Comments on: Checkmated

By: Hans Larsen

Hans Larsen — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:33:05 +0000

5 simple words:

Bandit Kings of Ancient China

By: Andy P

Andy P — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:59:14 +0000

Smug.

By: peterb

peterb — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:43:29 +0000

Aaaaaaand I have spent 12 of the past 24 hours playing Rome: Total War. I just ordered Medieval 2: Total War from Steam.

Damn you, Andy P.

By: peterb

peterb — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:24:58 +0000

@Andy P - Aren't there like 8 different versions of Total War? Is there one that is particularly good that you're thinking of?

By: Andy P

Andy P — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:30:22 +0000

I should probably add that by “Total War” I’m responding to “the 5% that are good, not necessarily the most accessible (though it’s not half bad given the ambition of what it tries to achieve).

So I guess “the end” wasn’t quite the end after all…

By: Andy P

Andy P — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:26:32 +0000

Total War.

The end.

By: Adam R

Adam R — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:45:06 +0000

So…any good examples of the 5% that are good? I’m starting to itch for a new strategy game, and the last one I played was CivRev. (Frankly, I loved how that one did get rid of so much micromanagement, such as workers.)

Dawn of Discovery is piquing my interest, but I don’t think anyone whose tastes I actually know has tried it.

By: peterb

peterb — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:30:42 +0000

@Weiguo – See, some small part of me was trying to be the tiniest bit polite and not say “The real reason is that [REDACTED] was being a pompous dickhead.”

But you’re right.

By: Weiguo

Weiguo — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:40:14 +0000

But the real reason they wrote that script was that, at the time, they just didn’t want to do the work to make the product accessible.

I don’t think this is quite accurate. Design decisions in these OSes seem to be driven not by laziness, but by a certain brand of vanity or even spite. By actively making software difficult to use (substitute your favourite euphemism here, like “idiosyncratic”, “customizable”, or “advanced”), they can restrict the software’s audience. Suddenly, the writers (and users) are part of a small class of people who are “smart” (read: stubborn) enough to be able to use (flay themselves) with this sort of software.

By: psu

psu — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:19:31 +0000

This is why I just play Madden.