Freeday 15 October 1999
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Pic of the day: The logo screen of 3rd millenium, the game. Today I bought a new computer game. Now, that is remarkable. Some years ago, I would typically buy computer games for $100 a month on average. I have over 100 of them lying around. But gradually I arrived at a saturation point. Whenever a new game came out, I would find that I already had one in that genre, and a better one at that. Other games had outrageous demands to hardware, and I was simply not able to buy new computers that fit their requirements. When I had the hardware, the craze was over. So during the last couple of years, I have mainly played Daggerfall (roleplaying) and Civ2 w/ Fantastic Worlds (strategy). I've also temporarily (for a few days) playes the roleplaying games Ultima 7 and Darklands, and the strategy games Destiny, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Settlers III, Industry Giant and Ascendancy. (That's those I remember, at least.) Of these, Settlers III was new, and I got it for free. (Well, actually for helping with the translation of the manual, but if we had agreed on that beforehand it would been taxable income for me. I kid you not. And to be honest, the game is not worth the tax on its original retail price.)So it is quite an event when I buy a new game. Since Daggerfall fulfills all my roleplaying needs, this is a strategy game. I do not expect it to be as replayable as Civilization, but the concept is interesting. The 3rd millenium is a strategy game set in the near future. The world is divided into 5 countries each consisting of a few states. The country level is too coarse even if we think in cultural terms, and is obviously dictated by (human vs human) gaming needs rather than simulation. There are however 4 levels of magnification. I love this idea. (Too bad about the implementation ... turns out you still need to access the detail level.) ... I have argued, perhaps even in these pages, for the concept of "detail on demand". In strategy games, some people want more micromanagement, while other want less. I love micromanagement, but my wrists do not. This is one reason why I start playing Destiny and then stop. Ideally a strategy game should allow you to follow your world close up for maximum effect, but also be manageable on a more abstract level as things become bigger and more complicated. For instance in Civ 2, the various cities often have different natural resources. As you get many cities, you may want them to automatically build facilities, and you can even make an auto-build queue that determines the priorities. But this queue is common for all cities. By micromanaging your cities, you can get a better result. A city surrounded by trees, for instance, probably need a granary to encourage growth. One surrounded mainly by grassland may need to start on a temple right away, as the population will boom while building materials will be in short supply. The graphic representation in The 3rd millenium is very different from Civilization, and reminds me slightly of Shadow President and Cyberjudas. I loved those games, by the way, despite my wrists and despite their sleep-inducing tendency. But they were both too buggy to play in the long run. A shame, as they were educational and character-building. A very good demonstration of the virtue of patience and reason in international politics. ... In fact, I think my playstyle in Shadow President should have qualified me for Nobel's Peace Prize. A prize which incidentally today was given to Mediciens Sans Frontieres. The choice is more controversial than it sounds, as MSF have consistently denied the rights of nations to do what they want within their own borders. The idea of national sovereignity is pretty central to all diplomacy in our era. For this reason, Iraq was not attacked until it invaded Kuwait. But somewhere around this episode, the policy of the UN (and more importantly, the USA) has changed. Iraq is now policed to protect its ethnic minorities, and in Yugoslavia NATO simply ignored the nation's right to kill its own minorities. (Though it may be argued that NATO has in fact treated Kosovo as a sovereign nation that was enslaved by an occupation force. This idea is sure to upset China, which is doing its damnedest to Sinesify (?) the occupied nation of Tibet.It would probably be very impolite to mention that the USA is mainly built on land aquired by military victory. (Especially if we consider not just the French and Mexican, but also the native population.) And that my native Norway has done the same with its northernmost provinces. Luckily for us, there were no meddlesome physicians without respect for borders, at the time. So now we can hand around peace prizes with a smile. ... You know, sometimes I wonder where we would have been today without the sins of the fathers. If the ancient greeks had found slavery as reprehensible as we do, would they have had time to hang out on the forum and invent democracy, philosophy and such things that separate us from the typical barbarian? Would the USA be what it is today without the age of slavery? Would western Europe be the rich oasis it is today if not for its colonization of most of the world? Would we have had a modern, clean society if the industrial revolution had not filled the air with soot and poisoned the rivers? I guess in the real third millenium (if any), people will gross out over the disgusting, reprehensible and just plain wrong things we did. The torture of animals for cheap food and clothes. The destruction of entire ecosystems. And it's a pretty safe bet that one of the sides of the abortion debate will be seen as Clearly Wrong All The Time, though it is anybody's guess which one. Plus there are probably things that we will never even guess by now, but which the future will comdemn us for. Future generations that would not even exist if not for the things we do wrong today.Some times reality is stranger than strategy games. |