Sadan01
Conical Flask
However, after the trend since Civ 4 - CivRev, Colonisation, many of the younger developers cut their "coding" teeth on these and even the lead designer was a youngling, what could I have expected. It really is nothing more than CivRev 2 for the PC and Mac, Iphone, Android, Xbox, PS3, Wii, PSP, ... so it may make a lot of money initially ... by being portable (watch this space), but it won't have the staying power/re-playability/immersion of Civ 4 ... ever. It's just simply a quick ... it's the end of wonderful franchise ... doomed to play out on an iphone near you ... whoop de do
Frankly, I'm still surprised that Firaxis haven't announced Civilization V for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The interface lends itself to a console game.
Your post basically sums up a "majority" of Generation Y thinking. The Gen-Y'ers that frequent this forum I would argue probably do not fit the mold however most game developers today aren't focusing on the "hardcore" any more. There's more money in dumbing-down your games than by making them a little challenging or forcing the player to actually read a manual or stop and truly think about what it takes to beat a level etc. I for one am hoping the pendulum will start swinging back in the other direction but I'm not holding my breath. Yes, this doesn't all apply to Civ V as you do have to think, somewhat, in playing the game. But it's more about the lack of defining concepts in Civ V. Everything is just so... bland. So boring. Or possibly even under-developed. An expansion may correct a lot of the problems but I think Firaxis need to define their goals with Civ V as their goals with vanilla Civ V, if put to an expansion, will not make me buy it. More of the same means I'll spend my money elsewhere instead.
Civilization V is the latest game to take on this "dumbed-down" design philosophy. Oh sorry, what did Shafer call it? "Streamlined". That's right. Streamlined. I suspect the term was first used in the MMO industry about 5-8 years ago as that is also when they started making them for the "mass market" cookie cutter gamer.
I fear for where PC gaming will be in another 10 years.