If you could ask...
 

Sid Meiers or Peter Molyneaux or Clive Sinclair or anyone from Apogee or ID, etc... any question you could -

What would it be?

"Can you teach me how to be awesome?"

If you could take one game - any game - you were part of the development of and remake it for modern age, which game would that be?

Do you think you got into the games industry at the right time, or would you prefer to be starting out now (with the newer tech)?

(I suppose that would be for Molyneux, Garriot or any of the Sierra folks (also known as my heroes! ;)).

[edit] 100 posts! and its only taken me 2.5 years! :P

Nice - that's three.

When I get six, eight or twelve off others here, I'll approach people (like if I can track down someone from Apogee) with a list of questions that will be a mixture of several types - write in ones like this, a few I'd like to ask and (will probably have to) plug their latest work and when it will be released, etc...
Good trade-off, though!

I will approach Firaxis again and try to get comment from Sid Meiers first, since I have already spoken with them before.
I am really hoping that they will take the time to give us a few short answers!

I believe I can help them decide to make the time to return an email, which is all that's needed for a good interview if the thing's put together right, to fit the questions that are asked.

How do they feel (sid especially) about producing the equivalent of electronic heroin, addicting millions. Not a bad addiction to have, I know Civ got me hooked, I still dream about sending tanks into Paris.

(Saccade, you'l lhave to kidnap them if they dont want to "co-operate")

How does it make you feel to see how much the world gaming has changed and evovled, in 10, let alone 20 years?

How did you do it? Etc.

How useful was what you learnt at school and college compared to what you had to teach yourself by playing with the computer and reading manuals? How do both learning methods compare, which one makes you learn faster and remember things years after?

Nice.

Which game are you least happy with and why?

Did you make any big mistakes in your career that you learned from and wish you hadn't made?

Which of your own games would you enjoy playing the most today?

How do you feel about the many sites online that are seeking to preserve and focus on classic (DOS) games?

Do you feel that the size of current development teams affects the focus and quality of games compared to the small teams 15-20 years or even the one-man teams?

If you had to chose between big budget games or indie games, which would you pick and why?

DRM has received a lot of bad press over the past year - what are your personal feelings regarding it?

I'm putting this on hiatus for a short while for unrelated reasons. But I will get this done, promise.

Please keep posting questions - I would only ask boring ones otherwise!

Had they an 'absolute' deadline pushed by the publishers to release the game, ready or not?
Ref:Stalker (1), what could have become a mile stone in the gaming world was released too soon, leaving an unfinished product, only a ... shadow of what the game could have been.

If you could go back and change one element of any one game you helped produce, what would that be and why?

How would you have designed Age of Empires 1 - apart from fixing the pathfinding?

I don't know why, but this one made me laugh. Sure them units always got stuck on trees, rocks and river banks...

Red - are you okay with the questions here?

If not, can you compile a list of the ones you think would be best for Meiers as I need to forward them to Firaxis so we can get them answered for your magazine.

[ed]
This is quite important, as I don't want to miss the window of opportunity :)

To Sid.
Where were the actors for the advisors in civ III and civ IV? Alan Rickman would have made a superb culture advisor.

Okay. I guess I'll need to sift through these.

Considering he's remade Pirates!, Colonization, Civilization half a dozen times & Railroad Tycoon, I think we already got his answer.

I've also reworded most questions so if you don't see yours immediately, look closer ;).

How about sending him the following questions:

- You entered the games industry during its budding years, when genres were still undefined and when, I imagine, it was a lot harder to use the limited hardware to make proper and fun games. Which era did you prefer: the modern era with its current technology, or the era of the early 80's?

- This year, you've been a games designer for 25 years. Looking back at your carreer, is there anything you'd really want to change?

- During the earlier years of your career you made several games that are still considered classics today: Pirates!, Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, etc. Did you, at the time, expect at all that these games were going to be as successful as they turned out to be?

- You've made a great deal of games during your carreer but which game are you least happy with how it turned out and why? (not in respect to sales but in respect to how fun it was to play)

- And, to go to the other end of the spectrum: if you ended up stranded on an uninhabited island with a laptop and a single game of yours, which game would you want that to bed?

- There's been a lot of discussions concerning DRM (Digital Rights Management) and how it puts gamers off buying games. What is your own view on DRM and other intrusive protection methods?

- With the skyhigh development costs for games these days, a lot of smaller developers now start out by making indie games or mods to prove themselves and to get noticed by the big developers. Do you feel that the industry is harder to get into than it was, say, 20 years ago?

- How do you feel about the many ('abandonware') sites that seek to preserve and focus on classic games? And does it surprise you to see so many people still wanting to play 20+ year old games?

- Is there any game that you wish you had been the one to come up with?

Excellent! :wrings hands:

Thanks Red - I'll email this today.
Fingers crossed things actually happen - I'll ask when we can expect a reply.

Cheers matey.

[ed]
btw everyone - great questions! :)

Did you email Firaxis or Sid personally?

If I knew Sid, I don't think I'd be a ferret and a hack for a living.
Guess we could try sid@firaxis.com ..?

Don't think he'd appreciate it, tho.

I've emailed the 2 people I know there, who deal with PR and stuff, and the Webmaster.

The person I need to speak with about the Magazine is out of office til Monday next.
Hopefully someone else will reply, else we'll have to wait til then.

Hmmm...
 

I'm gonna quote TotalAnarchy on this one and:

Abandonia :eww:

I think that they finally took a look at the site and decided that.
Will email them again in a few days.

I thought they already knew the site?

I'm confused, too - it sucks...
 

So did I, matey...
:(

I don't know why they're not replying - it's the only thing I can think of.
Let's wait until the end of the week before hassling them again, eh?
If they haven't replied by then, I'll send them follow-ups every few days.

If they haven't replied by 2 weeks from the first mail, I'll go :badass: on them. (or maybe be polite and insistent until they give a yes or no - Idk why it's so hard to just send a short email saying "sorry, we don't want to be seen with you bunch of :pirate: scum")

Kelly Gilmore is the person who I've spoken about this in the past.
mailto:kgilmore@firaxis.com

Even if we were only given permission to use a few of the "ask Sid" questions already on Firaxis' site, it'd be okay... Though I'd much prefer to be able to deliver on this one and get the questions *we* want to ask answered.

I really don't like it when I say I'm doing something and then it doesn't happen.

Makes me look like a complete wanker.:crybaby:

Since I didn't get a delivery report for the second e-mail, I'm sending another.

If I don't get a report from this one, from the right person, I'll try from my work account. Maybe they'll take that a bit more seriously.

So did they reply? Any news?

Dude...

This totally slipped my mind. I never received a reply that I saw....
I'll go check again before I'm barred from having such a prestigious email address.

I think I'll miss that most about working.

This would've been so good, if we'd've gotten the magazine out - with an interview with Sid Meiers - for the unprotection of Civilization...

That would've been awesome... :(

Another of my nefarious plans bites the dust.