What Has Changed in Sid Meier's Civilization Series | The Leaderboard

Launched in 1991, Sid Meier's Civilization has certainly stood the test of time but not without some controversy. Join The Leaderboard as we explore the different development, legal battle around the naming, changes to gameplay, prominent glitches, and much more in Civilization - Then vs. Now.

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Credits:
Researched by: Brendan Steere
Written by: Brendan Steere
Hosted by: Darrian P. Mack
Edited by: Jeremiah Williams, Kyle Freudenberg

Graphics and Thumbnail by: Elvin Apolonio, Alex Batchelor
Programming Manager: Darrian P. Mack
Producers: Adrian Apolonio, Jesse Gouldsbury
Executive Producers: Carrie Miller, Fred Seibert, Jeremy Rosen

Music Provided by:

ES_Post Apocalyptic Landscape 3 - Rannar Sillard
ES_Post Apocalyptic Landscape 4 - Rannar Sillard
ES_Post Apocalyptic Landscape 5 - Rannar Sillard
ES_Post Apocalyptic Landscape 6 - Rannar Sillard
ES_Post Apocalyptic Landscape 12 - Rannar Sillard

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[ActualBottleman]

I love civ, but I hate that the AI are always dead set on hating my guts for the smallest of acts.

[oldjuniper]

The world was a peaceful place. Romans skirmished with Americans in the deserts of Africa, Isabella of Spain and Shaka Zulu traded crabs for iron and horses. Alaska was finally occupied by Napoleon, and the Babylonians tamed the wild Australian lands.
But one day, the world took a turn for the worst...







Gandhi!!

[DrKZE]

did he not mention how Civ 5 units didn't stack? that was like the biggest change from 4-5 imo... totally changed combat rofl

[NicolaiLol]

Ugh please don't make me think about Civ, I will end up wasting my whole day playing that game

[salvatorecastello]

I really liked the style of Civ V, it has a special elegance in every element. Still my favorite Civ!

[PhantomCatMusic]

My main problem with civilization VI is that they still can't make the game harder by making the AI more dynamic on higher diffeculties, but still rely on giving the AI "cheats".

[silverbackwrites]

"Did we miss anything?"
Yes, two entire games, in fact; Revolution and Beyond Earth.

[MarkLangdahl]

There are a couple of factual errors in this video.
1. Sid Meier wasn't a contractor at MicroProse. He started the company together with "Wild" Bill Stealey.
2. Sid Meier was involved with Civilization II. He left MicroProse shortly after publishing it.
3. Sid Meier didn't own the Civilization name. Avalon Hill did and MicroProse had licensed it from them. What had happened was that Avalon Hill had licensed the name to MicroProse for the first game. So in 1997 Avalon Hill made a deal with Activision for future Civilization titles. MicroProse then sued both Avalon Hill and Activision and the case was settled out of court meaning MicroProse kept the naming rights. However both MicroProse and Avalon Hill would soon be bought out by Hasbro meaning the naming rights were now in the same place again. This however meant that Activision got to use the Civilization name for Civilization: Call To Power. They had to call the sequel Call To Power II without the Civilization name though. Hasbro Interactive was then bought by Infogrames together with the naming rights for Civilization... Firaxis didn't acquire the actual name until Civ 4...
4. The fact that another civilization of the same color popped up when one was extinct was also present in the first Civilization game. I remember a game where I played with three civilizations on the map and once I had exterminated the Zulu the Egyptians popped up and once Russia was gone the Romans popped up... It was changed for Civilization III basically because all civilizations now had each their own color.
5. Histography has existed since Civ I just not with that name. The game ended depending on the chosen dificulty. On chieftain you had until 2100. Every dificulty up meant you had to be 20 years faster.

[mithren]

2:57 "1-2= -2"

*Question mark*

[MarcMagma]

"In 26 years, Civilazation has changed a lot." So true in so many ways.

[cecarter]

My all time will always be Civ3. I remember to this day opening that cool khaki box sliding the disk in and my jaw dropped at the graphics compared to Civ2.

[LegionOfEclaires]

My favorite little feature came from Civilization Revolution on the Xbox 360. You could discover and name different geographic features like mountains, rivers, forests etc.
It's just one of those small little details that has no impact on the game play but still interesting.

[byron]

I legit thought that Gandhi was violent in real life because of civilisation, I trusted that it was right since I had never heard of Gandhi until I saw civilisation but then later on I actually learned about real Gandhi.

[bleflar]

Wait. Civ 4 also had animated map and you could see battles.

[AneesaH.]

I only recently discovered this game and I didn’t realize how much history it had.

[dataportdoll]

No mention of the stack of doom? Shame. Shame. Shame.

[DKforever]

You say Civ 6 is cartoony in its appearance, but did you ever look at how outrageously cartoony the leaders and their animations are in Civ Revolution!?

[shawnbretthauer]

I think you should have also included the console only Civilization Revolution in this video. A simplified version with much of the intricate mechanics still intact that you find in the main games.

[theonlytruet]

great video, but, that music makes me twitch and headache

[xNLx]

Where's civilization revolution??!