Minecraft Civilization Experiments - TV Tropes

"In a Minecraft social experiment ..."

As the name suggests, Minecraft Civilization Experiments are a type of Minecraft "work" that involve a number of players (usually 100 or above) in a supervised server attempting to simulate human civilization within the medium of Minecraft. Players are usually placed in hardcore mode and split into several teams in several separated locations, all of whom are tasked with surviving the event, either by eliminating all opposing civilizations or establishing world peace. These last over a number of real life days, which are then covered via video.

First originating after Youtuber Magic Gum posted several videos about hypothetical Minecraft civilizations, it soon became an actual phenomenon with multiple channels posting this form of content, culminating in MrBeast's 1000 Player Civilization event. First starting with Magic Gum's own Civilization Experiments, it soon spread out with Ish and Silver's civilization events, and soon became adopted by other channels. This page covers the major civilization events and their tropes, but links may be included to other civilization events in the corresponding folder below.

Note that, ever since MagicGum popularized the genre, several non-Minecraft civilization and/or civilization-like events have appeared in other Sandbox Survival games. These will be listed in their own section in the folders down below

open/close all folders 

Civilization Events with Works Pages 

Civilization Events without Works Pages 

See also the Roleplay civilization server Stoneworks for an additional example.

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Tropes commonly found during these experiments include:

• Anyone Can Die: Since the videos usually directly record what happened during the event, anyone important in the story could die at any time for any reason, major or minor. This is moreso during the events themselves, as, most of the time, they are unscripted, and thus the players' survival depends on their own actions and the actions of others, much of which is hidden or a curveball.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Many civilization events feature large battles between the bulk of several enemy civilizations, which are often portrayed as such. Example include the battle for the trade routes in MagicGum's Civilization Experiments, the Battles of the Wooden Fence and Iron Torch for Ish's State Experiments, and the two battles of St. Agnes in "1000 Players Simulate Civilization on Survival Islands."
• Cast Herd: In order to allow for competition between civilizations in addition to within, most civilization events divide the players in them up between different regions to build separate civilizations, each of whom have their own plotlines and characters that interact within themselves, then with each other.
  • For example, Ish's first state experiment have the four islands of Plains, Snow, Jungle, and Desert, with Plains, Jungle, and Desert divided between two differing factions each.
• Central Theme: Due to being spun off of Magic Gum's earlier work on societies in Minecraft, the central theme of most civilization videos is: "How do societies develop in novel environments? What factors are involved, and what makes a society successful?"
• Cerebus Syndrome: As a result of both the Permadeath aspects and the world opening up to allow for more and more interaction between players, most civilization events get progressively more and more dramatic over time, starting with basic, local feuds and events and escalating into global wars and events.
• Election Day Episode: Most civilization events will have the admins ask the players on each team to elect a leader in preparation for later phases. Usually, this is given it's own segment in the video, and often leads to large amounts of political drama and social tension as different factions and leaders compete for the topmost position.
• Ensemble Cast: Most civilization event videos, instead of just focusing on the actions of one character or one civilization, tend to focus on all of the civilizations and their most important characters equally, explaining all of their roles in the event.
• Final Battle: Many civilization experiments end with a final battle between two major warring factions, oftentimes involving most of the surviving members of every civilization, usually deciding the outcome of a given experiment. Examples include The battles of the Wooden Fence and the Iron Torch, the overthrow of Solev, and the fight against the pirates in "1000 Players Simulate Civilization on Survival Islands."
• Frontline General: A common occurrence in Civilization events is that the people leading their armies tend to command from the front line. These include Clownpierce during MagicGum's first civilization event and Ize from SpeedSilver's. This is because:
  • a: Being on the frontline tends to boost your own troops' morale (willingness to fight).
  • b: Oftentimes, leadership is a Position of Literal Power, conferring extra combat bonuses to leaders.
  • and c: Oftentimes, Asskicking Leads to Leadership, and so frontline generals are also the best fighters outside of their special powers.
• Hyperlink Story: The experiments gradually become this as players from different groups begin to interact, with their respective arcs sometimes influencing world events in dynamic ways.
• Non-Linear Sequel: Despite having the same people participating in them, and with the events in some of them repeating, most civilization events are not in the exact same continuity. Instead, the players and their avatars appear throughout all events, while similar events may happen during them, but the events are not part of any overarching continuity, just part of several related stories.
• Opening Narration: Pretty much every single civilization video uses one to explain the premise of the particular experiment being performed, while also explaining the general premise of Civilization videos in general to new viewers.
• Permadeath: Starting in MagicGum's Civilization Experiments, civilization experiments usually discourage constant conflict by turning on Hardcore Mode.
• Poor Communication Kills: Time after time, many civilizations have come to blows after a misunderstanding, either deliberate or otherwise, usually due to not all of the players being able to get in touch with one another, whether through deliberate isolation, or the inability or unwillingness to share voice chat with each other.
  • This happened first during Magic Gum's 2nd Civilization video, where the entire world came to blows with the Snow players due to fearing their alliance with the vikings, even though Snow only had intentions of attacking one of them.
• Video Game Setpiece: Starting with MagicGum's Civilization Experiments, to challenge the players' cooperation and planning skills, some creators include various Once per Episode Scripted Events such as giving everyone the hunger effect, making food stop growing, giving someone on each team The Plague, or having monsters appear to hunt down the players, as well as some more specific events.
• Shrine to the Fallen: It's a pretty common occurrence in Civilization videos for players to honor those who have died permanently with graves and gravestones, unless of course if they disliked those who died.