posted 05-31-99 04:03 PM ET        

I was going to bring their 10yo son a computer game. He hasn't played any games before (other than what came with their Gateway computer), but they are using computers in school. Anyway, since he was interested in space, I saw Alpha Centauri at the store and thought I'd get it for him.

I haven't opened the game up, but after reading some of these posts, I'm starting to wonder if the game might be too complex for a 10yo, especially one who hasn't played sophisticated strategy games before. (I will help him get started, and I've dabbled in Railroad Tycoon and have won Age of Empire games at the "very hard" level.)

What do you guys think? If you feel he is too young and/or unsophisticated to play, do you recommend any other games for a space-loving youngster?

Also, I picked up the strategy guide when I bought the game, because I find such guides useful in light of ultra-thin instruction manuals. But now I read here that the SMAC manual is over 200 pages. Is the guide helpful or should I take it back?

Thanks!

posted 05-31-99 04:16 PM ET            

Judging from the majority of posts in this forum in the last few weeks, I'd say that a 10 year old would be more mature than the average SMAC gamer. Sad to say, but perhaps true.

But, to seriously answer your question... I think that it depends on the 10 year old. There is a lot to manage in SMAC and if the kid is not patient, he probably will not like it. Now, his daddy might.

posted 05-31-99 04:58 PM ET            

BTW, I was wondering when the newbie turns into a vet?

posted 05-31-99 05:01 PM ET            

My sister played Civ (a similiar game) when she was 9 years old. She didn't play very good, but she loved it.

Sure, Alpha Centauri is more complex than Civ, but I think, if he is interested in it, he will learn to play it.

Of course, it's very difficult to get started, but the computer automates the most detailed functions, like unit-design, at the beginning so that the player musn't care about them.

There are some tutorials, too. I didn't play them, so I can't say if they are good, but you should try them.

The manual explains only the basic things, so a strategy guide could be of value in certain situations.

You shouldn't think that the game is as complex as some of the post here may suggest. You can play AC without knowing anything about its mathematics.

I think, you should try to give him AC. But don't give up early, the first games will be difficult, until he knows the basic things.

The best strategy to learn it is, in my opinion, to play it: "Learning by doing". If problems appear, you can look them up in the maual or in the guide.

posted 05-31-99 06:10 PM ET            

There's ***potentially*** a lot to learn in SMAC, but there is enough automation of different features that it should be fairly easy to get into and have fun with, depending on the individual kid and what he likes. He, or his parents can have a lot of fun with this game without becoming hard core addicts like the rest of us who have to learn every single tweak and hidden feature.

If he or they get more and more into it, there's a lot of depth and different approaches to game play, so I think its a can't lose.

I hope this helps answer your question, without bringing up side issues.

PS - Note to some other posters: When we have someone fairly new who asks a simple, legitimate question, can we stick to giving that person an answer to his or her question, and not drag in a lot of side issues? The flame threads are one thing, but do we really need to have a sewage spill onto people like Regina, who has a very good question that might be valuable to a lot of other people considering buying SMAC for their kids?

posted 05-31-99 09:07 PM ET            

It all depends on the person. There are many adults out there who would never be interested in something like Alpha Centauri. Or children, for that matter. And also, the fact that the child is interested in space may have little to do with actually liking the game. It has very little to do with space--it is more like a reflexion of our society through the medium of a distopian future (remind you of 1984 or Candide?). Children like 'outer space' because of the intangible idealism of it: SMAC is somewhat different, it is more 'down to Planet' so to speak.

Myself, I started with games like Civ when I was only about ten or eleven. Now, at fifteen, I still enjoy games like SMAC. However, if I had not first been introduced to Civ at 10, I probably would not have gone for SMAC. It seems like a specific, developmental process. Perhaps you should get the child Civ I--a simpler game--to see how he likes it.

posted 06-01-99 01:32 AM ET            

If its just space in general though, you might want to try to find Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space. Nice computer game that has lots of movies of rockets launching and other interesting things...

posted 06-01-99 02:42 AM ET            

The games mechanics are easy enough for the average 10 year old. (if he is going into 5th grade especially) The interest who knows. I "loved space" as a ten year old, and a game like this would have sent my heart into orbit and my mind steering to all sorts of possibilities.

The question is do you mind wasting $50+ if no one there really does like it?
Or is the possible investment worth the price of admission?

Goob

To the question asked above there are plenty of us oldies, both playing and posting.

posted 06-01-99 03:18 AM ET            

Goob, foul knave , verily thy words doth wound my heart and weigh down heavily upon my soul.

Based on the Vet-Newbie stuff I've seen so far, I'll be a newbie and proud of it till the day I die, but in terms of the (arpa)net, not this board, I've been around before a lot of posters anywhere were out of diapers. The whole idea was NOT (damn I wish they left HTML or UBB on) to create new divisions and cliques online about who's a newbie or a vet, or a transcendi. The whole idea was that the online community was to be a democracy of ideas, where the traditional social crap of status and station did not apply, and the only issue was the quality of the ideas.

So I reject any cliques, on any forum, anywhere. Like Bart Simpson, I'm a (newbie) Underachiever, and proud of it.
Speaking of Bart, it's a shame that the PC idiots got all riled about the underachiever thing. It's even worse that Matt Groening caved.

posted 06-02-99 06:50 AM ET            

Yes, Regina, Alpha Centauri's only habitable planet Chiron has a very nasty environment - and the human factions who land on it are even less pleasant.

On the other hand, if your friend's son laughs at Freddy Krueger, giggled throughout his first viewing of Alien, and doesn't have nightmares over modern incendiary weapons and anti-personnel mines, then maybe AC won't worry him at all.

posted 06-02-99 06:51 AM ET            

Yes, Regina, Alpha Centauri's only habitable planet Chiron has a very nasty environment - and the human factions who land on it are even less pleasant.

On the other hand, if your friend's son laughs at Freddy Krueger, giggled throughout his first viewing of Alien, and doesn't have nightmares over modern incendiary weapons and anti-personnel mines, then maybe AC won't worry him at all.

posted 06-02-99 12:03 PM ET            

BEGIN RANDOM BABBLING
I'm 13 years old and I'm a SMACAholic. I started with Sidgames when I was 9, when I learned Civ by watching my dad play it. I switched to Civilization II a while after it came out, and I found out about Alpha Centauri in October. By December I had a web site (in case you're wondering it was the AC Continuum, which has since merged with The Arrival, at http://ac.strategy-gaming.com) and I got the game the weekend that it came out (best $50 I ever spent). Since then I'm playing it on anywhere from Thinker to Transcend, depending on my mood and which faction I'm playing (the University are really hard on Transcend because of the drones). So I think I'm qualified for my next rant...
END RANDOM BABBLING

BEGIN RANT
I think that most ten-year-olds would be able to comprehend Alpha Centauri. They probably would only be able to play it at the basic level, but they would get gradually more proficient as they grow older. If you think that the 10-year-old couldn't handle it, then find an old copy of Civilization 1 somewhere (you can get it for $5).
END RANT