civilization-building
Founding lasting societies
Civilization-building describes the process of developing complex societies with institutions, infrastructure, and cultural systems.
The term appears most often in gaming contexts, where civilization-building games challenge players to guide a society from primitive settlements to advanced empires: I spent the weekend playing civilization-building games.
More broadly, it can describe any long-term effort to establish lasting social structures: The post-war period required serious civilization-building.
Domain under unified control
- agricultureCultivation of land, livestock
- urbanizationPopulation shift toward cities
- irrigationArtificial water supply for agriculture
- writingRecorded language on surface
bronze age · Mesopotamia · Indus Valley · Nile · dynasties · city-states · trade routes · monuments
Planned approach to goals
- turn-basedPlayers alternate actions
- tech treeUnlockable advancement hierarchy
- empireDomain under unified control
- Age of EmpiresHistorical real-time strategy series
Pharaoh · expansion · diplomacy · research · wonders · resources · barbarians · settlements
Modifying worlds for habitability
- space colonizationSettling beyond Earth
- generation shipsMultigenerational interstellar spacecraft
- post-apocalypticAfter global catastrophe
- utopiaImagined perfect society
dystopia · founding · new world · frontier · pioneers · survival · sustainability · interstellar
Established organizations or practices
- governanceHow authority is exercised
- social contractAgreement exchanging freedom for order
- public worksGovernment-built community structures
- education systemsOrganized frameworks for learning
legal frameworks · cultural norms · collective action · cooperation · urbanization · bureaucracy · taxation · community organizing
empire
Domain under unified control
- agricultureCultivation of land, livestock
- urbanizationPopulation shift toward cities
- irrigationArtificial water supply for agriculture
writing · bronze age · Mesopotamia · Indus Valley · Nile · dynasties · city-states · trade routes · monuments · law codes
strategy
Planned approach to goals
- turn-basedPlayers alternate actions
- tech treeUnlockable advancement hierarchy
- empireDomain under unified control
Age of Empires · Pharaoh · expansion · diplomacy · research · wonders · resources · barbarians · settlements · victory conditions
terraforming
Modifying worlds for habitability
- space colonizationSettling beyond Earth
- generation shipsMultigenerational interstellar spacecraft
- post-apocalypticAfter global catastrophe
utopia · dystopia · founding · new world · frontier · pioneers · survival · sustainability · interstellar · worldbuilding
institutions
Established organizations or practices
- governanceHow authority is exercised
- social contractAgreement exchanging freedom for order
- public worksGovernment-built community structures
education systems · legal frameworks · cultural norms · collective action · cooperation · urbanization · bureaucracy · taxation · community organizing · social cohesion
civilization-buildingsocietal collapse
Disintegration of governing structures
barbarism · destruction · demolition · devastation · annihilation
civilization-buildingprimitivism
Idealization of pre-modern life
hunter-gathering · nomadism · tribalism · subsistence living · savagery
civilization-buildingsurvivalism
Emergency readiness lifestyle
self-preservation · atomization · rugged individualism · isolation · anomie
civilization, building, civil, civility, civilize, civilized, uncivilized, civilian, civics