Akilah Beasley
College Composition 105WISE
October 22, 2009

Civilization is a game that allows one to build a successful empire; in order to do so, one must apply an enormous amount of critical thinking. Decision making and sound reasoning are critical aspects of the game. Without the two, it is impossible to build a successful empire. I had to figure this out the hard way; my reasoning was not at all sound and my decision making–well that is another story.
The game was challenging yet addictive. During my play, I was able to build four different cities. All of my cities were built near rivers so that they could have quality agriculture and unlimited access to water. After building my cities I instantly began to build my military; I wanted to protect my people from any enemies and barbarians. I continued to focus on my military heavily, but as my military grew stronger I noticed that my people were unhappy.
I tried to give my cities something that will make them happy and more proud of their empire. I instantly began to brainstorm the aspects of today’s society that makes people happy- religion and culture were at the head of my list. I began to research Confucianism because I thought that a religion would give my people better ethic values, morals and faith. I also thought that it would motivate them to live better lives. I began to build many buildings such as Oracles, libraries, and Obelisks. I thought that bringing more culture into my empire would make my people proud to be from China.
As I adopted these new philosophies and buildings I noticed that China’s population flurished to two million people. I thought that this was a good thing but I was proven wrong. I noticed that my people were still unhappy; they felt that China’s population was too large and that the cities where too crowed. When I saw that my cities were over-crowed I thought of ways to alleviate the problem. I thought about making more cities so that some of my people could move there to eliminate some of the clutter in the other cities. The thought instantly left my mind however when I realized that my existing cities were not doing well at all. I continued to think of more ways to accommodate my people–then it hit me–I realized that I didn’t build farms in any of my cities because I was too focused on my military, religion, and culture. The lack of food made my people unhappy and sick which shortened their life expectancy. I also failed to create trade routes and roads; I was unable to trade and interact with the other empires. I believe that this aspect also lead to the failure of my empire, I had no allies; when my empire was in need I didn’t have someone there to help. Being blind to the fact that my people needed food to survive was my ultimate downfall as well as not interacting with the other empires. The next time I decide to build an empire, I will be sure to feed my people and interact with the other empires.

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