I blame Sid

[zulu9812]

Sid Meier is the George Lucas of the gaming arts: a great producer, but a crappy director.

Let me explain.

Like George Lucas, Sid Meier created the genesis of a great series. And like the best Star Wars films are the ones which Lucas did not direct, the best Civ games are the ones on which Sid was not lead designer.

Civilization II was Brian Reynolds
Civilization III was Jeff Briggs
Civilization IV was Soren Johnson

Civilization: Revolution was a dumbed-down console version of Civ, and that was designed by Sid. In fact, Sid like it so much that he declared it to be "the game I've always wanted to make".

I think that Sid wanted to take Civilization back to its simpler, Civ I roots and I think that he is responsible for the dumbed down version of Civ that is ciV. I suspect that Mr Shafer was unable to implement the design that he wanted, due to interference from the great Sid.

 

[JohnnyW]

Maybe. He definitely seemed to think of gamers as idiots that need constant babying in one of his talks.

 

[zuraffo]

Sorry, I have to laugh at this post. By your logic, shouldn't CiV also be a great game since it is NOT designed by Sid? How come when a Civ is successful it's because Sid didn't design the game, and when a Civ fail it's because Sid also didn't design the game but somehow designed the game?

 

[Horizons]

I agree, since Soren most of the Civ developers have just been a bunch of 'enthusiastic' guys who don't really know what they're doing ... I mean, POST-PATCH Civ5 has been turned into a nerfed piece of frustrating garbage, never mind what it was like before.

 

[GKling]

I hear there is a Jar Jar Binks special unit soon to be released for only $4.99 as DLC...

 

[CivFanaticMan]

I blame 2k, but thats just me. Sid has gone back on some of ideas. Like Facebook civ he admits was a mistake. Rev just wasn't a true Civ game, it was more like a Sid game. Sid started the idea of Civilization so thats where all his credibility comes from. The true credibility should go to the game designers. Soren Johnson who I believe was one of the best AI programers Fraxis ever had should have been given more credibility.

 

[Isikien]

I blame no one

Serious, all these epileptic trees, for all we know it could be Martians from outer space.

And stop using civ rev as a focal point of discussion, it's a console game so things have to be simplified from a control and hardware perspective

Sid is Sid. He endorses civ. He made civ. He can go chucking CDs of old iterations of the series at people's heads while on jet pack for all I care.

 

[Michael d' York]

I have no idea how much imput Mr. Meier had in Civ V, or any other game after the Original.

However, his name is on the franchise, and that ultimately makes him responsible for everything that happens to the franchise.

 

[Kyroshill]

for me it's simple.... Sid Meier = moddable games.... and though we are all a little impatient waiting for the full SDK release so the modders can do TR mods... it will happen! And then the ciV engine will do what it's best for.... supply us with a never-ending supply of games

 

[Xiao Xiong]

I hear there is a Jar Jar Binks special unit soon to be released for only $4.99 as DLC...

Close.. not quite... there will be $4.99 DLC but it will be to remove the Jar Jar Binks unit that will be added by an upcoming general patch.

 

[heliostellar]

I hear there is a Jar Jar Binks special unit soon to be released for only $4.99 as DLC...

 

[jagdtigerciv]

Exactly. Sid Meier is no saint. He's a mathematician who read a history book once and wanted to make it a simple board game. Great designers with great ideas took it that much farther and made civ. That's what civ has always been about.

CivRev was indeed Sid Meier's lovechild. That is why he needs far less input and, like the OP said, any game that has his least amount input has been loved by civfanatics.

 

[Bradicus]

Sid Meier is the George Lucas of the gaming arts: a great producer, but a crappy director.

Let me explain.

Like George Lucas, Sid Meier created the genesis of a great series. And like the best Star Wars films are the ones which Lucas did not direct, the best Civ games are the ones on which Sid was not lead designer.

Civilization II was Brian Reynolds
Civilization III was Jeff Briggs
Civilization IV was Soren Johnson

Civilization: Revolution was a dumbed-down console version of Civ, and that was designed by Sid. In fact, Sid like it so much that he declared it to be "the game I've always wanted to make".

I think that Sid wanted to take Civilization back to its simpler, Civ I roots and I think that he is responsible for the dumbed down version of Civ that is ciV. I suspect that Mr Shafer was unable to implement the design that he wanted, due to interference from the great Sid.

I completely agree! Sure Shafer was lead design but Civ 5 REEKS of the Sid's personal touch. I personally don't think Shafer was totally responsible at all for the debacle of Civ V.

 

[Zenstrive]

Sid Meier's didn't invent Civ game concept. He bought the concept and the license from another creator, I think.

 

[krasny]

I too blame Sid.

I blame him for playing golf when he should have been supervising the development of Civ5.

Sid Meier's didn't invent Civ game concept. He bought the concept and the license from another creator, I think.

Sid didn't buy anything. Some people have accused him of deriving inspiration for the video game from the boardgame of the same name. But he has refuted this.

 

[Camikaze]

Attempting to shift the 'blame' to Sid seems to be a bit of a stretch simply for the sake of having someone extra to blame. Sid was not the lead designer here, so by the logic in the OP, CivV should be one of the best Civilization games thus far! And continuing with the OP logic, it is (it's certainly in the Top 5)! I guess if you're looking for some reason to blame him, then you could argue that his creation of the series facilitated Civ5, but I don't think you can go much further than that.

 

[Dale]

Gawd, aren't we over this yet?

 

[zuraffo]

for me it's simple.... Sid Meier = moddable games.... and though we are all a little impatient waiting for the full SDK release so the modders can do TR mods... it will happen! And then the ciV engine will do what it's best for.... supply us with a never-ending supply of games

Are you expecting players, like yourself, to supply you with games?

Modders are first players. If they don't enjoy a game, they won't mod it.

 

[Dale]

Are you expecting players, like yourself, to supply you with games?

Modders are first players. If they don't enjoy a game, they won't mod it.

A modder also doesn't want to be rewriting core components. A modder wants to add to the core.

 

[zuraffo]

That's a good point.