5/22    Anyone played black & white?  Is it good?
        \_ Multiple friends tell me that it's the bees knees.
           \_ I think it sucks.  Gets real boring real fast.  Get Kohan
              instead; it's a better AOE.
              \_ that's what I heard from two of my co-workers.  they say it
                 starts off being good but gets really repetitive.
                 \_ How many games have you played for the PC that aren't
                    like that?  I can only think of two, offhand:
                    Evercrack, Nethack.  Both start off being really
                    repetitive and get really good.
                    \_ Bob, is that you?
                    \_ get Skillz, play Netrek
                    \_ After 20 or so hours of EQ it was still boring as hell.
                       Why do I have to play a game for more than 20 hours
                       before it starts to get good?  And no, most games start
                       off fun and eventually play out but not before you've
                       finished it once.  Here are my choices for games that
                       start off fun and stay that way for a *long* time:
                       Civ (1 & 2), MOO, MOO2.  I've got about 8 other recently
                       published games installed right now but didn't bother
                       finishing any of them.  A hint for any of you working
                       on games right now: fuck eye candy, make the game fun!
                       \_ well if you like shooters, I found quake and
                          counter-strike to stay fun for years. if you
                          get bored of mindless deathmatch there's teamplay,
                          and in a league situation it's pretty exciting.
                          many good games are just single player experiences
                          and it's not really their fault if they have limited
                          replay value. the whole concept of black and white
                          never appealed to me in the first place.
                          \_ I think you answered my question about gameplay
                             and fun.  I don't play FPS.  I suspect most of
                             the hardcore development time is being spent on
                             FPS these days and other game genres are getting
                             the short end.
                             \_ well, since you're only interested in turn
                                based strategery, you can look forward to
                                Civ 3 and MOO 3. I used to play that too,
                                but they suck too much time away. There's
                                also things like Age of Wonders 2, HOMM 4,
                                Europa Universalis. I take back what i said
                                about not really their fault for limited
                                replay though. I remember coming back to
                                old NES games time and again because the
                                actual gameplay was fun even after beating
                                it or whatever.
        \_ Play AOE the original.  It's still fun after a few hundred games on
           the zone.
        \_ can you say overhyped? try it before you buy it.