The internet is NOT a wonder, so no failvotes on it
. It can't possibly be worst wonder since it is a project.
And man, deciding between Chichen Itza and Space Elevator is really hard. I think I'll vote SE for its bad acronym and because it has way too many fanboys gushing on it as actually worth something in > 1% of games. At least Itza has some early-ish GPP and some minute military application...and if you have it the AI does not. Space elevator winds up slowing people down as much as it helps, meaning the AI pursuing it might be a GOOD thing X_X. They really didn't think it through when they moved its reqs in BTS.
Quite a few of them are so much better that they don't even belong on the poll:
AW - potential for GPP, and good specs, though admittedly one of the weaker remainders
Broadway/Holly/R&R - Each of these gives you 50% culture in the city that makes them, but more importantly HUGE trade value. People love gushing over shrines and such blah blah. Sell these resources for as much GPT as most shrines, and/or trade them to boost up
and health even further than their base benefit. These are above-average wonders.
MoM - There's a reason a lot of early space win games involve this. The one knock on it is that it is difficult to get it...unless you take it.
Notre Dame - Also not very great, given alternative means for
. It's not BAD, but like MoM the AI loves the tech to which it is attached, making it difficult to get cost effectively. Still better than CI or SE due to a tangible, consistent benefit. You don't mind capturing this one either
.
Paya - Highly situational, but good when you have gold, in tense religious situations, or for early philosophy w/o the tech (speed astro bulb?). Not bad with gold for keeping tiles.
Stonehenge - It's overrated by most rookie-mid level players, but it isn't awful by any stretch. On maps where land is not heavily contended the GPP and reduced hammer cost of new cities are welcome. PHI can abuse it to set up an AP cheese game too.
Colossus - You might as well just include mids and GLH on the list
. When the colossus is good, it is VERY good. With copper it's dirt cheap as far as wonders go, and colossus coast > non riverside cottages for the entire time colossus is in effect. This wonder is a big boost...if you have the coastal cities to merit it.
E. Tower - Not a big fan of it. I'd only put it a little ahead of CI and SE.
Hagia Sophia - Another sub-par wonder. The usual problem with serfdom crops up here too: by the time you can actually build this in ancient starts, you already needed enough workers to get by without it :/.
Parthenon - With marble, the GPP from this is really sound. I don't see how it's on the list.
Pentagon - You know its uses. War. Great for 5xp w/o war civics or for pushing you over the edge for spamming 10 xp guys in your best cities. AI doesn't like AL in a lot of games, lowering its opp cost. Not the best wonder ever, but good.
Spiral/Sankore - Interesting that sistine and AP didn't make the list (OK, the AP is broken and if used to potential the #1 wonder, so nevermind). The important thing to note about these is that you don't have to FOUND religion to get their benefit. In other words, they're decent. Sankore, in particular, is clean on the lib path and a good pickup for IND or anyone with stone. Spiral is a little less conventional but not bad.
SoZ - It has important denial value, but with ivory can be used to keep away AI culture press since it is cheap, too. Not great, but when the guy you're fighting has it, you wish you did :/.
Taj - HAHA! This wonder is on the list!
2nd Forbidden Palace - It's a bit too expensive, and somewhat impractical to use. A sub par wonder, though often if you COULD get it realistically, you'd want to do so. Trash on pangaea though, actually worse than CI but still better than SE
Temple of Artemis - 5 GPP is behind only the great library. In a coastal capitol it can create a significant boost around bureaucracy times too. A worthwhile play with a hammer cap and marble.
Three Gorges Dam - Not great because by then most cities have power. I've seen it help games w/o coal though.
Edit: @ Obsolete
You are the only elite player I know that supports space elevator. If you can put a convincing argument in favor of it, I might change my opinion of the thing. IMO, it wasn't bad until BTS, when it was made to require robotics. Robotics is NOT a necessary space tech, so the only way to get space elevator is:
1. Specifically delay researching another spaceship tech in favor of it or
2. Pick it up from the internet.
I'm not going to address getting it through the internet too much...USUALLY, by then you've already put together a good part of the ship and the odds of getting material benefit aren't very good. That leaves us with a justification to tech robotics in the first place. I can only think of 1 way to go about that...
a) Computers ----> Internet -----> Robotics -----> SE, then BACKFILL even as far back as rocketry, literally waiting on most space parts until you've completed the elevator. Unless I'm mistaken, this is your approach.
I'm not convinced on the merits of teching robotics in the first place, and this is where space elevator loses all of its time! Most of the empires I've ever seen, mine or otherwise, can pound out space parts faster than they can research the technologies. You'd probably have to be in the department of 2500-3000 beakers/turn or more and/or completely lack aluminum to make production the actual bottleneck. Even then, an empire that can sustain that rate could probably keep up in parts.
One possible argument for going robotics is that the AI will then cover space techs you'd otherwise research yourself, so you might as well go robotics ----> in practice, I don't see this being the case, as the AI is a bit slow getting fusion AND genetics, worthy goals post-internet.
I don't see where it comes out ahead. Even if you put up robotics in 8 turns, you'd still have to build SE probably concurrently with parts and research your final techs. I don't see SE effects dropping the aggregate total time a city spends building parts in any one city by that.
So what IS your justification for the thing? How DO you use it properly?!