Extensive knowledge of computer games? What is the name of your studio, what games have you developed and what languages can you program in? How long have you been in the business and whats your position? Are you a CEO at Blizzard or something? Reality check...
Playing games since 1990 don't give you (or me, or anyone else) extensive knowledge and certainly don't give you a right to criticize a top award winning developer like Sid Meier as you had in this opening thread. Totally arrogant, in fact this whole thread comes out as nothing but that. Then we have some here who say good OP! Thats like you are in your home stadium watching your home football game and a fan of the visiting team criticizes the quarterback of your team. Then you agree with them! Then your team wins the game anyway and goes on to win the superbowl. Its like, people grow a backbone here will you. The guy just insulted your beloved Civ franchise and the very man who brought it to life and you say, good OP?
This is a common misconception of how criticism works. People with PhD's and fancy business card titles love nothing more than to measure the world according to their own rules. I'm pretty sure Bernstein and Woodward were not high-ranking politicians when they broke the Watergate affair. And I can't even compare my accomplishments to these people (and that's my own opinion, not a dictated one).
If I were indeed a CEO of Blizzard I would never write such a post for several reasons:
a) criticizing a CEO or product of company in the same business is really unprofessional
b) I wouldn't care about what Sid Meier or Firaxis do, since they are not really competition
c) I would have little to gain
Furthermore your comparison of playing games with watching sports is a really bad one. Playing is active, watching is passive. An amateur that plays basketball for 10 years knows more about playing basketball than a person who spent 60 years watching it. You don't need to be an NBA-certified basketball judge to play good basketball.
There hasn't been a single breakthrough in religion, arts, sciences, politics, warfare or any other enterprise that wasn't made by people who were breaking or bending the rules, with disregard to authority and tradition. If arts would've been judged only by established artists, we would be still doing cave paintings.
And finally, as a son of two
established, awarded and recognized musicians, I can tell you that:
- awards are usually a political decision, rather than proof of accomplishment (lets give it to this guy, he's sleeping with a person I need a favor from)
- established critics give good reviews for money, favors, free samples, paid flight and accomodation for conferences; they will continue to spit on your products until you start caving in to their own personal demands. Noble critics are rare because they are either young and naive or have already died from starvation.
- quality and quantity need not to have anything in common. Most successful people in any business steal the quality and produce it in quantity.
But of course, you're entitled to your own, if flawed, opinion