In the latest episode of the Designer Notes podcast, hosted by Idle Thumbs, veteran game designer Sid Meier was back behind the mic discussing his huge library of work, including familiar names like Civilization, Ace Patrol, Starships, and SimCity.
There’s a ton of interesting dev and design chatter during the full podcast, but what pricked our ears was the way Meier talked about the time-based progression systems found in the short-lived Facebook title, CivWorld.
Launched in July, 2011, CivWorld was a massively multiplayer online social game developed by Meier and Firaxis. It’s clear the game was something of a testing ground for the design team, with Meier recalling how he struggled to balance the need for intelligent gameplay and instant gratification with the wait times found in most social titles.
“We kind of put in, there’s a word for it on Facebook, but when you click on something and get one gold or something like that. I think we regretted that at the end of the day,” explained Meier, referring to a clicking mechanic that allowed players to speed up certain gameplay processes by reducing wait times.
“This was in the game, where if you needed just three more science to get that next thing, and you didn’t want to wait for the clock to tick over, you could do some clicking here or there,” he continues.
“It just felt out of place. There’s the whole idea of do you reward mindless clicking, or do you reward intelligent play. I think we said both, and I think that upset the intelligent players. That somebody could mindlessly click their way to accomplishing something by hanging around long enough or clicking fast enough.
“I think that was something that we tried, and it was just a lot of new territory for us. It was the first time for us doing any of these things, and we learned a lot, but I think there’s probably some things we’d do differently if we did it again.”
CivWorld was ultimately scrapped in 2013 as players dropped off, but although it struggled to take flight, it was evidently a worthwhile learning exercise for Meier. To hear more from the man himself, be sure to listen to the full Designer Notes podcast right here.