IN SID MEIER'S STRATEGY VIDEO GAME Civilization IV: Colonization, you—the human—can choose to play Spain, England, France, or the Netherlands in a battle to colonize the New World. The colonized, though, are represented by "nonplayer characters" controlled by the game's algorithms. Your role is to oversee an expanding territory from an omniscient "God view" perspective, allocating resources and squelching insurrections. Meanwhile, the only reason nonwhite people and their lands exist is to be conquered and used, making at least that aspect of the simulation seem authentically colonial. Rated E for "Everyone," the game whitewashes the truly horrendous aspects of colonialism: the slavery, the rape, the genocide. And perhaps because of this level of sanitization, the game-play quickly becomes boring and repetitive, falling into the established 4X pattern that characterizes strategy video games: explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 273