Ask Sid Meier 604
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.
Originality (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Originality (Score:2, Insightful)
There are a large number of titles which promise originality and fail to deliver, but doom is not among them. It is exactly what it says it is.
What sort of "original" game do you propose? (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps if you tell us what sort of original game that you'd like, an individual or gaming company will run with the idea and create the sort of game you're thinking of.
Re:Originality (Score:5, Insightful)
Or take, perhaps, Civilization IV?
Re:Originality (Score:2, Insightful)
What is different about your games? (Score:3, Insightful)
Elements of a successful game (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What sort of "original" game do you propose? (Score:3, Insightful)
Pardon me, but that seems a little silly. The game designers are being paid for their creativity. It's one thing for A. Random Slashdotter not to have any creative ideas for games; for a designer, it is a serious problem.
For an entire industry, such creative bankrupcy would be a disgrace.
But really, as far as I can see, the problem is not a lack of originality in the industry. The problem seems to be that the game studios are increasingly unwilling to fund anything but sequels and remakes.
And I think that's a legitmate cause for complaint.
Re:What sort of "original" game do you propose? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Would you support Linux for your future games? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Challenges in Artificial Intelligence (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:The Square Grid (Score:2, Insightful)
Any game that tries to use hexes either has to overlay the alpha key board (eg: wedxza), use a convoluted selection system (eg: left-left-left-up) or get away from the keyboard completely. The mapping is pretty straightforward: it needs some thinking and the boundaries need to be managed differently but otherwise it is not much more difficult than dealing with diagonals. Perhaps now that they've got most of the mousing problems sorted (including the social/marketing ones) we can hope for this in Alpha Centuri II. I wouldn't expect to see it in this title though.
My question for Sid:
Have you ever played Space Empires? What did you think? Have you though about doing a space game?
Re:Top Billing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What sort of "original" game do you propose? (Score:3, Insightful)
If a game is special enough it will find its audience, GTA3 was not marketed to casual gamers at first, but its originality shone through and for better or worse is now a mainstream phonomenon.
If consumers really hated the mediocre games that are given prominent retail shelf space then they wouldn't buy them and the retailers, publishers and game developers would try and satisfy the consumer with different types of games. Just like any other medium (film, tv, music) the burden is on the games companies to produce titles that entertain people (to the extend that they want to plonk down $50 for the privilege). Like the rest of the entertainment business games companies live and die by their audience.
Re:Different Aspects? (Score:4, Insightful)