Civilisation with a Z

I was off with a ‘man’s cold’ yesterday. This is a low level sniffle that disables men and women consider derisory. While Emily was out visiting a friend and I was in bed feeling sorry for myself, I did what I always do in any recumbent situation: play Civilisation 3 (ahem, sorry – CiviliZation 3, mustn’t forget the American spelling) until my eyes bleed and I’m seeing Indian war elephants on my closed eyelids.

I often think that this blog should be called ‘Why I Am Sad’ as the pastimes about which I appear to be most passionate are unremittingly geeky: sci-fi, comics, gaming, DVD boxed sets, Apple computers and Ray Mears.

My addiction with Civilization is probably the geekiest, although Iain Banks’ obsession with the game perhaps lends it some credibility. Mind you, he’s looks like a science teacher from the early 80s doesn’t he? Christ, I might as well just change my name to Trisgeek Fitzgeek now.

Shall I explain Civilization to you? *Silence from reader* Oh, go on then. Basically you start off in the Stone Age with one city and an unexplored world, then build new cities, workers and military units in an attempt to colonise the Earth. As history progresses you can set tax revenues to develop your scientific achievements, so that you have a technological edge over rival empires. You can build ‘wonders of the world’, go to war, conduct diplomacy and eventually build a rocket to go to Alpha Centuri. Come on! How can you deny that’s cool?

Mind you, you know you’ve a problem when you wake up at 2am worried about how you’re going to handle a military incursion with the Egyptians. This is exactly what happened to me last night. Hey, you end up really caring about your people, even thought they’re just little sprites on the screen. I hate to think how stressed Churchill must have been during the Battle of Britain. I also wonder if Blair and Bush lose sleep over Iraq. Hmm, probably not.