Playing the Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes and the Civilization series

Abstract

Are the games of Sid Meier’s Civilization series ‘God games’? Or should they better be termed ‘Leviathan games’? This paper explores the conceptual interconnections between the six main games of the series (1991 to present) and the thoughts of Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) in a close reading of the games’ manuals as main sources in comparison with Hobbes’ works, predominantly his Leviathan (1651). Civilization as a video game can be analysed as the simulation of a Hobbesian world based on the intepretation of Hobbes as a mechanistic, determinist, and secular philosopher. The source of this influence is tentatively traced back to William James and Ariel Durant’s book series The Story of Civilization (1935–1975). This sheds new light on concepts of sovereignty and dominion as well as on interpretative ambiguities about the roles of war and the treatment of religion in the series.