Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 172 posts

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#151

Post by Gravityloss »

hasmanean wrote: post #132
Gravityloss wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the game moved to bonus calculation. Playing a spread sheet so to speak. What happened with units and the map was secondary. The Civilization board game was similarly boring. Most of the time there were no wars, and everybody was just trading and dealing with disasters and barbarians.

How realistic.

Yeah maybe that's what rulers have actually spent their time on. Ie very little energy is left over for actual territory expansion attempts. Most of the time you're putting out fires.

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#152

Post by NittLion78 »

selimthegrim wrote: post #126
NittLion78 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's Adrian Carmack (no relation to John). He made most of the characters you see in the game out of clay before they were pixelated. Can't recommend Masters of Doom enough, the book that talks about the history of id Software. That all these guys came together in the same place is a miracle in itself.

And in Shreveport , nonetheless. Go look at that building on Google Street View sometimes.

One of the strangest buildings I've ever seen. I wonder if it wasn't a street-level stall market or something first because now it's basically a parking lot with an unfortunate building packed under it.

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#154

Post by burntoutfire »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #141

I absolutely adore Civ V, it's one of my top played games of all time (behind SC1, SC2, and now Dominion the card game). I play an Earth style map, large size, with 10-15 other Civs, and just go to town on Science/Industry. I love to play as Babylon, Korea, Egypt, and Poland, and I love to play on Emperor (Difficulty 6). I've tried playing other Civs and on Other difficulties, but this set-up of "strong civ" on level…

I'm just starting to get serious with Civ V (have logged 100+ hours in the past couple of months). My favourite is smaller map (the AI turns take too long on larger maps), and large islands. The islands make war more fun, as you can sail to most enemy cities with your fleet and don't have to crawl through the landmass. Also, once Frigates are available, the land units become largely irrelevant, but the AI doesn't really comprehend that, which gives you a big advantage.

I play as Phoenicians, as they get nice bonuses for a water world.

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#155

Post by xboxnolifes »

torstenvl wrote: post #89
UncleMeat wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Referring to abstract actors as "she" and "her" only alienates a very specific kind of reader. Consciously using female pronouns in these contexts is a very small way of pushing against the norm of everything being male, which is commendable. You'll see it more and more in CS papers nowadays. I cannot possibly imagine being upset by this.

It alienates everyone who cares about accuracy and everyone who is sick of politics infiltrating every last corner of our lives. You may not fall into either of those two camps, but let me assure you, it's a lot of people. For reference, the gender-neutral singular in English is "they/them/their" they /T͟Hā/ pronoun 2. used to refer to a person of unspecified gender.

> For reference, the gender-neutral singular in English is "they/them/their"

Let me also assure you that "they" hasn't always been (and still isn't to many) accepted as a singular pronoun. Crazy how things change.

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#156

Post by vanderZwan »

selimthegrim wrote: post #125
vanderZwan wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it matters whether or not you look at games that are a single "work" or games that are part of a series. For example, I think Lukas Pope is a good modern example of single author creating really unique and novel games. Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri on the other hand are more like good examples of fresh ideas being injected into a series under new leadership.

It’s debatable whether Obra Dinn is a video novel instead, although you can argue it predicted the recent Columbo revival

In my opinion Obra Dinn is an interactive radio play with graphics. Hyper-radio, if you will.

However, my definition of what can be considered a game is also quite broad, and Obra Dinn clearly has an interactive game loop so I think it counts.

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#157

Post by gruez »

vanderZwan wrote: post #46
prvc wrote: post #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…

I think it matters whether or not you look at games that are a single "work" or games that are part of a series. For example, I think Lukas Pope is a good modern example of single author creating really unique and novel games. Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri on the other hand are more like good examples of fresh ideas being injected into a series under new leadership.

>Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri on the other hand are more like good examples of fresh ideas being injected into a series under new leadership.

I didn't play civ2, but what fresh ideas did alpha centauri bring?

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#158

Post by ben_w »

Bobylonian wrote: post #149
ben_w wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All the greatest scientists in late 1970s were talking about coming of a new Ice Age. Careful — what was reported in general news was (and is) different from the work of the actual scientists. This is even true when the the news is reporting on a specific scientific report. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/06/that-70s-myth-did-cl... > All the science fiction from tha…

Let me repeat my words: "All the greatest scientists in late 1970s were talking about coming of a new Ice Age." Different theories of global warming at that time were only theories and not that significant and are not even comparable to that heavy weight of the whale what is understood under "Global warming" today. >You can’t use sci-fi to draw conclusions about anything except the culture in which it rises. I can dr…

> even Hitler Nazi behaviour of scientists,

Rounding up millions and forcing them into slave labour camps and working them to death in weapons factories in a futile effort to conquer the Soviet Union?

No?

Then have you considered the possibility that it’s the “it’s not real” campaigners who are politicising this?

> However my conclusions about human behaviours has nothing to do with the volcanic activity, that will prove theory of Global warming wrong.

Volcanic activity is already accounted for. Human activity vastly exceeds its effects.

> Providing numbers like these are what I call a religious belief.

What would you consider “not religious”?

I’m basing 90%-ish on the size of change we are concerned with preventing versus the magnitude of the difference between the earth and the moon:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Average%20temperature%2...

Though frankly, as you’ve already gone for argument by reductio-nazi-absurdum, I’m honestly expecting you to dispute the temperature of the moon at this point.

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#159

Post by torstenvl »

saalweachter wrote: post #117
torstenvl wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It alienates everyone who cares about accuracy and everyone who is sick of politics infiltrating every last corner of our lives. You may not fall into either of those two camps, but let me assure you, it's a lot of people. For reference, the gender-neutral singular in English is "they/them/their" they /T͟Hā/ pronoun 2. used to refer to a person of unspecified gender.

> You may not fall into either of those two camps, but let me assure you, it's a lot of people. I think thou'st meant "Thou may not fall into either of those two camps, but let me assure thee, it's a lot of people." The commenter thou art replying to is a singular person, not a group, and as we know, while other words may come and go, the use of pronouns in a language does not change over time.

Singular "they" dates back to the 14th century. "Thou" fell out of use in the 17th century.

https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/200700

https://www.etymonline.com/word/thee#etymonline_v_10720

Re: Sid Meier and the meaning of ‘Civilization’

#160

Post by 29athrowaway »

flyingfences wrote: post #91
29athrowaway wrote: post #11

Civ 4 was the last true Civ to have a gameplay similar to the the originals. Civ 5 and 6 introduced unit stacking constraints that completely change the way the game is played. If WW2 happened in Civ 5 or 6, the Normandy landings would not have been possible because you would not be able to stack large number of units in one tile. Those landings were "a death stack". But even if every large battle in history could be…

Call me strange, but I actually really enjoyed the minutiae of managing unit deployments across the map, engulfing an enemy city, in Civ 5. It felt more like an actual assault than the stacks of doom in Civ 4.

There are mechanics in Civ 4 that discourage the stacks of doom. Artillery, bombers, tactical nukes, etc.
Post reply on HN