Asymmetrical Information

The last game I got sucked into was Warcraft II. That was six years ago. Now, I can't even imagine where I'd find the time to get into something like this...unless, of course, sleep became optional.

Civ2 was more fun than Civ3.

Anonymous is right -- Civ 2 was more fun.

The wonder movies in Civ 2 were great - and according to the linked article, they'll be back in Civ 4. I have to confess, though, that I am totally hooked on Civ 3. The only good thing about that is that I've given up playing Alpha Centauri.

Civ3 was a bust, so why do you care about Civ4? Even worse, it's a rule that when a franchise adopts a 3D engine, gameplay suffers enormously. Face it, computer gaming is dying. All that's left is first person shooters, online RPGs, and sports games. Empire builders, strategy, and single-player RPGs are on life support. Expect Civ4 to be an ugly retread (yet one that will have higher system requirements) of a crappy sequel to a sequel.

Megan - we're different enough from one another that I wonder sometimes why I read (apart from the intrinsic value of the verbiage, which is, well, intrinsic).

Nice to finally have some insight. *grin*

I can state with blushing confidence that the original Civ is one of the reasons why I never earned my degree.

And slag on the unexpectedly-low production values of Civ 3 if you must, but the gameplay is sooo much better.

Can't wait for the new one.

(Has it been three and a half years already?!)

I loved Civ 2 as it was really my first adult computer game on my first computer as an adult. Civ 3-well, it sucked dog fur. At best, it was slow and boring, at worst, unplayable and deleted for Civ 2.

Civ 4-we'll see, I suppose.

I thought Alpha Centauri was better than Civ 2 or 3. Civ 4 looks like it's taking some of the good bits of SMAC, so I'll probably get it eventually.

John

Alpha Centuari is still the best sequel to the original Civ game. The creativity in the story, tech development and characters I have not seen repeated in another game. Who can forget the quote for the "recycling tanks" invention.

"It is the duty of every citizen to go into the tanks and become one with all the people."
Chairman Shen-ji Yang

Civ II had too many exploits. Civ III demands a militaristic approach as the only way to be certain of resources is to control a very large part of the map. Personally, I liked CTP - especially the use of combined arms. I suspect that the Firaxis people are prejudiced against the combined arms approach because it wasn't theirs. I hope they get over it.

I've played them all, and for much longer than is healthy. I expect I will do the same with Civ IV.

Question for all you Civ fans. Has the game influenced your view of the real world? I suspect that it has made me more pragmatic.

I liked CTP the best and gave up on Civ II and III. Alpha Centauri still remains my favorite (after MOO-1), and I have fun tailoring units with special abilities. Drop Colony Pods really help you expand quickly! So, if Civ IV is half as good as SMAC, it'll be worth it.

Jane, Can I introduce you to Bryan at EconLog? He wears shorts 10 months of the year.

I still say y'all should be playing Rise of Nations with the Thrones and Patriots pack, and Europa Universalis II.

Hey look everybody, Miss. Low-Six-Figures pretends she can't afford a video game!

Evidently ron is unaware how quickly an engrossing video game can destroy both (a) good eating habits and (b) a low-six-figure career.

Also, (c) good sleeping habits, and (d) a college education. I survived my (d) in spite of a gaming habit, but I knew a couple people whose dropping out of engineering school was precipitated almost exclusively by a mix of Quake, Quake2, Ultima Online, and Everquest.

One of the phrases oft heard from those who appreciate certain kinds of games: "What do you mean it's 3:00AM??".

In one office I worked at, Starcraft (which I introduced, I'm ashamed to admit) was referred to as "digital crack cocaine." This stuff really can ruin your life.

Oh lord. Guess I'd better hire my divorce attorney now.

I'm fascinated as to how Ron thinks he knows what I'm earning. (Sadly, he is greatly in error. Of course, if y'all hit the tip jar a lot harder . . . )

I have no idea what y'all are talking about. I'll admit to a Doom addiction more than a decade ago and to an AOL chatroom addiction when the WWW was still in its infancy and my modem was incredibly slow. Heck, I'll even mention a brief period of chain smoking and playing Texas Hold 'Em at ultimatebet.com, but these days I find just keeping up with a dozen or so blogs and reading news is more than enough time on the computer for me. If, however, I decide to look into the Civ4 thing and find myself with even less free time to pursue books and DVDs, I will hold all of you accountable. MB

Has the game influenced your view of the real world?

Ha! Strategy games are great corporate training for geeks who miss out on the pre-business training the jocks are getting through sports and fraternities.

Civ wisdom:

Focus on your own development, but always keep an eye out for competitors. Once someone else gets ahead of you, it's probably too late to catch up. You get nowhere without taking risks, but be sure you have the resources to make your efforts succeed. Plan ahead within reason. Don't fool yourself that you can plan for everything. Keep an eye on the cash flow, not the wealth. Big investments early, no matter how costly, can pay off even bigger in the long run. Make sure your education has a goal and doesn't become an aimless walk. Grab whatever turf you can defend even if you can't take full advantage of it right away.

Did I miss anything?

Maybe Ron was also counting the figures to the right of the decimal.

Games like this are one of the reasons I haven't updated my PC in years - to avoid the temptation. Console games can be time-wasters, but I find the turn-based strategy games on the PC just suck you in and won't let go.

"I knew a couple people whose dropping out of engineering school was precipitated almost exclusively by a mix of Quake, Quake2, Ultima Online, and Everquest." That's nothing. Try getting so absorbed in text-based games that you drop out. I did that 30 years ago. Although also I realized that I was in the wrong major, and the right major wasn't offered at that school...

AT makes a good point about 3D engines and online RPGs. I can't stand either one. My absolute favorite games were the 2D single player RPGs, especially the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series. Does anyone make games like that anymore or are they gone for good?

Oh, and if they ever did a remake of the old MicroProse game Sword of the Samurai the way they did recently for Pirates, I'd be all over it. I actually bought an old copy on eBay and downloaded an MS-DOS simulator (DosBox) so I could play it on a modern system. I'd say it's about a hundred times better than just about anything being produced today.

Games like this are one of the reasons I haven't updated my PC in years - to avoid the temptation. Console games can be time-wasters, but I find the turn-based strategy games on the PC just suck you in and won't let go.

But Sean, turn-based strategy games tend also to have much lower system requirements. I played Civ III comfortably on my old Pentium-III laptop with 128 megs of RAM.

I don't understand all you Civ3 haters out there - nationality finally made a difference in gameplay, the governments were much better balanced. Combat is still too simplistic, but it's never been a pure military game. The only thing I didn't like was the trade model - it forced you to emphasize conquest over commerce. The resource system would have been better if the trade system were improved - the AI were all apparently marxists who didn't understand Pareto efficiency.

I need to spend less time on the net. I'm starting to think that geeks like us are normal.

DRB:

There's Knights of the Old Republic, but I don't think it looks as good as the painted 2D scenes, and since it's essentially a console port, it's not as long or as detailed.

KotOR doesn't look as pretty as, say, Baldur's Gate 2 (though the style is very different), but it's a very good game all the same, especially if you're any kind of Star Wars fan. It also has many of the BG2-style features, like the large cast of NPCs who can rotate in and out of your party and who each come with their own attached subplots. The sequel is less impressive but still serviceable.

Although now extremely old by computer gaming standards, Planescape: Torment remains a game that really should not be missed by anyone who enjoyed the BG or ID series.

I'm not sure I agree that a 3D engine necessarily leads to poor playability. I'm thinking here of the Myth series, WarCraft III, and Rise of Nations (OK, RoN has a dual-architecture engine where the statically-placed units like buildings are 2D and everything else is 3D, but that's just a performance optimization) as counterexamples.

Rise of Nations, in particular, seems to me to do an excellent job of leveraging the best aspects of turn-based strategy games (in their "Conquer the World" campaigns) and real-time (in all of the battles and in the non-CTW game types). This is a very playable game, and unbeatable for its coverage of everything from bows and arrows and pikes to thermonuclear weapons.

Europa Universalis II, though, is, IMHO, still the best actual "grand strategy" game yet computerized. As a consequence, battles are not much to look at—you basically watch each side's morale and numbers of the three military unit types change—but the actual, y'know, strategy of economics, diplomacy, and military power makes all the difference in the world. Be warned, though; it's a very slow game to play. Be prepared to spend an entire afternoon/evening with it in a single session.

"My absolute favorite games were the 2D single player RPGs, especially the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series. Does anyone make games like that anymore or are they gone for good?"

Neverwinter Nights is very reminiscent of BG and ID. But if you want an RPG that just sucks all your time into a black hole, try Morrowind. Better hurry, though; its sequel, Oblivion, is due out later this year.

Absolute favorites -- Sierra's line of 2D adventure games, ie. the "___ Quest" series.

From Kings Quest to Hero's Quest to Space Quest to Police Quest (and Leisure Suit Larry, which they couldn't name in the same format for reasons of decency), these games were some of the most fun I ever had on a computer.

At their heart, they were 2D and text based, and they were incredible. Sierra eventually "updated" them to get rid of the text part in favor of the mouse, and this was a huge mistake.

The computer game landscape hasn't been the same since.

Please Jane, you're too human to slide into a fantasy world at your age, no matter how much fun and challenging it is.

Thanks for the suggestion Rex, but I actually am not a big fan of NWN because of its 3D, almost first-person shooter perspective. Based on the screenshots I've seen, I'd probably feel the same way about Morrowind. It's unfortunate because I know this kind of game is "the future" -- but I greatly preferred the painted backgrounds and pseudo-3D sprites of IWD and e.g. the Fallout series.

I guess it's similar to the way I'm not a big fan of real time strategy games -- I much prefer turn-based, and I'm perfectly happy playing Avalon Hill-style board games put onto a computer platform -- Talonsoft's Rising Sun war game is one that comes to mind.

Seriously geeking out now, but what makes it worse is that I'm a geek who doesn't want to keep up with technology...

Jane, I swear you'd recently said that was your income.

Be warned, though; it's a very slow game to play.

EUII is the game I dreamed of when I was a kid, and yet I have found it hard to find the perfect country. Either you cruise to domination as a major power or spend decades at a time as Wurzburg, Annam, or Tver waiting to earn enough money to raise a small army.

I have to agree with Independent George. I liked Civ III too. I just don't know if I'll ever finish Baldur's Gate II. Every time I start the game something like school on top of a full time job interrupts me long enough to force me to start it over. I'm still working on my latest attempt to run through...haven't played it in weeks but will be giving it my evening tomorrow night. After that...NWN or maybe back to Rise of Nations. I have a long queue of games waiting for my attention. KoTOR and Fable are calling my name as well.

My latest addiction is City Of Heroes. There's just something about spotting a cluster of armor-clad thugs shaking down an innocent pedestrian on a street corner and diving in and beating the holy crap out of them--after which you get a heartfelt "thank you" from the pedestrian (and, hopefully, a nice gift of influence). :-)

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