Civilization Fanatics Center
Encyclopedia
Civilization Fanatics Center (abbreviated CFC and CivFanatics) is a fan website for the Civilization
series of computer and video games published by a variety of companies (depending on the game), including Atari
, Firaxis, and Microprose
. It is owned and operated by user Thunderfall, who founded it in 2000.
. The host was changed to XOOM in 1999. The old site title was Civilization Fanatics' Page, and was part of the Thunderfall Impressions site. After the site was moved to Strategy Gaming Online in March 2000, the site's name was changed to Civilization Fanatics' Center. The current form of the CFC website took shape after the move to Strategy Game Online, as server resources were no longer an issue, thus being able to offer bulletin boards and file downloads. The forum initially catered to players of Civilization
and Civilization II
, while later on experiencing the first big influx of new members just prior to and during the release of Civilization III
. Subsequent influxes have arrived due to the releases of Civilization IV
and Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
.
The site experiences a friendly rivalry with Apolyton. These two sites are the largest Civilization
fan sites on the internet.
site and Civilization V
site. It was voted second best fan website of 2005 at Voodoo Extreme. A nod is made to Civilization Fanatics Center in Civilization 3, where the last Viking city name is "Thunderfall", the name of the site's administrator. Both the Civilization Fanatics Center and Apolyton are mentioned in detail by Civ4 lead designer Soren Johnson
in the book Chronicles of Civilization as part of Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles.
Also the following fan communities are present to a certain degree:
The Civilization subforums were created to facilitate conversations about MicroProse
's and Firaxis' games Civilization I, II, III, IV and V. Each game has its own subforum group which includes subforums for strategy, ideas and suggestions, creation and customization, multiplayer, and demo games. Along with the forums for the Civilization games are subforums for other games like Galactic Civilizations II, Sid Meier's Pirates!
, Rise of Nations
and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
.
The Colosseum section contains subforums for topics not covered in other sections of the forum. It includes Off Topic, home to almost a third of all posts at the forum. It is a place where people go to discuss non-Civilization related topics. These topics range from 'light' such as "favorite music style" to 'very heavy' like "Should abortion be legal?" The majority of the topics are either news-items, religious
discussions, political discussions, or general interest topics. The Colosseum section also includes subforums for World History, Arts and Entertainment, Computer Talk, Sports Talk, Humor and Jokes, and Science and Technology.
There are two other subforum sections; The CivFanatics group is home to the subforum for site feedback and the discussion of front page news. Site feedback allows active member feedback regarding CFC. Forums in the Project & Mod Development are hidden. The forums here consist of mods in the Private Beta Version stage, where only the specific mod-development
teams can go to work on their mods away from public criticism and outside ideas. Private forums allow teams the ability to formulate his or her mods without being constantly bombarded with questions and unsolicited help. However, some mods are developed in public, most of which are for Civilization IV.
and its popular variant Night of the Werewolves, in which participants try to eliminate hidden enemies while systematically being hunted. Other popular games are progression games in which participants use the previous post to add something to the game (eg. beat the pic above you, Good Wish, Bad Wish.) One recent addition to this Forum is the Rise from Medieval Kingdoms game (or RfMK) introduced by Splime (a CFC Member). Affectionately called Lazy-NES by its participants, in RfMK, players control a kingdom with an economy and army, and engage in warfare and trade with other players. Lastly, In a tradition started by Chandrasekhar (another CFC Member), a whole new range of games has developed, using his game Snakes and Foxes. In Snakes and Foxes, participants fight each other in specialized arenas, and bet money on the outcome. For a while, War at CivFanatics was extremely popular until present time because it has gotten out of hand.
CFC has participated with its own team in the Civilization III: Play the World Multisite Democracy game (MSDG) and the Civilization III: Conquests Intersite Democracy Game (ISDG). The MSDG consisted of eight teams in a straight fight for the crown, and the ISDG consisted of 2 semifinals of 5 teams, with the first 2 teams eliminated from the semifinal eliminated from the competition. CFC was placed fifth in the overall positioning in the MSDG after the game was abandoned, and was eliminated in the second semifinal in the ISDG finishing fourth in the game of five. The opponents were teams from other Civilization fan websites, as well as a team formed by Firaxis, the creators of the game. CFC also participates in a 14 fansite Civilization IV Intersite Democracy Game. Due to the number of participating teams there are 2 semi-finals of 7 fansites. The game itself is hosted by a different Civilization fansite: Evolution games.
In addition to competing against other teams, CFC also hosts a Multi-Team Demogame (MTDG) which hosts democracy games with all the teams consisting of CFC members. There is one for Civ III and one for Civ IV.
The first Civ 3 MTDG finished with MIA, playing as the Greeks, being victorious.
refers to the art of making modifications for a game. This can involve a change of gamerules, adding new unit, making scenarios or anything else that changes the game. Due to the XML
, which acts like a giant database of everything in the game, Python
, a scripting language, and the release of most of the game source (the SDK), Civilization IV is incredibly moddable — something which is being exploited to the full by the modding community.
The main purpose of the modding section of the forum is to allow users to change the game to their own specific tastes. There are a whole range of tutorials to help modders to do anything they want with the game, like adding new units or technologies, creating new graphics and many other things. As well as making a lot of minor mods for individual users, some big projects have emerged which completely change the game. The most notable of these were included in patches and expansions made by Firaxis.
Civilization (computer game)
Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based strategy "4X"-type strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time": it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires...
series of computer and video games published by a variety of companies (depending on the game), including Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
, Firaxis, and Microprose
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
. It is owned and operated by user Thunderfall, who founded it in 2000.
History
In 1998, CivFanatics was created as a small personal homepage hosted by GeoCitiesGeoCities
Yahoo! GeoCities is a web hosting service, currently available only in Japan.GeoCities was originally founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet . In its original form, site users selected a "city" in which to place their web pages...
. The host was changed to XOOM in 1999. The old site title was Civilization Fanatics' Page, and was part of the Thunderfall Impressions site. After the site was moved to Strategy Gaming Online in March 2000, the site's name was changed to Civilization Fanatics' Center. The current form of the CFC website took shape after the move to Strategy Game Online, as server resources were no longer an issue, thus being able to offer bulletin boards and file downloads. The forum initially catered to players of Civilization
Civilization (computer game)
Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based strategy "4X"-type strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time": it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires...
and Civilization II
Civilization II
Sid Meier's Civilization II is a turn-based strategy computer game designed by Brian Reynolds, Douglas Caspian-Kaufman and Jeff Briggs. Although it is a sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization, neither Sid Meier nor Bruce Shelley was involved in its development.Civilization II was first released in...
, while later on experiencing the first big influx of new members just prior to and during the release of Civilization III
Civilization III
Sid Meier's Civilization III, commonly shortened to Civ III or Civ 3, is the third installment of the Sid Meier's Civilization turn-based strategy computer game series. It was preceded by Civilization II and followed by Civilization IV. The game offers very sophisticated gameplay in terms of both...
. Subsequent influxes have arrived due to the releases of Civilization IV
Civilization IV
Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game released in 2005 and developed by lead designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's studio Firaxis Games. It is the fourth installment of the Civilization series...
and Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is the second official expansion pack of the turn-based strategy video game Civilization IV. The expansion focuses on adding content to the in-game time periods following the invention of gunpowder, and includes more general content such as 11 new scenarios, 10 new...
.
The site experiences a friendly rivalry with Apolyton. These two sites are the largest Civilization
Civilization (computer game)
Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based strategy "4X"-type strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time": it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires...
fan sites on the internet.
Fame
As one of the largest Civilization websites, it is mentioned on the main Civilization IVCivilization IV
Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game released in 2005 and developed by lead designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's studio Firaxis Games. It is the fourth installment of the Civilization series...
site and Civilization V
Civilization V
Sid Meier's Civilization V is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game developed by Firaxis, released on Microsoft Windows in September 2010 and on Mac OS X on November 23, 2010...
site. It was voted second best fan website of 2005 at Voodoo Extreme. A nod is made to Civilization Fanatics Center in Civilization 3, where the last Viking city name is "Thunderfall", the name of the site's administrator. Both the Civilization Fanatics Center and Apolyton are mentioned in detail by Civ4 lead designer Soren Johnson
Soren Johnson
Soren Johnson is a video game designer and programmer. He was employed by Firaxis Games from 2000 to 2007, where he co-designed several of their most popular games. Prior to his work at Firaxis, he obtained a BA in history and a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University...
in the book Chronicles of Civilization as part of Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles.
Games
CFC currently mainly supports the fan communities of the following computer games:- Civilization VCivilization VSid Meier's Civilization V is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game developed by Firaxis, released on Microsoft Windows in September 2010 and on Mac OS X on November 23, 2010...
- Civilization RevolutionCivilization RevolutionCivilization Revolution is a 2008 iteration of Civilization developed by Firaxis with Sid Meier as designer for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and iOS. A Wii version was originally expected but was put on indefinite hold...
- Civilization IVCivilization IVSid Meier's Civilization IV is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game released in 2005 and developed by lead designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's studio Firaxis Games. It is the fourth installment of the Civilization series...
- Civilization IIICivilization IIISid Meier's Civilization III, commonly shortened to Civ III or Civ 3, is the third installment of the Sid Meier's Civilization turn-based strategy computer game series. It was preceded by Civilization II and followed by Civilization IV. The game offers very sophisticated gameplay in terms of both...
- Civilization IICivilization IISid Meier's Civilization II is a turn-based strategy computer game designed by Brian Reynolds, Douglas Caspian-Kaufman and Jeff Briggs. Although it is a sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization, neither Sid Meier nor Bruce Shelley was involved in its development.Civilization II was first released in...
- CivilizationCivilization (computer game)Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based strategy "4X"-type strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time": it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires...
Also the following fan communities are present to a certain degree:
- Sid Meier's Alpha CentauriSid Meier's Alpha CentauriSid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly...
- Sid Meier's Pirates!Sid Meier's Pirates!Sid Meier's Pirates! is a video game created by Sid Meier and published and developed by MicroProse in 1987. It was the first game to include the name "Sid Meier" in its title as an effort by MicroProse to attract fans of Meier's earlier games, most of which were flight simulators...
- Galactic Civilizations 2
- Rise of NationsRise of NationsRise of Nations is a real-time strategy computer game, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003. The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of Civilization II and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Concepts taken from turn-based strategy games have been...
- ChessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
- Colonization
- Total War
- Master of OrionMaster of OrionMaster of Orion is a turn-based, 4X science fiction computer strategy game released in 1993 by MicroProse on the MS-DOS and Mac OS operating systems. The purpose of the game is to lead one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing...
- Call to Power series
- Avalon Hill's DiplomacyDiplomacy (game)Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases and the absence of dice or other game elements that produce random effects...
- Sid Meier's Railroads
Forum structure
The forum is split into seven main groups, each containing individual forums. Each of these subforums may contain further subforums.The Civilization subforums were created to facilitate conversations about MicroProse
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
's and Firaxis' games Civilization I, II, III, IV and V. Each game has its own subforum group which includes subforums for strategy, ideas and suggestions, creation and customization, multiplayer, and demo games. Along with the forums for the Civilization games are subforums for other games like Galactic Civilizations II, Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sid Meier's Pirates! is a video game created by Sid Meier and published and developed by MicroProse in 1987. It was the first game to include the name "Sid Meier" in its title as an effort by MicroProse to attract fans of Meier's earlier games, most of which were flight simulators...
, Rise of Nations
Rise of Nations
Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy computer game, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003. The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of Civilization II and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Concepts taken from turn-based strategy games have been...
and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly...
.
The Colosseum section contains subforums for topics not covered in other sections of the forum. It includes Off Topic, home to almost a third of all posts at the forum. It is a place where people go to discuss non-Civilization related topics. These topics range from 'light' such as "favorite music style" to 'very heavy' like "Should abortion be legal?" The majority of the topics are either news-items, religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
discussions, political discussions, or general interest topics. The Colosseum section also includes subforums for World History, Arts and Entertainment, Computer Talk, Sports Talk, Humor and Jokes, and Science and Technology.
There are two other subforum sections; The CivFanatics group is home to the subforum for site feedback and the discussion of front page news. Site feedback allows active member feedback regarding CFC. Forums in the Project & Mod Development are hidden. The forums here consist of mods in the Private Beta Version stage, where only the specific mod-development
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
teams can go to work on their mods away from public criticism and outside ideas. Private forums allow teams the ability to formulate his or her mods without being constantly bombarded with questions and unsolicited help. However, some mods are developed in public, most of which are for Civilization IV.
All Other Games
All Other Games is a section of CFC which allows people to play games such as MafiaMafia (game)
Mafia is a party game created in the USSR by Dimitry Davidoff in 1986, modelling a battle between an informed minority and an uninformed majority. Players are secretly assigned roles: either "mafia", who know each other; or "townspeople", who know only the number of mafia amongst them. In the...
and its popular variant Night of the Werewolves, in which participants try to eliminate hidden enemies while systematically being hunted. Other popular games are progression games in which participants use the previous post to add something to the game (eg. beat the pic above you, Good Wish, Bad Wish.) One recent addition to this Forum is the Rise from Medieval Kingdoms game (or RfMK) introduced by Splime (a CFC Member). Affectionately called Lazy-NES by its participants, in RfMK, players control a kingdom with an economy and army, and engage in warfare and trade with other players. Lastly, In a tradition started by Chandrasekhar (another CFC Member), a whole new range of games has developed, using his game Snakes and Foxes. In Snakes and Foxes, participants fight each other in specialized arenas, and bet money on the outcome. For a while, War at CivFanatics was extremely popular until present time because it has gotten out of hand.
Game of the Month
The "Game Of the Month" (or GOTM) was a concept first started in February 2001, for Civilization II - the Civilization II GOTM. The idea behind this concept is for a number of players to play a game, all using a common starting save file. Players then compare their results and discuss strategies. The competition has now been extended to Civilization III GOTM and Civilization IV GOTM, and most recently to a Civilization (original) GOTM. Medals are given to the highest scorers and awards are given to the fastest finishers for specific victory conditions.Succession games
Succession games are games played by a team of several players, often with some variant. Each player plays about 10 turns at a time, with discussion between sets. These are commonly played for Civ III and Civ IV. The game of the month and succession game ideas have been combined in Civ III and Civ IV Succession Games of the Month.Democracy games
The first democracy game (played in Civ II) started in December 2001, just after the release of Sid Meier's Civilization III. CFC has hosted seven Civ III democracy games ("demogames" or "DG"). A Civ IV democracy game began in January 2006.CFC has participated with its own team in the Civilization III: Play the World Multisite Democracy game (MSDG) and the Civilization III: Conquests Intersite Democracy Game (ISDG). The MSDG consisted of eight teams in a straight fight for the crown, and the ISDG consisted of 2 semifinals of 5 teams, with the first 2 teams eliminated from the semifinal eliminated from the competition. CFC was placed fifth in the overall positioning in the MSDG after the game was abandoned, and was eliminated in the second semifinal in the ISDG finishing fourth in the game of five. The opponents were teams from other Civilization fan websites, as well as a team formed by Firaxis, the creators of the game. CFC also participates in a 14 fansite Civilization IV Intersite Democracy Game. Due to the number of participating teams there are 2 semi-finals of 7 fansites. The game itself is hosted by a different Civilization fansite: Evolution games.
In addition to competing against other teams, CFC also hosts a Multi-Team Demogame (MTDG) which hosts democracy games with all the teams consisting of CFC members. There is one for Civ III and one for Civ IV.
The first Civ 3 MTDG finished with MIA, playing as the Greeks, being victorious.
Hall of Fame
Through all the releases of Civilization, players have been able to track their conquests, exploits, and wins in a personal hall of fame screen. CFC Halls of Fame (HOF) extend on this principle, where single player games are ranked in tables against one another. This started with the II High Score HOF. III HOF originally started as a high score table, but was later enlarged to include tables for each victory condition and mapsize. It's also the home of the QuarterMaster's Challenge, where players must complete every victory condition, win at every difficulty level and play every mapsize. IV-HOF is currently in Beta, as the permanent site is under construction.Chat room
Civfanatics also has an official IRC chatroom: #civfanatics on irc.gamesurge.net. While the chatroom is intended for Civilization-based conversations, it often strays off topic. The chatroom community is significantly smaller than the forum community, including a number of forum lurkers.Modding community
ModdingMod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
refers to the art of making modifications for a game. This can involve a change of gamerules, adding new unit, making scenarios or anything else that changes the game. Due to the XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
, which acts like a giant database of everything in the game, Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, a scripting language, and the release of most of the game source (the SDK), Civilization IV is incredibly moddable — something which is being exploited to the full by the modding community.
The main purpose of the modding section of the forum is to allow users to change the game to their own specific tastes. There are a whole range of tutorials to help modders to do anything they want with the game, like adding new units or technologies, creating new graphics and many other things. As well as making a lot of minor mods for individual users, some big projects have emerged which completely change the game. The most notable of these were included in patches and expansions made by Firaxis.