Civ 7 devs on 20th century leaders, controversial figures, and colonialism in 4X games

Firaxis has published a lengthy community Q&A for Civilization 7, with the studio's senior historians addressing some of the thornier design questions players have been asking — from 20th century leaders to how the team handles historically controversial figures.

On the question of more modern leaders, senior historian Emily confirmed they're coming: "The 20th century was long, and we haven't fully explored it. Yet." The concern from the community was partly legal — getting recently deceased figures into the game is complicated — but the studio isn't ruling them out. On controversial historical figures, senior historian Andrew laid out the team's guiding principle: "A good rule of thumb is 'does the memory of this person still cause harm?' Are there movements in this person's name that actively hurt people today?" He used Genghis Khan as an example of someone who committed enormous violence but whose name isn't actively weaponized today, contrasting him with unnamed figures who don't appear in the series for exactly that reason.

The most substantive exchange was around colonialism and whether Civ 7 could push toward non-European, non-linear models of historical progress. Andrew's answer was candid: truly anti-colonial design would mean scrapping the core 4X loop — no gold, no expansion, no exploitation — and replacing it with systems built around prestige, coexistence, or sustainability. That, he said, "would have required designers to design whole new games based on non-exploitative worlds" and would have been "a bit too big of a shock to a player base wanting a 4X experience." It's an honest admission that the genre's DNA is deeply entangled with the colonial structures it simulates, and that untangling them would mean building something that isn't really Civilization anymore.

The full Q&A is live on Steam and covers considerably more ground than these highlights. For anyone curious about how Firaxis navigates the gap between historical authenticity and responsible design, it's worth reading in full.