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.

Dear Mr. Civ Creator

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Mr. Creator of Civ;

Can I please have my softmore year back?

Re:Dear Mr. Civ Creator

[realmolo]

Not until you learn to spell sophomore.

Re:Dear Mr. Civ Creator

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Apparently that was the year they taught spelling.

Burning time

[Mick Ohrberg]

How would you respond if someone accused you as being the reason for hours upon hours of neglected work, laundry, yardwork, homework, pets, spouses, wifes, dental appointments...? *guilty of all of the above*

You nearly made me flunk out of College!

[ellem]

Was your intent to release Pirates! with the final years of my College education a conincidence or were you attempting to have me fail out of college and live a life of squalor?

Are you, in fact, my long lost arch nemesis?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Time

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there any way of getting the countless hours of playing Civilization as a kid back?

Re:The question that's on all of our minds:

[Ruprecht the Monkeyb]

It's a question of unit scale. One tank icon = 1 tank, but 1 spearmen icon = 1000 spearmen. Spearmen 1-472 are used to immobilize the tank by mucking up the treads. Spearmen 473-678 render the tank weaponless by wedging their arms in the barrel \ until it misfires. Spearmen 679-947 die of starvation waiting for the crew to run out of MREs. Spearmen 948 declare victory and move on to the next tank.

Re:Time

[Skater]

Build the Time Machine wonder...

Re:other uses

[NotoriousQ]

I do not know, but the invasion of Iraq could have been planned using Civ II. It looked like my favorite strategy. 2 Runs of 10 stealth bombers each on the cities with city walls, then three division of tanks, and some riflemen behind them to keep the cities guarded. My problem was that I always push on with the tanks to the bigger cities, meanwhile my riflemen are being overwhelmed by the partisans that appear all over the map, and I can not get the production going because of the riots in the cities I capture. Meanwhile, in my home cities I have riots because I have too many troops too far away from my cities. Makes me want to switch the government to something a bit more palatable, like despotism, and shut them up by creating a bunch of conscripts, and then using those to make everyone calm.

My question

[elgatozorbas]

Have you got any idea how many PhD's you nukes with these infernally addictive games?

Re:What is your opinion...

[Rei]

On the same subject:

I am interested in a career in computers, because I eventually want to work in the SETI program. However, while there are plenty of courses in electronics at my school, it doesn't have any courses in either mass production or miniaturization. Should I change schools? I've considered dropping out of school and becoming a spy for the government, but I don't really think that I know enough about communism to pull it off.

Sincerely,
      Irresolute in Iowa

Re:Dear Mr. Civ Creator

[Zevets]

Actually I would like to lodge a complaint against Mr Meier.

When I was 7 years old, you released Civ II, like a drug dealer giving out free samples of cocaine to get kids addicted and coming back for the rest of their life.

Since then I have been trying to get over my PC gaming addiction, and my success in school is dependent I stop upon these games.

It is my junior year in HS, and what do you do????

You release Civ 4, you sick bastard, in the one year of my HS which truly counts.

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

[Rei]

Well, you could always go to "hybrids" of genres. I can picture it now!

  * Katamari vs. Doom - "We Love Demons!": Roll demons up into a ball, starting with the tiniest of demons, up to monstrous demons the size of hell, all of which struggle to kill you. Use powerful ball-rolling weapons such as the chain-firing gun and the BFG (big freaking gumball) to assist you in your task.

  * Nintendogs vs. Command and Conquer vs. Full Throttle - "Full Adorable Command": Send wave after wave of adorable little hand-raised puppies after a single oversized tank and its support infrastructure, to the tune of "Flight of the Valkyries".

  * Civilization vs. Tie Fighter - "Imperial Civilization": Carefully establish imperial control across the galaxy from aboard your starship, as you subvert rebel partisan factions, dominate technology, and crush any newly developed forms of government

  * Monkey Island vs. World of Warcraft - "Monkey World": Everyone wants to be a mighty pirate! But do you have the pure unbridled insult skills? The power over puns? The utterly whimiscal mind? Prove your mettle online with many thousands of rival pirate-wannabees!

  * Tetris vs. Diablo - "Puzzle Demons": How many demons can *you* fit in a phone booth? Well, it depends on how you stack them, and how hard they fight back!

  * Zork vs. Nethack - "Zorkhack": "You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a mailbox here." Open mailbox "You have unleashed a mail demon, a swarm of killer bees, five balrogs, Newt Gingrich, and a swarm of trolls chanting in unison 'WHAT did you say about my mother??'! You die."

  * Zero-Wing vs. Earthbound - "Ground Towards": You won't understand a bit of what's going on, but you'll have a great time nonetheless!

Re:The question that's on all of our minds:

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the crunchier and gooier bits of the spearmen gum up the workings of the tank.

Re:other uses

[Anonymous Coward]

In all fairness, George Bush tried harder than you give him credit for. On the advice of John Ashcroft, he tried to switch the government type to Fundamentalism for its superior advantages in wars, but he couldn't figure out how to work the menu thingy.

Bah, boring question

[hayden]

I want to know how he makes all the wee hours of the morning disappear like that.