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#79 HOW CIV NEARLY TOOK OVER MY LIFE AND DESTROYED MY MORALS Alexander's Horse does not want anyone to lose sight of what is important. #80 HAVE THE FORUMS TAKEN OVER APOLYTON? Iain discusses the significance of the apolyton forums to the admins but also to the site itself #81 THE FORUMS HAVEN'T TAKEN OVER APOLYTON, BUT... In response to Iain's article, Markos wants a chance at a rebuttal. #82 PLUNGE INTO THE ToT FANTASY WORLD Toby Robison wants the Fantasy-realm of Civ to get the attention it deserves. #83 THE SWING OF PENDULUM IN GAMING What goes up, goes down, and vice cersa, says Imran COLUMN ARCHIVE

I am a little bit perplexed by the unfortunate problems with multiplaying CivilizationII. Having played online games now for just about a year I can tell you that I am disgusted with all the problems associated with this aspect of the gaming world.

For starters, as we all know, there are technical problems almost, if not always in every game! People are dropped from games far too often and this really slows the progress of the game. There is nothing worse than waiting while your opponent or yourself has to hotjoin, and even then there is no guarantee that you will get in the first time. Two nights ago while playing some jovial chaps from down under, one of my opponents and I both had to hotjoin on the same turn and it took him two times and myself four to get in. Not only was this a huge waste of our respective time, but a waste for the others who just continued on anyways. I watched in horror as my turn came up only to have the AI take my turn for me. Thinking this was weird, I patiently waited for another seven minits while the others played their turns again. Even more to my surprise was watching the AI take my turn AGAIN! I was really miffed and decided to reboot my computer because the game would not let me exit the standard way. I was able to hotjoin the next attempt but had lost five turns to the incompetant AI. While this problem was novel in the sense that it had never happened to me before(watching the game like you can do with the cheat editor in games against the AI) it was extremely frustrating to say the least.

Another part of multiplaying that miffs me is the number of people who quit games. Am I being naive here to think that people are lying when they say they are commited to playing? I understand that schedules are hard to coordinate and that things come up for people(the other night i forgot about a dinner I had to go to), that is understandable, there are more important things in life(well not really but work with me here.) I am talking about games where if someone is on an island they bitch until you can't bear it anymore. Or, if they don't get to Monarchy or Philosophy first they think the game is hopeless. Even better is the excuse.... I just lost a city to barbs or I lost a city to a player so I will throw in the towel. People this is a long hard fought strategy game! No leader in the history of the world ever walked away from every war without taking casualties, be it troops or territory! Do you really expect to do that against a human mind that thinks strategically the way you do?

I origionally started playing Civ2 at the zone and although I met a core group of dedicated players, most have moved on (a few to apolyton) but the majority to other games. I was lucky enough to stumble across this site and have been privy to meeting(online at least) some excellent gamers but to my dismay just as many unreliable gamers as the zone. Maybe not everyone takes their gaming as seriously as I do, but as my time is just as limited as yours, I want quality not quantity. Is it too much to ask for players to keep their word and play through the session even if they have to overcome a difficult beginning, middle or end? No one is expecting anyone to finish as we all know that the majority of games are not. After all, the best games are the ones where you overcome obstacles and toggle back and forth in the powergraph, not games where people quit because they aren't in the lead.

P.S. I hope that this article doesn't offend any one person as it is not directed at anyone in particular but at the gaming community as a whole.

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A Canadian who is relatively inexperienced with computers but experienced with Civ games

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