I recall looking at the clock while playing Civ II several times and thinking “5:00? Well there’s no point in going to bed now.” I think what makes this game so “Just one more turn”-y is that you are progressing along several different tracks at the same time, so that your almost always JUST ABOUT to finish something: capturing a city, building a wonder, buying a tech, etc.
I also recall having a rude awakening to how much they had improved the AI in later editions…Where the computer would actually wait until it had enough troops to attack your city…
Every time I look at something like this, I think: “You know, automating a municipal government would more than likely be a lot simpler than doing so for a civ game…if people can make sim city run itself successfully, using only algorithms and such, why not do it in real life?”
I think that’s an example of why AI is always just 25 years away: people think that what they do is so easy to write the rules for, without appreciating what a high-level interpreter they themselves are. It’s easy to run a model of a city that is only a few registers and some easy equations; it’s difficult to turn the detail of the real world into numbers that accurately work for all cities everywhere.
That’s a good point. Good points.
Well, I hope somebody starts somewhere.
Soapy Jamboree? It’s Gdansk now, you insensitive clod!
The alternative is to enforce the algorithms output until you train your population to behave accordingly. I can see what could possible go wrong with that 
This happened to me. I felt good and bad because the game was too fun to play without disrupting everything else. I haven’t played for years.
I remember reading about a fellow who ended his game with “just one more turn…” and then kept playing the same world for months. He ended up in something like 11,000 AD with two superpowers locked in permanent, unwinnable nuclear war and the earth scorched by global warming. Like Mad Max, but with central government.
Gdansk is to the North of Soapy Jamboree, on this map.
For me, the sticking point of Civ was who exactly you, the player, are supposed to be? On the one hand you’re immortal and guiding the paths of your civilization’s cultural and technological development, on the other you’re micromanaging military units, telling them which enemy unit to attack. If I’m a demigod, let me delegate!
Also that whole “enough archers can take out a tank battalion” thing.
Sure, before the annexation.
##Who control Bartergrad?
#You do, Gorodskoi Komitet.
The immortal spirit of freebase storytelling.
That explains it, thanks.
Yea, that guy!
Thanks for the link. That was hilarious. I really like when players push games beyond their designed limits and things collapse in interesting ways.
I had a serious Civ2 problem back in the day. One might conclude I changed majors due to failing Orgo 2 due to playing Civ2 (“Or, perhaps I was playing because I was failing!” pleads the addict.). Eventually I mustered the strength to quit but man, it sure tweaked some switch in my wee lizard brain. I find no joy in gambling (thankfully), but I can empathize with people inexplicably compelled to do [something] (How the creator of NYPD Blue gambled aways his $100 million fortune) self-destructive.
Years later a friend offered me a hit of Civ4 which I cautiously accepted. I found the learning curve steep enough to not make it immediately enjoyable, so I counted my blessings and haven’t touched it since. When I’m ready to shuffle off this mortal coil, I’ll fire up a VM, unplug my nutrient feed and sit down for just one more turn.
In a sense, it has with multiple projects around the US tapping in to data streams provided by local/city/state/fed gov’t. OpendataDC, NYC’s BYTES, and Open Baltimore. It’s not AI, but data capture’s got to happen before HAL decides to stop opening the pod bay doors.
OT: I have always delighted in the onomatopoeia of “<a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSIKBliboIo>Open the pod bay doors, please, HAL…”
