I too played too much Civilization. I went through versions 1, 2, 3, & 4.

But the best was Civilization Alpha Centuri. In that version, you could choose an ideology beforehand. If you wanted to be a repressive dictator, you chose Miriam or Yang. You could build a successful civilization. But taking on these roles and later changing to a more altruistic civilization usually meant not much success.

While Civ's make us into small gods, they are still good tools to understanding how the world works.