Colonization video games normalize the 4X pattern of colonial extraction

Evidence

IN SID MEIER’S STRATEGY VIDEO GAME Civilization IV: Colonization, you—the human—can choose to play Spain, England, France, or the Netherlands in a battle to colonize the New World. The colonized, though, are represented by “nonplayer characters” controlled by the game’s algorithms. Your role is to oversee an expanding territory from an omniscient “God view” perspective, allocating resources and squelching insurrections. Meanwhile, the only reason nonwhite people and their lands exist is to be conquered and used, making at least that aspect of the simulation seem authentically colonial. Rated E for “Everyone,” the game whitewashes the truly horrendous aspects of colonialism: the slavery, the rape, the genocide. And perhaps because of this level of sanitization, the game-play quickly becomes boring and repetitive, falling into the established 4X pattern that characterizes strategy video games: explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 273

Categorization

• SEED: A tight essay angle: how strategy-game mechanics (4X, God view, algorithmic NPCs) rehearse the very colonial logic mainstream data criticism denounces — the simulator as training ground for ‘data colonial’ management subjectivities.
• ADDENDUM: Directly usable as a concrete opening case for the ‘Grafting & Growth’ piece’s sibling concern with how systems encode extractive worldviews — and closer still to the ‘data colonialism’ comparative chapter opening this argument.
• XREF: connects to: The 4X framework exposes continuity between historical and data colonialism — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 274; Data extraction functions like colonial resource appropriation despite different modes — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 27; Platform data extraction continues historical colonialism’s logic of appropriation — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 398 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The 4X framework exposes continuity between historical and data colonialism #corroborates (0.82) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 274
• Platform data extraction continues historical colonialism’s logic of appropriation #corroborates (0.82) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 398
• Data extraction functions like colonial resource appropriation despite different modes #corroborates (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 27
• Data colonialism extracts ever more layers of human life as raw material #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 66
• Data colonialism’s temporality differs from prior colonialism’s engagement with the past #qualifies (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 637