You don't know me, Sid. But I know you.
Civilization has been a stable of my gaming life since I bought Civ II on a whim back in 1996. I was a huge history buff, and I just thought it looked kinda cool.
Little did I know that it would be the only legitimate rival to porn my PC would ever see.
I loaded Civ III on my company laptop when I was traveling all over the nation. I'd curse when my plane was landing if I was in battle against the Japanese. I'd frantically try to build city improvements while my battery light blinked. I'd stay up until 5 AM, crouched over the screen in a lonely hotel room, managing my far flung empire and protecting it's borders from barbarians.
Then came Civ IV. Would I win by being a cultural powerhouse? By obliterating my competition while they were still in the stone age? By landing on Alpha Centauri mere moments before the Aztecs did first?
I fondly remember playing as the only civilization in the Western hemisphere, casually building railroads while my enemies beat each other up with catapults. I cursed when the Zulus would unexpectedly build a city on the ONE SQUARE I forgot to explore in my back yard. I never sucked at naval and air combat, but made up for it by letting my allies take the brunt of it. And I knew that once I had built Leonardo's Workshop I was going to FUCK EVERYONE UP with my superior firepower. At least until I invented the automobile....
This is all very esoteric, I know, but the Civilization fans of the world know what I'm talking about. I lost more hours to that series than I did to dating in my 20s (yes, there's a direct correlation there) and I don't regret a single minute of it.
So congrats, Sid, for setting the Guinness World Record for Most Game Awards. Now you can finally tell Will Wright to "suck it!"
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