The Weekly Standard Does CIV

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Lorizael
Man, he's a regular fundy. Maybe that's why I don't play Civ anymore.

You mean this?


"We don't get into glorifying the violence and the gory stuff," says Meier. "That's just not the games that we like to do. I've raised a son and I know all the messages, all the influences, all the things that come into a young person's life, and we're responsible for a part of that. I mean, as game designers, we want people to play our games, so I think we need to take some responsibility for the content and the messages that come through our games."

Hes said that before. I have alot of respect for his POV.

Cue - the usual assertion that nukes in Civ are just as gory as anything in an FPS.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Arrian


They also go off on a tangent about how Sid Meier is Lutheran, as opposed to many other game designers they mention who are atheists. It was an odd little aside.

Their comment on AC was essentially that it was not really a success (commercial) but not a failure, either. Damning with faint praise?

-Arrian

I think that Sid Meier is fairly religious. I talked to his wife some at the Polycon and she mentioned that they enjoy involvement in contemporary Christian music.

JM

[ZEE]

hence, backing up previous arguments of mine that he is trying to maintain a clean image...

[Arrian]

Civ isn't gory, but it is violent. It has slavery, it has war, it has WMDs (quick, George, send in the Marines! It's only a short trip to Maryland!)... concepts such as genocide/ethnic cleansing, imperialism/vassalage...

Those things are balanced, IMO, by other things in the game (more "builder" things like researching techs, developing cities, etc). FPS's don't tend to have such mitigating factors.

-Arrian

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Arrian
Civ isn't gory, but it is violent. It has slavery, it has war, it has WMDs (quick, George, send in the Marines! It's only a short trip to Maryland!)... concepts such as genocide/ethnic cleansing, imperialism/vassalage...

Those things are balanced, IMO, by other things in the game (more "builder" things like researching techs, developing cities, etc). FPS's don't tend to have such mitigating factors.

-Arrian

yah, yah, i know all that (about civ being violent) though the slavery and genocide by report (since ive only ever played Civ2) .

But you can play Civ as peaceful perfectionist - dont think theres any equiv for FPS or similar.

And besides, comparing the violence in Civ to violent games, is like saying Civ is comparable to porn games, cause the pop goes up after the city celebrates an "I love the king day" Its not that history or any other narrative contains violence thats the problem, its that many games, like many movies, are essentially porn of violence, giving sensory satisfaction from the depiction of blood and death.

[Arrian]

I think the comparison works a bit better than that, LotM, but I grant you it's not the same thing. And I for one haven't really argued otherwise.

As for the "sensory satisfaction from the depiction of blood and death," sure, but then again I'm sure everyone who has played Civ has occasionally played as a bloodthirsty warmonger to obtain satisfaction from being a Ghengis Khan-like conqueror. It's not the same, and yet there are similarities.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

What a muddled article. Good that Civ gets a mention (though not CFC over Poly ). But the constant asides to Sid being a man of faith, while the other big designers aren't (somehow making him 'better'?). Will Wright doesn't have blood and gore in his games either, so I'm not sure where faith has anything to do with it.

Just kind of jumped around too much.

[Arrian]

Yeah, the faith angle was pretty clearly a "he's the best and he's a believer, and he makes games w/o the gore, yay!"

Overall, though, it was better than other articles I've read.

-Arrian

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
You mean this?


"We don't get into glorifying the violence and the gory stuff," says Meier. "That's just not the games that we like to do. I've raised a son and I know all the messages, all the influences, all the things that come into a young person's life, and we're responsible for a part of that. I mean, as game designers, we want people to play our games, so I think we need to take some responsibility for the content and the messages that come through our games."

Hes said that before. I have alot of respect for his POV.

Cue - the usual assertion that nukes in Civ are just as gory as anything in an FPS.

Should I try to argue with you so that your serious response to my meaningless, offhand remark is not in vain?

[Arrian]

I've got it covered, Lor.

-Arrian

[Lorizael]

Cool.

[Cort Haus]

Why is everyone allowed to use abreviated forms of Lorizael's name these days without him reacting? He had a right moan at me when I called him Lori.

Perhaps he got it out of his system and feels relaxed and comfortable with it now.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
He had a right moan at me when I called him Lori.

That's why I now call him Lori.

[Lorizael]

No, I still cringe every time I read Lori. I've just given up hope of anyone listening to me.

Lor I think I'm alright with; it reminds me of Star Trek.

Maybe I should put something in my signature in all caps. Something like:

MY NAME IS LORIZAEL NOT LORI.

Then I'm sure no one will ever call me Lori again, knowing that I might react like that.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I've just given up hope of anyone listening to me.

But I did. :shrug: