By Andrew Hoekzema
November 14th, 1998

note: This is The Column, a part of Apolyton where mainly Markos and Dan write whatever we want . Well, not just the two of us. The Column is open to everyone. If you feel like writing submit your article to us.

CivII is now more than 2 1/2 years old, CiC is about 1 1/2 years old, and FW is 1 year old. Many people have argued that the two add-on packs are a waste of money, but I would disagree. Personally, I find scenarios the most interesting aspect of Civilization 2. Both of these add-ons provided very useful tools for scenario designers. The CivII designers created a semi language in order to vastly expand the capabilities of scenario designs, expanded the amount of units and techs available as well as providing plenty of good graphics and handy editors for scenario designers to use. But I can see why people think that FW and CiC were just wastes.

The problem NOW is that I think the designers have finally realized that multiplayer is the end of the line for this particular game. They of course COULD add more capabilities, but that would be unwise since interest would not be large enough to support many more products for a two and a half year old game. We, the CivII community, too must realize that multiplayer will be as far as CivII goes. As far as I can tell, games like CTP, TOT, and Rise of the Nations are completely new strains of the CivII genre and structure, but not at all the same design.

Interest in the original version of CivII and scenarios, of course, would remain after these games come out, but not for too long. Consider that not only will it be competing with games which are clones, but of much, much better quality, but will also be competing with fantastic games of other types of strategy, such as Caesar 3, Sim City 3000, and Tiberian Sun.

Unfortunately, it seems these are the final days of the CivII edge on the rest of the strategy world. The worst part about the whole thing, though, is that these greatly improved games will be practically impossible to convert into scenarios. They will be so complicated and intricate that scenarios and modifications would be very rare finds indeed.

The scenario ideas themselves are running pretty low now, too. While there certainly are good scenarios ideas out there, how many World War 2 or Age of Discovery scenarios can be done and still be original?

We are in the final days of CivII's reign as the king of video games. Multiplayer will certainly be fun for ALL of the CivII community, but it will not be able to last forever. We should enjoy the novel ideas that are coming about now, such as e mail games, tournaments, and scenario league.

Andrew is 16 years of age, lives in Highland Park, New Jersey, USA. He is a high school sophmore and is an aspiring History buff (especially regarding the Imperial Age of the Crimean War through WW1).

The opinions expressed on this page doesnt necessarily express Apolyton CS or GameStats.
It is just the personal opinions of the writer.