“Polynesia in the Civilization Series”

We are running Maui Week, a multi-day event designed to raise awareness of this disaster and the suffering inflicted upon Hawaii. A lot of folk have asked me where and how they can help. We will be directing people all week-long to the Hawaii Community Foundation – Maui Strong Fund where you can give to help the people of Hawaii, though I encourage you to explore other charity options if you’d like. Please help us to perpetuate Hawaii, its traditions, its way of life, its history and heritage, and its peoples!

-Red

It was February of 2020, back when Covid’s presence was still just a whisper in the shadows. I was gearing up for a vacation with my parents, a trip to Maui. It would be my third visit to the islands, my second to Maui in particular – and for my parents, well, they’d been often enough that they weren’t confident exactly which number it would be for them. I have a lot of fond memories from that trip (not the least of which are the whales, we were there during peak migration season for the humpbacks), but I mention it not for the destination – well, not strictly for the destination – but for the journey.

We’re here to talk about video games, after all. And what better way would there be to occupy my time on a several-hour-long flight?

Of course, I couldn’t just play any video game. This was a trip to Hawaii, it had to be something to get me in the proper mood! And conveniently for my purposes, Civilization VI had just put out a new expansion about three months prior, one that I still hadn’t fully sunk my teeth into yet – and one that added the Maori to its roster of playable civilizations.

All right, all right, so it wasn’t Hawaii, but it was, at least, Polynesian, and what with the series penchant to lose inordinate amounts of time for the sake of “one more turn,” it seemed like the perfect way to spend the flight. And so it was – I spun up an archipelago map (the best sort for my purposes), explored the virtual islands, settled cities, and wrestled with the Switch controls all the while (I was far more used to playing on PC, but the laptop I had at the time didn’t handle Civ VI well at all). By the time we landed, my choice of game had done its intended work, and I was all the more eager to spend some time on a proper island.

Since its inception in 1991, the Civilization series has given players an interesting twist on exploring and experiencing the history of the world for themselves. Though far from the only example, it’s probably the best-known title when it comes to historically-based 4X-style strategy games. Though mechanics and gameplay have shifted over the years, the core of it remains the same – to build a civilization from the ground up, from wandering settlers to a sprawling empire, exploring, expanding, and sometimes conquering its way to becoming a prominent world power. 

Being a historically-based series, Civilization has, of course, drawn from numerous civilizations old and modern, and the breadth of those historical nods has only grown as the series has gone on. Even better, it invites players to explore those real-world roots behind the game’s elements. Since the beginning, the series has included an in-game “Civilopedia” that details not just mechanics, but an overview of the history of the cultures, landmarks, troops, leaders, and other influences the games have drawn upon.

And since it’s Maui week here at The Pixels, what better time to explore those bits of Polynesian culture that have made their way into the series? This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list, merely a quick and light look, but hopefully it will give you a general overview – and, perhaps, spark your interest just enough to dive a little deeper, as Civilization has often done for me.

Let’s start about halfway through the series, with Civilization III. Part of this is because this is about where my familiarity with the series begins, but as far as I can tell, Polynesian references appear few and far between before this point in the series. Even here, it’s not as direct as it would prove to be later in the series. It wasn’t until Civ III’s final expansion pack, Conquests, that Civ would give a nod to Polynesian history – and even then, it was to a very recent sort.

See, Conquests was the expansion that gave the game scenarios. It wasn’t the first to feature pre-made maps reflective of specific (or hypothetical!) historical situations, but it was the first to include one of WWII’s Pacific theater, allowing players to step into the role of either the Japanese forces or one of the powers allied against them. Should a player choose to play as the Americans, they’ll find Honolulu and Hilo among their established cities – and true to history, as the game ticks past December 1941, the date of the scenario’s opening, Honolulu will find itself under attack, and the player will need to form a strategy around dealing with the repercussions and aftermath.

Perhaps it’s to be expected that one of the earliest examples of Polynesian history in the series involves the attack on Pearl Harbor – it’s likely to be the one that’s most familiar to its audience. And indeed, there’s little else to add to it as the series progressed to Civilization IV. Honolulu would be added to America’s list of default city names (though one would have to build a good many cities to see it appear naturally, it’s 48th on the list!), and “Polynesian” would also occasionally show up as a city name usable by the barbarian tribes (perhaps a step backward there, all things considered). Moai statues, made famous by their presence on Rapa Nui, were now a buildable national wonder – each player could build them in one coastal city to improve its productivity.

It wasn’t until Civilization V that the Polynesian presence truly came to prominence, however. The name of one of its expansion packs was no coincidence, for it truly was a brave new world – indeed, Polynesia would become a playable civilization of its own, as part of Civ V’s fourth DLC release.

Treated more as an amalgam of Polynesian cultures than any one in particular, they could take to the seas from the start of the game – without the time spent in research other civilizations required – through the civilization’s “Wayfinding” ability, a clear reference to the seafaring ways of Polynesian peoples. It was even headed by none other than Hawaii’s own King Kamehameha I, renowned conqueror and unifier of the islands, whose voice clips are all in Hawaiian whenever he’s called upon for diplomatic deals.

Other facets of the civilization’s unique game mechanics would reflect other Polynesian cultures. The Maori, for instance, would get a nod via the civilization’s unique early-game unit, which had a “Haka War Dance” ability that lowered the offensive capabilities of nearby enemy units. The spiral design used as the civilization’s distinguishing icon was also inspired after the Maori koru, a motif often found in their art representative of new life, growth, and strength.  Moai statues once again made an appearance, this time giving a little boost toward a culture (and tourism, when it was added as a later mechanic) whenever they were built.

It wasn’t just the civilization that Civ V brought with it, though. Like Civ III, DLC would bring with it a new scenario, this time revolving around Polynesia itself. Called “Paradise Found,” the design of this scenario revolved around a race to a cultural victory. This involved adopting a certain number of social policies  – in a standard game, the mechanic representative of a civilization’s governmental systems, but for this scenario, adjusted to reflect various aspects of Polynesia culture. Things like hula, luaus, tikis, and surfing made appearances, just to name a few.

The technology tree was reworked to include various facets of island living, and even the civilizations one could choose from for the scenario were unique. Tonga, Samoa, Hiva, and Tahiti all made appearances for the scenario, though they reused assets from other civilizations in the game. And all of these modified aspects had blurbs in the Civilopedia, detailing their significance.

This amalgam approach made for a bit of brouhaha, though, and not for the first time – Civ IV had a conglomerate “Native American” playable civilization, and both were decried by some as not the most respectful to the myriad disparate cultures it attempted to represent as a single, unified front. Civ IV’s Native Americans would give way to the more specific Iroquois and Shoshone playable civilizations in Civ V, and developers would take a similar tack with Polynesia as Civilization VI came along.

Civ VI’s Gathering Storm expansion would see the Maori of New Zealand become a playable civilization, bringing along the Maori Warriors (giving them a proper Maori name in the process, toa) and koru motif present in Civ V, along with a few new tricks up its sleeve. Iterating on its Polynesian Civ V counterpart, the Maori wouldn’t just start being able to take to the seas, but actually begin on the seas – a Maori player would have to sail around a bit looking for land. In exchange for the turns that would take, the civilization’s representative leader Kupe – Polynesian explorer and, according to legend, the discoverer of what we now know as New Zealand – provided some bonuses to his first settled city as part of his “Mana” ability, a term surely familiar both to students of the culture and any aficionado of RPGs.

But though it would take a backseat to the Maori in this particular iteration, Hawaii’s own presence would be no less felt. A later update introduced a “Heroes and Legends” mode, which when active, would allow civilizations to recruit from a selection of twelve legendary figures to assist their civilization. One of these is Maui himself, with the ability to create new resources on the map (perhaps a reference to his gifts to humanity in legend). Lili’uokalani, Hawaii’s last queen and monarch, also makes an appearance as one of the game’s Great Musicians, a nod to her being the composer of Aloha ‘Oe, and some of her other compositions are among the in-game works of art that can contribute to a cultural victory.

And perhaps, in a sense, it’s fitting to close with Lili’uokalani. Aloha ‘Oe is, after all, a song of lament and farewell. In the wake of the news coming from Maui the past several days, I find myself constantly going back to the pictures on my phone from that last trip there. Those of the Lahaina banyan tree especially – stalwart and majestic and beautiful. To see the pictures of it now, scorched and scarred, still standing but not yet knowing (as of this writing) whether it’s properly survived, so much of the old capital around it just gone, is gut-wrenching – and despite sometimes being confused for Hawaiian (I’m part Indonesian), at the end of the day, I’ve only ever been a tourist. How much moreso must it be for those to whom the surrounding area isn’t just a beautiful spot, but part of their culture, their history? It’s a profound loss.

But at the same time, I find myself thinking about how, even if the tangible, physical touchstones of it can be lost, somehow the history it represents still finds ways to live on. It’s right there in the tagline of Civilization – to build a society that can stand the test of time. There are ways to keep that history alive. Through memory, through story, through art and music and writing.

Maybe even through a video game.

And I think, at the end of the day, that’s what led me to think of the Civilization games when gearing up for this week. How well it succeeds at doing so is perhaps arguable, but at the very least, the series consistently makes the attempt to give a little spotlight to some of the lesser-known corners of world history. So wherever the series goes from here, here’s to hoping we see more of Hawaii and Polynesia, their stories and legends and ways of life.

Goodness knows how fragile that history can be sometimes – and how valuable it is to preserve.

Look forward to more Hawaii-related content this week and don’t forget to help the people of Maui!

Linguistic Dragon works in translation by day and nerds out about language, video games, and storytelling by night… and nearly all other hours, really. You can find him on Twitter as @DragonKetea.