Game

Civilization

MicroProse's 1991 turn-based strategy game, designed by Sid Meier.

stubUpdated 2026-10-26
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Ars Technica reports that Sid Meier described Civilization’s earliest version as having “stirred together” elements of SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, Empire, and the board game Civilization1.

Influenced

Lineage

Mechanics

Every claim about this game, by concept (2)
generalArs Technica's report of Sid Meier's 2017 GDC talk says Meier described his earliest version of Civilization as having "stirred together" elements from SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, Empire, and the British board game Civilization.Web
Benj Edwards's 2007 history of Civilization says Meier was a big fan of an early computer game called Empire, and quotes Bruce Shelley: Meier asked him for a list of 10 things he would do to Empire to make it a better game, as some of his research on Civilization.Web

References

  1. ^Ars Technica's report of Sid Meier's 2017 GDC talk says Meier described his earliest version of Civilization as having "stirred together" elements from SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, Empire, and the British board game Civilization.WebArs Technica, Meier GDC talk, 3 March 2017
    How we know
    Meier said that his earliest version "stirred together" elements from SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, Empire, and a certain British board game named, well, Civilization.
    report of the talk · archived copy ↗

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-26.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-26.

    In the claim ledger

Sources

Secondary