Sid Meier's Civilization games: the oral history
From MS-DOS Civilization to 35 years and Civ 7's upcoming Earthrise expansion, Meier and Firaxis creatives walk up us through gaming history.
Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley met in Las Vegas in 1976, discussing a potential partnership in the video-game business. Meier's video game knowledge outshone Shelley's real-world flight experience, leading them to specialize in game development. Meier's interest in history, sparked by playing with toys and exploring subjects like airplanes, ships, and pirates, eventually led him to create Civilization - a game that put all of human history into a box and made it fun.
The game's backstory began with Railroad Tycoon, a "God game" where Meier and Shelley built a railroad empire from a small start. They decided to tackle the challenge of creating a game about the entire history of civilization. The idea was to make it as fun and engaging as possible, with players learning and growing as their virtual civilization expanded and evolved.
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