I’ve gotten every Civilization: Revolution achievement, and I can destroy its AI six ways from Sunday on every difficulty level—except Deity, which remains almost a total crap shoot. I’m not sure from which “deity” that designation draws its name—perhaps a nightmarish American McGee-esque take on the Flying Spaghetti Monster, one that sees the carbohydrate-fueled god reimagined as some kind of many-tentacled rapist.

In addition to AI civilizations being able to apparently construct unlimited Legion armies while simultaneously erecting numerous Wonders of the World, Deity opponents seem able to actually influence the laws of probability. Perhaps my perception is colored by that hazy tint of blame-redirecting irrationality that comes along with unfettered video game rage, but I would swear to God FSM that combat encounters in Deity games adjust the odds.

None of this would really be that bad if it weren’t for the fact that AI opponents are without exception irritable prima donnas who can’t go more than a few turns without demanding tribute. (I’ve heard it’s an internal Firaxis joke that Ghandi is often the biggest bastard of them all.) There is in fact no way to maintain positive relationships with your enemies without simply forking over most of your money and technology on a regular basis—and if, like me, you find it too much of an affront to your pointless sense of video game honor to do so, you are under constant siege for the duration of the game. There is no practical method by which to continually exact similar demands on your opponents, which gives the AI an inherent mechanical advantage.

What does all this mean? It means that when I play Civ: Rev on Deity, I become a paranoid lunatic, a save game-abusing freak who lives in a time-bending state of parallel timelines. It’s like an inelegant, turn-based, alternate history version of Braid. (more…)

Last month, I wrote up my initial reactions to Spore, based on some hands-on at Will Wright’s Emeryville studio and following a long interview with Soren Johnson, Spore designer and former Firaxis designer on Civilization III and IV.  That full interview has finally been posted.  It was conducted with my coworker Brandon Sheffield in hot tag-team style.

The interview starts out very much about Spore (obviously), but towards the end it actually starts to angle more towards a discussion about strategy games in general—why they’ve become successful, why they’ve faced challenges, and what their future may hold.  Johnson obviously has a lot of perspective on the matter, and it’s particularly interesting since he was the designer on Spore charged with ensuring the game will be of interest to hardcore gamers, not just the more casual crowd that has typified Wright’s audience with The Sims.

He also speaks a lot about the Civilization series, and the pressures to satisfy an increasingly hardcore and competent audience by the fourth game in the series, at the potential expense of the broader audience that made the series big in the first place.

And did you know the original Civ was conceived as an RTS?  Sid Meier changed his mind.  I didn’t know that!  Maybe you did.