A good article. If anything it understates how obviously influenced the designers were by Frank Herbert's novels. The little vignettes of quotes are a common device in his books. The transhumanist themes too. And of course, there's the obvious parallel between the Human Hive and Herbert's book Hellstrom's Hive.
Alpha Centauri
31–40 of 78 posts
Re: Alpha Centauri
#32One of my favorite games of all time. Like others have said, the quotes/videos/etc presented during secret projects or research breakthroughs left quite a mark on my young mind.
That and the X-COM: UFO Defense opening cinematic lol
Re: Alpha Centauri
#33One of my favorite games of all time. Like others have said, the quotes/videos/etc presented during secret projects or research breakthroughs left quite a mark on my young mind. That and the X-COM: UFO Defense opening cinematic lol
WARNING! WARNING! UFO DETECTED!
Re: Alpha Centauri
#34https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/base-facility-g... This is a very cool blog that analyses SMAC, Bryan Reynolds comments in a few places, too.
Re: Alpha Centauri
#35One of the best parts of SMAC was the game manual that came with the physical copy, sometimes I wonder if it's still hiding in a junk box somewhere in my parent's house. It wasn't only the expected kinds of controls documentation but mixed with game lore was real science.
>If Alpha Centauri inspires a few young scientists and astronauts; if it convinces a few more citizens to write to their congressmen and work to rejuvenate our space program, humanity’s space program, that will surely be its greatest and most lasting accomplishment.
I'm thinking given the comments here it succeeded.
https://oldgamesdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/Sid_Meiers_A...
Re: Alpha Centauri
#36my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the g…
I have “human behavior is economic behavior” permanently etched into my brain.
and it is! What I think is particularly good about the media from this game is that many opposing views are represented and each of them are steelman, as opposed to strawman representations. I'm not the religious sort but when Sister Miriam states:
> ... you are trampling on the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem!
I get chills.
Re: Alpha Centauri
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have “human behavior is economic behavior” permanently etched into my brain.
and it is! What I think is particularly good about the media from this game is that many opposing views are represented and each of them are steelman, as opposed to strawman representations. I'm not the religious sort but when Sister Miriam states: > ... you are trampling on the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem! I get chills.
Hell yeah. That’s another good one.
Re: Alpha Centauri
#38What really set Alpha Centauri apart for me was the fictional history and how it is presented. Civilization's tech tree is a form of human history, accompanied by famous quotes contextualizing the importance of the discoveries. Alpha Centauri presents its tech to you the same way, but it's inventions are science fiction, and likewise the quotes [1] are fictional, from the important characters, the major players of th…
I find that Lal quote quite ironic, given how the free flow of information has backfired somewhat in the modern world by devaluing journalism to the cost of nothing. This has resulted in misinformation proliferating online and the general population perhaps becoming even less informed than previous generations.
The modern world devalued almost every valuable thing into nothingness, and values only a handful of well-controlled items at impracticable levels.
This is a very general problem, and doesn't detract much for any idea about any one thing in particular.
Re: Alpha Centauri
#39my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the g…
It could be interesting to have a first person 4x, where the player is a unit in the game (the leader) and only has local information. Up until the information age it would be mostly played by letters delivered on horseback. Perhaps also state visits and talking to other nations' diplomats.
I recommend the Floris mod for Mount & Blade, where you get exactly this (well, except that you can't really research radio).
Re: Alpha Centauri
#40What really set Alpha Centauri apart for me was the fictional history and how it is presented. Civilization's tech tree is a form of human history, accompanied by famous quotes contextualizing the importance of the discoveries. Alpha Centauri presents its tech to you the same way, but it's inventions are science fiction, and likewise the quotes [1] are fictional, from the important characters, the major players of th…
I find that Lal quote quite ironic, given how the free flow of information has backfired somewhat in the modern world by devaluing journalism to the cost of nothing. This has resulted in misinformation proliferating online and the general population perhaps becoming even less informed than previous generations.
I’d argue that misinformation is a type of information control too. If you can’t stop information from spreading you can simply drown it in nonsense for the same effect.