Civilization 4 Mentioned on the Colbert Report

[Victor Galis]

My first game I was really hooked on was SimCity I figure I was about 8 at the time.

[Alinestra Covelia]

The New Yorker reviewed this same book and author a while back. He makes some interesting points, especially comparing the interactivity of books against video games.

Books: You are essentially passive. True, your brain is visualizing what you read, so you're do some work interpreting it, but there's no measure of success or failure to challenge you to continue. The ending is always the same, and you're rarely the one doing the problem solving.

Video games: Geared to exercise your problem solving skills, these can range from managing a virtual empire, to figuring out good dogfighting techniques, to finding your way out of a maze.

One line that was a real kicker said something to the effect that if video games had come out first and then books were invented later in mankind's history, there's no doubt that society would look down on books as "unchallenging" or "shallow" or "dumbed-down entertainment".

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Originally posted by Tuberski
How many 12 year olds are on these or any Civ board?

He's really reaching.

ACK!

I was 14. But I got to imagine that 12 year olds play it these days, what with the crazy graphics and the hippity-hop music and such.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Jaguar
I was playing Civ1 in 1993 at the age of five.

bull****

[Alinestra Covelia]

Well I was bored with television when I was six months old because it was so boring and stupid.

But seriously don't underestimate kids. My brother was playing "Return of Heracles" when he was about 5, and that's a game that needs a fairly good sense of strategy and Greek mythological background.

Of course, he wasn't playing it very well. But he was still playing it age 5.

[Zkribbler]

Dang young whippersnappers (p'toouey)

I didn't even see my first computer until I was on a high school science trip to a college in the next town. They had a mainframe there. It played tic-tac-toe. And believe it or not, you couldn't beat it!

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by MrFun



bull****

That's a rather typical response from a 30-year-old without kids. Just because you grew up without video games doesn't mean young kids can't pick them up really quickly.

To adults, learning the rules of an entirely new world is somewhat difficult. It takes a 35-year-old longer to master Mario Kart than it takes an 8-year-old. To kids, it's second nature to learn the rules of new worlds. They're still learning the rules of the first one. So in the same way I learned that one must wash hands after going to the bathroom, I learned that Chivalry was unnecessary if you weren't planning a war, because it was a dead-end tech which only led to a single unit.

I was looking at your profile to see how old you were, and I noticed you're a chess player. Did you play when you were young at any competitive events? Did you meet those kids who are seven or younger but better than players twice their age?

While adults have much more life experience, it's not necessarily relevant in games. Knowing the course of history doesn't actually help you in Civilization. I can recall asking my mother whether there were Ironclads in 1310, because I had gotten an ironclad then. A little kid can't be expected to know the course of history. He can, however, learn to create roads around his cities to increase the number of orange and yellow arrows. And that's all he needs.

Ozzy, QFT me.

[joncha]

Suffrage for 5-year-olds now!

[Seeker]

Actually I think it was much easier for kids to learn Civ I than it is now for Civ's descendants.

Remember Civ I is really really simple compared to todays civs...Maybe it would be a good idea to make a 'kid's version' to bring in more delicious sweet young blood into the Family?

Of course no one here who played Civ I as a kid would have played anything as dorky as a 'kid's version' of anything...

[Jaguar]

Oh yes, Civ1 is miles simpler than the later versions of the game.

No culture. No great people. No corruption or waste. No health. No religions. Smaller tech tree. About 30 or so units total. No unique units. About 20 improvements total. Simple, winner-take-all combat system with unit attack and defense values. No ranged artillery-type attacks.

It's really a rather simple game. It was just brilliant, so we loved it.

[Odin]

I grew up being told that "video games would rot my brain" and all that BS. It's just version 1,323,537 of the whole "new product X is corrupting the youth" thing.

[:) Smiley]

In a few decades we'll talk about how wholesome video games are while criticizing the new electronically enhanced live action gaming.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Jaguar

That's a rather typical response from a 30-year-old without kids. Just because you grew up without video games doesn't mean young kids can't pick them up really quickly.

To adults, learning the rules of an entirely new world is somewhat difficult. It takes a 35-year-old longer to master Mario Kart than it takes an 8-year-old. To kids, it's second nature to learn the rules of new worlds. They're still learning the rules of the first one. So in the same way I learned that one must wash hands after going to the bathroom, I learned that Chivalry was unnecessary if you weren't planning a war, because it was a dead-end tech which only led to a single unit.

I was looking at your profile to see how old you were, and I noticed you're a chess player. Did you play when you were young at any competitive events? Did you meet those kids who are seven or younger but better than players twice their age?

While adults have much more life experience, it's not necessarily relevant in games. Knowing the course of history doesn't actually help you in Civilization. I can recall asking my mother whether there were Ironclads in 1310, because I had gotten an ironclad then. A little kid can't be expected to know the course of history. He can, however, learn to create roads around his cities to increase the number of orange and yellow arrows. And that's all he needs.

Ozzy, QFT me.

ok

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I didn't even see my first computer until I was on a high school science trip to a college in the next town. They had a mainframe there. It played tic-tac-toe. And believe it or not, you couldn't beat it!

David Lightman: What is the primary goal?
Joshua: You should know, Professor. You programmed me.
David Lightman: C'mon. What is the primary goal?
Joshua: To win the game.

[Lul Thyme]

I was also playing civ 1 when I was about 6 and it's not that hard as some ppl pointed out.