What is Civilization: Beyond Earth, really?

[BlaneckW]

Civilization: Beyond Earth is a planetary landing sim based around quests, that is, leveling up your civilization-class(affinity) by exploring planet.  If that's what you want, get it. 

I posted a review earlier, which I no longer consider fair, because it was a review based on it being a strategy game, comparing it to Alpha Centauri.  But I would now compare it with Spore or Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim.

Is Beyond Earth Alpha Centauri's spiritual succesor?  No, it isn't, and I don't believe Firaxis ever made that claim.  I have to give them some credit for that.  They aren't doing a lot to deny the association, but they aren't doing a lot to feed it either.  People believe what they want to believe.

[Geo]

And here I was thinking you were/are a beta tester.

[BlaneckW]

And here I was thinking you were/are a beta tester.

I can read minds and tell the future, which is even better.

[BlaneckW]

Now, Beyond Earth will not have a "tech tree", but a "tech web". What does that mean? It means that you will have "a new semi-randomized quest system" which you will pursue to advance along the "tech web" (class skills) which is tied in with your "affinity" (class).

As has been stated, there will be no tech trading. Because this is not Alpha Centauri and this is not a tech tree. This is Pandora RPG/SIM. You will explore planet and "establish your own cultural identity."

"We want to keep you in-character, we want you to play for 200 hours and still feel like you’re stepping into that character and not that you’ve exhausted it or figured it out or whatever."

Being in-character good, figuring things out bad. I understand.

Continuing with this interview here.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/discussing-humanity-s-future-with-the-father-of-civilization/1100-6418922/
What did Sid say here? Nothing. Well, not quite nothing, though it's very airy. He says that "Civilization is certainly a good example of a game that never plays the same way twice", which is true of Alpha Centauri but not the rest of the series, unless you don't know what the [intercourse]you're doing, which is why it's the only one in the series I play.

Alpha Centauri and Beyond Earth will both have "replayability," but the way they do it is very different. Alpha Centauri does it with complexity, Beyond Earth does it with a class system (affinities), "exploring planet", and RPG-like "immersion".

If you were going to have replayability by way of complexities, then we would have talked about that instead of talking about "affinities" and sand-worms and gleaming robots while making philosophical gesticulations.

"I think it's what's unique about video games. That we invite you to take a starring role, that we invite you to be the main character, we invite you to tell your own story."

Not that I would mind more RPG element tacked onto Alpha Centauri, provided that it wasn't done in the increasingly infantile manner of Sid Meir.. And also the emphasizing of the Sci-Fi to the point of cliche. Part of Alpha Centauri's deal was it's tie-in with real-world ideology and concerns, and not just fictional-plausible abstractions.

A trending idea in games is "Sometimes people ask me, "What’s the secret to winning?" and what I say is, "If there’s a best strategy, I’m going to fix it. I don’t want there to be a 'best' strategy."

Of course, in the real world, there are best strategies. Some people find that boring; I simply find them dead. Learning and strategizing is a thing of the past now, we have more immersive things to be doing.

[BlaneckW]

I want to be clear that I do not think this is a bad game.  I think it would be a good game for a child or a young teen.

[Buster's Uncle]

I want to know more before I get too confident...

[Vishniac]

I think it would be a good game for a child or a young teen.

Or a good game for a young at heart.

Tears for Fears - Advice for the Young at Heart

[BlaneckW]

After your child has played BE, you should get them Alpha Centauri, otherwise you would not be a good parent.  When I was a young boy my father and I recieved a catalog from school selling educational material, and it had Sim City 2000 on it.  And that's why I'm the [jerk, sphincter]I am today.

[DrazharLn]

After your child has played BE, you should get them Alpha Centauri, otherwise you would not be a good parent.  When I was a young boy my father and I recieved a catalog from school selling educational material, and it had Sim City 2000 on it.  And that's why I'm the [jerk, sphincter]I am today who independently studies Chinese and Linux as hobbies and gets raged at on message boards for telling people who have problems with Windows 8 that they should switch, and they go on and on about how for a single problem they should not have to change out of a "perfectly good operating system" that even my father complains about.

Being an arse is hardly something to be proud of.

Edit: To be clear, this is a play off "And that's why I'm the [jerk, sphincter]I am today"

[Buster's Uncle]

Manners.  Having them is good.

[BlaneckW]

You can have all the manners you like, people are still attached to Windows, apparently

[DrazharLn]

I develop on GNU/linux systems and the majority of my computers exclusively run GNU/linux. That's hardly it.

Apologies, BUncle, BlaneckW.

[Buster's Uncle]

[Ninja'd.]  No need to apologize to me - just, a little diplomatic phrasing is good.   Go have a look at the demogame thread in Command Nexus, BTW.

You can have all the manners you like, people are still attached to Windows, apparently

But there is a world of difference between "Wrong." and "That turns out not to be the case."  Honest, there is.

[BlaneckW]

if manners produced civilization, then you would be living in one, rather than at the end of one.

[Buster's Uncle]

That turns out not to be the case, IMAO.  One of the signs we are doomed is the fall-off in civility.  I do tend to agree with the 'end of one' part.