The History of Civilization

You may recall back in March, when a group of smart folks got together to form a game canon. They essentially nominated the ten most important games, ever. Gamasutra has begun a series of articles which will explore the storied history of each of these titles, and they've started with Sim Meier's Civilization series. Benj Edwards' history of Civilization begins with a rundown on the series itself, and wraps with a lengthy Sid Meier interview. Required reading, essentially. "Meier [is] comfortable with a legacy inextricably tied to Civilization: 'I think that if that's what's on my epitaph, "Did Civilization," that would be fine.' In musing about the fate of his beloved series, Meier finds himself satisfied with what the future might hold for the franchise: 'There's probably somebody getting ready for their first day of college that's probably going to be a part of Civilization in ten to fifteen years from now. I think it'll be around for quite a while.'"

Shouldn't smart people know what a "canon" is?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

You may recall back in March, when a group of smart folks got together to form a game canon. They essentially nominated the ten most important games, ever.

Shouldn't smart people know what a "canon" is? (Or is "smart folks" a knock on their intelligence to begin with?)

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off &defl=en&q=define:canon&sa=X&oi=glossary_definitio n&ct=title [google.com]

(In other words, 10 specific games cannot be a "canon", unless you are saying that these games are a "bible" and all other games are heresy. 10 specific game design principles, however...)

Words mean whatever I want them to mean.

[FatSean]

I think it is delightfully ironic that a religious term is having it's meaning twisted to further a secular goal.

Considering how religious people have been claiming their own definitions for well-established words these past few decades...

Ghandi the warmonger?

[myowntrueself]

What I'd like to ask Sid is why was the AI behind the Indians so agressively warlike when their 'face' was Mahatma Ghandi?

It always seemed strange to see that kind old man on your screen and to know that you had a huge long protracted war ahead of you.

Re:Just one question Mr Meier...

[uberjoe]

Ok, Mr. Smart Guy, now explain how the spearman shot down my stealth bomber.

OK here goes. It's not a matter of the spearman actually shooting down the stealth bomber. Rather the stealth bomber 'rolls a 1' to put it in RPG context. He fumbles. Catastrophic engine failure, the bomb fail to explode, or they explode in while still in the bay, etc. The spearman doesn't take down the plane, the plane just utterly fails.

Sorry, I can't have a cute/funny explanation all the time. I tried to come up with one but I'm tired.