How is this Comparative Literature? A very good question. This project is comparative in that it seeks to understand the game Civilization from the multi-cultural perspective of the world. As this site endeavors to show, the game is very much a product of the United States at the end of the 20th Century. What is overwhelmingly ironic, however, is that the game itself strives to appear to be internationally-savvy.

In terms of literature, the fields that are based on texts (such as English, "foreign" language departments, and Women's Studies) have for some time now been struggling with the concept of non-text based texts. Can a play be interpreted? Certainly. And how much better to embark on a comparative interpretation of a performance with regards to the script. What about films? These too can be "read," looking at nuances such as the casting, along with the more traditional subject of inquiry, the plot.

Film directors consider themselves to be authors -- how else to explain the phrase at the beginning of every non-letterboxed rental video "this film has been modified..."? When the film is "modified," it is changed. Each frame of film is cropped to "fit" the TV screen, altering the vision, and therefore the work, of the author.

With the allowance of films into the body of texts able to be studied, we have entered into the realm of the screen. Television shows (on TV screens) and web sites (on computer screens) are capable of being cited in proper MLA format. How small a step is it to take from there to another kind of work, games? Whether on TV, computer, or hand-held game screens, games are a site of interaction between author (computer game designers and the companies they work for) and reader (the gamers).

As the Annotated Bibliography shows, video and computer games have been the subject of research for quite a few years. How appropriate, then, for a humanitites perspective to join in with the voices of the behavioral and social sciences.