What is a 4X Game?

[Martok]

Benjamin Halford (BATTLEMODE from Explorminate) teamed up with Stardock for this overview & history of 4x games, along with some of the more influential and/or notable games within the genre: 

Considering the video's modest length (12 1/2 minutes), I thought they did a pretty decent job of covering the basics, including the genre's strengths & weaknesses, without getting too deep into the weeds (so to speak). 

[Undercovergeek]

Great vid - thanks for posting

[Steelie]

Ditto!

[Anguille]

Thanks 👍🏼. It's well done

[bayonetbrant]

I love how he characterizes Alan Emrich as a "journalist"

Although Allen was writing a review when he coined the forex term, he has spent far more time as a designer, developer, publisher, and game design instructor he ever did as a journalist

The reason this guy wouldn't know that, though, is because Alan did it all on the table top rather than digitally.  And this video was clearly worried about just the digital games.
It's fine that he just focuses on the digital ones, and does a good job of it. But it is interesting that there's no acknowledgment of the tabletop at all especially since the digital civ game started as an adaptation of the old Avalon Hill tabletop one

[Anguille]

I love how he characterizes Alan Emrich as a "journalist"

Although Allen was writing a review when he coined the forex term, he has spent far more time as a designer, developer, publisher, and game design instructor he ever did as a journalist

The reason this guy wouldn't know that, though, is because Alan did it all on the table top rather than digitally.  And this video was clearly worried about just the digital games.
It's fine that he just focuses on the digital ones, and does a good job of it. But it is interesting that there's no acknowledgment of the tabletop at all especially since the digital civ game started as an adaptation of the old Avalon Hill tabletop one

Very true. I was thinking that it is because I am from an old generation...

[Barthheart]

….especially since the digital civ game started as an adaptation of the old Avalon Hill tabletop one

This is not correct. The AH board game came way before Sid. When Sid released his game AH thought it was fine because it was a computer game with the same name only. However, once Sid’s Civilization took off they went after AH with a copy right lawyer.
AH was forced to stop selling their board game. 

Also the two games are nothing alike… not even a little bit.

[bbmike]

^Yeah, a lot of people still think that. The real story is that Sid licensed the Civilization name from Avalon Hill (that led to legal issues later on).

[Barthheart]

Huh. Well it was still shitty. 

[bayonetbrant]

My key point was the lack of acknowledgement in the video of the tabletop underpinnings of the digital genre. 

Overall though, it's not a bad overview of the key digital offerings & advancements over the years.

[Barthheart]

My point is that AH Civilization is not a 4X game.

[Martok]

Fascinating.  I freely admit I was not privy to much of the info/history you gents have been dropping in this thread.  I only knew the "primary school" version of what happened, which is that Sid Meier's Civilization was based on the board-game of the same name (which I now gather wasn't actually the case). 


On the other hand, yes Brant, my eye did twitch a little when I heard Ben refer to Alan Emrich as a "journalist".  To me, that's a bit akin to calling Einstein a patent clerk. 

[bob48]

....Warlock II 

[mcguire]

Huh. And here I was thinking it was a little furry animal about yay big.