Most Civilization players don't finish a single game, going by Civ 6 data, and perhaps that's the best way to play

rockpapershotgun.com:

If your time with foundational PC strategy 4X game series Sid Meier's Civilization consists of exactly one save file that ended somewhere in the Middle Ages, don't beat yourself up, for you have plenty of company. When they got hold of detailed audience data for Civilization 6, Firaxis creative director Ed Beach and executive producer Dennis Shirk were dismayed to discover that fewer than 40% of their players ever finish a single game. Hence, to some degree, Sid Meier's Civilization VII's new Age system, which is designed to counter feelings of exhaustion by smashing the chronology up into more digestible chunks, with something of a Civ power level reset between Ages to stop you feeling like you're either hopelessly behind or so far ahead that ultimate victory is guaranteed.

That 40% figure comes from an interview with the New York Times, which pairs Firaxis insight with thoughts from academics and third party designers about Civilization's pretty well-rehearsed colonialist leanings. While the data refers to Civ 6 specifically, I'm pretty confident you can apply these findings to Civilization games in general. There's ample evidence to the effect that most video game players leave games unfinished, and 4X games in particular are arguably most fun at the outset while the world is still a mystery.

Among the NYT's interviewees is Indian game developer Nikhil Murthy, whose current project Syphilisation is both a post-colonial critique of Civilization and an investigation of Civ play possibilities buried by the mantra of Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate.

Amongst other things, Murthy comments that Civilization's endgame-focussed "winner takes all" mindset has a flattening effect on all the fun you can have with its systems. New School professor McKenzie Wark elaborates upon Murthy's argument with the thought that the most intriguing Civ players are the "trifling" ones who don't really care about victory. "You're just interested in exploring the rule set," she told