Sid Meier's Psychology of Game Design

Comments · 238

• TH

  @Thee_Bull · 5 years ago

  FIIIIINE, I'll go play Civilization again.

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• ME

  @metafuel · 6 years ago

  10 years later. Different times,. yet still a really excellent talk. <br>Listen at 1.5 speed

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• LL

  @lliatto · 9 years ago

  you know this is old because they&apos;re trying so hard to look like TV

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• I.

  @i.setyawan · 4 years ago

  It&apos;s nice to hear him still using his favorite phrase, &quot;Wouldn&apos;t it be neat if...&quot; A phrase he&apos;s been using since at least the late 80&apos;s.

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• MG

  @MGHOoL5 · 5 years ago

  Summary:<br>-The first 15 minutes and beginning of the game should be about showing the player what to expect and foreshadowing the potential of the game. You hardly can over-reward them, and you want to ensure they care and invest in the game. Also, they begin very vulnerable and don&apos;t know what to expect and what to do. You want to encourage them and show them how their investment is going in the right path instead of being vague and making them sceptic of their acts are in the wrong path and a waste of time.<br><br>-Be it with the winning percentage (how players win more than we averagely win in real life), being rewarded more than punished, and surpassing greater and greater difficulties, the conclusion is that in your game you want to make the player to feel above the average.<br><br>-Ensure players continue to suspend their disbelief throughout the game and to keep their identification. They want to see themselves as good people, fighting evil, winning, and progressing. To experience rare odds against them such as losing a 2v1 twice or to see their work and progress majorly lost and go downhill (even if temporarily) all can lead them to disbelieve and disconnect. Failure teaches you and so you progress or frustrates you so it motivates you to progress. Bad experiences can give you catharsis which is good and good experiences give you determination. But, to completely lose your work feels like a hurtful waste which will lead players to suspend their belief because games should provide sense of progress and self-determination.<br><br>-Randomness and feeling completely out of control paranoids the players. Mystery should have patterns to master. <br><br>-The player can always see more than you present, and you should use that. They can imagine what a character is doing outside of the screen without the need for you to show them. They will also believe what they have an inclination for even if it is not fully logical. A diplomat wants their help with dancing bears? Sure, sounds good, even if there are not dancing bears in the game; go with the flow and save your resources.<br><br>-Tap into what the players already know. You don&apos;t need to explain to them that a black-hatted one-eyes pirate is bad, they already know that. Focus your resources on what is new and hard to sell.<br><br>-The AI should be part of the overall experience and a measurement of your improvement giving you feedback and validation, variety, and competition. They should be characters you project onto them and not be like humans because they will start to feel either dumb or cheating.<br><br>-The essence of a good game is providing and Epic Journey. This is done through making interesting decisions (ones they discover their repercussions and interconnections, ones they can project to the future, ones with fun alternatives they can later choose instead), learning and progress (they are aware of how better and smarter they are), one more turn (players are always leaning and anticipating the next turn, looking forward for their plans to come to fruition, to see what&apos;s going to happen next), replayability (to see the Epic Journey that they just played as just one part of the greater Epic Journey).

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• ST

  @statusx4629 · 8 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtzCLd93SyU&amp;t=3630">1:00:30</a> &quot;You have to make it fun, not to win.&quot;

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• JO

  @JohnVanderbeck · 7 years ago

  &quot;My Bad:Rise and Fall&quot; - Fast forward 8 years from this talk and you have Civ 6 Rise and Fall :D

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• VO

  @voltcorp · 4 years ago

  Funny that neither Sid nor the comments go back to the fact that, on the Civ:Revolutions example, they actually DO have dancing bears. Every sultan gift has models and animations and sound in the Throne Room. I kept expecting a callback to say something like &quot;sometimes it&apos;s worth it to invest in details that can surprise the player positively&quot;

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• DE

  @debtmaster · 9 years ago

  I&apos;m surprised to find that Sid Meier is a real person. I thought it was some kind of persona, like Tyler Perry.

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• SO

  @solortus · 2 weeks ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtzCLd93SyU&amp;t=3845">1:04:05</a> &apos;This is the year of civilization&apos;<br><br>Prophetic words.<br>This talk came out on March 12, 2010 and Civ 5 came out September 21, 2010 - 6 months later. Civ 5 still has a lot of active players 15 years later.

• SO

  @sodastudiosbr · 7 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtzCLd93SyU&amp;t=560">9:20</a> And Sakurai took that to heart 🤣🎉

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• DU

  @DustinM83 · 4 years ago

  The &quot;Rise and Fall&quot; idea eventually found its way into Civ6 with &quot;dark ages&quot; and &quot;golden ages&quot; mechanic. And he was right about it being cool. I loved discovering that if you go from dark age to golden age it becomes a &quot;Heroic age&quot; with even more bonuses.

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