Thursday, June 01, 2006
Aurelius' Testimonial
Hi. My name is Aurelius and I'm a Civaholic.
My enjoyment of Civ began when I was just out of high school. A my roommate had a PC (when they were still pretty uncommon) and showed me his CivII game and told me I could play it when he was at school. I was totally drawn in. 'I think it must be the feeling of power,' he once remarked, when we were debating why it was so damn addictive. I didn't like the implications of that, but I kept playing anyways.
Over the years I've played may video games, and somehow I lost my feel for the icon intensive type of play that the civ franchise was so known for. The learning curve on the games got to be too much for me, so I stuck with Max Paine and Masters of Orion II. My machine is mainly for word processing, so I tend to buy the games that are a few years old, but have been heaped with accolades.
Then I became a half of a couple, and the red-haired half holds a degree in 'software engineering.' She would play Civ 3 sometimes, but it looked dumb, and my computer wouldn't run it anyways.
Then she started talking about Civ 4. Its got this amazing zoom feature. Its AI be so smart you will learn from the tactics they use to crush you. Nobody is going to beat this game of deity. Within a month she had ordered it online. I watched her play a few games, offered a bit of advice as a student of strategy (after all, I have read Sun Tzu.)
I swear, she was the one who encouraged me to give it a try.
Gosh dang with a freight train, that game is soo coool. You now have seven different religions, each which can be founded (and thus has a holy city.) The technologies and units are so well balanced - with individual promotions for each unit that accentuate their individual roles. Everything is so well worked out and balanced. If you build temples and wonders, so that your cultural influence is threatening to subvert another enemies cities, then you have done so at the expense of your science and your military. Bismark may just blow past you with tech, while Ceasar may just take your cities by force. It's so damn cool.
The only computer in our house that can run it is Cindy's candy-apple red hypersonic laptop. So every night when she goes to bed I pretend I'm not tired and then stay up til two trying to wipe the Aztecs from the face of the earth.
I'm so tired I can't think straight. I've been neglecting me blog. When I do get elected leader of the U.N. - so what?!?. Has that time been worth anything?
I can't help but think that many guys watch three to five baseball games a week, and when they are over have they really accomplished anything? Sure they can talk baseball with some of their friends, but I can talk civ with some of mine. . .
No, I'm rationalizing. The game is a helluva game. I've said before that someone can learn a lot about how nations interact by playing civ. This one is soo coool.
I can stop anytime I want to.
