Flexibility

[Tholish]

The article about Civ4 just popped up on the Fanatics homepage, and I am dissappointed to read that the "unfun" stuff is being eliminated. I love corruption, pollution, etc...The key in improving the game should be built on its existing strength: adaptability and flexibility. Instead of eliminating anything, just make flags and sliders to let it be removed by choice. Every idea should be treated this way. Sure, there won't be central balance planning that way, but you can let modders worry about balance.
In a word, hardwire as a little as possible. Just keep empowering us more and more.

 

[Denarr]

Sorry, I don't agree.
The game should start out balanced.
Not everyone can take the time to hunt up a Civ site to download a fix for an unbalanced game.
Flexibility for new features makes sense. This way people who prefer the older methods can still use them.
But making too many things optional will remove the commonality that draws people together to forums like this. With enough option toggles, the game becomes little more than something resembling having the cheat mode permanently activated.