entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

I will get later. For now, I will occasionally play freeciv, which I enjoy mainly cuz I've never played the actual thing.

I do find it notable that this is one of the last game designers who is still allowed to have his/her name on a game. The other being Carmack, but that will end soon since it's been proven he can't produce games that aren't wolf3d with new dogs. But then, that's all the industry has been doing lately, anyway.

Also notable - right now it's ok to have violent killing games, cuz we're at war.

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coldsleep.livejournal.com

If you manage to pry yourself away from Civ IV, please mention whether it is:

a) less addictive than Civ II
b) more addictive than Civ II
c) about the same as Civ II
d) only Civ III level of goodness

I'm stuck on playing other stuff, but will probably pick up Civ IV eventually.

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drieuxster.livejournal.com

It is so good to know that there is a 12-step program even before I know what the game is really like.... What an american way...

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Hey, it runs fine on my crapheap... OK, so i'm using a new video card. And it's a tad slow (P3-600). But it's certainly playable.

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Yes.

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I can't imagine what could possibly be more addictive than Civ II. I'd say it's about the same level. It doesn't have the funny actors playing your advisors, sadly, and now it has goofy animations showing wonders being built instead of actual movies. But there's tons more goodness.

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sunburn.livejournal.com

Chris Taylor (Total Annihilation) stands a decent chance of having his name on "Supreme Commander," a giant-scale RTS that'll come out next year. He and Sid Meier are the two big names in RTS, with the third runnerup being a boring company name, Westwood. You could throw Peter Molyneux into that group, but his name usually indicates you'll be playing God rather than playing the CinC (Taylor) or the ruler (Meier).

Also, it is, now, as acceptable as it ever was to have violent killing games, which is to say that a number of people hate it because violent killing shouldn't be fun, a number of people embrace it because killing is fun, and the rest of us just play the damn games cuz games are fun.

What's weird is that, 2 years ago gamers were cautiously creeping into Viet Nam games, treading carefully because loads of gamers were in Viet Nam or are related to people who were. WWII was safe and cozy. Now more gamers have landed on Normandy, over and over, than Allied soldiers did in WWII, and WWII has been declared over, for want of original gameplay. Of course, there are too many Japanese gamers and too little acknowledgement by Japan of what they were up to back then for the Pacific Campaign to get its due.

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schwa242.livejournal.com

I refuse to purchase this game, but only because it would cut into time currently reserved for playing Sims 2.

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drieuxster.livejournal.com

consider me dumb here - but does one need to own the previous version? And what platform do you play this on?

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No, one doesn't need to own the previous version. I'm playing this on Windows 2000. Check out the minimum game requirements (http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm). I am running this on a (much) slower CPU than the so-called minimum, and it's noticeably slow but still quite playable.

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coldsleep.livejournal.com

I am glad to see your goodthink (re: Civ II vs. Civ III).

I don't know, can't say for certain, but perhaps heroin is more addictive than Civ II. Or crack. But not much aside from that.

I'm not sure how I feel about animations vs. movies, but oh well.

Also, is it just me, or has TMQ been kind of blah for about a month now?

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drieuxster.livejournal.com

Thanks. I am not much of a game player, but had noticed Civilization before, and was wondering. I have opened a thread on the options between PC Games v. Console games - Cool Toy Question (http://www.livejournal.com/users/drieuxster/34842.html) since I will have some time on my hand as I move out of Castle Wetware.

Not sure I want to buy new hardware until I have a good excuse.

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thedarkages

I disapprove, inasmuch as it prevents you from writing new episodes of e&tg.

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Yes, well, it's a convenient excuse as i'm stuck again. However, i do have a shred of a sketch for the next bit, and that might be all i need to continue.

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That's bizzarre, I've _never_ heard of Chris Taylor before. And our gaming guild had a very, very active Total Annihilation section, and I worked next door to their ex-offices when I was at AT&T Wireless. And I know people who would drop everything and play that game again. Thing is, it was always the CaveDog game, not Chris Taylor.

Peter and Bullfrog, yes. That name of course is known. As is Yak Minter, who has the Xbox 360 thing going for him now. So yeah, there are more than Carmack, but a lot less than there used to be... But I've _never_ heard that guy's name before.

More referring to how in the early days, programmers of games had to fight for their recognition in games (ref: Tim Skelly, who happens to be rather vocal on the subject, but then he got screwed bigtime at Cinematronics, and then kinda even more screwed by M$... but anyway...)

Also, as a Starcraft person, I'd say he's small potatoes, and the 2nd big name is Blizzard. But that's me. (: Also, I think they'd prolly sue you just to get their name there, but that's their overactive legal department ):

This may also have a LOT to do with why I don't know Chris' name. But, really, as many developers as I know and speak with on a regular basis, many of whom are RTS fans - you'd have think I'd have heard it at least once. On the other hand, the name I hear MOST often happens to be Derek Smart, but only because Nameless LOVES to point out how pathetic he is. (Namey also loves to point out the holes in Anarchy Online that he pointed out when he worked at FunCom, that they said weren't important for him to fix, and still plague the game years after release... so he likes to bitch.)

I remember when I was beta testing a large company in a Northwestern State's new RTS game, and they were asking 200 questions about the cutscenes which were CRAP, and I pointed out repeatedly that it wans't about the cutscenes, it was about the GAME and the GAMEPLAY. They then made the cutscenes better, and the game flopped. Prolly available in a valuebin for $2 somewhere, with the original stickers 'new!' on it.

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What about "American McGee." I've seen her name on a number of boxes. She must be just fabulous, what, being a woman and a game designer.

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It sounds like you're trolling me, but i'll just go ahead and point out that American McGee is a dude to save my more impressionable readers.

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I think his schtick is getting old, is all.

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Trolling was unintended. I really thought that he was a woman and that they were making a big marketing show of "hey look, a woman is responsible for this game." Don't really know why I thought it was a woman.

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There is a woman out there who was involved with Doom, i think. She has bountiful pontoons and does not hide her light under a bushel, if you know what i mean. She was on the cover of PC Gamer a year or two ago.

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I'm pretty sure that's where I got the idea because I remember a hot redheaded chick on the cover. But beside her picture was "American McGee" writ muy large. The sad thing is that I even read the articles on both of them. This is what happens when I try to be cute. I'm going back under my bridge now. I keep accidentally posting anonymously. Oops.

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Lucky for you i screen anonymous comments so nobody knows what you've done... until you admit it publicly. D'oh!

I'm betting American McGee was next to her. Ah well. I'd check, but i threw out my old PC Gamers last year.

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Well, huh... back when the wonderful oldmanmurray was up, her name came up - a LOT. But. Never mentioned she was female. And, well, it doens't on her website anywhere, either, so I'd never have known - and don't really - unless this is true.

But overall, I guess that actually points out something kinda good about oldmanmurray and similar game industry sites that various game industry workers have pointed me to - it doens't MATTER whether you're female or male. Or once male and now female (and unfortunately, dead.)

(the latter is a reference to one of the greatest designers of games ever, the designer of M.U.L.E and 7 cities of gold and so on, Dan(i) Bunten.)

Which is sort of where I have been alluding to this whole thread (yes rejoining late, sorry about that, don't know if anyone will read it.) But Dan(i) had some very interesting non-violent parts of his/her game design, and kept to that angle when pressure was on to do things like make M.U.L.E with weapons. (s)He knew that would change the game balance completely, and ruin it; and stuck to her guns - and yes, she worked with EA and other people. Heck EA wouldn't be who they were today if it weren't for her.

But, interesting that American MacGee is a woman. No, not surprizing, why not? But, yeah, interesting. Gives Alice a bit of a twist I didn't know about. Alisk had some twisted parts that were just spectacular early on... 'the door' is just a great spot (:

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You should really read all the other comments before you add to the conversation, you know.

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You'll see where I was mistaken about this later in the thread. Something to do with a magazine and a confusing headline and I think there might've been a talking caterpillar in there somewhere too. Just one more example of my propagating misinformation. Sorry.

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Well, crap, I'm going thru emails cuz a friend asked me to please review this bit he's writing comparing operating systems for the University math department, and I'm noting I have a deluge of back comments, and...

Yeah I should but I was in a hurry, I'll assume I screwed up big there. LJ of course sends with 'reply to' so I missed everything else other than mine (:

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oh yeah, that chick was dating whatsisname the guy who did Die Katana, the worst game ever that took the longest... another wonderful, wonderful story though - reading about the failure of that company to produce. So many things that, as a manager working with people, you look at and say 'oh GOD no... don't... no do NOT shoot the bazooka in the plane, no do not DO that... you shot the ... this is why I have a parachute. No, I'm not selling you mine, f* off.

Anyway I understand eventually they got married or something, from what someone else in the industry told me. They may, however, have gotten divorced, or not married and she eventually got married to someone else...

John Romero. That was his name. First has-been of the industry, and well deserved.

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