Civ 7 Historian Hopes It Will Be a Gateway Drug, if Textbooks Were Drugs

As the next installment in this storied franchise draws near, we've now learned what the senior historian for Civilization 7 is looking to get players hooked on drugs. If textbooks were drugs. Civilization as a series has always toyed with the concept of historical accuracy and been built on rewriting it, but that doesn't mean real world history doesn't play a part in how each game has been developed. In a recent interview, the Civ 7 historian touched on that very topic.

Civilization 7 Historian Hopes It Can Make Players Read

Ahead of the Civilization 7 release in a few short weeks, a new interview with Firaxis senior historian Dr. Andrew Johnson has shed some light on how they approached historical accuracy while putting the game together. With one of the most prominent longterm Civilization memes being how many times Gandhi has dropped a nuclear bomb on opposing players, the series has never strayed from twisting history into something increasingly chaotic.

However, Dr. Johnson's recent interview emphasized some of his hopes for how the game could inspire players. He also works as an associate professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, and the review of his students is not exactly positive. "I teach undergraduates in my other life, and my God, man, they don't read," Johnson explained.

Despite his frustrations, Dr. Johnson remains hopeful that Civ 7 will help spark an interest for some players who then choose to learn more about the history that inspired this installment. "If somebody plays Machiavelli, they might get really kind of interested. Machiavelli maybe has enough name recognition already, but like Amina [Queen of Zazzau], or, 'OK, so this is the Ming Dynasty, how is that different from the Han Dynasty?' If that can provoke somebody into an interest in history, that is what's important here. This is not the textbook. This is the gateway drug into the textbook. If textbooks were drugs."

In some ways, Civilization 7 feels destined to be both the closest and furthest from historical accuracy the series has come to date. The biggest departure for this installment was the choice to separate civilizations from their leaders, but at the same time this has allowed them to utilize the new ages system to represent even more cultures from their own particular periods in history.

Players will also now get a better understanding of how civilizations build upon themselves over time. While cities and settlements in past games remain relatively static over time, that will change as players can overwrite and build on top of the past while fortifying their cities in a new age. There's no doubt many, if not most, players won't be concerned with historical accuracy as they play Civilization 7, but the right moment just might inspire them to find some drugs. If textbooks were drugs.