Sid Meier to deliver keynote at GDC 2010

CB Droege 28 Jan, 2010 at 12:25pm ET Article published in Gaming

Comments

1. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 1:42pm chrisWhite Man, I'd love to hear that talk considering his current projects with platforms like Facebook.
2. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 1:43pm Thrax Farmville Civilization. D:
3. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 1:48pm chrisWhite Have you heard him talk about it Thrax? I was really skeptical but he's got some really interesting points, he's been interviewed on either Gamers With Jobs or Three Moves Ahead recently and both podcasts have spent a lot of time talking about Facebook games from a hard-core gamers perspective.
4. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 1:53pm Thrax Yeah, I've seen a couple of the interviews. I just... I cannot be convinced. Nothing about a web game says "hardcore" to me. I can't agree at all.
5. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 1:59pm chrisWhite I'm still a bit skeptical too, I loath Facebook so I have a hard time seeing it as an awesome hardcore platform but I do think it's a compelling platform for turn based strategy games like Civilization for doing big multiplier games that just kind of sucks when you try to do it through play by email with more then two people. But, it's Facebook :shrug:
6. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 2:06pm Cliff_Forster

   chrisWhite wrote:

   I'm still a bit skeptical too, I loath Facebook so I have a hard time seeing it as an awesome hardcore platform but I do think it's a compelling platform for turn based strategy games like Civilization for doing big multiplier games that just kind of sucks when you try to do it through play by email with more then two people. But, it's Facebook :shrug:

   
   If my wife's Farmville addiction is any indication, social gaming is reaching an untapped audience.
   
   Guys like us find the games themselves to be kind of silly, but it obviously has appeal to a broader audience.
   
   We are not going to be shutting Steam down to play any Facebook games soon, but I'm afraid we may be outnumbered by people that have no clue what Steam is but are all too familiar with Facebook.
7. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 2:48pm chrisWhite I think you're right Cliff, Facebook isn't going to replace other games for hard-core gamers like ourselves but it is another step toward mass adoption of gaming in general and it does bring social gaming to a casual audience.
   
   I'm also hoping that once Civ and similarly complex strategy games that work particularly well on a platform like Facebook arrive that maybe we'll see it spark the strategy game market back into gear a bit.
   
   What do you think CB?
8. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 3:14pm CB I've been following Sid Meier's work for nearly two decades. I found Civilization in '92, and it has been my favorite gaming franchise ever since. There have been a few games in his portfolio that I've not cared for, but that's mostly because of the subject matter, not the design (I don't really like Railroad Tycoon, for example, but that's mostly because I can't force myself to care about trains).
   
   I was skeptical for a long time when I heard about Civilizations Revolutions. I cried in outrage that my favorite game designer was going the way of so many before, dumbing-down his best franchise to cater to the console/casual market (et tu Bethesda?), but when I finally played, I was pleasantly surprised. He had succeeded in taking the feel and depth of a civ game, and making it work in a more casual environment.
   
   So, with that in mind,I'm still a bit weary of what the Facebook version will entail, but I'm also excited about the possibilities inherent in moving the franchise into a more accessible space.
   
   Imagine a flash or java based Civ game, similar to Revolutions in scope, but with the turn-taking being managed by Facebook notifications. It works really well for the Scrabble game, why wouldn't it work for Civ?
   
   I think we're all worried that because it's being made to work with the Facebook API, it'll be campy and centered around collections and recruiting friends, like other Facebook games, which I suppose is possible, but if done right the only thing it will use Facebook for is setting up the match and notifying you of your turn.
   
   If it is done right, and it develops a following, it will only be the first of its kind. Sid Meier may once again develop a new genre of gaming, the Social Strategy Game (SSG). Deep games that play for free through advertising supported social media sites. The possibilities in that genre leave me breathless with both glee and horror.
9. 
   28 Jan 2010 ~ 4:53pm BuddyJ His keynote will take at least three hours, but ending it can be achieved in many different ways.