Ask Sid Meier

Sid Meier is a household name in gaming. Titles he's designed, such as Railroad Tycoon, Pirates!, and Civilization, are pillars in the history of PC gaming. This year the fourth chapter in the Civilization series of games is being released, and we have a great opportunity. Today we're asking for questions about design and philosophy to pass on to Mr. Meier. On Wednesday, we'll be asking for questions to give to the Civilization IV development team. That day you'll have the chance to ask technical questions about the moddability and design concepts that went into the game. For today, here's your opportunity to put questions to one of the most respected game designers in the industry. Keep them topical, and one question per post please. We'll pass on the ten best questions, his responses will go up as soon as we get them back.

Comments

Originality

[thedogcow]

Here is my question... When is the gaming industry going to start introducing original games and not producing sequels just for the sake of production and/or profit? Take Doom 3 for example... yes the graphics are creative and great (that is when you can see them and you're not in the dark) but it is more-or-less the same game as Doom. I'd rather play something new even rather than rehash the same plot outline in a sequel.

Re:Originality

[goldspider]

"When is the gaming industry going to start introducing original games and not producing sequels just for the sake of production and/or profit? Take Doom 3 for example..."

Or take, perhaps, Civilization IV?

Re:What sort of "original" game do you propose?

[EpsCylonB]

You have a point, the reason why publishers love sequels and genre standards is because new original games are a risk that rarely pays off. Who's fault is this ?, its the consumer, the games companies are merely giving us what we tell them we want (with our wallets). Of course if you have an original inventive idea for a game and you are sure it will be popular and sell millions then with current online infratstructure it is easier than ever before for an independant to distribute their their own games.

Re:Challenges in Artificial Intelligence

[east coast]

Finally, when the player comes out on top despite all this, the AI civs simply all gang up on him and arbitrarily start wars when the player is close to victory regardless of how benevolent, honorable, and generous of a diplomat he has been.

Amen! Yet, there is even a worse side to all of this... Just the other day I was playing Civ III, my Civ was on a small island and never had much of a chance to really get that early expansion of cities that seem to make most Civs thrive. Thru this I kept up diplomatic relations and only had one real war (resulting in the enemy losing on city and me extending the olive branch). Granted, I was left behind slightly in tech and a lot of wonders but at the age of retirement the game made me seem like nothing more than a sack of crap for not taking over 60% of either the land or the population. Does this mean that in order to win you HAVE to destroy other civs? It seems that way to me. There is no advantage in diplomatic play in the Civ games.

It almost makes me think the game should be called "Kick the Auslander's Asses" instead. I'd like to see a fair and honorable Civ be judged better than "weak" for playing a decent diplomatic game.