Another Deity player weighing in here -
It's not a terrible wonder, in fact it's a very powerful wonder. Aside from ToA, it's difficult to argue that any other pre-medieval wonder catapults you ahead as much as the GL. The problem that higher-level players have with the GL is two-fold:
-First, having the benefits of any wonder are beneficial, but insignificant compared to the value of having other empire priorities in place, such as beating the AI to city locations, having the infrastructure in place to create a dominant (or at least competitive) empire, and being able to defend that empire. GL is competed over so highly that you'd have to postpone all these more important priorities to achieve it. This leads to a lose-lose scenario: if you miss it, you get a laughable compensation of gold and are many turns behind in addressing the more important priorities. If you win it, you will be boosted in several "WANT" categories such as culture, tourism potential and most importantly tech, but behind in several "NEED" categories such as expansion, infrastructure and defensive capability, the last of which is compounded by the fact that you're now a juicier target for the opposition. ToA is easier to get away with since it adds some muster to the most essential element, the ability to defend yourself. As such, different wonders are viable at different difficulty levels as the investment level in these "NEED" categories increases with difficulty level. At cheif-warlord, GL is viable as you'll probably get it and the AI's level of competitiveness allows you to build it first and then address the more important criteria. Since you're at prince level, you're reaching the point where this is no longer the case. At the King-Emperor level, things like Chicken Pizza and Alhambra are still viable because you've already made your 2-3 expansions (4-6 with liberty) and can get away with keeping an army of 2 swords, 2 pikes and 4 Cbows. At Deity, you need to get your expansions out ASAP, and keep some degree of a wall of constantly upgraded units between you and your neighbor and even then bribe them to direct their efforts elsewhere. But even deity players choose to boost their empire with select wonder-based bonuses, just later and less competitive wonders like Porcelain Tower, Nieschwanstein, and Ideological wonders.
-Second, it's a crutch at lower levels. Most deity level players assume that lower level players are inferior but are still developing so they themselves can become deity players. I understand that this is not the case, and that some players enjoy the game at warlord or King or Immortal and have no desire to make the game more complicated. As I've said many times, this is a turn-based strategy game and as such, increasing the difficulty level doesn't make it harder, but rather narrows the choices that are viable in achieving victory earlier, or victory at all.
With this in mind, players who DO treat the difficulty levels as rungs in a ladder to advance in will find less obstacles to their advancement if they don't utilize and become dependent on some of the crutches available in some situations but not in others. Things like playing as Babylon every game, building the Great Library every game, and founding a religion every game can become engraved in a player's "style" and that player will experience incredible frustration when those preferences are no longer options.
It's not a terrible wonder, in fact it's a very powerful wonder. Aside from ToA, it's difficult to argue that any other pre-medieval wonder catapults you ahead as much as the GL. The problem that higher-level players have with the GL is two-fold:
-First, having the benefits of any wonder are beneficial, but insignificant compared to the value of having other empire priorities in place, such as beating the AI to city locations, having the infrastructure in place to create a dominant (or at least competitive) empire, and being able to defend that empire. GL is competed over so highly that you'd have to postpone all these more important priorities to achieve it. This leads to a lose-lose scenario: if you miss it, you get a laughable compensation of gold and are many turns behind in addressing the more important priorities. If you win it, you will be boosted in several "WANT" categories such as culture, tourism potential and most importantly tech, but behind in several "NEED" categories such as expansion, infrastructure and defensive capability, the last of which is compounded by the fact that you're now a juicier target for the opposition. ToA is easier to get away with since it adds some muster to the most essential element, the ability to defend yourself. As such, different wonders are viable at different difficulty levels as the investment level in these "NEED" categories increases with difficulty level. At cheif-warlord, GL is viable as you'll probably get it and the AI's level of competitiveness allows you to build it first and then address the more important criteria. Since you're at prince level, you're reaching the point where this is no longer the case. At the King-Emperor level, things like Chicken Pizza and Alhambra are still viable because you've already made your 2-3 expansions (4-6 with liberty) and can get away with keeping an army of 2 swords, 2 pikes and 4 Cbows. At Deity, you need to get your expansions out ASAP, and keep some degree of a wall of constantly upgraded units between you and your neighbor and even then bribe them to direct their efforts elsewhere. But even deity players choose to boost their empire with select wonder-based bonuses, just later and less competitive wonders like Porcelain Tower, Nieschwanstein, and Ideological wonders.
-Second, it's a crutch at lower levels. Most deity level players assume that lower level players are inferior but are still developing so they themselves can become deity players. I understand that this is not the case, and that some players enjoy the game at warlord or King or Immortal and have no desire to make the game more complicated. As I've said many times, this is a turn-based strategy game and as such, increasing the difficulty level doesn't make it harder, but rather narrows the choices that are viable in achieving victory earlier, or victory at all.
With this in mind, players who DO treat the difficulty levels as rungs in a ladder to advance in will find less obstacles to their advancement if they don't utilize and become dependent on some of the crutches available in some situations but not in others. Things like playing as Babylon every game, building the Great Library every game, and founding a religion every game can become engraved in a player's "style" and that player will experience incredible frustration when those preferences are no longer options.
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
As such, I would imagine that building GL would be optimal at lower levels, though as we keep repeating ourselves, may stunt the growth of players planning on progressing.
+1 
tiles in the early game is a massive advantage. Though, if I went for Calendar instead of Trapping, that usually means I will get the culture tech, with Monasteries, instead.
