Pic relevant. I’ve tried playing the new Civ games several times, and quickly end up quitting because I find them too overwhelming and find it hard to want to deal with the learning curve.
It occurred to me that part of the problem might be that I was jumping into a very old franchise that has been getting increasingly complicated over the years. Had a hunch I would have better luck with the original, so I went onto one of those play-dos-in-your-browser sites, dove in, and sure enough I am hooked!
Do I know what I’m doing? Not really, but stuff is happening and my civilization is growing, and it’s a good time.
You’ve got a good point there that I am also often making when talking about gaming and maybe also trying to present gaming to non gamers.
There is so much implicit stuff grown over decades that for some series the barrier of entry is almost impossible for newbies. Be it the control scheme of some fifa or the complexity of a strategy game that just has to surpass its predecessor, not many developers consider this. Sometimes it’s even part of a reason for downfall.
Even just resolution has an impact as well. I started playing Alpha Centauri now. I can tell that this game’s visuals are something I would have loved back when my eyes still worked properly and I’d be playing it on a 1024x768 crt monitor. But now on a 1080p laptop display and my poor sight even with glasses, I’m finding it strains my eyes a lot to play.
By contrast the low rez blocky NES-style visuals of civ 1 are much easier on my eyes, making one more reason this game is easier to get into.