Sid Meier

Sid Meier is a genius. Pirates! remains a masterpiece and I've lost chunks of my life to his strategy games and even his flight sims. All that being said, Meier's Memoir is a bit like the common of experience of Civ:
- enthralling early game with nostalgia inducing looks at the other side of the games that shaped your youth and the industry.
- bit of lost momentum in the middle where you start wondering if Meier will expand more on conflict in his career given what you know about things coming to a head at Microprose, etc. (he doesn't)
- a slog of an endgame where you realize even his attempt at answering critiques of the genre he defined (the whig history baked into Civ) is completely unsatisfying.

Sid Meier's games remain great. His perspective on his career and any meaningful conflict in his field is surprisingly shallow. For someone who acknowledges his own myth as being built around creating interesting decisions, his retrospective doesn't touch on any issue being within his control. Reflections on momentous decisions like splitting with Bill Stealey or consideration of the effects of "the crunch" on developers' lives just float by like a cloud on the Spanish Main. This book is just such a disturbingly uncritical look at Meier's "Greatest Hits" that you're left wondering why a mind capable of such great and creative analysis couldn't apply the same scrutiny to his own career?… (mehr)

What an absolutely remarkable memoir. If you game, you've heard of Sid Meier. In fact, you may have heard of him even if you don't.
I was so enthralled with this book. It was amazing to hear how one of the world's most well known video game developers has developed his long history of games. He gives advice that would honestly work in any sort of creative career. Along with talking about his own life, it was interesting to see how gaming developed as a whole. He speaks of the beginnings of conferences like E3 and companies growing and changing throughout the years, although through the perspective of his own games.
I also found the achievements found throughout the book hilarious. Making the reading like a game itself. I highly recommend this book for any fellow gamers out there.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of the book in return for an honest review!… (mehr)

Sid Meier has done quite a lot regarding innovation and great game design for the whole industry in many different genres but all of that I already knew before. Do not get me wrong it is a nice book I guess as much as Sid Meier! is a nice person but it lacks a bit of terrific insights or astonishing war stories.
It is modest and tells the story of all games done by Sid Meier and features the history of MicroProse and Firaxis. Sure it is interesting and for me it felt like a trip back on memory lane as I loved and played the f*ck out of Civilization (1) and Railroad Tycoon but if you expect more than that or if you are not part of the industry I could imagine more exciting lecture. Even the parts on game design offer nothing really new if you know the GDC 2012 session on intereting decisions already (it is available for free on YouTube btw).

Kudos btw for offering achievements in a book and also mentioning the BPjM in an english book.… (mehr)