Mite As Well Make Giant Death Smurfs a unit....console game developers dumbing down every game in site. It's ridiculous!
I don't really believe that the inclusion of a sci-fi unit in the very late game of Civ V means it's being dumbed down, and I don't believe you believe that either.
It means it's being dumbed down if the alternative is a believable unit with a plausible explanation. "Cool" looking units with "funny" civilopedia entries are obviously not for the bright minded.
If the flaming is so over the top that it's obviously not serious, I'd probably get a laugh out of it.Does this mean that if I write some outrageous flames targeted at you (not that I would, just hypothetically), I can afterwards take refuge in audacity and you'll admit that they were somehow cool?
Must be a trend thing - I don't think that just because it's a trope it's making it good or bad. It just happens to be a trope I occasionally enjoy. But that's personal taste, so it's probably not for everyone (and I can see why people can dislike it).Also, is there a tvtrope for "It has a tvtrope, so it must be cool"? I meant to suggest that over there for quite some time now, as this trope seems pretty popular lately (see your quote above).
It means it's being dumbed down if the alternative is a believable unit with a plausible explanation. "Cool" looking units with "funny" civilopedia entries are obviously not for the bright minded.
Would machine guns have been believable to soldiers in the Napoleonic wars? Tanks (or bombers) to soldiers during the American civil war? What about a nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine?
The point is not that GDRs as such are realistic; the point, IMO, is that since the age of industrialization, new technology (trains, machine guns, tanks, airplanes, radio, etc.) that were previously unimaginable have come along and revolutionized warfare. WWI was not decided by better-designed muzzle-loading rifles; WWII was not decided by even better machine guns.
So, yeah, the GDR isn't realistic. But assuming that future wars will be fought with incrementally improved versions of weapons we already have is *also* not realistic. And that's what the GDR represents - a paradigm-breaking new technology that changes warfare. As we saw in WWI, WWII, and Gulf War I. It probably won't take the form of a GDR...but the point is that we don't know what form it will take, so we might as well use the GDR.
If you don't like that, by all means, mod it to be, say, a fleet of automated hunter-seeker predator drones. But the *idea* of an unimaginable new tech that makes older weapons obsolete is *completely* realistic.
So stop harshing on the GDR.
Future warfare will be fought psychologically with the help of drugs and other substances...breaking your head and spirit down piece by piece, slowly, until you personally surrender yourself to the greater will. Then the stealthy occupation begins. You may feel a little tingle of pressure in the back of your head when you feel your "rights" are violated, but you'll instinctively know better than to speak out or much less act.
Who needs hordes of expensive "giant death robots" when a trained squad of professionals can do much more? Without destroying valuable social infrastructure.
It means it's being dumbed down if the alternative is a believable unit with a plausible explanation. "Cool" looking units with "funny" civilopedia entries are obviously not for the bright minded.
Mech suits currently exist and are in the working / testing phase. The suits provide superhuman strength and many other benefits to the wearer.
Given that the battlefields of the 21st century will be largely urban (even after the great ecological collapse, ruins etc.) being able to slap down a concrete wall and jump over piles of rubble is pretty handy. With the advent of a next-generation power source (such as a fussion reactor as in CiV) you could do some "terrible, terrible damage."
I'll say it's handy...I'm the Jaggernaught!!!!!
No wait, I am!
No me! Me!!!!
Future warfare will be fought psychologically with the help of drugs and other substances...
Who needs hordes of expensive "giant death robots"?
... addictive 'timesinks' that simulate the effect of psychological drugs ...
Don't know about you but I haven't had an original thought in years.
Robots have no blood: +50% immunity to drug weapons!
That'll be the internet. We are already becoming tiny just parts of a huge hive mind which will make (perhaps already has made) large wars obsolete. Don't know about you but I haven't had an original thought in years.
There is a group of people to whom the GDR appeals
There is a group of people to whom the GDR does not appeal.
I am certain that intelligence (or 'bright-mindedness') is not the deciding factor when determining to which of these groups a particular individual belongs.
I didn't say dumb people will like the GDR while smart people won't, like some simplistic classification. I just said the GDR was not made to appeal to smart people (wich doesn't mean it can't, or that it's meant for ******s). People considered "intelectually inclined" are mainly characterized as fans of "smart humor". So, at a glance, you'd think the "bright-minded" would not be among those to whom the GDR appeals, because the GDR is humor and it's not of the "smart" kind. Dumb humor isn't necessarily bad, it's just different, and by definition easier to understand, so it can appeal to a broader audience. It's the humor style of Civilization that's been dumbed down by the addition of the GDR in Civ5, not the players.