Civilization VI
- Justin Matheson
- Jan 5
- 4 min read
I think you can learn more about someone in their first 15 turns of a Civilization game than you can in the first few hours of a training workshop.
That sounds like gamer nonsense. It is not.
Strategy games like Civilization VI are not “brain training.” They’re better than that.
They are complex, messy, human systems that force your brain to do the same work modern jobs demand, planning, prioritizing, updating beliefs, and making trade-offs without complete information.
Under controlled lab conditions, researchers found that higher performance in Civilization correlated with stronger problem-solving and organizing and planning skills. (Review of Managerial Science, 2021). That is not proof that Civ magically “makes you smarter.” It is evidence that Civ is a legitimate environment for practicing the cognitive skills we keep calling “critical thinking” like it is a personality trait.
So let’s talk about Civilization VI (and honestly, any modern Civ), and why it is such a ridiculous sandbox for cognitive skill development.
Civilization VI gameplay mechanics
Civ is a turn-based strategy game where you build a civilization over time, while juggling expansion, diplomacy, economics, culture, science, and military pressure. (Review of Managerial Science, 2021).
Because it is turn-based, it feels calm. You have time to think. But the system is not calm. It is a stack of interconnected problems where every “reasonable” decision creates secondary consequences.
That is not simply a history simulator. It’s also a cognitive load simulator.
Cognitive skill 1, Planning under irreversible trade-offs
In Civ VI, you are constantly making choices that are expensive to undo.
Research choices set your tempo.
City placement locks you into geography.
District choices shape your economy and your win condition.
Early military neglect might be “efficient,” until it becomes catastrophic.
And because the game is broad, there is no single correct answer. You are not solving a puzzle. You are building a strategy.
The Civilization study did not find that high performers were better at everything. It found the strongest links specifically in organizing and planning and problem-solving. (Review of Managerial Science, 2021).
That fits what the game actually wants.
Today’s work rarely rewards “knowing the right answer.” It rewards building a plan that survives changing conditions. Welcome to 2025.
Cognitive skill 2, Problem-solving with incomplete information
You never have the full map. You never have the full story.
You know what your neighbour says they want. You do not know what they are building. You have hints, partial signals, and vibes. (Yes, vibes are a strategy input in Civ. Harsh, I know.)
Cognitively, this is huge.
It forces:
Hypothesis building: “They are friendly, but are they preparing to attack?”
Signal detection: “Is that a real threat, or just noise?”
Belief updating: “I was wrong, now what?”
This is problem-solving the way it shows up in real life.
Not “solve for x.”
Solve for “what do we do next with the imperfect information we have.”
Cognitive skill 3, Resource management that is not just math
You are managing multiple resource types simultaneously, and they behave differently.
That distinction matters.
In our own work on resource mechanics, we explored how different resource structures create different cognitive demands (for example, timing and rhythm vs. irreversible commitment vs. shared scarcity). https://www.rifted.ca/post/resource-management-mechanics-why-different-resources-build-different-skills
Civ VI is brutal here because it does not let you pretend resources are interchangeable.
Gold is not the same as production. Production is not the same as population. Science does not fix a loyalty crisis. Culture does not stop a surprise war.
If you care about cognitive skill development, this is one of the best features of the game.
It forces systems thinking.
You have to understand not just individual resources, but how they interact across time and when they are each most impactful.
Cognitive skill 4, cognitive flexibility and adaptation
If you have played any Civ game for more than 30 minutes, you have felt this:
You build a plan, then the world changes.
A city-state flips.
A neighbour declares a surprise war.
Your expansion plan runs into a mountain range.
A golden age does not happen.
This is not just “challenge.”
It is forced cognitive flexibility.
You have to shift goals, re-prioritize, and reframe what success even means, without losing the thread of your long-term strategy.
Why Civilization is sneaky good for cognitive skill development (even for non-gamers)
If you run Civ as a learning experience, the game becomes a mirror.
It surfaces:
How someone makes decisions (data, intuition, fear, ego, or actual goals)
How someone handles ambiguity (freeze, over-control, or experiment)
How quickly someone builds a mental model of a system (and where it breaks)
How someone learns from feedback (defensive, curious, adaptive)
And this is the Rift point.
Games provide the low-stakes repetition. Reflection creates transfer.
The bigger question this raises
If Civilization performance correlates with planning and problem-solving under controlled conditions, it raises an awkward question:
Why do we keep pretending cognitive skills are best built through explanation?
Cognitive skills develop through doing.
Ideally, doing in complex systems with feedback and consequences.
Which is exactly what modern strategy games already provide.
What to do next
If you want a low-stakes way to try this, run a 60-90 minute Civ session with five “turn cycles.” That is enough to surface planning quality, adaptation, and reasoning patterns.
Then do the part most people skip.
Debrief it properly.
Because the learning is not in the empire you build.
The learning is in how your brain behaved while you built it.
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