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PREVIOUS ARTICLES

#137 IS TURN-BASED STRATEGY IN DANGER? Tim Bromige examines the playing field of the turn-based strategy genre today. #136 THE MEANING OF THE POST COUNT AT APOLYTON FORUMS Xuenay takes aim at the Apolyton administration for their handling of forum post count situations. #135 WHY I'M STILL PLAYING CIVILIZATION II DaveV can count to four reasons as to why he is still playing CivII more than four years after its original release. #134 A MODEL FOR A CHEAT-FREE GAME Kent Wang re-investigates the model used for multi-player gamers, and offers an alternative. #133 WELCOME TO APOLYTON OFF-TOPIC If you let him, connorkimbro will take you on his tour of Apolyton's Off-Topic forum. COLUMN ARCHIVE

I always enjoyed the turn based strategy genre, because I felt that it held attraction like chess (the original turn based strategy). That is, a consideration of moves impacting future events. Of all the things I want to do, Which needs to be done first? This is in comparison to the breakneck pace of RTS, where your reflexes need to be trained, because there often isn’t time in the thick of things to consider matters properly. To be brief, TBS allows for deep thinking, while RTS requires reflexes.

This was shown up in a recent experience in which I extracted myself from my caffeine addiction. (Hello, I’m Father Beast, and I’m a caffeinic) This stuff affects me a bit different than most. What starts as a little boost to help after a night of short sleep turns into a constant intake of caffeinated drinks, constant exhaustion, rudeness and short temper with my family, and inability to sleep properly because of the shakes. After starting to make massive mistakes at work, I realized I had to kick it - AGAIN! During this time, I didn’t like to make decisions or think about life, and bills went onto the "tomorrow" pile. Thinking in general was sort of a chore, and I stumbled through each day.

I realized later I had stopped playing Civilization during this time. Fascinatingly enough, I still was playing computer games, just not Civ or any of the turn based ones. I played a lot of Diablo, and some Dune2, and a lot of arcades like Jill or Duke Nukem. It was as I finally got decent sleep and my mind started to clear that I got back to Civ, and realized how long I had been gone. And Why. I was playing games that called upon reflexes, not thinking. Or at least didn’t require thinking to have fun. The few times I tried loading up civ during my mind’s down time, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do, and just signed off. Now that I’m back, Diablo has taken a back seat to my schemes in Civ.

In summary, I want to say again that TBS is for people who want to think about their games. I look at people who say the TBS genre is dead because of the transplanting of strategy into arcade games ALA Starcraft, and I think that I will never desert my favorite TBS games, unless my mind stops working or I just want a quick, cheap thrill. For my long lasting, engrossing challenges, I will stick to TBS.

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About the author: "A long time player of civ and other great strategy games, as long as they're on the cheap rack".

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The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.