Sid Meier at the End of History: the Philosophy and Politics of Alpha Centauri
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ธ.ค. 2024
- An examination of the 1999 strategy game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri-- its history, the way it comments on the political anxieties of its own time, how it grapples with the legacy of the Civilization games, and what it has to teach us.
Recommended viewing: Philosophy Tube, "What Was Liberalism"
• What Was Liberalism? #...
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On Sister Miriam, I don’t think her faction hates science- its a case of misinterpretation. They actually stop to ask and examine “should we?” instead of just only “could we?” when new technology comes up.
That's one of the fun parts of playing as the Believers... it's actually *scary* to tech up.
Agreed and I think its also possible that she can be either. But the writing clearly as you say focuses on her being cautious about technology. Not against it.
Much to this point, this is the faction's quote: "The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil." They quite literally says technology isn't evil, it's the people who use it for evil.
@@headoverheels88 The darkness the plague the heart of man has been ever present, technological advancement has just allowed for newer and greater forms of its expression. Man has achieved great power, yet his impulses remain the same.
its more like does this fit our world view and narrative of the christian faith than any generic hatred - exactly like real life -.- even if it means they refuse to use real science looking at you discovery institute
I've played hundreds of games during my life, and among all of those nothing stands out like Alpha Centauri. I ended up majoring in philosophy in college, and I honestly believe playing this game had an effect on that decision. I remember feeling that this game was incredibly profound when I first played it as a 7 year old, and every time I returned to it over the years that feeling only increased. I still play it to this day.
I had the exact same experience as you. I played SMAC from when I was young and my dad first brought it home. I ended up playing it more than him. And I kept coming back to it. And when I went back to University to get my BAchelor's, I majored in Philosophy, and I realized that my love of philosophy could be traced back to Alpha Centauri. I wonder just how many Phil. Majors were spawned by this game.
When you studied Plato's Republic, did you also have that moment when you realized that all this time the Game was calling you an asshole when you tried to exit?"
"Please don't go. The Drones need you. They look up to you"
Agreed. Alpha Centauri not only started my love of philosophy, but of science fiction as well.
I like to think that SMAC has had a notable influence in my subject choice of environmental management, biology and economics. Why, I always played as Gaians.
There's a great repository of fan fiction on the Alpha Centauri 2 online forums for those who are looking for new fan-produced content. Factions, quotations, characters, etc.
Man, The fact that they made a lose condition for that ending that doesn't really at all say you lost, Honestly that shows a good commitment to the themes they really want people to see and believe in. It's weird how many games don't commit to their (really good.) themes.
It seems very appropriate that Alpha Centauri barely has any deep-dives on TH-cam, but what it does have (this one) is one of the better ones for *any* game.
IMO Alpha Centauri is the greatest strategy game ever made - thanks for doing it justice.
Finding a channel as intelligent as this, only to see you haven't uploaded in a long time, is a sort of sadness. I hope you're doing well, and I want to say this was a delightful find on TH-cam.
This is high quality content. I'm on an Alpha Centauri kick myself so I thought I'd see what TH-cam has to offer. I expected nothing but short blurbs. Instead I got a feast. Thank you.
I haven't ever had much hope for the future. The last five years have taught me just how bad things really are, down to their core. For myself, I'm stuck in a headlock of fatigue, financial insecurity and mental imbalance.
I did, however, reach a Transcendence Victory tonight.
This video is a comfort(?) watch of mine, which is odd, because it has caused an existential panic attack in the past.
Things aren't good, but there may come a day when the world, as a whole, is better. Humanity may, one day, understand the folly of its materialistic existence and grow together as a species.
We may one day grow larger than our petty squabbles. I don't think I will be alive to see it, but perhaps I can at least see this peace germinate.
I would see those first roots find purchase, and die happy knowing my child and their children can have what I never could.
For now, though, it is time to sleep.
Goodnight.
This hit me so hard. Oof!
Good luck with your fatigue.
Just go back to SMAC intro. When the little girl's face looking up turns colours inverted and the music kicks up. We are all going to make it :)
A beautiful meditation on a game that I've held close to my heart for a long time. This is a deeper dive into the philosophy of this great game that has only expanded my appreciation for it.
Cheers mate. You seem like someone I'd get along with.
As what I like to think of as a nerdy variety of 'Technogaianist', this game really spoke to me, and probably shaped my worldview from the first time I got into it. I always used to pick the university, or the Manifold Usurpers in the Alien Crossfire expansion, University because of my enamourment with science and fact that I loved reading into all the little technological tidbits that the game loves to give you (Usurpers I picked simply because I liked being able to see the map from the start of the game, and aliens are cool and all). And I mainly went through the game at a very surface level, enjoying the science, awed at the grand scale of things, and not quite understanding it all (I was 12 at the time ok).
But now that I look back on it, there is so much more to this game than I ever even scratched the surface of. I used to hate the bible thumpers, and their lead crony, because they stood in the way of my technological scientific utopia. I like the outlook that the Gaians had, but disliked their hippie tendencies, but even so they were often among the factions I'd ally first.
But the more I look into it, the more I realize Godwinson had a point. By the end of the game you are using fleets of transformers to shape the planet to you needs, and indoctrinating your citizens into optimized little units of work, perfect to expand, research, and command. She goes from being a Luddite pain in the ass, to the last remaining voice of humanity in an evermore alien world, be it at the hands of the University and their "synthetic everything", or the Gaians and their infatuation with ecology above all.
I only speak of these few as it has been years since I last played and these are all I remember clearly, there are many many other factions with as dense a history (I in particular think that the play between the hackers and cyborgs in the alien crossfire expansion is sorely under-appreciated). But this is what I focus on as the interplay between ecology, technology, and fundamental humanist beliefs went on to shape my view from this time onwards.
The sheer scale of it all continues to blow my mind, if any game deserves a HD remake, this is it. Beyond Earth was pretty much a re-skin of CiV, and barely took anything from SMAC.The world needs to see this game again.
the civ 7 gameplay reveal from this week compelled me to rewatch this - as always, what a great piece of work, Yaz. Thanks and hope you are well
to me SMAC is a game of legend, it will never have an equal. The thought and intelligence that went into its tech quotes and secrete projects and sheer amount of ACTUAL SCIENCE that went into that game is unparalleled. Then add factions based on ideology, add a cool sci-fi setting, great voice acting and to this date some impressive civ building chops (from how your society grows/governs/earns or builds its weapons) its just such a perfect civ game.
Alpha Centauri is probably my favorite game, and I want to say thanks for putting into words all the feelings I've had about it. Its fair to say it did a lot to shape my values and beliefs, and I'm glad it affected other people the same way.
I grew up playing this game. Having discovered SMACX in high school I sunk so many hours into it that I began to internalize its ideas into my own attempts at producing science fiction. The game educated me on science and ethics in a manner transcending all expectations. After a while playing I really wanted to know where this game got all those neat ideas from, and that curiosity led to countless Google searches, book checkouts, magazine articles read, speaker series, and other intellectual discussions. Thank you for reviewing SMACX in such detail and depth.
I teared up a little bit at the end. Thanks. I needed it.
This was amazingly done. Loved the editing, music selection, and VO. Looking forward to more from you!
The in universe excerpts are so good
SMAC is probably my favorite video game. I still have the OG discs but I've been playing the GOG version with the Scient Unofficial Patch. Still amazing at how the faction leaders feel so real with only the little bit of direct characterization they get in the actual game. They feel so much more like actual people then any of the actual historical figures in the previous Civ Games.
Been waiting for a video like this for a long long time.
I've been wanting to do a video talking about Sid Meier's but this has satiated my hunger.
10/10, I don't know how this video don't have more than 100k views by now. Keep it going.
An absolutely breathtaking overview of everything that not only makes this game a beautiful piece of art, but what ultimately makes it so good to be a human. Phenomenal work.
Brilliant work! SMAC is my favorite game of all time, because it CARES about its themes. It considers them gravely and portrays them frankly. It's also beautifully written.
I’ve never played Alpha Centauri but I’ve come to dearly love it after reading through Paean To SMAC, a series of posts that goes into great detail about the amazing worldbuilding that you mentioned, where the writers built a story and a real universe inside the little text boxes of technologies from the game
Thanks so much for this. Alpha Centauris is an important game and one that's gonna age so well.
A great review about one of the greatest games ever.
I'd just become a teenager when this game came out, it introduced me to so many concepts and authors I would love for decades to come - probably chief among them, Li Po/Bai. "we sit together / the mountain and I / until only the mountain remains"
Amazing. I wasn't expecting this to make me cry, but it did! Thank you so much for this thought-provoking analysis of something you're clearly passionate about!
Alpha Centauri was one of the high points of gaming. It is criminally underrated. I can't believe it hasn't gotten an update or newer version. Games are so disappointing now.
IP issues, no single party owns the rights to be able to make a sequel or re-release
98% from PC Gamer, 92% overall in Metacritic ("universal acclaim"). Totally underrated lmao.
Thats a tragedy. @Stephens_Rocket
This is one of the greatest game essays I have ever read/watched/listened to. Thank you! The integration of post-Fukuyama leftist thought with this game becomes so natural with your way of putting it. I know I'll be back to write a longer comment in the future.
Well, not really. Fukujama was not wrong and Left do not oppose democracy. Greedy capitalism basically misuse him (the same way as Keynes before) to justify they greedy actions. And completely ignore that because something is natural proces. It doesn't mean that it would come easy. After all crackdown on greedy corporations is also part of the natural proces. It was actually Teddy Roosevelt who did it in US, resulting with they golden age.
To elaborate on what I said, this video actually explain why Democracy is natural order of evolution and I remind that Fukujama predict that Russia would start and loose the war:
th-cam.com/video/rStL7niR7gs/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for an excellent and thought-provoking review of one of my favorite video games ever. And for including the Against Me! song at the end, that really was the icing on the cake ❤
Great, great video. The point about AC being the most roleplaying-heavy of all the Civ franchise and spin-offs was really well put. It identified something about the game that had never really occurred to me.
Probably watched this video five times. Great stuff.
Came here via /r/alphacentauri and suuper impressed by this one- I really enjoyed it. Lots of great talking points and lots to think about; good work, captain.
You didn't go into the social system, I find it works better then social policy system in civlization where in Alpha Centauri you can mix and match your politics, economics, values and "future society" each with trade off and some fractions are locked out of given choices. Sure Paradox games games have expanded on political/economic systems but Civ games doesn't seem to want to have the player have to choose between such pronounced trade-offs.
Great analysis of a great game. Thank you!
you are literally me. Everything you've said about getting into civ, the big ideas involved, the following exploration and adoration of alpha centauri -- it's pretty much what I went through. I even started writing a story based AAR on their forums, and eventually transferred to stellaris for these big ideas. But alpha centauri dwarfs above all for sociopolitical exploration. This is a compilation and synthesis of knowledge I greatly appreciate, staring down my sociology degree-- my motives largely inspired by big picture, narrative rich, ideologically driven hard science fiction that examines social issues through political philosophy. This game is more relevant today than ever, as the world order we put our faith in crumbles on the same technological and socially driven phenomenon so beautifully underlined in this game.
This was great. Hope you come back with more!
Fantastic! Look forward to more.
This is an awesome video and helped me better understand and conceptualize my own political beliefs. I was born after the 90s, so it’s interesting to get an in-depth look at political theory from back then and how it’s led to where we are now.
I was just thinking how awesome it would be to find an analysis of SMAC from a capitalist realist viewpoint and found this. I am very fortunate to have found your channel.
What a fantastic documentary you have put together here.
I wish I could play Alpha Centauri on my Mac. Hoping for a remake some day, but I won't hold my breath.
This deserves way more views
just found your channel by chance and it's some of the best stuff I've seen in a good while. Really looking forward to your next video!
What a fantastic video! Great work!
I can´t believe that this is already on YT since 2019 and I´ve never encountered it.
Bravo, you've certainly done the game justice, thank you for taking the time to create this video
This is an excellent piece. Lots of good points. The slide at 23:23 was bombshell. Connected a lot of dots for me personally. Thank you.
I like your observation how the factions in Alpha Centauri stand for ideologies. Which helps players acting out a narrative among other things. It's a sharp observation and a good starting point for future game design innovations.
My only nitpick is your criticism of Pinker. I do not particularly disagree with you. But I was hoping for some substancial counter-arguments against his claims.
To be honest, I didn’t want to go in on Pinker too hard; he’s fun to dunk on but it’s well-trod ground. I know the Guardian has run a couple great rebuttals to his work (I believe at least one is on his Wikipedia), and this one, from the folks behind Haymarket Books, is a good in-depth critique from a more left perspective.
isreview.org/issue/86/steven-pinker-alleged-decline-violence
Nice video! While I do like the transcendence ending -- it's deliciously sci-fi, after all -- it's also in a sense the ultimate cop-out. Instead of answering the question of which path is best for our quarrelsome, quirky species, the game posits that we need an alien god to change human nature. It's cool, but ultimately useless. What I want to see is a set of seven sequels, set a few centuries in the future of Planet after each faction's victory. What will the Spartans evolve into without an enemy? What will the University do when they've plateaued in their research? And so on, and so on.
“Please don’t go. The drones need you. They look up to you.”
I really loved this. Thank you for giving me a view onto a game I've always wanted to get into; I was a very anxious child and Alpha Centauri was one of those games that was too eerie for me to play without my nervousness spiking through the roof. I still haven't really gone back to it but I remember loving the opening leader quotes.
The discussion of how Civ keeps to the idea of "onward and upward" especially rings true for me with what I've read about the most recent Civ VI expansion, where climate change is a thing that apparently _sort of_ gets in your way but not really and things come out ok in the end. Like the dip on Pinker's democracy index chart.
Do you have a link to that gorgeous version of Eight Full Hours of Sleep? Google isn't being helpful.
We actually recorded that song just for this video- I’ll probably isolate it and put it up as a stand-alone video in a few days. And thanks!
Check out Good Old Games or GoG's website and Alpha Centauri is available along with the expansion.
This was exactly the kind of video I was looking forward to watching and listening to. Thank you.
I still think about SMAC’s philosophy. It’s genuinely a great way to explore (and test your hand at) ethics.
Wonder what you think of Civilization Beyond Earth.
4:20 Development history.
11:15 Very few games as quotable as this one.
22:22 Capitalist realism.
30:20 Did the Cree not engage in any conflicts with other First Nations?
35:55 While generally true, there are things like Global Warming in several games and Dark Ages in Civ6.
An hour long video on the politics of my favourite game? Fuck yesssss.
Holy schmow-zows, Batman! I've been trying to write a book for a while about ongoing world, mostly American, events through a SMAC lens. I didn't know there were video essays about the game and it's fascinating representation of problems we face even today!! This video is definitely going into a citation.
Excellent video, smac has always been an unparalleled piece of sci-fi art and philosophy for me and many pieces of it have stuck with me throughout my life. I suspect we are a similar age, and the end of history/march of liberalism/anomie of the 90s is perfectly addressed in the game and covered in your video.
The aspect which I felt the most strongly was the sheer sense of being alone, scrabbling for a future in a world which was actively trying to defeat you. As you say- as you progress this escalates, with planet growing stronger as you do.
The transcend ending is particularly special, sitting alongside sci-fi such as 2001, Endymion etc as literally transcending the plot and existence of the media.
(There are also great bits of humour, "there was a young cyborg named ace...")
Excellent video!
Wow, over five years since this was uploaded. Somehow I keep coming back to this video despite not gelling with strategy games. I hope you're doing well.
Thank you for making this.
I'm super excited to see more from you already!
Great video, I play this game till today, this and Colonization from 1994
The lines about being bad at sim games you spend a troubling amount of time with speaks to me deeply. Greetings from an unlit room full of factorio!
Holy shit comrade, how does you channel have so few subs? I'm gonna share this with all my friends. Great video!
Alpha Centauri is an incredible game and it should really be remastered to modern visual glory.
This is a wonderfully rich analysis. Thanks man! What a find, this channel!
Errant Signal brought me here.
This is a great video, thanks for all the hard work and care you put into this. Definitely gonna have to check out more from you.
I wanted to learn about Alpha Centauri and the ideas it brings up. I learned a little about that, but this video wasn't really about Alpha Centuari. Not only because a good portion was about the greater civilization series but also because the rest was one mans presentation about his view of humanity and the future. I watched the whole thing though largely disagreed with it. You mentioned your worries for the future getting you down. I advise you only engage with your worries that are about things within your power. Thinking about the grand problems humanity has and how they are depicted in your favorite games can be incredibly interesting, but getting depressed over it can't change anything for the better.
On a different note I think you would enjoy Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and New Vegas. Another gem of a setting born in the 90s. The games are set in a low point for humanity similar to Alpha Centauri. Humanity starts over and the writers get to go ham because of it.
What a small minded outlook. Organising together to struggle against those problems which seem insurmountable alone is the only way we can hope to fix them. If you're not going to, at the very least, worry about the grand problems we face, why even continue to exist?
@@MollyGermek I didn't say we shouldn't worry. I was saying that we shouldn't let our worries affect us beyond the things we can personally change. It's fine to worry a bit about say, how much you personally impact the environment. For the vast majority of people worrying about things as grand as the future of humanity as a whole can only hurt you. It's out of your personal control. Not that it isn't good to think about or that you shouldn't support causes you think are good. When it comes to things so much greater than ourselves all we can do is give our meager support and hope. Worrying on it is useless.
this game like I had played civ 1 and civ 2 and then I bought this at costco the week it came out, had no idea it was coming out, consumed me for the next 5 or 7 years, I had always learned to build 'every building' in 'every city' but this game made me go I dont ethically want to build the punishment centre. ever I don't need it.
Watching this in 2024, 2 and a half years after the start of an ongoing war of aggression in Europe, your elaborations about the Peacekeepers being "one of many" ideologies seems very true to the real state of the world. The destruction of the "end of history"; the dominance of liberal democracy and international order, came a bit fater than most of us imagined, i suppose.
I really loved this, thanks so much. Civ 2 was the first game that I was allowed to play when my family got our first home computer. My brother and I were 4 and 6 and would argue over attacking the Zulu city that had just popped up on the border. Being hit with that nostalgia while considering how it shaped my world view was an amazing experience, thanks for the great video.
In the future can you put the cited works in the description as well please? It makes googling them easier.
Really excellent. Would love to hear you talking more about the structure of strategy games in the context of the western conception of nature.
WOOOKE LIBRUL!!!
(thank you!)
that note at 6:50 really got me -- cal ripken and trump jr control my games? christ.
Rec'd by donoteat1 - this is great!
Where does he rec this?
I enjoyed this a lot. Thanks!
Thanks for making this
I always wondered about this game, little did I know it was brilliant!
This video was a hell of alot more deep and thoughtful than I expected. quite introspective. Thank you for creating this video. Also, did you know about the game's expansion? it expands upon the lore, and story of Chiron, The planet.
What a great review!
Say what you want about capitalism, it’s a voluntary system like none other are
-Morgan
A thoughtful review of a video game that really makes you think.
Aloha 😊🤙🏼👏🏼
Such a gem! I keep returning to this game, wishing for a remake. Will we ever get it?
Please make more, this is fucking amazing, I love your work
If my scientists were creating armies of gene edited slave workers, sentient uncontrollable nano machines and flying, nightmare casting brain worm swarms, I too would act like Sister Miriam Godwinson.
As a history teacher i encourage u to read more about toman history, Augustus did what was neccesary after a nearly fatal civil war, and obviously needed guys like Virgilio to keep his legitimacy, critical guys are great to hear when u are in a stable position, not in a new found empire
Wow, wouldn't expect to find Augustus stans outside of like 600AD, but the internet is a bizzare place.
Can we get a list of sources or quotes for this vid?
As somebody who is the type of person you critize, I cant say I see everything eye to eye with you
But Im glad you made this review and won me as a suscriber, this game brings a good amount of discussion that should be had with people like me and you
However I do wish you the best
Good luck and looking forward to the rest
It would be interesting to see them in AC 2 or what ever to include more of the other measure that nations use. Stuff like the happiness report and others to see how your choices have affected more than just economic and military power etc.
Presence or absence of Drones in a given Colony is a sort of Happiness Report.
"Pictured here, doing important philosophy" Oh that good boy. Always looking to be naked.
Fantastic stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Simply incredible work
So uh, when are you organizing your next multiplayer AC game? I'd love to give it another shot, I play it on and off every year. Good job on the video btw, I can see a fellow SMAC lover there.
I can't figure out how to play online. Are there still servers?
@@kiran387 Servers? This is a 1999 game, friend. There never were any "servers". TCP/IP games!
Great video! I can't find the version of the song used for the credits anywhere, could you link it?
Awesome! Glad I found this!
So, what's your stance on Civ Beyond Earth? It's basically Alpha Centauri 2 in concept.
Awesome video thank you
Excellent video!
45:07 is the most important quote: "each of the factions is fighting for what it means to be human, and what humanity's best path forward should be."
I feel that the modern era has gotten far too reactionary against empires. It's difficult to argue that the Roman and British Empires didn't have clear cultural and technological advantages. Those advantages led to their growth, which in turn led to the spread of those cultures and technologies. Upheaval and destruction would still exist without their progress. There have been a few cases where the empire's advantage has been purely military in nature such as the Mongolians or Goths, and the chaos of their spread far outweighed the transfers of ideas and technology they accompanied. But even those clear away realms of complacency and decay and allow for an eventual rebirth. A civilization is defined by ideology almost as much as Alpha Centauri. It's just that at times civilizations have been associated with a dominant ethnic group. Even then, it's more complicated. The Mongolians were accompanied early by Turks, and soon by Chinese, Koreans and Persians. The British have long been four distinct nations acting together, although with different prestige and wealth. And British colonialism almost always stemmed from finding local support and alliances.
Not to mention, conquest allows for surplus, and surplus is how you get to afford arts, philosophy, science, and all the goodies that communal farmers can't generate.
wtf is the title of the track at the beginning? I NEED IT!!!!!!
I'm enjoying the video, but there is some crunchieness in you VO audio that is grating on the ears.
AC is my favorite civ game and I'm excited this video exists.
fukuyama "end of history" theory is nowadays vastly known as a false prediction
An excellent essay
Die Kritik der reinen Vernunft