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#78 MILLENIUM GAMING FRONTIERS DanQ passes his predictions for gaming in the years to come. #79 HOW CIV NEARLY TOOK OVER MY LIFE AND DESTROYED MY MORALS Alexander's Horse does not want anyone to lose sight of what is important. #80 HAVE THE FORUMS TAKEN OVER APOLYTON? Iain discusses the significance of the apolyton forums to the admins but also to the site itself #81 THE FORUMS HAVEN'T TAKEN OVER APOLYTON, BUT... In response to Iain's article, Markos wants a chance at a rebuttal. #82 PLUNGE INTO THE ToT FANTASY WORLD Toby Robison wants the Fantasy-realm of Civ to get the attention it deserves. COLUMN ARCHIVE

This year we witnessed a rebirth in the Turn-Based Strategy Genre. Not only was Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Civilization: Call to Power released, but also games such as Jagged Alliance 2. After years of Real-Time Strategy Games in the fashion of Warcraft 2 dominated the genre. We are also seeing a rebirth in the Role-Playing Genre with games such as Fallout and Baldur's Gate blowing this genre out of its doldrums. These two patterns popped a question into my mind: Why? Why was there such a swing? Why such a bandwagon then the leaving of that bandwagon?

My questions led me to look at why Real-Time Strategy was starting to fall out of favor, first of all. Observing the genre, I noticed an overcrowding effect. The success of games like Warcraft 2 and Command and Conquer led to increased demand for these type of games. So gaming companies, which are no fools, decided to release anything similiar to the landmark titles to make money. Fortunetly for the gaming companies, some fools actually decided to buy these substandard games. There was little incentive to innovate in the Real-Time Strategy Genre. The supply was driven up, while demand was going down because of the dissapointment of cloning.

To step into the void, the Turn-Based Strategy Games loomed in the void. The demand had been so low for these games, that companies had to innovate to gain back the fan. These innovations made these Turn-Based Strategy Games more desirable. Same thing for the Role-Playing Genre. Fallout and Baldur's Gate were innovative new games in the Role-Playing Game Genre, and drew some gaming fans to the Role-Playing Genre that wouldn't normally come. The innovations that were necessary to make these games sucessful were implimented and new fans entered. However, Role-Playing, in particular, is in danger of the overcrowding effect. While games like Ultima IX: Ascension, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights are high quality, the supply seems to be too high for demand. Perhaps another neglected genre will emerge as a result of this.

The swings in the gaming market are bound to increase over time. Now that the gaming industry makes more money than the movie industry, there will be more pressure to make clones. This is bad news for innovation, but perhaps good news to genres that are neglected by gamers now days. Gamers, sick of the same old drivel might go back to games that they used to play, or games that were more innovative. This reason is why RPGs have become sucessful all of a sudden. Gamers wanted to go back to complex story lines instead of Front-Person Shooter Clone-Hell! The gaming industry like the movie indutry seems destined for clones of popular genres, but the persistant gamer will find some innovative game in a neglected genre waiting to be played.

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A Civilization and Apolyton Off-Topic Veteran

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