment the Oppurtunity cost seemed worth it and the ever constant thinking "I have time". Guess my time ran out.
Monday, March 5, 2007
The End of the Roman...
Well this will be a rather short post, seeing as there isnt much to discuss, we were annihilated by the Persians.
The started off as usual, getting back into the grove of things and by this time I know that the Perisans have threated war so it is inevitable that they will strike, so I am developing my army, as I told you in my last blog I had one warrior. The progress of getting warriors is taking long, and the Persians threathing to strike is looming over my head. The Persians even in real life history were never conquered not even by Alexander the Great, who set out to conquer most of Eurasia. And here we are the "forgotten Romans" standing on the brink of war with them.
With now 3 warriors an archer and a swordsman the Persians declare war, I am unprepared and the soliders are not strategically placed to protect the city, and at that they are mostly around or within Rome, leaving the other cities defenceless. Sigh this is not a battle that we are prepared to fight or win.
The battle is lost! We have been conquered by the Persians, this is a sad day in Roman history. But it is upon us to learn from our mistakes and move on. Rome was not built in a day, the game can be replayed and strategies done differently. One thing I have learnt is that building an army is important, as well as location, as Diamond says it is because of our location where we are today and defines how we improve technologically and into the future, it seems as if the game had continued on the Romans would have been far behind, and have some serious catching up to do.
The must go on, and next blog will take you from the begining, taking into consideration the demand and supply aspect of economics, as explained by Colander. Supply and demand are important as I have had civil unrest in the city of Rome in the game and it was solved by making a road to the wine which was in demand in the city, and the road made easy access to supply of the product.
The started off as usual, getting back into the grove of things and by this time I know that the Perisans have threated war so it is inevitable that they will strike, so I am developing my army, as I told you in my last blog I had one warrior. The progress of getting warriors is taking long, and the Persians threathing to strike is looming over my head. The Persians even in real life history were never conquered not even by Alexander the Great, who set out to conquer most of Eurasia. And here we are the "forgotten Romans" standing on the brink of war with them.
With now 3 warriors an archer and a swordsman the Persians declare war, I am unprepared and the soliders are not strategically placed to protect the city, and at that they are mostly around or within Rome, leaving the other cities defenceless. Sigh this is not a battle that we are prepared to fight or win.
The battle is lost! We have been conquered by the Persians, this is a sad day in Roman history. But it is upon us to learn from our mistakes and move on. Rome was not built in a day, the game can be replayed and strategies done differently. One thing I have learnt is that building an army is important, as well as location, as Diamond says it is because of our location where we are today and defines how we improve technologically and into the future, it seems as if the game had continued on the Romans would have been far behind, and have some serious catching up to do.
The must go on, and next blog will take you from the begining, taking into consideration the demand and supply aspect of economics, as explained by Colander. Supply and demand are important as I have had civil unrest in the city of Rome in the game and it was solved by making a road to the wine which was in demand in the city, and the road made easy access to supply of the product.
Monday, February 19, 2007
And the conquest continues...
This time the gane was saved so now to move on from where we were at...
First task was to build an army, we only had one warrior, which is why we stayed far from the Persians. The warriors take a few turns before they come up and within that time, Persian settlers move out and conquer and settle the land inbetween us moving their border closer to ours. This is not good as they were threatening to start war on us, now was is anticipated and the warriors needed to defend Rome and its other cities. The foundation of modern and historically stable and developing countries such as France, Britian, Spain, and Rome especially under the rule of the Ceasar all historically had good armies that they used to conquor neighbouring territories, as well as the new world. With the lack of a developed army we cannot move further without the inevitability of being crushed by others. Especially the Persians, with whom the Roman warriors did not even touch, so if anythign learnt from real history is do not mess with the Perisans unless you are ready for war.
While developing the warriors, settlers are sent to roam the area looking for land and areas to settle on, it is noticed that our version of Rome took a rather long time to build and the surrounding territories have been taken up by other counties. This is not good, and without warriors we cannot declare war and take over land, which is what most countries throughout history did. We are using CIV 3 so it does not have a definate earth with seperarte countries, but more a landmasses with islands and continents that do not look like the earth, so its hard to tell exactly what portion of would be modern day Rome we have settled upon, altho looking at it and judging I think they would be dissappointed at what we have occupied.
We are known as the "Forgotten Romans", this is due to our lack of culture and modern advances and contribution to worldly society in a whole, but Romans in those days lacked much of a culture so that part of it shouldnt be a surprise, but this can be changed and the culture enhanced altho I am not sure what to do to enhance their culture. I thought the cermonial burial gave them an aspect of culture the last time i played but I guess thats not enough. Next time around we wont be the forgotten ones but the ones who conquered it all.
First task was to build an army, we only had one warrior, which is why we stayed far from the Persians. The warriors take a few turns before they come up and within that time, Persian settlers move out and conquer and settle the land inbetween us moving their border closer to ours. This is not good as they were threatening to start war on us, now was is anticipated and the warriors needed to defend Rome and its other cities. The foundation of modern and historically stable and developing countries such as France, Britian, Spain, and Rome especially under the rule of the Ceasar all historically had good armies that they used to conquor neighbouring territories, as well as the new world. With the lack of a developed army we cannot move further without the inevitability of being crushed by others. Especially the Persians, with whom the Roman warriors did not even touch, so if anythign learnt from real history is do not mess with the Perisans unless you are ready for war.
While developing the warriors, settlers are sent to roam the area looking for land and areas to settle on, it is noticed that our version of Rome took a rather long time to build and the surrounding territories have been taken up by other counties. This is not good, and without warriors we cannot declare war and take over land, which is what most countries throughout history did. We are using CIV 3 so it does not have a definate earth with seperarte countries, but more a landmasses with islands and continents that do not look like the earth, so its hard to tell exactly what portion of would be modern day Rome we have settled upon, altho looking at it and judging I think they would be dissappointed at what we have occupied.
We are known as the "Forgotten Romans", this is due to our lack of culture and modern advances and contribution to worldly society in a whole, but Romans in those days lacked much of a culture so that part of it shouldnt be a surprise, but this can be changed and the culture enhanced altho I am not sure what to do to enhance their culture. I thought the cermonial burial gave them an aspect of culture the last time i played but I guess thats not enough. Next time around we wont be the forgotten ones but the ones who conquered it all.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
CIV Take Two...
Ok the last time i posted the game was slowly progressing, and we werent developing too well, however as luck would have it the game didnt save, so its time to start over and do it again, maybe this time things will go better :)
We pretty much started out as the last time Romans, near a water body, then we irrigated around it, so as to ensure food, the most important thing as it sustains life and they dont have to wonder and look for food, because as Diamond says hunting and gathering the nomad way of life has never produced enough food. The it was time ot expand, broaden our horizon, we built a colony outside the boarders of Rome and then built a road from the colony to Rome, as this was a problem the first time around. Then we built another city parellel to or city but on the other side of the landmass so as to cover a broader distance and there was wheat there. Wheat which was according to Diamond, in the fertile cresent which was the reason why they wre so successful at remaining in one place and developing accordingly. So we set up there and again built a road to Rome, connecting the two cities. A passing settler asks to join our city, hence we must have been doing something right seeing as someone wanted to join us. Right? OK so now we had our main city near water, a colony which produced wine and grapes, and a city of wheat, now to mine the hills and set up a city there. The mining was extremly successful as we found alot of gold, and then built a city and again made a road going to Rome, as history shows, all roads lead to Rome.
Our technological advancement is also as important as geography, although Diamond says that it is because of our geography that we evolve. Which the game proves to be somewhat true. We moved from the stone age to the bronze and the iron age accordingly, however we traded the knowlege we had with our neighbours for their advancements, such as a near by tribe taught us pottery, the Greeks gave us masonry, the Persians gave us ceremonial burial, and the Egyptians gave us the wheel. If we werent located in a central place with neighbours who were developing we would not have advanced as we did, if we were located on an islnd, such as New Guinea, we would not have neighbours with who to trade with hence stunting our development. With these tools we were able to develop an alphabet and uncover the secret of writing, Diamond shows us that writing and the alphabet necessary for development and this is what certain civilizations such as the Incas, who showed to be advanced but could not move forward due to the fact that they had not developed writing skills, or an alphabet with which to follow.
As with all socities there is conflict, our conflict didnt lie within the city like with the Incas when Huascar and Athahualpa fought for the right to be emperor in South America, we had the problem of conflicting space, our cities were getting close to that of the borders of Persia, the Persian King asked us to move and said that if we did no move they would declare war. It seems that we have not learnt from history and our infantry was weak and we could not survive a war, so we took a page from history as where the Romans of history did not trouble the Persians neither did we, we retreated and set up our city further away from the boundries of Persia.
The game is getting quite intersting, however I am looking out for the barbarians to strike and they have not yet and if there is anything history has shown about civilization at this time was that the barbarians strike and they strike without warning so you always need to be prepared, so next move is to build our army. Most successful countries have an excellent military force, and the Romans were known for theirs so we need to make ours known for ours too, :)
We pretty much started out as the last time Romans, near a water body, then we irrigated around it, so as to ensure food, the most important thing as it sustains life and they dont have to wonder and look for food, because as Diamond says hunting and gathering the nomad way of life has never produced enough food. The it was time ot expand, broaden our horizon, we built a colony outside the boarders of Rome and then built a road from the colony to Rome, as this was a problem the first time around. Then we built another city parellel to or city but on the other side of the landmass so as to cover a broader distance and there was wheat there. Wheat which was according to Diamond, in the fertile cresent which was the reason why they wre so successful at remaining in one place and developing accordingly. So we set up there and again built a road to Rome, connecting the two cities. A passing settler asks to join our city, hence we must have been doing something right seeing as someone wanted to join us. Right? OK so now we had our main city near water, a colony which produced wine and grapes, and a city of wheat, now to mine the hills and set up a city there. The mining was extremly successful as we found alot of gold, and then built a city and again made a road going to Rome, as history shows, all roads lead to Rome.
Our technological advancement is also as important as geography, although Diamond says that it is because of our geography that we evolve. Which the game proves to be somewhat true. We moved from the stone age to the bronze and the iron age accordingly, however we traded the knowlege we had with our neighbours for their advancements, such as a near by tribe taught us pottery, the Greeks gave us masonry, the Persians gave us ceremonial burial, and the Egyptians gave us the wheel. If we werent located in a central place with neighbours who were developing we would not have advanced as we did, if we were located on an islnd, such as New Guinea, we would not have neighbours with who to trade with hence stunting our development. With these tools we were able to develop an alphabet and uncover the secret of writing, Diamond shows us that writing and the alphabet necessary for development and this is what certain civilizations such as the Incas, who showed to be advanced but could not move forward due to the fact that they had not developed writing skills, or an alphabet with which to follow.
As with all socities there is conflict, our conflict didnt lie within the city like with the Incas when Huascar and Athahualpa fought for the right to be emperor in South America, we had the problem of conflicting space, our cities were getting close to that of the borders of Persia, the Persian King asked us to move and said that if we did no move they would declare war. It seems that we have not learnt from history and our infantry was weak and we could not survive a war, so we took a page from history as where the Romans of history did not trouble the Persians neither did we, we retreated and set up our city further away from the boundries of Persia.
The game is getting quite intersting, however I am looking out for the barbarians to strike and they have not yet and if there is anything history has shown about civilization at this time was that the barbarians strike and they strike without warning so you always need to be prepared, so next move is to build our army. Most successful countries have an excellent military force, and the Romans were known for theirs so we need to make ours known for ours too, :)
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
In the Begining....
I used CIV III
The dawn of a civilization...the start of somthing new...to go forward you need to make choices, these choices affect your future, by opening options, and closing doors, what you have to do is choose the doors you want open and those that you want closed.
The first choice made in the game is people, what kinds of people do you want? do you need? to make your civilization strive. According to Diamond geography is everything, so the decision of where to make the first city taken into serious consideration. Rome, the first city, it was militaristic and commercial, two attributes to make the cilvilization strive. Romans according to history has contributed alot, and managed to have a structured political system, obedience, writing and many various attributes that made the choice to be Roman, and rule the earth under the power of the Cesar.
It seemed to me that food was vital to the life of the citizens of Rome, so the city was built near to a body of water, and irrigation to the city began, this increased the production of food two fold, most civilizations as Diamond showed had some for of irrigation and food collection to sustain the life of the people. It is also important to have money or some sort of wealth in the city so mInes were built, this helped to create roads and and develop the city. Two colonies were built on vineyards, carring wine to the cities. However not expanding and growing in population caused the people to be unhappy in the over crowded city. The crowding of the city and the unhappy citizens, caused civil disorder, the city was set on fire. I did not know why this happened so I tried to set laws, but we hadnt gone through mathematics and law making so I couldnt set laws as yet. I built a road from the city to the colonies which stopped the civil disorder and made the citizens happy. :)
Thats where I ended for now, I am not a a gamer, and i do not play alot of games so the game is not going as fast as other peoples, but I have moved to the bronze age and am on the verge of moving to the Iron age. Geography and what you are given to work with is important to your progession as a civilization which is exactly what Diamond was saying in his book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
The dawn of a civilization...the start of somthing new...to go forward you need to make choices, these choices affect your future, by opening options, and closing doors, what you have to do is choose the doors you want open and those that you want closed.
The first choice made in the game is people, what kinds of people do you want? do you need? to make your civilization strive. According to Diamond geography is everything, so the decision of where to make the first city taken into serious consideration. Rome, the first city, it was militaristic and commercial, two attributes to make the cilvilization strive. Romans according to history has contributed alot, and managed to have a structured political system, obedience, writing and many various attributes that made the choice to be Roman, and rule the earth under the power of the Cesar.
It seemed to me that food was vital to the life of the citizens of Rome, so the city was built near to a body of water, and irrigation to the city began, this increased the production of food two fold, most civilizations as Diamond showed had some for of irrigation and food collection to sustain the life of the people. It is also important to have money or some sort of wealth in the city so mInes were built, this helped to create roads and and develop the city. Two colonies were built on vineyards, carring wine to the cities. However not expanding and growing in population caused the people to be unhappy in the over crowded city. The crowding of the city and the unhappy citizens, caused civil disorder, the city was set on fire. I did not know why this happened so I tried to set laws, but we hadnt gone through mathematics and law making so I couldnt set laws as yet. I built a road from the city to the colonies which stopped the civil disorder and made the citizens happy. :)
Thats where I ended for now, I am not a a gamer, and i do not play alot of games so the game is not going as fast as other peoples, but I have moved to the bronze age and am on the verge of moving to the Iron age. Geography and what you are given to work with is important to your progession as a civilization which is exactly what Diamond was saying in his book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
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