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In Democraciv, a team of elected players runs a Civilization game like a real government

What if Civ was run like a real government? Now we know

While Civilization is one of the best strategy games on PC, it’s not a simulation of real politics, so no matter what type of government you’re running you basically act as an all-powerful dictator with full control over every aspect of your society. For players in the Democraciv community, it a fully collaborative process with a proper constitution, elections, and political parties – in other words, it’s an actual democracy.

Democraciv is now into its fifth game, several years after the effort began. With each new iteration – known as marks by the community – the community drops everything that has come before, drafts a new constitution, forms new political parties, and sets to work putting together a new government.

Right now, it’s a game of Civilization 6 playing as Norway. The elected High King takes plays the game in streamed sessions on the weekends, making decisions based on the outcomes of all those votes and debates. You can see more details on how it all works in the subreddit’s Beginner’s Guide.

In short, it sounds like the kind of weirdly ambitious project that would peter out in a matter of weeks, but somehow Democraciv has been going on for years. That dedication is impressive.

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It’s not the only impressive community project around the game, though – Civ players are now building Wonders while visiting them in real-life. Whatever’s in the Civilization water continues to inspire some beautifully unnecessary efforts.