17. JCiv: Civilization for the Jews
Today’s idea is JCiv, an adaptation of the empire-building strategy game Civilization based upon a Jewish narrative.
I’m an aspiring gamer. Which is to say, I’m not precisely a gamer, despite owning two consoles, because I spend much more of my time working and reading these days than playing video games (that is a total lie). When I do find the time to play, there’s one PC game in particular that I really love, and that game is called Spore.
Spore takes you through the entire process of evolution, starting you off as an amoeba and working you up through the stages of land dweller, tribal chief, planetary ruler, and space traveller. What’s most fascinating, however, is that the nature of the game’s progression — the very behavior of your character — is entirely up to the decisions you make as the player. You can choose to be a carnivore or an herbivore, a warrior or a priest, a peaceful people or a conquering people. You have to build cities, agriculture, industry, armies. And you have to think strategically about the choices you make.
It’s similar in that way to another game, Sid Meier’s Civilization, which has been an immensely popular empire-building strategy game franchise for nearly two decades. In Civilization, you start off in the year 4000 BC and have to build a civilization from scratch to stand the test of time, working your way up from a pioneer to a space traveller. It’s truly a remarkable gaming experience and one that is not only educational, but thoroughly entertaining as well. That’s likely why the game has seen new versions released for 19 consecutive years and why it has been so often emulated by other game developers, including the creators of Spore. There’s now even a free, open source clone of the game called FreeCiv, which anyone can download and modify to their own liking.
You know what I find disappointing, though? Nearly 20 years of Sid Meier’s Civilization and various knock-offs, and no one has yet done a version covering Jewish history. It’s kind of shocking considering how essential our narrative’s role has been to Western civilization for the last 2000 years, and how rich of a gaming experience the various contexts in which we’ve struggled can provide.
So I’ve taken the time to think out my adaptation of Civilization for the Jews. Consider it a basic sketch of 14 levels of gameplay. It’s a very Zionistic interpretation of history, which I don’t necessarily subscribe to, but which lends itself to game narrative due to its simple focus on civilization primarily within the land of Israel, and tangentially to diaspora. My biases come through in the endgame, however.
If anyone wants to make a FreeCiv adaption for the Jews, your roadmap follows. I really just wrote it all out for the first time today, so it’s admittedly rough. I am not at all tied to the trivia angle, but a friend recommended it to make it work for students. It’s a framework to build on nonetheless.
1. Abraham Our Father aka Intro to Gameplay
- Setting: Ur
- Primary character: Abraham
- Functions: Talk to character, preach, attack, lead
- Objectives: Preach unity of God to various camps, then smash their idols to convert them into followers. Must convert three individuals, by correctly answering trivia questions, to a convert camp. Answers to trivia and game clues learned by speaking to game characters. Must convert three camps plus one bonus question, for a total of 10 questions, to proceed. Not every individual or every camp will be receptive to conversion — some will attack. When enough camps are converted, lead them out of Babylon.
- Transition: The Ivri cross over into Canaan. Abraham receives revelation from God, promising land of Canaan, draws a knife to symbolize circumcision.
2. The Inheritance of Abraham
- Setting: Canaan
- Primary character: The Patriarch (Abraham/Isaac/Jacob)
- Functions: Talk to character, build, dig, plant, reproduce, attack, preach, lead
- Objectives: Build encampment to earn digging power. Dig wells to earn planting power. Plant crops to earn foodstuffs to reproduce. Reproduce to add more followers to build more encampments, wells and crops. Fend off enemy attacks on resources. Preach to convert three enemies from each camp to convert camp to “friend.” Of seven camps, convert three camps, convert or destroy remaining four camps. Wrestle and defeat angel by answering trivia questions to receive the name Israel and progress.
- Transition: Famine strikes and Jews descend into Egypt, where they become enslaved. Moses rescued from Nile.
3. Exodus
- Setting: Egypt
- Primary character: Moses
- Functions: Talk to God, talk to characters, attack/strike with staff, preach, enact plague, lead, split sea
- Objectives: Attack and kill a slave master. Flee to desert when soldiers pursue. Discover burning bush. Talk to God at burning bush to receive power to preach. Return from desert to preach. Preach to different slave camps and smash camp idols depicting Egyptian gods to gain followers. Must convert 10 camps. Receive plague power for each camp converted. Go to palace and enact plagues in proper sequence. Once all plagues are enacted, receive sea splitting power. Lead Hebrews out of Egypt, answer trivia questions to split Sea of Reeds to progress.
- Transition: Israelites cross through Sea of Reeds, Egyptians drown.
4. Redemption
- Setting: The Wilderness
- Primary character: Moses
- Functions: Talk to God, talk to characters, attack/strike with staff.
- Objectives: Build encampment. Find and strike the correct rock to receive water. Assign workers to collect manna. Take warriors to seek Mt. Sinai to defend against marauders. Find and climb Mt. Sinai, then talk to God to receive Torah. Video interlude re: Torah. Wander desert and smash rocks to reveal materials for building the mishkan (tabernacle). When all parts are found, return to the encampment, ask players questions for help finding Bezalel and Oholiab, then answer their trivia questions to proceed with the building of the mishkan. Once the mishkan is finished, progress.
- Transition: A beam of white light descends from the heavens into the Holy of Holies and the mishkan glows. Over the horizon, an invisibleish gate unlocks the land of Israel.
5. Monarchy
- Setting: Ancient Israel
- Primary character: King-to-be, King of Israel (Saul/David/Solomon rolled in one)
- Functions: Talk to characters, attack, diplomacy/pay tribute, dig/mine, add residential zones, agricultural zones, commercial zones, and military outposts.
- Objectives: Build encampments, dig wells, add farms near wells and markets near trade routes. Earn revenue from markets to earn mining ability. Dig iron and limestone mines. Engage in diplomacy and war with neighboring tribes (Canaanites, Philistines) to fend off attacks. Earn iron to build military outposts to defend against attacks on resources. Build seven outposts to be crowned King. Defeat the Philistines in battle by answering trivia questions to progress.
- Transition: Solomon’s Temple is built. Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Temple.
6. Kingdom of Judah
- Setting: Kingdom of Judah
- Primary character: King Hezekiah
- Functions: Talk to characters, attack, diplomacy/pay tribute, make sacrifice, dig/mine, add residential zones, agricultural zones, commercial zones, and military outposts.
- Objectives: Create enough residential and agricultural zones to keep the people from rebelling and attacking commercial zones. Earn money from commerce to dig iron mines. Earn iron to build military outposts to defend against Assyrian attack. Sacrifice cows to prevent acts of God, such as residential, agricultural or commercial zones being smote by lightning. Engage in diplomacy to make friends with neighbors by answering trivia questions. After reaching goal of converting three tribes and creating seven military outposts, progress.
- Transition: Assyrians conquer and Temple is destroyed, sending Jews into exile.
7. Babylonian captivity
- Setting: Babylon
- Primary character: A Wealthy and Learned Jew
- Functions: Talk to characters, diplomacy/pay tribute/pay tax, buy/sell market stalls, buy/sell homes, pray.
- Objectives: Buy a market stall to earn revenue. Use revenue to buy more market stalls and homes. Pay tax collector and pray to avoid antisemitic mob attacks on market stalls and homes. Earn enough money to find and pay tribute to King Cyrus, who will ask trivia questions, and progress.
- Transition: Return from captivity, rebuilding of Temple.
8. Second Temple Period
- Setting: Kingdom of Herod c. 70 CE
- Primary character: King Herod
- Functions: Talk to characters, diplomacy/pay tribute, make sacrifice, preach, add residential zones, agricultural zones, commercial zones, industrial zones (mines), military outposts, and yeshivas.
- Objectives: Create enough residential and agricultural zones to keep the people from rebelling and attacking commercial and industrial zones. Earn money from commerce to build industrial zones. Earn minerals from industrial zones to build military outposts to defend against Assyrian attack. Sacrifice cows to prevent acts of God, such as residential, agricultural or commercial zones being smote by lightning. Engage in diplomacy/pay tribute to keep enemies at bay. Greeks will successfully invade. Destroy idols and gymnasiums and build yeshivas to counteract Hellenization. Preach to convert Hellenized Jews. Attack and destroy Caesar statue outside Temple. Temple will be ransacked. Seek out oil. Answer trivia questions to light the menorah and progress.
- Transition: Story of the Roman conquest, destruction of the Second Temple.
9. Bar Kochba’s Revolt
- Setting: Israel, c. 132 CE
- Primary character: Shimon Bar Kochba
- Functions: Talk to characters, attack, dig wells, add residential zones, agricultural zones, commercial zones, industrial zones (mines), military outposts, fortress walls.
- Objectives: Create enough residential and agricultural zones to keep the people from rebelling and attacking commercial and industrial zones. Earn money from commerce to build industrial zones. Earn minerals from industrial zones to build military outposts and fortress walls to defend against Romans. Complete fortress by answering trivia questions to progress.
- Transition: Romans overpower, send Jews into exile. Map shows dispersal of Jews across the globe.
10. Persecution
- Setting: Background and enemies shift as level proceeds. France c. 1070., Egypt c. 1171, England c. 1290, Germany c. 1380, Spain c. 1492, Baghdad c. 1828 and Russia c. 1881.
- Primary character: A Wealthy and Learned Jew
- Functions: Talk to characters, diplomacy/pay tax, buy/sell market stalls, buy/sell homes, build synagogues, build yeshivas (academies).
- Objectives: Buy a market stall to earn revenue. Use revenue to buy more market stalls, homes and yeshivas. Some property owners will not permit sale of their property. Build enough yeshivas to begin authoring Rabbinic texts. Authoring texts unlock clues to creating Golems. Pay tax collector to avoid antisemitic mob attacks by Crusaders, Inquisitors, Tsaritsts, etc., on market stalls, homes and yeshivas. Create Golems by answering trivia questions and use them to defend against attacks. Build synagogues to prevent acts of God. Survive seven pogroms and earn enough money to proceed.
- Transition: Jews flee Tsarist Russia for Palestine.
11. First Aliyah
- Setting: Palestine, c. 1883
- Primary character: A halutz
- Functions: Talk to characters, attack, diplomacy/pay tribute, buy land, collect lumber, lay pipe, add residential and agricultural zones.
- Objectives: Find a seller and buy land in an arable location near water. Drain swamps. Gather wood to build. Add residential and agricultural zones to provide characters food and shelter. Create irrigation systems to feed farms. Engage in diplomacy and war with neighbors who attack residences and steal from farms. Convert “friends” by answering trivia questions. Convert three neighboring tribes to friends. Survive long enough to build a lasting settlement and progress.
- Transition: World War I leads to World War II, horrors of the Holocaust.
12. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- Setting: Warsaw Ghetto, 1943
- Primary character: Jewish resistance fighter
- Functions: Talk to characters, attack, pray, add illegal businesses, hospitals, schools, and soup kitchens.
- Objectives: Create smuggling and illegal manufacturing rings. Use profits to build underground hospitals, schools, and soup kitchens to keep fighters alive, as well as to buy guns and Molotov cocktails. Pray to prevent Nazis from discovering illegal activity. Attacking Nazis before deportation will result in destruction of resources. Once deportations begin, attack Nazis. Successfully answer trivia questions to progress.
- Transition: Nazis crush uprising. Survivor escapes to Palestine, joins Irgun, attacks British. UN declaration. Israel declares Independence.
13. War of Independence
- Setting: Israel, 1948-1979
- Primary character: Prime Minister of Israel
- Functions: Talk to characters, attack, diplomacy, add residential zones, agricultural zones, commercial zones, industrial zones, roads, water systems, power stations, hospitals, schools, synagogues, and military outposts.
- Objectives: Build up infrastructure, housing, agriculture, schools and hospitals to grow population and keep citizens from striking against commerce and industry. Build up industry and commerce to raise money. Purchase military bases to defend against enemy armies. Use diplomacy to make peace with neighbors (Egypt & Jordan). Build roads between disparate communities and defend roads with military outposts. Build synagogues to prevent acts of God. Defeat remaining enemy armies by answering trivia to progress.
- Transition: A brief history of Israel’s military, diplomatic and economic history.
14. War of Occupation
- Setting: Israel, Post-‘67
- Primary character: Prime Minister of Israel
- Functions: Talk to characters, attack, diplomacy, add and bulldoze residential zones, agricultural zones, commercial zones, industrial zones, roads, water systems, power stations, hospitals, schools, yeshivas, synagogues, military outposts, and security walls.
- Objectives: Build up and maintain civil infrastructure to prevent illness, hunger, homelessness and public rebellion. Create new jobs, farms and housing, while dealing with decreasing amount of territory. Earn money from industry and commerce to spend on military outposts, civil infrastructure and security walls. Choose whether or not to expand into the West Bank. Some West Bank areas are safe to build in, but building in areas too close to Palestinian villages or tapping Palestinian water supplies will result in spill-over from “natural growth” and incite attacks in the form of bus bombings and suicide bombings against resources. Build military outposts to defend resources. Choose to build a security wall around Palestinian territories. Learn that building a wall will harm economic growth due to international boycotts but will reduce the frequency of enemy attacks. Attack or engage in diplomacy with hostile villages. Discover that attacks lead to counterattacks and diplomacy leads to peace in most but not all cases. Deal with the wildcard of Jewish extremists building in Palestinian territory and inciting further attacks by bulldozing their settlements. Simultaneously, deal with haredim attacking industry and commerce by building yeshivas. Convert or destroy all Palestinian villages for the game to be over. If you convert them all to “friends” through diplomacy, the Third Temple will descend from the heavens. If you kill them all, the state of Israel will be boycotted and bombed out of existence.
