"Today we are talking with Sid Meier, who needs no introduction ♪♫♩♬♪♫"

May 8, 2017 12:30 AM

The Designer Notes podcast just completed a four part interview with game designer Sid Meier. Part one is about how he got into computer games and his early career. Part two is about the games that made him famous, focusing on Civilization. Part three continues into the founding and success of his company Firaxis. Part four brings us to the present day, as well as going into some other matters at the end. If you're interested enough in game design to listen to a seven hour interview with Sid Meier, dipping into the Designer Notes archive might be worth your time. It's hosted by Adam Saltsman, best known for making Canabalt, and Soren Johnson, designer of Civilization IV and other strategy games, who interviews Meier.
posted by Kattullus (19 comments total)

I want to point out that this is the first time I have ever heard someone referred to as needing no introduction without then immediately being introduced.
posted by Merus at 12:58 AM on May 8, 2017 [12 favorites]

I want to point out that I always confuse Sid Meier with Russ Meyer, who also needs no introduction.

I played mostly Age of Empires, that's why. Wood, please.
posted by not_on_display at 1:15 AM on May 8, 2017

Nothing with Sid Meier's name attached takes only seven hours.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:55 AM on May 8, 2017 [39 favorites]

Literaryhero: Depends on the difficulty level. I'm sure I could play a game of Alpha Centauri on Transcend difficulty and be done in way under seven hours.

I won't have _won_, mind, but it'll still be done.
posted by SansPoint at 4:16 AM on May 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

Thanks for the pointer, I've told iTunes to subscribe to it, hopefully it will make it all the way to my creaky old iPod Touch at some point, so I can listen during my drive on the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower.
posted by MikeWarot at 4:37 AM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Shame there is no transcript.
posted by Meatbomb at 6:10 AM on May 8, 2017

Russ Meyer

I would play the hell out of Russ Meyer's Civilization.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:12 AM on May 8, 2017 [15 favorites]

Russ Meyer's Titilization.
posted by Pendragon at 7:27 AM on May 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

I know Sid is inexorably tied to Civilization, but for me, he will always be "The Pirates Guy."
posted by DrAstroZoom at 8:35 AM on May 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

FLOYD OF THE JUNGLE

I have no idea how I had forgotten about that game until just this moment.

Listening to episode 1 now. Based on the description, I am likely to be disappointed at the lack of Hellcat Ace / Spitfire Ace, but that's what happens when you're An Old.
posted by hanov3r at 8:46 AM on May 8, 2017

Spoiler: he mentions both Hellcat Ace and Spitfire Ace!
posted by hanov3r at 9:01 AM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Sid Meier has had an outsized influence on my life. Not just in terms of hours spent playing his games, but also in how those games made me think. Often thinking about how they get things wrong mind, but still, thinking about his games.
posted by sotonohito at 9:11 AM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

About a year and a half ago I locked all the civ games on Steam behind a parental password that I don't know — I made it by banging my hands at random on the keyboard and then copy-pasting the results into the password and confirm password fields — and have in the intervening time finished a dissertation.

but mostly I'm here to talk about how to get the highest possible scores in Alpha Centauri while playing on transcend.

* You have to run a "rapid expansion," or "REX" strategy. Your #1 priority is covering the ground (and seas) in closely spaced scrubby little colonies.

* You have to be insanely aggressive. The second you meet anyone is the second you start on your swarm of impact rovers.

* There are two types of neighbors. There's the neighbors who have not yet surrendered unconditionally to you. These you take bases from until they offer you that unconditional surrender. Do not ever accept peace on any terms but unconditional surrender. (I forget the exact wording, but it's the deal where they offer you all their energy and research and where their attitude toward you is subsequently listed as "submissive.")

* And then there's the neighbors who have unconditionally surrendered. This next bit is I think this is my innovation, cause I haven't read anyone write about it in strategy guides: If you've received an unconditional surrender from a neighbor, you want to give that neighbor as many bases as possible. Make sure they're geographically scattered and, in general, totally undefendable. Why do you pursue this experialist policy once you've gotten a surrender? Because the AI cheats. They research faster than you. they gain energy faster than you. It is therefore more efficient to let your vassals do the work and periodically shake them down for money and research than it is to run bases yourself. Only keep enough bases to keep cranking out offensive units; give away as much as you possibly can.

* The higher the difficulty level you're playing on, the greater the benefits you'll get from experialism, since the higher the level the more the AI cheats.

* while this is going on feel free to cover the board in a meshwork of boreholes. Provoke outrage from Planet, as much as you can. Keep some patches of fungus around for angry mindworms to spawn in; they're a good source of energy, even if your environmentalism rating isn't high enough to tame them, and killing them gets your units experience, making it easier for your world police squad to keep the other factions in line.

* If one of your vassals switches to any mood but "submissive," and/or refuses to give you all their stuff when you demand it, move units into place to beat the crap out of them until they surrender again. This should not be hard, since their bases are scattered and small.

* By the time you join with the fungus and transcend to godhood, you'll have been running a de facto planetary government for decades — the map should be a crazy patchwork of different factions all jumbled up together, with all of them utterly terrified of you.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:37 AM on May 8, 2017 [11 favorites]

(note: keeping vassals submissive is easier than it seems, since although you're ruthlessly exploiting them, you're also regularly transferring bases to them, which improves their opinion of you / keeps them from becoming angry.)
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:43 AM on May 8, 2017

So, it sounds like you're basically running a planetary mafia?
posted by FJT at 9:46 AM on May 8, 2017

I like to think of it more as running a very efficient, ruthless neoliberal superpower. We respect the diversity of the different factions kept safe under our benevolent world government, see, and simply demand that they fork over all of their stuff when I ask and maintain a proper respect for the world order. It's all for their benefit, of course; without the stability provided by my globetrotting drop pod rover squads, they could never experience the prosperity, liberty and fundamental freedom they gain by submitting to my will.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:56 AM on May 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

I have really enjoyed this series. Louis Castle and Amy Hennig are still my favorite interviews from this podcast, but this is a close third.
posted by michaelh at 10:09 AM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

note: don't forget to share technologies with your vassals on a regular basis. If anyone has a technology, everyone should have it. You want to minimize duplication of research, in order to maximize the pace of world technological advance and thereby hasten the immanentization of the eschaton.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:10 AM on May 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Sid Meier's Crusade in Europe got me started on his long and drawn out games from a very early age (on the C-64 in my case - music at 0:20). Every September 17th, I still remember that the allies parachuted behind enemy lines. Generally speaking, when you made it to that point, you were ... 20 hours into the full campaign thinking that Montgomery (who was actually pretty decent) was a shitty commander because whenever Patton's troops came in, they drove the enemy way back... and Montgomery was in the middle of it just slogging through - just trying to get north of Paris and make it to Metz in time... ("we have been overrun" - booo hoo... yeah yeah, you've been out of supplies, your morale is 15%, but I've got a damn schedule to make - so pick up your gun and plan on using the bayonette to make it there in time. Patton's guys don't complain like this!)
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:05 PM on May 8, 2017