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Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

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Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#101

Post by nissehulth »

I think Civ.Net was the first game I played on the internet against someone I didn't already knew. Could have been early 1996.

It wasn't the best gaming experience though. Each turn took like forever (well, minutes), after a few hours we had to pause the game and agree on when to continue the next day.

Still, finding an opponent "on demand" was something that did hint about what was to come later.

(well, there were BBS "door games" earlier, but not really "real time" in the same way)

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#102

Post by gurkendoktor »

phillco wrote: post #36

My favorite thing about Civ is that its creator has kept control over it, and continues to evolve it. We'll probably be enjoying a new Civ in 2026. The charm is that it's the same game in many respects — parts evolve, but the core remains. This seems unusual; I can point to several popular 90's games that peaked there and never recovered (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Age of Empires II, and arguably SimCity 4 if you include…

Age of Empires 2 is actually alive (again). A modernised HD edition, a new add-on for it, and also a new add-on for Age of Mythology have been released on Steam in the last years.

That's not really the same as releasing proper sequels, but good enough for me :)

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#103

Post by animal531 »

endgame wrote: post #32
minikites wrote: post #13

Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri are still the best balance of simplicity vs fussiness in my opinion. I like Civ 5 quite a lot but there's a lot of fussing about with the resources like horses or oil and there are a lot of edge-case city improvements.

Given the amount of fussing required to get the most of Supply Crawlers in SMAC, I'm surprised to hear that viewpoint. Nevertheless, the scope of SMAC's vision continues to inspire: https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/ is analysing the canon and implications from the various quotes and project videos.

They take some manual intervention, but even at high difficulty level you don't really need to use them.

What made SMAC great was how many different viable strategies there were (not that they were as well balanced as those in later Civ iterations). It was great fun to mess with other factions just by modifying the terrain and sea level.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#104

Post by vidarh »

yen223 wrote: post #61
phillco wrote: post #36

My favorite thing about Civ is that its creator has kept control over it, and continues to evolve it. We'll probably be enjoying a new Civ in 2026. The charm is that it's the same game in many respects — parts evolve, but the core remains. This seems unusual; I can point to several popular 90's games that peaked there and never recovered (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Age of Empires II, and arguably SimCity 4 if you include…

Strategy games in general seem to have hit a slump for some reason.

I think computing power and graphics simply got to a level where the temptation is strong to invest lots of resources on polish or "scaling up" rather than refining game mechanics.

Many other types of games have suffered similarly when upgrading graphics etc. allowed a lot of apparent quick wins. After all, the graphics and superficial effects are much more immediately visible.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#105

Post by adwf »

yen223 wrote: post #61
phillco wrote: post #36

My favorite thing about Civ is that its creator has kept control over it, and continues to evolve it. We'll probably be enjoying a new Civ in 2026. The charm is that it's the same game in many respects — parts evolve, but the core remains. This seems unusual; I can point to several popular 90's games that peaked there and never recovered (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Age of Empires II, and arguably SimCity 4 if you include…

Strategy games in general seem to have hit a slump for some reason.

Partly because it's difficult to make them work well on console, but mostly it's just down to numbers.

The article mentions that Civ has sold over 30 million copies over the 25yr life of the franchise, whereas some thing like Call of Duty sells 20+ million every year.

When big games publishers look at that they won't even bother commisioning a strategy game. That's why it's only independent companies like Firaxis and Paradox (who are their own publisher) making these games.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#107

Post by Shivetya »

zem wrote: post #42
mattzito wrote: post #24

I started playing civilization when I was 12 or 13 (Civilization 1), and still, to this day, the closest thing I have to meditation is playing Civ V. I travel a decent amount, and one of my great joys is being on a plane without wifi but with inseat power (Civ V on the mac is a ridiculous power hog), and knowing that I've got X hours of civilization to play with no one to bother me. My strategy isn't great, I have ev…

not sure if it's just because I'm older and less into gaming, but civ5 seems markedly less fun as a game than civ1 and civ2 were. I just couldn't get into it, and I used to spend entire nights on the older games.

Civ2 was a world of railroads. I always "fondly" remember the games for my getting nuked by Ghandi or Lincoln

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#108

Post by eropple »

danharaj wrote: post #57
zem wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, missed everything between alpha centauri and civ5. I just picked civ5 up out of nostalgia when the humble bundle ran it.

Civ 5 is definitely the weakest game in the series. I think Civ 4/Beyond the Sword was the highest point the series has yet reached.

I felt that way before the Civ5 expansions. Bounced right off of it. With the expansions, though, I enjoy Civ5 quite a lot. It is emphatically not the same game as Civ4BTS, which I still play pretty regularly too, but it's a pretty decent spin on the formula as far as I'm concerned.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#109

Post by V-2 »

kinghajj wrote: post #39

Nobody else has mentioned this, but something Civ has taught me is how to appreciate realpolitik. Nothing makes it more clear than when you catch yourself having thoughts like: - "Washington spawned too close for comfort; they're a threat to my peoples' long term security. Annihilate them first." - "Hmm, the Mayans have some strategically valuable territory..." - "Hey, the Persians are way back in the Renaissance, wh…

Civilization taught me (or tried to teach me) that there is no corruption whatsoever in Democracy... Stalin and Mao were the greatest leaders of their respective civilizations... United Nations is one of the world wonders... creating United Nations requires Communism... : )

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#110

Post by eropple »

creshal wrote: post #95
elthran wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you'll end up trading those normal realpolitik thoughts for "I'll marry my heir off to my sister because she's a genius", "I'll just have these 5 children assassinated for their father's land". Choose your own poison.

Ideally you choose their poison, not your own. Unless you want to commit suicide to be able to bring your strong, genius heir to power.

Gotta get the Depressed trait first for that.
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