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

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71–80 of 195 posts

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

#71
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did you ever play 4? Was the best one, IMO.

I tried playing V. Probably spent 15 hours on it to make sure it was the game and not me. Finally decided that V and I just would never get along, and I went back to IV. Best of the series, imho.

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

#72
post #61
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.

Check out Paradox's games.

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

#73
post #42

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.

It's not your age; tons of people don't like Civ V. The game has a serious problem when it comes to the marginal utility of individual moves. There's way, way more things to do in the game but most of those are obvious moves in the execution of your larger strategy. This is not a good recipe for fun!

Alpha Centauri was always my favourite game in the series but these days I find myself playing a lot of Master of Magic, a game with way more tactical and strategic variety than any of the Civ games.

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

#74
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did you ever play 4? Was the best one, IMO.

I never was a Civ player, but through involvement in a different gaming community (Descent) I ended up as friends with the guy (Bob "Sirian" Thomas) who led the Civ IV alpha-testing effort. He noticed that they didn't have any inexperienced testers to look for the sorts of things that would make the game hard to understand for new players, so he asked me if I'd be willing to get involved.

In the middle of all of the balance tweaks the expert players were calling for, the devs took the time to listen to my newbie feedback along the lines of "every so often this chart showing political alliances pops up, but I have no idea how to trigger it intentionally" and they added easy-access buttons to the HUD for me. At one point I counted something like a dozen minor UI improvements that had come out of me saying "I don't understand what I'm doing". They, of course, didn't make any game-balance tweaks for me because I had no business even attempting to comment on game balance.

The fact that they knew not merely to listen, but what types of feedback to listen to from which testers, really made the game shine. They listened to experts when it came to strategy, and noobs when it came to discoverability, and all sorts of players when it came to general aesthetics and coolness. IMO a lot of game-design efforts could learn from that.

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

#75

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…

Oh my. I wish I could always do this on the plane. In reality, I rarely have the time to do that "full immersion", but when I do, I love it.

I started with Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon, and Civ I, and kept playing them until recently. I love these games.

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

#76
post #29

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…

I still haven't really been able to make the jump from Civ 5 to Civ:BE. BE's civ and tech choices somehow manage to feel painfully samey and confusingly unorganized all at the same time.

[deleted]

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

#78
post #6

Amazing series. I still recall being able to recount all of the 7 wonders, all of the large Greek city states, and all that other countless historical context that the developers packed into the game that gave me a slight leg up in middle school history class. And of course I'll encourage my children to play someday. No childhood is complete without having to fight back Gandhi's unrelenting hordes of musketmen with s…

Just hope that your kids won't try to answer questions about Ghandi in class :)

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

#79
post #19

Played the original Civilization on an Amiga and have played every release since (including CivNet). Civilization II was easily the best game in the series. It's sad that Civ V, as pretty as it is, is so freaking horrible.

One of the greatest games of all time for sure. It's a pity that they also dropped the ball on a decent mobile version too - seems like the medium could lend itself well to a well designed turn based strategy.

My thoughts as well. Similar with SI Games' Football Manager. I just don't want a dumbed down version, but the full thing without compromises.

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

#80

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…

It is remarkable how the win-or-lose outcome of the game changes the player's mindset. In the normal course of real events, I probably would never kill billions of people, but if I have 60% of the world population and I need 64% to win the game, it actually makes perfect sense to just nuke everybody, to bring down the denominator.

Better hope that if / when general intelligence AI arrives that there are isn't anything which optimizes for "bringing down the denominator" of the human population.
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