Sid Meier's Memoir!
A Life in Computer Games
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4.5 • 22 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
One of Wired's 25 Great Tech Books to Gift (or Keep for Yourself)
The life and career of the legendary developer celebrated as the “godfather of computer gaming” and creator of Civilization, featuring his rules of good game design.
"Sid Meier is a foundation of what gaming is for me today." — Phil Spencer, head of Xbox
Over his four-decade career, Sid Meier has produced some of the world’s most popular video games, including Sid Meier’s Civilization, which has sold more than 51 million units worldwide and accumulated more than one billion hours of play. Sid Meier’s Memoir! is the story of an obsessive young computer enthusiast who helped launch a multibillion-dollar industry. Writing with warmth and ironic humor, Meier describes the genesis of his influential studio, MicroProse, founded in 1982 after a trip to a Las Vegas arcade, and recounts the development of landmark games, from vintage classics like Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon, to Civilization and beyond.
Articulating his philosophy that a video game should be “a series of interesting decisions,” Meier also shares his perspective on the history of the industry, the psychology of gamers, and fascinating insights into the creative process, including his rules of good game design.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You may already know and love the work of Sid Meier, one of the people who made video games a global phenomenon. But even if you don’t, this book will inspire and entertain you. Way back in the early 1980s, when quarter-a-play arcade games were state of the art, Meier recognized that personal computers were the future of video games. Sid Meier’s Memoir! gives us a warm, hilarious remembrance of the freewheeling birth of an industry that’s now worth billions. Meier’s Zen-like musings on the creative process—such as “make interesting decisions” and “find the fun”—are applicable just about anywhere in life. And “fun” is the key word here: If the endless flood of social-media toxic masculinity is what you think of when you think of video games, this entertaining and thoughtful remembrance will remind you there are some good people behind the controllers, too.
Customer Reviews
The best book a gamer or aspiring creator can read.
Sid Meier’s memoir is a wholesome, gentle and surprisingly philosophical glimpse into the life and ideology of one of the most influential people in the world of computer games. It is by far the easiest book I’ve ever read, and left me equal amounts of ponderous, content, happy and inspired. It makes me wish that everyone in the video game industry was like him. It is by far the best book a gamer or creator can read, and even if you have never touched a Civilization game in your life you will feel uplifted and edified by his wholesome philosophy of gaming and what a good game truly is.