Sid Meier Retrospective - Page 1 of 5

Sid Meier Retrospective

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If you’re looking for the father of modern PC gaming, look no further than Detroit’s Sid Meier.

Gaming Gods Among Men

For the most part, video game designers are not like film directors or rock musicians. Their creations may enjoy a massive following and one hit game can set a developer for life, but most are content to remain behind the scenes, safely anonymous to all but the most rabid of video game fans. Battlefield 2 may be one of the most popular games being played these days, but there are probably few players who can tell you the name of the developer responsible for the Battlefield series.

There are, however, exceptions to this rule. Most gamers can tell you in a heartbeat that Hideo Kojima has been the man behind Solid Snake since the very first Metal Gear game premiered way back in 1987 on the Japan-only MSX system. Most of them are probably waiting for this question to come up on Jeopardy!.

Other names that spring to mind when one considers the game designers that people actually, you know, know include Will Wright (Sim City, The Sims), Shigeru Miyamoto (Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros.), and Sid Meier.

These are the game gods, the people who shaped and molded the future of electronic gaming by acts of sheer innovation. And, just as the Wright Brothers may not have realized the full implications and applications of their invention that day at Kitty Hawk, what makes these game designers special is that they probably weren’t trying to change the world or even just the way we play games. They were just doing what they do best; innovating.

While Miyamoto-san may stand alone as the most influential designer of his day (there is a reason why he was the first person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame), surely Sid Meier ranks nearly as highly in terms of pure influence. Like Miyamoto, Meier proved himself (made his gaming bones, if you will) early in his career and positioned himself in such a way that he can now literally do whatever he wants when it comes to game design.

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