note: This is The Column, a part of Apolyton where primarily Markos and Dan write whatever we want :). Well, not just the two of us. The Column is open to everyone. If you feel like writing submit your article to civ2@gamestats.com

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#39 THOUGHTS... With momentum from last week, MarkG goes multi-topic this time around. #40 DON'T JUDGE CTP AT FIRST SIGHT Robert Plump is hoping that you will reevaluate this game all over again. COLUMN ARCHIVE

I look out of the window beside my computer; the sun is shining brightly and there is not a cloud in the sky, but I sit and peck away at writing an English essay. I am not complaining, for I could very easily make the time to go out and enjoy the fresh air. I make a habit to golf once a week in the summer while school is still session, but today is not that day. I could be listening to one of my numerous CDs, or cassettes, stored in the family sunroom but that too would distract from my work. Humph, more like work is distracting from my music right? I complain freely and openly, and I occasionally must search in vain to figure out why I'm in such a grouchy mood. But this is not one of those times --- nope, I'm as foul as a chicken because I'm not at this year's E3 Expo. Again.

Limitation #1: I'm still too young (must be 18 or older). Even if this wasn't a factor, there's Limitation #2: just a few too many thousand of kilometers from my home to walk. Limitation #3 takes the form of the fact that school still has six weeks or so left in its year. Bring the work with me and do it on the plane? Yeah right. Limitation #4 is that even if I could eliminate or successfully combat #1-3, I would still have to have a pass to get in as it is not a public event. Don't take this out of context: this is not a shot at E3's organizers. In fact, I believe the system they have set up is most professional and appropriate given the nature of the conference. Still, can you spare a pass for the... passless? What, you're all booked for 2000 already? Gesse. Ok well, how about 2001? 2002? When car salesmen get their degree in honesty, when!? Work with me people!

Last year's Expo I wanted to attend because MicroProse was unveiling their plans for two new CivII add-ons: Multiplayer Gold Edition and Test Of Time. The latter of which I was hoping would again be front and center at this year's E3, after a good 12 months have since past and still no product. True we have seen teasers (documentation, screens, advertisements) since then, but nothing beats the feeling you get of opening the box containing a new game for the first time! Ahhh, the fresh paper and plastic is unsettlingly refreshing. (*Excuse me*)
Nineteen and ninety-nine's edition of E3 has brought about more then anyone could have hoped! Just yesterday, Hasbro and Firaxis announced their intentions to collaborate and work together on the for-certain-already-highly-anticipated Sid Meier's Civilization III. Oh, wouldn't you have been thrilled to have been right there for that moment in history? It confirmed what we had all been dreaming about, and that was that the "Dream Team" of Sid, Brian and Jeff (pardon if I have forgotten someone) would work on another Civilization title together. With a albeit preliminary release date of sometime in in the new millenium, this is something to look forward to! The treats for TBS enthusiasts are only getting sweeter! With Alpha Centauri in mid-February, Civilization: Call To Power in late March & Civilization: Test of Time coming out in the summertime (year?) being released within a very short period of each other can very easily go to our heads in terms of "something new" always being around the corner.

Aw come now, we deserve it and you know it! Since the Internet started to attract an increasingly steady trickle of home PC-users in '96, the Civilization community has been born, grown, and blossoms to this day. Now we are reaping the rewards; that is, further products in our favourite computer game series in which we can see our suggestions integrated into it! We owe Firaxis, Activision, and Hasbro/MicroProse a big thanks for keeping their eyes and ears open to our ideas and concerns.

Well it's time to get back to the grindstone (where'd I put my chisel?) I'll be keeping a watchful eye on what else transpires at this year's E3; it's almost over but hell, it's only the beginning for a new era of Civilization-style gaming. I'm as happy as a pig in mud, but without the unbearable odour.

The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.