Sid Meier is not very good at Civilization.

The creator and namesake of the long-runningseries—which just saw the launch of its sixth numbered release last week—freely admits that he's only "OK" at his own creation. It's a shortcoming that Meier, in a set of recent interviews with Ars Technica, chalked up to a fundamental difference in playstyles.

"To be good [at Civilization] you have to try to find or exploit the weaknesses in the game," Meier said. "I'm not generally doing that. I'm trying to play the way you're supposed to play and get into the role. 'What would I do if I was the king of this civilization?' That's the fun for me."

"I think other players, if you want to be really good, they go, 'Oh, I realize the chariots here are overpowered, so I'm going to build a ton of chariots,'" he continued. "So I wouldn't say I'm good. I'm not that competitive."

Things have changed a lot for Meier and the franchise since the first Civilization launched 25 years ago. That initial release still holds a special place in Meier's heart, he says, because "I lived with that for probably a year and a half, and basically just [co-designer] Bruce [Shelley] and I for a lot of that time working together. It was a concentrated experience. The other Civ games were me playing here and there and then doing other things."

What are you playing? Meier mentioned World of Tanks, Starcraft 2, XCom 2, and Minecraft as recent games that he has managed to put some enjoyable time into. Past that, he says, "it's really very hard to keep up with what's going on." Meier mentioned World of Tanks, Starcraft 2, XCom 2, andas recent games that he has managed to put some enjoyable time into. Past that, he says, "it's really very hard to keep up with what's going on." More than that, Meier says playing too many other games can have a negative effect on a designer's own direction and inspiration. "People say, 'Have you played XYZ' and I say 'No I haven't had a chance.' To some extent that can color... you can subconsciously copy other games or whatever. That's not really what I want to be doing."



While Meier has continued to serve as director on subsequent Civilization games, a long line of protégés have come in to serve as the designers for each new sequel. As the founder of Firaxis games, Meier describes his role these days as more of an institutional memory repository.

"I'm there to kind of represent the history of the game," he said. "My role is just to be supportive. Designers have huge egos and they're easily bruised. Making a game can be a painful process. Part of my role is to be encouraging... that idea didn't work, try something else."

That support role is so ingrained into Firaxis culture that a large, green corduroy recliner in Meier's office has come to be known as the "therapy chair," where employees can come and sit and gain the benefit of his knowledge from decades in the industry. It's a role Meier seems to enjoy quite a bit.

"The number of times people would come to me and say 'I'm stuck on this, what do you think, I want to do something else... Do you think this is a good idea, how would you integrate this into the system, or whatever?' There are going to be tough times on any project like that."

Aside from "therapy" sessions, though, Meier says he doesn't have to worry about micromanaging things to keep the series pure and connected to its roots. "I find it best to turn people loose and let them try new ideas... [Designers like] Soren [Johnson], Brian [Reynolds], they understand the core of Civilization. They're fans that played it. They're not going to try to make a first-person shooter out of it. It's not a lot of saying no, it's more saying 'this would fit' or 'here's an idea of how to fit that in....' At the end of the day, you don't know until you try it whether something's gonna work or not."

The politics of Civilization

In the midst of a heated political season, I wondered if Meier's decades-long work on a simulation that focuses on international relations had affected his personal politics at all. Rather than having a direct effect on his own policy positions, though, Meier said Civilization has "given me a greater appreciation for how hard those jobs are. There often are no easy answers, and [I find myself] feeling sorry almost for a lot of people in those positions."

Take me to your leader Choosing the animated, larger-than-life figures that will serve as the leader of an in-game civilization isn't usually a controversial decision within or without Firaxis, Meier said. But there was one prominent counterexample: Choosing the animated, larger-than-life figures that will serve as the leader of an in-game civilization isn't usually a controversial decision within or without Firaxis, Meier said. But there was one prominent counterexample: "China is an interesting example because there's a lot of political sensitivities. A leader who's in favor one year might be out of favor five years later. We have to be kind of sensitive to that, so we've gone to more ancient leaders in China to avoid some of those issues."



"It's very easy to criticize politicians and leaders or your boss or whoever, somebody who's in a leadership position, but I think playing Civ makes you appreciate it's not as easy as it looks," he continued. "Everything is a trade-off. You want to do one thing, you take one step forward here, [but] you have to pay the price for it there."

The give-and-take balancing of any potential in-game action makes it hard for designers to force any specific and overt political message into the Civilization formula, Meier said. Not that he'd want to shoehorn in his politics even if it was possible. "A game that has an agenda takes the role away from the player and gives it to the designer," he said. "A game that tells a certain political philosophy or whatever... you want to make sure the player is having the fun, not the designer. You don't want to let the designer decide what the philosophy is."

There is one exception to this ban on overt agenda-setting that Meier remembered fondly, though. "I was kind of proud that [the original Civilization] had a global warming component in there, way ahead of its time," he recalled. "It was actually a game mechanic. It was in there for a gameplay reason. It was interesting looking back at the original game. But [in general], too much topicality dates the game..."

While the Civilization series has always been guided somewhat by the realities of political history, Meier says those real-world links are always secondary to having an enjoyable game. "We look for the fun first," he said. "We would lean in the direction of balance so that there isn't one best way to play, so you'd explore all the different possibilities and avenues."

"We have a little joke—'We do the research after the game is done,'" he continued. "That way we make the game we can using these historical pieces that people are very familiar with. If there's something we need to justify, we'll go back to the history books and find an example of where that happened... The basic tools that we give you are historical, but there's no guarantee that history is going to be duplicated exactly; in fact, that would be a bug. There are lots of things that can happen, and that's what makes the game replayable."

The future

As the Civilization series has changed with the technology and gameplay trends of the times, Meier says he doesn't think the basic game will ever be perfected into a perfect "final" version that doesn't need additional tweaking. "The topic is so rich... we're at the point now where every new thing that goes in, we pretty much have to take something else out. I think it's shown its ability to evolve and change but still be true to the core of the game, and I think that will continue."

As for possible revivals of some of Meier's other well-known series, such as Railroads and Pirates, he seemed skeptical that the effort would really be worth it. "The investment in putting out a AAA game is substantial. That's really the question—is there enough freshness and an audience for a game like that. A lot of goodwill extends back, but is that hardcore or is that the kind of game that would appeal today. I find it an interesting question—what can be done with the latest technology? On the other hand, the early a-ha moments have already been a-ha'd, so that's also part of the fun. I can see either way."

As far as coming up with totally new ideas for games, though, Meier said he finds that's only getting tougher in today's game industry. "One of the luxuries we had 25 years ago was almost everything we did was new, hadn't been done before," he said. "Today, in a sense, everything's been done. But I do enjoy trying new ideas. I've talked about this dinosaur game that I've always wanted to make, never really figured out how to make it happen, so there are still ideas out there that are interesting to me."