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Sid Meier's Memoir!

A Life in Computer Games

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Sid Meier's Memoir!

By: Sid Meier, Jennifer Lee Noonan - contributor
Narrated by: Charles Constant
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About this listen

The life and career of the legendary developer celebrated as the "godfather of computer gaming" and creator of Civilization.

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.

©2020 Sid Meier and Jennifer Lee Noonan (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Business Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Words, Language & Grammar Writing & Publishing Memoir Game Technology Witty Video Game Computer History
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A lovely nostalgic look through the development and philosophy of computer games through the life of one of the most influential designers.
It’s well read, heartwarming and uplifting.

My only improvement would be to suggest that the captions for what I presume are photos in the print edition don’t work when read out without any precursor to what they are as they don’t fit in a narrative.
It would have been a great design point if the “achievement unlocked” sections had a highlight in music behind them too.

Fantastic approach to a life lived through games

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I rewd this on recommendation although I have never played one of Sids games. I very much enjoyed the content but found the narrator a little robotic.

a good story

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Although I am a gamer I was never a fan of Sid Meirs types of games, so I wouldn’t have bought this audio book. Anyway Im glad I picked it up from the plus catalogue since it was a very enjoyable listen from start to finish, and kept me entertained whilst I was doing some building work in the garden. Hey it might just be the encouragement I need to start my that game project I have in mind.

Enjoyable read about the early video game industry

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What a warm, humble and wise man Sid is, and what great company I had during the hours I spent with this book, narrated to perfection by the superbly named Charles Constant. It does start off a touch slow... "is he really going to talk about EVERY game?" I thought after the first half-hour, but this choice was convincingly explained half way through.

It needed one more structural edit to get that fifth star, but the version of it in my head now (with the material rearranged) is full-house worthy. There are a half-dozen ideas here I'm definitely going to use in my life (which barely features any computer games!) like the "doubling or halving" change rule, so you know you're going in the right direction and don't waste time on smaller iterations. Sincere thanks to everyone involved with his book, it was a privilege to hear it.

"May all of your decisions be interesting"

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Awesome insight into the gaming industry, Sid Meier's thought process on making game and his inspiration between games. His history and the gaming world's history of how games have come to be since he has been there from the beginning! Great read/listen

Awesome insight into the world of Sid Meiers

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