What 'Civilization VI' Gets Wrong About Civilization

At the D.C. release party for Civilization VI, the latest edition of one of the most successful video games of all time, even the coffee tables were on brand. Vignettes from the game—which is to say, scenes from the course of human history—appeared as dioramas inside glass tables at one of the city’s poshest bars.

The release party on Tuesday night was organized by the Entertainment Software Association, a trade group, so the event had the feel of a typical Washington party. Capitol Hill–types hovered around the sushi spread and open bar on the roof of the W Hotel. Aside from the table dioramas, the only tell that it was a video-game party were a few consoles with playable versions of Civilization VI scattered around the room. The game asks players to launch and then guide their own private civilizations; Hill staffers at the event had created (and largely abandoned) civs named after Washington, Baltimore, and Cincinnati.