Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
newyorker.com
Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
1–10 of 172 posts
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#2Archive without the annoying popup:
https://archive.is/enQvE
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#3"There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the Infinite"
Games are infinity generators.
Mark Zuckerberg and Sid Meier are superficial heros. They just stand around with their 6 inch chimp brains staring at that Infinity they have seeded, trying to take credit for what works and hide behind good intentions for what fails. They and their behavior distracts, and should be filtered out of any discussion of Games as infinity generators.
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#4>A growing pile of video-game histories [...] suggest that the medium has always had collective effort at its heart, from its academic beginnings to its ascent into everyday life. In Meier’s memoir, we discover that he was a good game-maker when he fought this essential fact, but that he became great when he learned to embrace it.
>The strength of the modding community is, instead, the very reason the series survived.
Oddly, the best games to bear his imprimatur, Civ II, and (by far) Alpha Centauri, were not headed by Meier. It does seem like games, of all things, would have the potential to be at their greatest under the vision of a single author, but history has shown the opposite (many times, after designers of successful games go on to head their own projects with total control, the results fall short of their predecessors). Part of this might have to do with the possibility space of game states (far too great for a single person to test, explore, or even conceive of), and also the complexity involved in programming a complete game. However, another explanation is that it is still possible to achieve greatness via that approach, and we merely have not had any genius game designers so far.
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#5"There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the Infinite" Games are infinity generators. Mark Zuckerberg and Sid Meier are superficial heros. They just stand around with their 6 inch chimp brains staring at that Infinity they have seeded, trying to take credit for what works and hide behind good intentions for what fails. They and th…
What the hell are you actually on about.
Don't take any single point of view as Canon gospel, sure. But just completely dismissing them would call into question whether anyone's view is actually relevant.
What nihilistic nonsense.
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#6"There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the Infinite" Games are infinity generators. Mark Zuckerberg and Sid Meier are superficial heros. They just stand around with their 6 inch chimp brains staring at that Infinity they have seeded, trying to take credit for what works and hide behind good intentions for what fails. They and th…
I have no idea what you're getting at here, but it certainly isn't any kind of response to the actual article posted.
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#7After an 18-hour Civ III maration in 1996 or so, I just haven't had the stomach for games.
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#8After an 18-hour Civ III maration in 1996 or so, I just haven't had the stomach for games.
Civ III was released in 2001, but I feel the same way.
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#9After an 18-hour Civ III maration in 1996 or so, I just haven't had the stomach for games.
Civ III came out in 2001...
Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’
#10>A growing pile of video-game histories [...] suggest that the medium has always had collective effort at its heart, from its academic beginnings to its ascent into everyday life. In Meier’s memoir, we discover that he was a good game-maker when he fought this essential fact, but that he became great when he learned to embrace it. >The strength of the modding community is, instead, the very reason the series survived…
I think that's just like the fact that John Lennon did his best work in The Beatles, or that George Lucas's best films are the ones where he was challenged by collaborators. Once art requires a certain amount of diverse techniques in order to be produced, the chances that a single individual will excel in all of them fall dramatically.