You enjoy the late-game tedium?
I fail to see how the late game of civ 3 is any more tedius than civ 2. Most (all?) strategy games, both turn based and real time tend to suffer from the fact that once victory is in the bag you can just sit back and simply wait for the inevitable win.
Moving hundreds of workers and units one at a time?
Once again, how is this different from civ 2? If you don't like micromanaging the workers, automate them. Sure it's sub optimal, but allowing the AI to manage things for you always will be (otherwise the game AI would be unbeatable without cheating, right?)
Bizarre unit activation sequences that destroy concentration and ruin gameplay?
I agree that things activate in a silly order, and occasionally this means I move the unit in the wrong direction when I don't get the one I was expecting activated, and I have to reload from the auto save to fix it. Still, it (moving the wrong unit) happens maybe a couple of times a game to me max, so I don't think it's a huge, game destroying issue.
Empty, useless, and meaningless techs?
They're not meaningless, they're a valuable trading commodity to me. Maybe your game play style is different. Plus having two techs instead of one bigger more expensive tech does have a research effect - it ensures a minimum of 8 turns to research them both. So there certainly is a reason for them, imo.
Victory notification by a stupid and banal message box?
I'm glad Firaxis didn't waste development time making stupid end sequences that you watch once and never again, and really aren't that great in the first place. The only games that I've played that have ever had movies worth watching have been made by blizzard - since it seems you have to go the full mile and really put effort into making them otherwise they just look crappy. It's a personal thing, but I don't feel any less sense of accomplishment at winning because it doesn't have a movie. Lets not forget that in civ 3 you get the (imo) rather humourous victory screen where the other civs mock you, and then a replay of the game - which I think is far more useful and fun that a movie.
You call that fun? Or have you done like Firaxis, neglecting to play the game to the modern age?
I call it a lot more fun that civ 2 (for me). And I play into the modern age (Usually win by space race, or if I feel like cutting the game short, diplomatic).
I think you're mistaking the game not suiting your individual taste with it being a bad game.
Its just too bad that the "looks good at first sight" fooled me too, long enough that I couldn't return it to the store.
