CIV IV Multiplayer?

[eaglefox]

the whole idea of a game being designed for mutiplayer before the single player bothers me. i mean its the single player games most people try out first right? i have not really played a multiplayer. i don't think i would stay too commited to it. plus what if we got half the way through and people decide to quit. its too unpredictable. i like single player games. so its kinda awkward to read that the first thing the developers worked on was the multiplayer part, instead of diplomacy, warmaking, the ai, the trade system, or anything like that.

 

[apatheist]

a (really) good idea, the best i've read here for a while.

Thanks. It's not actually my idea. Play-by-email Diplomacy servers use a ratings system exactly like this.

the whole idea of a game being designed for mutiplayer before the single player bothers me. i mean its the single player games most people try out first right? i have not really played a multiplayer. i don't think i would stay too commited to it. plus what if we got half the way through and people decide to quit. its too unpredictable. i like single player games. so its kinda awkward to read that the first thing the developers worked on was the multiplayer part, instead of diplomacy, warmaking, the ai, the trade system, or anything like that.

You misunderstand. The only difference between single player and multiplayer is that one has the AI as opponents and the other has real people. Everything else is the same. They have to design the trade system, units, tech tree, resources, etc. beforehand in either case. What they put off was the AI, because they wanted to make sure that they designed the AI around the game, not the other way around, so the AI played as much as possible like a human would play. They probably also used up a lot of that time for the art and music, as those take a very long time to get right, as well as increasing overall performance, finding bugs, etc. The design of the game is essential, but is the core of it a surprisingly small part of the whole process of making a game.