Topic: Sid Meier talks on Civ Revolution, MMOs, his career so far, etc etc

[MysterD]

Sid Meier in this article from Gamersglobal talks about the upcoming Civ Revolution, MMO's, his career, and etc etc.

Civ: Revolution

GamersGlobal: I can understand why you would want multiplayer games to have a rather short game length, but why is Revolution also short in singleplayer mode? There are many console games out there that are very complex, and very time consuming, just think about the GTA series. These game take hundreds of hours, while Civilization Revolution takes three.

I think the beauty of Civilization is that if you played it once, you want to play it again.

Sid Meier: You can play it on your own pace in singleplayer, because it’s turn based. You can either really think things over, or you can make your moves rapidly. Depending on this and your strategy and your playing style, a game can take anything between three and five hours. I think the beauty of Civilization is that, if you played it once, that only means that you want to play it again. There’s 16 different civilizations to play. Even to play them each once would take at least 50 hours. Then, there’s difficulty levels, every map is different when you start a game. So there’s plenty of play time involved. But you can finish a game in just one evening.

....

GamersGlobal: With the shorter play time and the things you do to make Civilization Revolution more accessible: Do you think that modern gamers have a shorter attention span?

Sid Meier: I think there are a variety of players. Many gamers are very happy to spend hours and hours with Civilization 4 on the PC, for example. On the other hand, we’re bringing Civ to the consoles addressing many players who never have heard of the series. So there’s a tutorial built in the game, there’s a lot of fun things to do. Part of the game certainly is to introduce Civilization to a brand new audience. And then, as they get a little more into it, we can spend a little more time explaining all the technologies, letting them try the different governments and building the different units.

So, I guess b/c it's not the same hardcore style of the usual Civ series where you have one civilization you spend a long time of game length with, they're not calling it Civ 5.

It makes sense to not call it Civ 5, since this game is not aimed at one or two campaigns to take you forever; it's about craploads of episodic-sized campaigns to take you a very short time; and if you want to do them all, it'll take you a long time.

EDIT:

GamersGlobal: Last question, what about Civilization 5 ?

Sid Meier: We should talk again sometime later this year...

Hehe!

[Pugnate]

Civilization is one of my all time favorites, yet I skipped Civ 4. I knew it would be huge time sink, so I thought I'd just go for Civ 5 heh.

[Quemaqua]

I should get Civ 4 now that it's probably a bit cheaper.  Or maybe not.  I don't know.  They release too many of the fucking things, honestly.  I love the series, but where's the motivation to buy when you know that you're getting a better product not so far down the line?  I mean, it isn't as bad a sports franchise or whatever, because the additions tend to change the gameplay quite a bit between numbers, but... I don't know.  I could go for some Civ, though, so we'll see whether I get Civ 4 or the DS one.  Civ on the go would be awesome as heck.

[idolminds]

Well if anyone is interested in Civ 4, GoGamer has the Civilization Chronicles for $25 on madness special. Contains the following:

Sid Meier's Civilization I
Sid Meier's Civilization II
Civilization II: Fantastic Worlds
Civilization II: Conflicts in Civilization
Civilization II: Test of Time
Sid Meier's Civilization III
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests
Sid Meier's Civilization IV

[Pugnate]

I should get Civ 4 now that it's probably a bit cheaper.  Or maybe not.  I don't know.  They release too many of the fucking things, honestly.  I love the series, but where's the motivation to buy when you know that you're getting a better product not so far down the line?  I mean, it isn't as bad a sports franchise or whatever, because the additions tend to change the gameplay quite a bit between numbers, but... I don't know.  I could go for some Civ, though, so we'll see whether I get Civ 4 or the DS one.  Civ on the go would be awesome as heck.

Well Civ 2 came 1996, Civ 3 in 2001 (5 years later) and Civ 4 in 2005 (4 years later).

I'd say that's pretty OK. It is actually much better than a lot of franchises.

That's not to say I don't understand what you mean. That's probably I was pleased to see Civ 5 so soon, as I didn't purchase Civ 4.

By the way, do you really want to play Civ on the DS? Lately whenever I bought a cross platform PSP release, I always end up exchanging it for something else -- you can exchange any game you played for another used game for about $5 here.

If it is a game that is also on the PC, and I am playing it on my PSP, I keep thinking,"Man this is awesome. But wouldn't it be even better on my PC?"

[idolminds]

Civ Revolution will not be released on PC. And supposedly the DS version will be everything the 360/PS3 versions are, just with the presentation changed to suit the lower spec hardware and dual screens. Otherwise they say the game mechanics and everything will be the same.

[Quemaqua]

You have to understand that I actually play games on the go.  So if I want a game of Civ at work, a little version on DS will look mighty nice, and the shorter timeframe needed to play is cool too because I most likely will only play it on my lunch breaks and in the can and on the subway.  That kind of thing.

And what cross platform releases are there on PSP?  The only ones I have are PS2 releases, and all of them are pretty much identical to their original counterparts, but they're portable.  I can't think of a single PSP game I own that's also on PC barring Puzzle Quest, and the only reason the PC version is better in that case is because it came later and the devs added more stuff (from what I hear, anyway), and the port was handled by another company who fucked it up.  But the large majority of my PSP collection is original titles, with a few pretty darned good PS2 ports thrown in.

[Pugnate]

Yea you are going to laugh/wince, but Tomb Raider, Need for Speed, GUN crazy stuff like that. Unfortunately the UMD games here are of the mass market variety.

What you say makes sense though Que. If you game on the go, then definitely.

Hey is this Civ Revolution hitting the PC?

[Quemaqua]

Civ Revolution will not be released on PC.

There you go.

Also, you're right, I totally forgot about Tomb Raider, and also I remembered Test Drive Unlimited, but I found both of those perfectly playable and fun on PSP.  TDU wasn't perfect, and it certainly wasn't as cool as the 360 version since they had to take a lot of stuff out to make it work, but honestly, it was an amazing handheld game.  The fact that they got as much actual driveable island space on there was just amazing.  I could do the same crap I did with the 360 version: set a GPS point on the opposite side of the island, and just spend a leisurely half hour driving there.  Awesome.  I had just as much fun when in the game as I did with the 360 version, the control just wasn't quite as good and there wasn't as much extraneous stuff to distract you from races.  TR would surely be better on another platform, but the fact that it pulled off the graphics it did at a mostly steady framerate on PSP was amazing.  It was very playable, even if it was an inferior version overall.

But yeah, you should consider getting some better unique games.  Get Loco Roco and Crush for sure, maybe some Metal Gear Solid stuff.  I still don't have Portable Ops, but that one never got a port to another system as far as I know, and it's supposed to be pretty awesome.  The AC!D games were sweet too, and I'm pretty sure those are unique to the system still as well.  Plus there's updated versions of PS1 classics Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics, both of which are superior to their console counterparts, and if you've never played a good strategy RPG before, Jean d'Arc is absolutely amazing as a more entry-level SRPG title (and it's exclusive to the system as well).

[Pugnate]

Hey is this Civ Revolution hitting the PC?

OK wtf did I ask that for? I had just read Idols post, and before that I had read on some website that it wasn't coming to PC. I had also read about the compromises they were making, so had zero interest. Yet I just asked the question. I am...I am...turning into D. 

But Que I have the Metal Gear Solid game that was reviewed well. Yet to play it though.

The thing with cross platform PSP releases is that they normally are compromised in some way. Typically the story is abridged to fit on the UMD format. So yes, I find myself enjoying the PSP exclusives more. Having said that, I've been playing Tomb Raider on the PSP. While I do get the cravings for the PC version, I've decided to get my money's worth.

Also I've been wanting Jean d'Arc for so bloody long!!! Trouble is that it isn't mainstream enough to sell here. Most of the PSP games that do well in this hell hole are the ultra popular cross platform types.

[scottws]

I love the Civilization series, but honestly I like the first one the best.  It was really the only one I found a military victory actually feasible.  In the rest of the games, wars decimate your economy and happiness and it can take ages just to take one enemy city.

It's nearly impossible to complete a military victory in the allotted time frame.

I should check out that Gogamer special.

[K-man]

Skipping Civ IV is a huge mistake, I think.  It's definitely on par with 2 (and better in a lot of places).  The Beyond the Sword expansion added an absolute ton of stuff and is worth every penny. 

I actually spent most of my Sunday in a game of Civ IV.  It's such a great game, and easily goes in my PC top five.

[MysterD]

Well if anyone is interested in Civ 4, GoGamer has the Civilization Chronicles for $25 on madness special. Contains the following:

Sid Meier's Civilization I
Sid Meier's Civilization II
Civilization II: Fantastic Worlds
Civilization II: Conflicts in Civilization
Civilization II: Test of Time
Sid Meier's Civilization III
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests
Sid Meier's Civilization IV

YeaHh, I put down my order for that as soon as I saw that last week.
Waiting for that to arrive....

...so I can put that aside w/ my copy of the C&C Saga, which I also got from Gogamer for around that price recently.

That's just an amazing price for what is a heck of a collection set.

I just got my mind on other games, right now.