At a recent lunch at the Algonquin Hotel, *Civilization *creator and videogame icon Sid Meier pointed to the personal computer, Sim City, and Nintendo's Seal of Approval as the three most important innovations in gaming history.
His choices not only show the wisdom of several decades spent designing games, but also reflect on his own personal game development philosophies.
It makes sense that Meier would include IBM's creation of a personal home computer as a key moment in videogame history as a history-making innovation, as it made high-powered (at the time, anyway) applications available to the everyday consumer.
Although many of his games have been ported to game consoles, the bulk of Meier's work is as a PC game developer, so it stands to reason that the introduction of computers into everyday life would carry great weight for him as a designer.
Meier included Sim City and games like it is on his list because they broke the accepted videogame mold by inspiring creation, not destruction. Meier's own games, such as the Civilization series and the Railroad Tycoon games also tend to favor creative endeavors such as building empires and developing cultures, though there's certainly a fair amount of destruction to be found, as well.
The Nintendo Seal of Approval got Meier's appreciation for setting a standard for game quality, helping protect the consumer from a nonstop onslaught of shovelware. As Meier told Wired.com, he feels much the same way about having his own name appear on his games, saying, "I think my name on the game box has come to mean that people can expect a certain type of game experience when they buy one of our games."
"We want to deliver a great game every time and having my name on the box is like a seal of approval that tells people we've done just that," he continued.
