11th Aug 2004
Dont Play Civilization III
If you value your time, don’t play Civilization III
Because it’s a very good strategy game. The best I’ve ever played. Really.
Sophia and I were in a CompUSA a couple of days back, and she zeroed in on an expansion pack for The Sims (Hot Date). In my quest to expose her to simulation/strategy/logic stuff in general, I recalled reading great reviews about CivIII. Hmm, Hot Date, or history itself to experiment with? For an 11 year old girl? Look, no hurry for the Hot Date stuff, as far as I am concerned!
Civ III. Bag. Out the door. Install. Runs fine on her G3 PowerBook.
She absolutely loves it. She and a friend were immersed, screaming at the game, cheering when they attained the ability to sail a boat, groaning at the military finesse of enemies - there’s so many things to think about with every turn. Rival leaders would snicker at them, or lavish praise, or threaten war.
So I tried it last night. Took the Red Pill. It’s 9 pm, and I want to think about something other than XSLT.
Oh my, it’s 3 am. My Russia is in a state of unrest. The citizens are revolting in Moscow, starving in Odessa. Germany keeps sending Galleys at me, and I keep pinging them with catapults.
That’s it. Gotta return to reality. Go to sleep. Stay away from that game :-)
VERY DANGEROUS INDEED
I once spent two stretches of 24 hours (with about 6 hours of sleep in between) playing CivIII.
If I knew you were going to buy it I would have warned you. But now it’s too late.
I’m really sorry for Susan.