Text:Civilizations Boom

This file was autogenerated from a /warp history book.

Book Metadata

Title: Civ. Boom

Author: thecoolkid26

Custom Name: Civilizations Boom

Lore:

October 27, 2019

Book Content

The Civilizations Boom

by: thecoolkid26

Genre: Developmental Games (Civilizations sub-type)

Notable: Last major boom of games before the Dark Ages
Game Creators: SludsXD, skps2010, and many others

Time Period: 2018, possibly 2019


Table of Contents

Death of Lorias..............4
Civilizations.........................8
The Boom............................16
Problems............................22
End of the Boom..........28
Legacy.................................32
Chapter 1 -

Death of Lorias

The Late Loria Boom, or the period in which Lorias began to see a decline, was, by this point, affecting the RP genre. The writing was on the wall.
Around the same time, dylan34481, a player of Lorias and other earlier RPs, had decided to make a server called Warlords. After enough time, in an event known as the Warlords Exodus, many of the RP genre's great creators and
players would be on that server, slowly becoming less active on DF itself.

This Exodus would be one of the two great catalysts of the death of RPs in DF, the other being that players were simply losing interest in RPs.
However, RPs did not die yet. Some may believe that RPs were doomed without its great creators, but what happened next would prove that the opposite was true.

It all begins with SludsTheEpic, or SludsXD. Whatever you call him.
Chapter 2 -

Civilizations

SludsXD, at the time, was a support member who had already gained a name for himself on DF. He was not really involved in the makings of RPs, but did play some of them, such as Belloria in its later phases.
So, when RPs were dying, Sluds was definitely not the first person who you'd think would make an RP. He didn't have much experience making games, nor did he have much of a reputation in the RP game community by this time.
However, he did have two things going for him. First, was his popularity. Additionally, he knew what the DF community wanted.

The biggest problem with Lorias, the dominant genre at the time, were two things.
1. They were too time consuming.

2. The games usually never ended, as people on DF had short attention spans. This is caused by Problem #1.

Sluds had a solution. Similarly to what happened with survival games,
where the games became significantly simpler and easy to make, Sluds made, well.. A simple, easy to make RP game.

To make it, he used the Developmental Game genre, and made a simple system of cities, troop making,


and most importantly, a limit on the amount of actions you can do every turn. This was coupled with a very small map, so that it was easier for players to border each other over time.

In later Civilization games, you'd also see that a timeline for turns was added,
so that games typically lasted 10-20 turns, and were completed the same day they were started.

This system was probably one of the best prepared non-Warlords RPs, as unlike other major games, Civilizations had no 
basis on their concept, and were able to popularize it on their very first try.

(Note: All accounts of the Civilization Boom are from one source, myself/thecoolkid26)
Chapter 3 -

The Boom

Civilizations was an instant success. The player capacity would quickly fill up, and people would stay to watch their turns. While it wasn't immediately at its height, it was definitely growing in 
popularity.

Although a round would last for a few hours, and a new one came up every few days, it was not quick enough for some players. So, more people began hosting their own Civilizations, sometimes with their own twists on them, and some even
just using the same systems, and those would receive some popularity too.

These games were not just fun for playing, either. Some people even spectated, commented on who would win, and gave advice to people. It was like a tournament to some.
At its very height, thecoolkid26 had the most wins in SludsXD's civilizations (A record he'd keep after its death) and was up against a long-time rival for non-RP games, Tiberius210. Each game saw new additions to it, and cannons would be the central element to the game.
In one of the most highly viewed matches, where Tiberius210 had the upper hand, Tiberius made some crucial mistakes, and let thecoolkid26 get an outpost to place a cannon on. TCK would then fire upon him, and after enough shots, he was able to shoot Tiberius210 himself at the
center of his own country, killing Tib and paving the way for thecoolkid26 to win that match. There were more spectators than players by this point, and the specific period around this match could be considered the peak of Civilizations' popularity.
Chapter 4 -

Problems

The Civilizations Boom, arguably, was also among the most controversial. Many players who had already gone against RPs for their lack of code were especially vocal in this time period, and
others had problems with the Civilizations game itself. It was a low-effort game, after all, and many believed it could've been made much better. For example, kalnat, a player who was known for not liking RPs in the first place, actually tried to make his own Civilizations game.
It received some attention, and died down.

The most notable attempt at a Civilizations type game would come from skps2010, a player who didn't really make his own RPs, but had experience playing them.
skps2010 made a game called Empires, one that was not exactly like Civilizations, in the sense that it was even simpler, but had one, game changing difference - It was coded.

By a fully coded game, I mean that no host was required. The game was automated.
It is the first and, as of 10/27/19, the only coded RP to be recognized. It has received updates over time, but in its original, simple form, you could see the influence from Civilizations. Its updates, too, are similar to what the original became.
However, the boom was facing a lot of external pressure. People who opposed RPs were still very much vocal, the oversaturation of Civilization RPs with little variation meant people could easily get bored of them, and the games were very repetitive.
Chapter 5 -

End of the Boom

It was too much. While the updates in the main Civilizations game by SludsXD attempted to combat the repetitiveness and also balance things, it was not enough.
The group of anti-RPers grew stronger, and were able to make people's sentiments of the genre change to their side. And, with a lack of popularity, the Civilizations genre devolved into a small, dedicated group of people who still enjoyed playing.
Efforts to advertise the genre were quickly met with resistance from the same anti-RPers, and a lack of new players would force the genre into a slow death.

SludsXD himself would stop most likely from inactivity on his end killing the remainder of his fanbase, or
voluntarily ending the game, maybe from being bored of it himself, or from too much pressure with the demand of the remaining players, although this is unlikely.

What matters is that the end of Sluds' Civilization is the end of the boom.
Chapter 6 -

Aftermath

The Civilizations Boom was both the 2nd largest boom in DF RP history, and the last boom before the Dark Ages of RPs. Simply put, this meant that the end of the Boom was a sharp decline in RP games.
The Anti-RPer group grew massively during the Civilizations Boom, and any subsequent games were immediately met with people criticizing the game owner for not 'coding the game' or for making a 'bad game', or something like that.
Not to mention, that player count that was lost in the Civilizations Boom would not recover. As a result, there was a lack of any major games, and only two plots survived. Bellumia, and Kingdoms S2.

Well, Bellumia was dead by this point, and would formally shut
down later.

Kingdoms S2 would later be shut down in a 5-2 vote done on the Kingdoms discord, beginning the Dark Age of DF RPs.

Isolated groups, like Err0r77's RPs, and CookieQ's RPs, were all that were left.
When Err0r's died, and CookieQ became nothing more than just random sproadic attempts at making RPs, and Monty6 failed to revive Pokelandia, it is safe to say that RPs were destined to die with the Civilizations Boom.