Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.

Sid Meier: Too Much Complexity Can Kill Genres

This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

The famed designer doesn’t want strategy games to go the way of the flight simulator.

My boyhood love of flight simulators hit its peak when I learned how to lob thermonuclear warheads in a ballistic arc over mountain ranges in F-22 Lighting 2. However, that flame was smothered in the hours I spent trying to work the true-to-life radar system in Falcon 3.0. It’s a fantastic sim, but perhaps just a bit too detailed for my taste. Apparently I wasn’t alone, as the genre is a refuge for the hardcore-only these days. In an interview with PC Gamer Sid Meier notes that trend towards complexity, and how he doesn’t want it to kill off strategy games, like it did flight sims.

“Back when I was young, we used to make flight simulators,” the legendary designer reminisced. “They kept getting more and more complicated. The cockpit started taking over more and more of the screen, and what you saw outside got less and less… But with every generation, some people said, this is getting to be too much for me, I won’t buy it anymore. Eventually it just out-complexified itself.”

To avoid this, he notes that a core doctrine of the Civilization series has been to remove a feature for every new one added. “With Civ, we’re actually deliberately keeping the complexity at the current level, because that seems to be what people enjoy.”

That’s not to say that complex games are bad, but that a rush in that direction can undermine a potential audience. “You have to convince people they like strategy,” Meier says. “It seems a little daunting at first, when you hear about Civ… But once you get them to try it, they see how it works and what kind of fun it is.”

Source: PC Gamer

Recommended Videos

The Escapist is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.Ā Learn more about our Affiliate Policy