CivWiki:About/Draft

CivWiki is an encyclopedia documenting the history, mechanics, gameplay, and player creations on Civ-genre servers. The wiki is operated independently of all Civ servers that it documents information about. When the wiki was founded in 2017, it only intended to document information from CivClassic, but as more servers entered the forefront and servers shared different users, the wiki grew in scope. In 2022, the majority of the wiki's historical content is a combination of the wikis from Civcraft, CivRealms, and CivClassic, helpfully documented by the Maester Alliance, Raven, and Magmus respectively. As Civ servers continue to rise and fall, we encourage users to continue documenting information about their countries, about events, and important ideas and concepts, to document each nation's uniqueness and culture and as to build a collective understanding of what Civ is.

What is Civ?
The concept of Civ servers is different from other games such as Sid Meier's, or other Minecraft "civilization-like" servers, like factions or Towny. It's been likened to other social interaction games like r/place and EVE Online, and has the feel of a survival Minecraft server, but in reality, it's an experience unlike any other where players have control of how the server happens, with the power to change history as they see fit.

Civ servers arguably began in 2011, with the creation of Civcraft and its founder ttk2. Building on Ancapminecraft, ttk envisioned a server "where players actions really mattered, where they created and shaped the societies and worlds they played in, a game that truly had no script." In a world where Minecraft was just beginning to grow in popularity, it was a novel concept. In order to do so, he believed that admins should not intervene in player-run affairs except in extreme circumstances, an ideal which has continued to this day. Instead, he believed that players should be given the right to protect themselves and deliver justice into their own hands. While one person can protect themselves in survival, you need a group to build something great or make it fall.

Over the years, admin teams on Civcraft and its successor servers, today colloquially known as Civ servers, have built upon this concept and made new mechanics and plugins, forcing players to adapt to new circumstances. The genre itself led well to experimentation, and many players have created new servers with many of these ideas, including Devoted, CivClassic, CivRealms, and CivMC, just to name a few. Because of its endless scope, players have approached the game differently, some taking an RPG approach and building lore to develop their nation (The Commonwealth), others taking a more faction-like approach with a direct approach with PvP and resource building (Estalia), yet others building grand works and buildings to attract others to come to their country (Pavia, Lusitania), and others focused on governmental policy to come up with the perfect ideal state in a chaotic world (Icenia, Mount Augusta). The possibilities are truly endless.

Although civilizations and players have come and gone, the genre is still alive to this day. Players continue to participate in wars, develop new nations, build spectacular feats, and most importantly, plan and participate in community-run events such as the Olympics, wars with actual meaning, and diplomatic crises unlike other servers or players that may create these ideas artificially. Despite the changing landscape in Minecraft servers and their players, including multiple server-ending events over the years, the Civ genre still stands due to its community-building and immersive gameplay that very few experiences can match.

Why the Wiki?
The question "What is Civ?" is a very tough one to answer. There is no one answer that we can point to and give examples of, but rather documenting its history and importance in the greater history of our subculture of our servers help to understand the nature of the servers and the playerbase as a whole. Documenting this information is important for the posterity for both our users and to help guide new users to understand what is possible in the world, and inspire them for the future.

The Maester Alliance helped to head the first Civcraft Wiki made in 2012, and for the most part relies on its same pillars today for its operation in game, focused on preserving the stories and texts into culture so others can learn and enrich themselves. The creativity and the culture that all of our users have created collectively is greater than the sum of its parts. In order to understand all of it, documenting it is necessary. Similar to the r/place atlas, documenting the information about the various interactions and subcultures within the greater whole will help us to understand and appreciate our genre better.

How do I help?
First, CivWiki follows the rules of Wikipedia's five pillars, meaning that editors should treat others with respect, and operate under malicious intent or start arguments or edit wars intentionally. Users and players should treat each other with respect conflicts should be settled peacefully without incident.

Additionally, players should not take out-of-game grievances onto the wiki or onto its communication platforms, including our discord.

To begin editing, please take a look at CivWiki's editing guide and begin from there.