Expectations of a civer

[GePap]

There are two ways of judging things: by themselves and in relation to other things. A Toyota camry is a good car, if we examine it alone. It's not so good if I have to compare it to a toyota lexus. I can sort of say the same about Civ3. Looking at it by itself, it is a very good game. But looking at it while also looking at all the history behind it leaves me to wonder...

I fell in love with Civ1, so when Civ2 came, i went out immidiately to buy it. Civ2 was so much richer and better than Civ1 and I fell in love with it too.When SMAC came out, I also went to buy it. It was a richer and deeper game than Civ2, though the general storyline and setting left me a little cold, so i never grew to love it. As the games came out, they were both a mixture of evolution and revolution. Brand new things that added depth were brought in, while the old stuff that we loved was kept and polished.

I expected the same when i heard that Civ3 was coming out. I expected the designers to come up with new revolutionary things in the game while keeping the best ideas and mechanisms from civ2 and SMAC, which had made those games so enjoyable. When I heard about culture and resources, i knew that the folks at fixaris had come up with the new revolutionary things i was expecting. But then, I got the game as soon as i could and begun to play, and noticed that my second expectation had not been met. Many of the great features and or lessons of Civ2 and SMAC were missing and there seemed no reason why they were not there.

If you look at the list of things people want in the new patch or mod or add-on, notice how many of these are things they want back from civ2 and SMAC. I think that those people sort of share my feelings also.