Why Civilization VII is worse than Civilization VI.

It is quite clear now that Civilization VII is going to be dark age of the Civilization franchise. Considering how successful it has been over the past 30 years, the stumbling of Civilization VII probably hurts the franchise more now than if it had happened with the earlier sequels.

Civilization as a franchise has been seen as a titan in its own genre. However, there is always a time where a franchise ends up unable to balance innovation with a respect for people who spent hours playing and the vibrant modding scene that helped breathe life into these games. The obsession with optimizing gameplay is one of the reasons why the AAA gaming space is in decline and independent companies are being handed the torch by customers who want quality games that are not just content on a screen.

Civilization III always felt more like a Civ game than any of the games after Civ IV. In this screenshot above you can see how the game tried to simulate diplomacy has having more than just leaders speak at each other. The foreign advisor gave very useful information about military strength, cultural strength and resources available for sale.

The early Civilization games were more than just painting a map. They were about building a civilization with warts and all.

In the 1990s, due to the genre being smaller and more niche, gamers could be more forgiving of errors. However, the genre has many more casual fans who paradoxically want more sophistication in games but not too much. Firaxis has a great issue here. They either cut budgets and focus on a smaller audience or increase budgets to AAA levels and end up alienating the hardcore fanbase that keeps the games vibrant and profitable beyond the initial releases.

As the cost of making games increases, there is more of a need for game companies to sell out to the mainstream.

The mainstream is not really interested in highbrow games and really only tolerate them if they are worth their interest at the start. The hardcore fans are willing to stay with a game and even improve it if it is not meeting their expectations.

However, there comes a breaking point where hardcore fans are unwilling to accept mediocrity passing off as excellence.

Civilization VII proves true the axiom; beauty is only skin deep. The woman above in the screenshot is probably too well dressed for an Ancient Japanese woman in the Jomon era but Civilization VII’s developers spent more time with aesthetics rather than making a functional game. A game is not a Tech Demo, which is mainly about the aesthetics. It is something to be used actively by the player not just looked at like a painting on a wall in my opinion.

Civilization VII was basically ignoring the hardcore fans in favor of going after the casual fans. This explains why Firaxis was wasting their time with making a VR version of Civilization VII when they haven’t even improved the gameplay in the PC version of the game.

Meta’s Quest 3 is not a piece of hardware made for Civilization VII. Whatever version of Civilization VII they have for the Quest 3, it is a novelty item just like the Power Glove and the Virtua Boy for the Nintendo. There is no reason for why the game is on this platform especially so soon after the release of the game in February.

Why Civilization VI is surpassing Civilization VII on Steam?

There is a simple reason why the game is doing so poorly on Steam. It isn’t a worthy successor to the sixth game. Having the name “Civilization” on the title isn’t enough to sell a game now. You need to earn the respect of the gamers who made Civilization what it is. The man who played a Civilization II for so many years is the type of player who keeps games that came out that early in public consciousness.

Who is going to be playing a 15 year old game of Civilization VII? The movement away from sandbox gameplay is one of the reasons why people are not staying with this game.

The sixth game had its issues, but it had its fanbase that was willing to support it. Civilization VI peaked at about 160,000 players when it came out. In comparison, Civilization VII was only able to get about slightly above 84,000 players. Civilization VII was also being surpassed by Civilization VI numbers quickly after its release.

Civilization VI released in October 2016. It still the most popular and successful of all the Civilization games. I show you this screenshot of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon wonder to emphasize how this game in spite of its flaws was well made.

Civilization V and Civilization V were similar enough to synergize with one another. Civilization VII, in its pursuit of being different to distract from its own quality issues, is simply not appealing to enough new fans for it to stand on its own.

Civilization VI has been pretty strong in its player count since the release of Civ 7. It has been hovering around 30,000 players on the weekends. Civilization VII has basically disappeared from the grouping of top games. For such a heavyweight as the Civilization franchise, not being in the top games is a cause for concern. The Civilization games have been dominating the charts for many years and yet it seems to have run out of creative juices. The emergence of some competitors such as Humankind and Millenia.

The company who made Civilization VII has to understand that the standards are not the same. Instead of attempting to meet the challenge, they decided to hide the game under glossy advertising and music.

As much as Firaxis may want to spend their time thinking otherwise, Civilization VII is not doing so well right now. This is the time for bold action not doubling down on what is not working right now.

Why is Civilization VI better than Civilization VII?

In my opinion, Civilization VI’s Trajan vs Civilization VII’s Augustus is a clear sign of how quality was declining with the most recent release.

The answer is quite simple. Civilization VI is focused on making the fans happy rather than making a game which is only seen to prop up the company. Civilization VII seems like a game that was made for people who dislike Civilization games and that was an error in the how they were approaching the development of this game.

We should not have an issue with people not finishing their games. That should be the main interest of someone making a sequel to one of the most beloved franchises in gaming history. They should focus on making the game fun, not focusing on problems that on the player not the person making the game.

Civilization VII’s problem: Not letting people not finish a game

Sometimes allowing a game to not be finished are the stories that are worth telling about it.

Civilization II famously had a player who spent years playing a game where it became engulfed in war and conflict. This was a game that was released in the PlayStation One era and yet it was still captivating many people. Unlike Civilization VII, I believe that many of the previous Civilization games, will continue to get praise in the years to come.

Civilization VII represents the dark age of a once great series.

Comparing Oblivion Remastered Arena and The Classic Arena

The interior of the Bloodworks in Oblivion Remastered. — The interior of the Bloodworks in Oblivion Remastered .

The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered’s Arena storyline looks better than ever and here are my impressions of this classic storyline.

The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered edition is selling like hot cakes and I have been enjoying it. This is a game of my teenage years and when first got into Role Playing Games. Unlike Skyrim, I consider the Elder Scrolls

I have been taking screenshots of multiple areas of interest in the game just so that I can analyze what the graphics and how Bethesda has been improving the way the game looks.

I think that one of my favorite locations in the game is the Bloodworks located in the Imperial City Arena district area. It is a nice and compact map and there, one can enter the Bloodworks underneath the Arena building.

The Arena plotline is one of my favorite in the game due to its compact nature. I love gladiator style games and Oblivion’s plotline here in the Arena is right for me.

Oblivion Remastered Light Raiment Woman — My Nord Character wearing the Arena Light Raiment. Here you can see how it fits on my female character.

When you compare the graphics of the original game and this remastered version, you get a sense of color that once missing in the clothes in Oblivion’s gamebyro engine. The one thing that bothers me about the game the most is that the color palette of the game is not the same now. The colors that were brighter and more painterly in the original game are currently missing in favor of greater realism in the game.

One can also see that the people in the stands of the arena are not as visible in Oblivion Remastered. They are more in the shadows and the fog rather than standing out like a sore thumb here. There is also a neat addition of some shade for the spectators of the Arena combat. The Arena also looks more intimidating, like in a sense its place of savage entertainments. I think it is going to be one of the standout graphical enhancements to the game.

The entrance to the Arena in Oblivion Remastered edition.

The Arena in Oblivion Remastered is much better than the original Arena. In the original game, the arena did not have this look as you can see above.

The Arena in remastered version of Oblivion Remastered is more reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum. The way how the lighting looks here makes it seem that the Arena is in Hammerfell, land of the Redguards and not the center of Septim Empire.

I think that the Arena in Oblivion is a great showcase of the shadows and lighting of the new version.

As you can see here, the arena in the original game did not have the same lighting. New graphics technology that is available in Unreal Engine 5 gives a new life to the Imperial City Arena.

Here is my Orc Barbarian in the Arena. The costume lacks a certain color variety here and is only in one dark shade of blue and some browns. Oblivion Remastered simply brings out the clothes out more in the clothes in the game. The Orcs also look more realistic in this game also. Some players prefer the older versions of the Orcs and I have mixed feelings about it. However, with the move to Unreal Engine 5, modern graphics were going to change some of the races.

The Classic look of Oblivion's Imperial City. — The Classic look of Oblivion’s Imperial City

As one can see in these images, Oblivion was originally a more a painterly game. The transition towards a higher quality has made the game in the words of one user I saw on YouTube become more like: A Roman Empire style Simulator Game. I can see that comparison makes sense, especially when one looks at the screenshot below with my warrior standing victorious after a match with combatant in her light armor. This game looks gorgeous in my opinion.

My Nord Warrior stands victorious in the Imperial City Arena.

I played a couple matches and the experience is much better than in the original game. The lighting, effects and the gameplay all match into a cohesive whole.

The Arena hallway in Oblivion Remastered Edition.

I think that the remaster adds alot of character to the Arena. It was always the most interesting part of the game for me other than the main quest. I just love the gladiatorial combat in the game and I wish that Bethesda would put more of this into Elder Scrolls VI.

As players continue their exploration of Cyrodill, I highly recommend taking a look at the Arena questline in this classic game.

Civilization VII is not a great game

It has been some time since the release of Civilization VII on February 11th, 2025. However, it is clear that time has moved on and the game is languishing almost like a middle child between Civ 6 and Civ 5. The idea that Civ 5 is within striking distance of Civilization VII on Steam player’s count, shows that a game from the early 2010s is showing its staying power with the fanbase in Civilization.

However, there is always need for corporations to put out feelers in order to get people’s interest, even when it is clear that the game is not up to par. Firaxis Games seems to have put little effort into responding to the community, relying on “journalists” to write up sycophantic articles. Especially in the beginning of the games release, many journalists were trying to play nice with the Firaxis Games, so they can get exclusive insights which would help boost their video channels as well as their websites.

However, since the release of the game, there has been very little written about Civilization VII. Even on YouTube, hardly any of the influencers are caring about it. Even the release of the newest path, 1.1.0 was not enough to bring players back into the game.

The game is currently not making splash on Steam.

While Steam does not represent every player who bought the game, Civilization VII is trailing Civilization VI by many thousands of players. No matter what the devs are saying about the game, the game is not selling well in comparison to Civilization VI, when it was released in October 2016.

Civilization VII is a game that is seeking an audience. What is that audience? Civilization VII is made for casual fans who do not want any micro. It also takes ideas from Humankind which were better implemented in that game. I think that the team who made this game were just throwing ideas together, without much consideration for whether they would be part of a coherent whole.

Civilization VI will remain the most popular game for many years to come. Unless Firaxis makes a Stellaris-style change to the gameplay, it is unlikely that any DLCs or expansions will revive this game.

Civilization VI was more popular at the same time in comparison to Civilization VII. This is a clear sign that Civilization VII does not have the staying power of previous games in the series.