Being a little bored and a little depressed I didn't feel like talking to anybody yesterday, so I drifted about wikipedia articles about some interesting places and times. Soon enough it turned into reading about ancient conflicts, subject I used to love as a kid (Mithradates VI was such a badass), and that had to lead to a desire to conquer something once more. Having no such opportunity anymore, I could just reminisce about the beautiful times when I had been playing Medieval: Total War. It was the second and last game of the total war series I have played, it's hard for me to believe it's already ten years old. It had many successors and even a sequel, so probably nowadays nobody remebers or is interested in it. The whole total war series is renowned mostly for its battle engine, which allows quite realistic real-time battles with large quantities of soldiers, but I cared more for the campaign engine, since it was turn-based. One turn could take me a long time (tens of minutes, maybe even above an hour), spent on deciding what forces to send where.
For me it was more rewarding to plan a good military campaign and lead to battles computer could easily win for me than winning these (often epic) battles myself - at least in time it became so. It just seemed more real, just as a king of a big country should rather send generals to battles and oversee the whole at all times. But having absolute control over a country for hundreds of years gives such a big advantage that it's child's play to conquer everything the game offers for conquering. For many years I have longed for a game that would present the ruler's struggle for maintaining support of major powers within their country, dealing with succession issues and other political problems on top of the usual country control offered by games, and all that within the limited time of your ruling/life.
I don't even know if such a game exists or not, since I don't really follow the market for some years now. Before complete moratorium on gaming I've been investing less and less time, money and attention towards it, focusing mostly on 'games I have to play one more time' and not the new ones.
I not interested in playing anymore, but just for satisfying my curiosity, can anyone tell me if said game has been made?
This is pretty neat
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big gamer, so I wouldn't be able to tell you if such a game exists; but that would be a really interesting concept, a game limited by the mortality of the ruler.
ReplyDeletewould be pretty cool game, shame that hasnt done yet
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cool concept. I would actually be surprised if it isnt around yet
ReplyDeletesounds like a good concept
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. How could you go about getting it made?
ReplyDeletePretty cool concept.
ReplyDeletenice post!
ReplyDeletefollowed!
http://all-around-toto.blogspot.com/
great post. following you
ReplyDeletei know it does not really apply,
ReplyDeletebut by the things you are looking for,
do you play risk?
Excellent post man! Was a really interesting read! thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGreat! Come check me out, alphabetalife.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI've been on the fence about trying the Total War series for a long, long time.
ReplyDelete@desperado
ReplyDeleteI did a bit and might return to it if I feel the gaming need grow (and find some decent people again). But I'm afraid I've created more quasi-risk rulesets than have played actual games of standard risk. But your intuition is right - risk's perspective is worldwide and I also thought a little about it recently.
@anita and toto: I follow you both for some time now, don't worry :)
@jung: even from what I heard about the newer total war games, it's still worth it. Have fun!
@All of you: if you couldn't think of my dream game, then it might not exist yet. Ah, opportunities (too bad I was too lazy to learn any programming skills)...