作者：Edge Staff

电子游戏中的成功总是具有周期性。就像帝国的发展一样，会经历繁荣的发展，也会瞬间坍塌或经历多年的萎靡。风靡于90年代初期的策略模拟游戏在第一人称射击游戏出现之后便逐渐衰败了。作为沉浸式爆炸类游戏的领头军的3D Realms，id和Parallax Software也都处在挣扎的边缘。如今策略游戏再次回归，即带着《Dota 2》，《星际争霸II》和《王国风云》出现在了玩家面前。可以说整个产业都处在不断的变化发展中。

尽管如此，《文明》系列游戏创造者Sid Meier仍停留在玩家的视线前。尽管现在他自己的工作室Firaxis主要负责的是幕后工作，但是Meier仍然致力于那些给自己带来巨大名气的系列游戏每次迭代的设计，原型创造等工作。“我们稳定地待在自己小小的细分市场中。我们始终与策略游戏玩家保持着联系，所以我们不需要做其它工作室所做的事。尽管我们并未创造出热门的新鲜内容，但是我们却拥有这一类型中最棒的游戏。”

Civilization-5(from digitaltrends)

讽刺的是，1993年当Edge问世时，Meier暂时转向了名为CPU Bach的音乐生成程序。他解释道：“对于《文明》的过时我们感到了焦虑。我们将能够想到的所有理念添加到游戏中。那时我们说过‘我们不需要立刻冲到顶点，让我们做些不同的尝试。’”策略游戏的裂缝也并未持续太久。紧接着《Colonization》出现了，《文明》再次掀起了热潮。他耸耸肩说道：“这是一款用户会发给我们相关建议和理念帮助我们进一步完善的游戏。它具有自己的生命。”

20年前，Meier仍在Microprose，即他与”Wild Bill” Stealey在1982年所创建的模拟游戏公司。多亏了《F-15 Strike Eagle》和《沉默舰队》等热门授权游戏，该公司成为了当时世界上的一大巨头公司，并且是全新类型行列中的佼佼者。但是在90年代中期因为被Spectrum HoloByte所收购而出现了裁员等等不确定性。1996年Meier选择了离开并创造了Firaxis。他在今天说道：“这是一个正确的决定。我们可以避开企业事宜而再次专注于设计上。Microprose是一家大公司，而这会带给我们很大的压力——我们真正热爱的还是游戏创造。”

现代产业与之相比较出现了什么变化？他说道：“那时候，每两年就要转变硬件。我们的主要开发平台已经从雅达利转变到Commodore 64再到Amiga；之后我们又转向了PC。之后CD-ROMs出现了：最初的《文明》是基于10张软盘。同样地，图像和音频也发生了很大的改变，一开始《文明》是基于16种颜色，并且只有一种声音。如今的产业变得更加稳定了。但这并不代表它不再有趣。”

几年之后，策略游戏再次回归。《XCOM》（游戏邦注：Firaxis在2012年创造的一款最受好评的游戏）和《Clash Of Clans》都证实了深入的战术体验也适用于智能手机。Meier说道：“关于策略游戏真正有趣的是，用户似乎愿意更长时间地玩这类型游戏。在我们的《文明》社区中，有些玩家甚至玩了20多年的游戏，并且他们仍会继续想出新的游戏理念并推动着游戏的进一步发展。我认为不管产业朝着怎样的方向发展，即不管是趋于在线，还是被独立游戏所占领，或者出现更多新主机游戏，策略游戏都能够发挥自己的作用。我们是否应该用倍增的现实技术来武装自己？我并不敢保证，但是我们现在的工作便是朝着产业所决定的任何新方向前进。”

我们谈论了Meier喜欢玩的游戏。当然，他已经探索了像《帝国时代》和《星际争霸》等策略游戏，但是他也涉及了像《使命的召唤》等第一人称射击游戏以及《Gran Turismo》等赛车游戏。他也对不断发展的独立领域充满兴趣。Meier说道：“大约5，6年前，你会觉得自己必须具有巨大的预算，并且摆在自己眼前的只是有限的发展渠道，即只有少量的人可以设计并创造游戏。但是现在你将看到许多不同的分销渠道，我们能在许多不同的地方找到游戏；许多可行的工具能够帮助你挖掘出真正的创造性。市场上已经出现了各种各样的游戏。而现在你所需要想的只是找到这些游戏，并腾出时间去玩它们。”

不出所料，他玩得最多的游戏便是《我的世界》。我们发现这款游戏与《文明》具有一些有趣的相同点：这两款游戏都是关于提供给玩家创造性景观，并要求他们必须征服这些景观。Meier笑着说道：“如果我们的游戏与出色的《我的世界》有联系的话，那真是太棒了。一开始是《模拟城市》带来了这种范式，即让玩家在游戏中创造世界。这是一个非常棒的理念。像《文明》和《我的世界》等游戏围绕着玩家展开，并且对于玩家来说最终结果都是特别的。这与看电影并不一样。在这些游戏中你能有自己的想法。游戏所强调的是真正去利用这一媒介。”

Meier真的很亲切，很容易感到满足，所以我们很难从他身上感受到消极性。不过在谈及Zynga将策略类游戏的一些强制循环整合到自己的城镇游戏中时，他说道：“我并不认同这点。当我得知其指标和强制循环（系统剖析游戏玩法的心里元素）时，我真的不能理解他们。我并不是如此开始创造游戏。”他是从哪里开始创造游戏？“我先选取一个自己觉得有趣且吸引人的主题，然后想办法让玩家对该主题产生归属感——如提供给他们一些有趣的事做。我并未宣称这是一种正确的方法，但这却是我使用的唯一方法。”

我们询问了游戏的未来：它将朝着怎样的方向前进。“我并不知道！我总感觉这里会出现一些更轰动的事；我也想知道那会是什么。的确，我们已经拥有许多不同的平台，拥有所有的这些技术，我们也始终紧跟着时代发展着。这是一个任何人都可以玩游戏的时代。所以我们是否会变成纯粹的游戏创造者而不再是游戏玩家？我们的生活是否会变成游戏？可以说现在的我们处在一个有趣的十字路口上。”

最后，如果你现在仍是一名年轻的设计师，你是否仍会创造《文明》这款游戏？沉默了一会后Meier说道：“我能在现在的许多游戏身上找到《文明》的影子。如果让我在今天重新从设计师做起，我可能就不会创造出《文明》了，我可能会创造一些不一样的游戏。这都是有可能的事。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Sid Meier and the dawn and rise of Civilization

By Edge Staff

Success in the videogame industry is cyclical and capricious. Like empires, the great genres rise and fall, often collapsing into dust or years of stasis. The strategy simulation, so dominant in the early ’90s, fell away with the arrival of the firstperson shooter – and even that mercurial genre has seen plenty of casualties. 3D Realms, id and Parallax Software, the godfathers of the immersive blaster, have all floundered. Now strategy is back, with Dota 2, StarCraft II and Crusader Kings. Everything flows.

But somehow the Civilization series has remained, and with it the game’s creator, Sid Meier. Although now more of a behind-the-scenes figure at his studio Firaxis, Meier is still designing, prototyping and providing input on every iteration of the series that cemented his fame. “We’ve been safe in our little niche. We always had a connection with strategy gamers, so there was no need for us to do what other studios were doing. We weren’t ever the hot new thing, but we had the best game in its genre.”

Ironically, though, when Edge launched in 1993, Meier had temporarily moved on to a music generation program called CPU Bach. “Civ had gone out and we were exhausted,” he explains. “We put everything we could think of into that game. We said, ‘Let’s not try to top that right away – let’s do something a little bit different’.” The hiatus from strategy didn’t last long. Colonization came next, then Civilization started calling once more. “It was the kind of game where people would write to us with suggestions and ideas about how we could improve it,” he shrugs. “It took on a life of its own.”

Twenty years ago, Meier was still at Microprose, the simulation specialist he set up with ‘Wild Bill’ Stealey in 1982. Thanks to hit franchises such as F-15 Strike Eagle and Silent Service, the company became a giant of its era with offices around the world and ambitions on new genres. But a mid-’90s corporate buyout by Spectrum HoloByte led to hubris, staff cuts and uncertainty. Meier left in 1996 to form Firaxis. “It was the right decision,” he says today. “We were able to refocus on design with fewer corporate distractions. Microprose was a big company, and that brings a lot of pressure – what we enjoy doing is making games.”

How does the modern industry compare? “Back then, we were pretty much shifting hardware every two years,” he says. “We’d moved from the Atari as our main development platform, to the Commodore 64 and then a little diversion to the Amiga; then we moved over to the PC. And CD-ROMs were just happening: Civ originally went out on about ten floppy disks. Also, there were big changes in graphics and audio – Civ started out in 16 colours, with one speaker sound… The industry is a lot more stable these days. But that’s not to say it isn’t interesting.”

After a few years in the specialist wilderness, strategy games are back. With XCOM, Firaxis made one of the most critically acclaimed titles of 2012, and elsewhere Clash Of Clans is proving that deeper tactical experiences are possible on smartphones. “What’s interesting about strategy games is that the audience seems to stick with them for a long time,” says Meier of the genre’s hardiness. “We have a community of Civ players that have been around for 20 years, and they continue to come up with ideas and energise the game. I think the strategy genre has a part to play in whatever direction the industry goes, whether that’s online all the time, or more about indie games, or these new consoles. Are we going to wear augmented-reality technology? I don’t know, but our job is to go in whatever new direction the industry takes.”

We talk a little about what Meier likes to play. Of course, he has explored strategy titles such as Age Of Empires and StarCraft, but he has also dabbled in firstperson shooters, surprisingly namechecking Call Of Duty as well as racing games such as Gran Turismo. He has watched the rise of the indie scene with interest. “Five or six years ago, you felt you needed a huge budget and there was a very limited pipeline – only a few people got to design and make games,” he says. “Now there are so many distribution channels, so many places to find games; and the tools available are leading to this real explosion of creativity. There are so many more games than you could ever play. The problem now is finding them and finding the time to play them.”

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it’s Minecraft that he’s been playing the most. We suggest there are interesting parallels with Civilization: both games are about providing the player with a creative landscape they must master. “It would be wonderful if we had anything to do with inspiring Minecraft,” Meier laughs. “It was SimCity originally that introduced the whole paradigm that it’s the player building the world. It’s a very powerful idea. Games like Civ and Minecraft [make] the player the star, and what they end up with is unique to them. You don’t get that watching a movie. In these games it’s your own ideas, your own thoughts. Games that emphasise that are really taking advantage of this medium.”

Meier is so amiable, so contented, that it’s difficult to coax him into negativity or reproach. The closest we get is when we ask about how Zynga repurposed some of the key compulsion loops of the strategy genre into its Ville titles. “It did not really resonate with me,” he says. “When I heard about the metrics and the compulsion loops – scientifically taking apart the psychology of gameplay – I can’t relate to that. It’s not where I start when I make a game.” Where does he begin? “I take a topic I think is fun and exciting, and think of a way to give the player a sense of ownership over that topic – give them interesting things to do. I don’t claim it’s the right approach but it’s the only one that works for me.”

We ask about the future of gaming: where’s it all heading? “I don’t know! There’s a sense that something big is going to happen; I wish I knew what that was going to be. Yes, we have all these different platforms, we have all this technology, we’re constantly plugged in. Just about anyone can play games these days. So, do we all become game makers and stop being game players – is that what’s going to happen? Does our life become a game? We’re at an interesting crossroads.”

Finally, would you still make Civ if you were a young designer right now? For a moment there is silence. “I see a lot of games out there today with hints and traces of Civilization,” Meier says finally. “If I were just starting out as a designer today and Civilization didn’t exist, I would have to make it… It still makes sense.”(source:edge-online)