When We Consider Sid's Many Innovations...

DissenterKnight

Chieftain
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Over the years Sid Meier’s group has given us some truly great experiences in gaming. It’s a pity all that made it into Civ 5 is Sid’s name. When I consider the genius of the custom unit design system from “Alpha Centari “or the economic models from any of the various incarnations of “Railroads”, I’m even more dissatisfied with the crime that is “Civilization V”. Imagine a game worthy of the name Civilization that allowed you not only a uniqur flavor for your empire -religions, civics, etc.- but allowed you to design your economy based on your resources and your units based on your style of play and the terrain you have to deal with.

Yeah, I know, there are –supposedly- a lot of people that like it, but I’m not one of them and I question the sanity of most of them. I further question the apparent marketing model that this game seems to represent; $50.00 –at least- up front for the stripped down basics plus God only knows how much for each “splat book” that they grace us with down the road. I’ve seen this model elsewhere in the gaming community –Wizards of the Coast sound familiar- and I’m just not interested in feeding a company that is so clearly not interested in giving me the maximum value for the dollars they seek to part from me.
 
Over the years Sid Meier’s group has given us some truly great experiences in gaming. It’s a pity all that made it into Civ 5 is Sid’s name. When I consider the genius of the custom unit design system from “Alpha Centari “or the economic models from any of the various incarnations of “Railroads”, I’m even more dissatisfied with the crime that is “Civilization V”. Imagine a game worthy of the name Civilization that allowed you not only a uniqur flavor for your empire -religions, civics, etc.- but allowed you to design your economy based on your resources and your units based on your style of play and the terrain you have to deal with.

Yeah, I know, there are –supposedly- a lot of people that like it, but I’m not one of them and I question the sanity of most of them. I further question the apparent marketing model that this game seems to represent; $50.00 –at least- up front for the stripped down basics plus God only knows how much for each “splat book” that they grace us with down the road. I’ve seen this model elsewhere in the gaming community –Wizards of the Coast sound familiar- and I’m just not interested in feeding a company that is so clearly not interested in giving me the maximum value for the dollars they seek to part from me.


He goes further back than that. Think F15 Strike Eagle.


And I think your post is 100% off the mark.
 
When I consider the genius of the custom unit design system from “Alpha Centari “
That was Brian Reynolds afaik. Sid hasn't been the lead designer since Civ 1. Maybe he should get back to design civ 6 :)
 
Over the years Sid Meier’s group has given us some truly great experiences in gaming. It’s a pity all that made it into Civ 5 is Sid’s name. When I consider the genius of the custom unit design system from “Alpha Centari “or the economic models from any of the various incarnations of “Railroads”, I’m even more dissatisfied with the crime that is “Civilization V”. Imagine a game worthy of the name Civilization that allowed you not only a uniqur flavor for your empire -religions, civics, etc.- but allowed you to design your economy based on your resources and your units based on your style of play and the terrain you have to deal with.

Yeah, I know, there are –supposedly- a lot of people that like it, but I’m not one of them and I question the sanity of most of them. I further question the apparent marketing model that this game seems to represent; $50.00 –at least- up front for the stripped down basics plus God only knows how much for each “splat book” that they grace us with down the road. I’ve seen this model elsewhere in the gaming community –Wizards of the Coast sound familiar- and I’m just not interested in feeding a company that is so clearly not interested in giving me the maximum value for the dollars they seek to part from me.

First: You know that after CivI Sid only had a marginal role in game development, right?

Second: Why does everyone have such a short memory? I mean, yeah, it's been 5 years since CivIV...but honestly.
 
Well, from the looks of it, the numbers don't lie. Civilization V was the most played game on Steam yesterday, topping Call of Duty. Even today right there, Civilization V is number one again, having twice the number of players as the game in second place. Therefore, I don't know the sanity of calling a large majority of people insane, because insanity is a belief that isn't normal. Now, I do understand what you mean by the arguments you presented. Essentially, if I'm correct, you want a game that is complex rather than dumbed down, but you also have to see that Civilization V wasn't totally against dumbing down the gameplay at all, as some people might think. Diplomacy is much more sophisticated than in Civilization IV, where your enemies and friends are essentially just told to you, and military science was applied much more intricately into Civilization V.

Now, I am apart of the party that wants Civilization V to take the route to more historical accuracy, realism, and sophistication. However, the game developers also have to contend with the fact that many gamers are frankly not so smart to be able to handle such complicated gameplay; therefore, what Civilization V has done, from what I've seen, is to make the game more sophisticated in some respects and better in facilitating information so as not to overwhelm the unsophisticated gamer. The only way for the series to move forward is to balance those who want a provocative gameplay and those who just want to run around and destroy a bunch of cities.
 
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