Description:
Editorial Reviews
Review
― Gamespot.com
"Sid Meier is a foundation of what gaming is for me today."
― Phil Spencer, head of Xbox
"[Meier is] the master of turn-based gaming."
― Will Wright, developer of The Sims
"If you ever wished you could stay up all night and hear the most amazing stories from one of the world's most creative people, Sid's memoir is for you. This book is full of incredible tech history and deep insights into what it takes to make a world-class game. But most of all, I loved getting inside Sid’s brain and seeing things from his inventive and wise point of view."
― Jane McGonigal, author of the New York Times bestseller Reality is Broken: How Games Can Change the World and Make Us Better
"[A] fascinating look at the legendary designer’s career. It’s full of anecdotes and design principles that Meier has learned over the years."
― Jason Schreier, Bloomberg
"[H]eartfelt and informative….[This book] will appeal to old-school gamers with an appreciation for the history of video games."
― Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read for Aspiring Game Designers
I’ve played far too many hours of Civilization throughout my life. If you haven’t, or you’re not an aspiring game designer, then you may find large sections of Sid Meier’s Memoir! hard to appreciate. But I do love Sid Meier’s games and I do dabble in making games as a hobby. So, I really appreciated this memoir that takes you through Meier’s entire career as well as some of his rules of game design that have made him so successful.This book is not a deep dive. Each chapter, which generally covers a game or two, provides some insight about how a game was developed and why it worked (or did not work) for the player. But the chapters are short, and many of them concentrate on just one aspect of the game or Meier’s philosophy. The two things I found most interesting were the inspiration behind each game, and the gameplay rules that Meier learned over time.It’s not a tell-all, and it doesn’t cover much about the video game business. You won’t get a play-by-play about the development of Civilization VI. Meier says that he left much of the business side to his partners. Instead, this is a book about the creative process.Meier touches on enough of his personal life to give you a general outline of his life and some of the real-life hobbies that led to some of his best games. Again, most of the details are left out, but there’s enough there to be inspiring. The thing I found the most surprising in the entire book, is that despite his high position, Meier continued to be an active participant in the programming of his games (or at least the prototypes) late into his career.In short, Sid Meier’s Memoir! is limited in its scope. It’s mainly about game design and the creative process. But it does that well. You won’t quite feel like you’re in the trenches with the team making Civilization, but you will feel like you have a sense of where their head was at. The lessons about game design and the creative process that Meier provides are drawn from deep experience and most seem self-evidently true. The writing is clear and the insights are real. If you loved his games or you want to make games, you should read this book.
4.0 out of 5 stars It's Sid Meier! If that means something to you, you will probably love it.
I grew up with Sid Meier's games and love them to this day. I also love reading about early video game development -- it was quite an interesting industry at the time and I find it fascinating to read about the various small shops that were responsible for some great early games.This is all to say, I am very squarely the target audience for this book, and I really enjoyed it. But, quite frankly, it wasn't a great book. The prose was fine, the insights were fine, the organization of the book was fine. It was a pretty good book about a topic that I am extremely interested in. If you are even modestly interested in Sid Meier or early game development, I think you'll find this a worthwhile read. If those topics don't appeal to you, then you should probably look elsewhere.This is not a great piece of literature. It's not Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. If you don't bring an interest for the topic, I don't think you'll find it as you read the book.
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Read
I really enjoyed getting a look inside Sid Meier's head and a first hand recap of his career. His positive outlook has a tendency to minimize the conflicts he encountered along the way, making this more of a warm story of a game designer looking for and finding inspiration than a thrilling climb to prominence in an industry. Given the events that unfold, a different person writing could easily have told the latter story, but that's not Sid Meier's style. I liked the humble telling of remarkable events, and especially the perceptive analysis along the way.Overall I found the book inspiring, and I enjoyed reading both his experiences as well as his insights on game design and life.
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it even though I never played Sid's games
Although I have been an avid video game player since the advent of the PC in the mid 80s, and have seen almost all the title mentioned in this book come by... I never really played them.Nevertheless, Sid's insight into game design and his experiences in the industry made me love every chapter.
3.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Bland
While I'm very impressed with the success Sid Meier has achieved as a professional game developer, this book is surprisingly bland. I imagine that if you have an intense affection for one or more of his games, it's cool to go "behind the scenes" about what was happening in Sid Meier's life at the time the game came out, but if you're a professional software developer and/or game developer, there is limited value in these pages.I wish this book contained more stories about the challenges Sid and his co-workers had to overcome in creating certain games, or the tools and/or programming languages he used to build games (and why he picked them). It would be cool too to learn about the challenges in porting games from one platform to another.I don't want to give the impression that this book is poorly written; Sid Meier is clearly a real smart guy who loves building and playing video games. I just wish he gave us more of a "behind the scenes / under the hood" look at game development.
4.0 out of 5 stars A must for any fan of Civilization
Since I retired I have been indulging in pleasures I didn't have enough time for, and gaming is one of them. I have been a huge fan of the Civilization series, and also have fond memories of Railroad Tycoon Deluxe. But Civilization is the one that has absorbed thousands of hours of my life over the last 3 decades, and it is still my favorite gaming experience. So when I saw this memoir was available I had to get it, and I'm glad I did. Now, to be clear this is only something of interest for a fan like me, but there are a *lot* of Civilization fans out there. You need only check out the many YouTube channels, web sites, subreddits, etc. devoted to this game to see how popular it is. This memoir simply tells the story of Sid Meier's life in computer games, as the title advertises. I had a good time reading it, and I'm glad I purchased it. If you are also a fan of Civilization in it's many versions I think you will enjoy this work.
Świetna książka napisana z typowymi dla Sida lekkością i humorem
Fajnie przeczytać historię życia kogoś kto przez lata był synonimem świetnej, pozytywnej rozgrywki w budowanie, przeżywanie przygód i poznawanie świata przedstawionego. Do tego prawie zawsze w nieco innej konwencji, świeżej tematyce, zawsze wykonane ze smakiem i solidnością. Książka pozwala poznać całkiem sporo o życiu prywatnym i młodości Sida, zrozumieć dlaczego tworzył takie a nie inne gry, a także wiele zabawnych faktów i historii. Pokrzepiający dowód na to że gry wideo to wspaniałe hobby dla każdego.
Great
Delivered as expected. Great quality
Inspirador
He descubierto que Sid Meier había hecho más juegos de los que yo pensaba y a los que también había jugado hace décadas. Un relato inspirador y un vistazo desde dentro a los primeros días del mundo del desarrollo de lo que ahora llamaríamos juegos indies.
Eine informative und lesenswerte Zeitreise mit Sid Meier!
Ich habe dieses Buch spontan ca. 1 Monat vor dem Erscheinungsdatum gekauft, und es nach der Lieferung in zwei - sehr kurzweilig empfundenen - Etappen innerhalb von 24 h ausgelesen. Für alle, die selbst Computerspiele (vielleicht sogar von Microprose) ab dem Beginn der 80er Jahre gespielt haben oder damit zu tun hatten, werden hier viele Erinnerungen an bekannte Spiele-Titel und Namen von damals aus der Branche aufkommen.Das Buch ist in relativ einfachem Englisch geschrieben, so daß auch nicht so geübte damit gut zurecht kommen sollten. Der Autor erzählt auf angenehm unterhaltsame Weise seine und die Geschichte von Microprose, beginnend mit ersten Programmierversuchen zur Schul-/Studienzeit, bis später zu den großen Hits wie Civilization.Ohne jemals in langweilige oder langwierige Belanglosigkeiten abzuschweifen erfährt der Leser hier sehr viel an Hintergrundwissen und bislang schon bekannte Details werden noch ein wenig mehr mit Anekdoten, persönlichen Erinnerungen und Geschichten von 'damals' ergänzt.Für mich ein empfehlenswertes Buch für alle, die schon die 80er Jahre am Computer miterlebt haben, oder die ein wenig mehr von den Anfängen der Spiele-Industrie und über eine der damals prägenden großen Firmen erfahren wollen.
Fantastic description of the early days of computer game development.
Fantastic description of the early days of computer game development, particularly around the massively popular Civilization series.
Visit the W. W. Norton & Company Store
Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games
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Visit the W. W. Norton & Company Store
Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games
AED11503
Quantity:
Order today to get by 7-14 business days
Delivery fee of AED 20. Free for orders above AED 200.
Imported From: United States
At BOLO, we work hard to ensure the products you receive are new, genuine, and sourced from reputable suppliers.
BOLO is not an authorized or official retailer for most brands, nor are we affiliated with manufacturers unless specifically stated on a product page. Instead, we source verified sellers, authorized distributors or directly from the manufacturer.
Each product undergoes thorough inspection and verification at our consolidation and fulfilment centers to ensure it meets our strict authenticity and quality standards before being shipped and delivered to you.
If you ever have concerns regarding the authenticity of a product purchased from us, please contact Bolo Support. We will review your inquiry promptly and, if necessary, provide documentation verifying authenticity or offer a suitable resolution.
Your trust is our top priority, and we are committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in every transaction.
All product information, images, descriptions, and reviews originate from the manufacturer or from trusted sellers overseas. BOLO is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an authorized retailer for most brands listed on our website unless stated otherwise.
While we strive to display accurate information, variations in packaging, labeling, instructions, or formulation may occasionally occur due to regional differences or supplier updates. For detailed or manufacturer-specific information, please contact the brand directly or reach out to BOLO Support for assistance.
Unless otherwise stated, all prices displayed on the product page include applicable taxes and import duties.
BOLO operates in accordance with the laws and regulations of United Arab Emirates. Any items found to be restricted or prohibited for sale within the UAE will be cancelled prior to shipment. We take proactive measures to ensure that only products permitted for sale in United Arab Emirates are listed on our website.
All items are shipped by air, and any products classified as “Dangerous Goods (DG)” under IATA regulations will be removed from the order and cancelled.
All orders are processed manually, and we make every effort to process them promptly once confirmed. Products cancelled due to the above reasons will be permanently removed from listings across the website.
Description:
Editorial Reviews
Review
― Gamespot.com
"Sid Meier is a foundation of what gaming is for me today."
― Phil Spencer, head of Xbox
"[Meier is] the master of turn-based gaming."
― Will Wright, developer of The Sims
"If you ever wished you could stay up all night and hear the most amazing stories from one of the world's most creative people, Sid's memoir is for you. This book is full of incredible tech history and deep insights into what it takes to make a world-class game. But most of all, I loved getting inside Sid’s brain and seeing things from his inventive and wise point of view."
― Jane McGonigal, author of the New York Times bestseller Reality is Broken: How Games Can Change the World and Make Us Better
"[A] fascinating look at the legendary designer’s career. It’s full of anecdotes and design principles that Meier has learned over the years."
― Jason Schreier, Bloomberg
"[H]eartfelt and informative….[This book] will appeal to old-school gamers with an appreciation for the history of video games."
― Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read for Aspiring Game Designers
I’ve played far too many hours of Civilization throughout my life. If you haven’t, or you’re not an aspiring game designer, then you may find large sections of Sid Meier’s Memoir! hard to appreciate. But I do love Sid Meier’s games and I do dabble in making games as a hobby. So, I really appreciated this memoir that takes you through Meier’s entire career as well as some of his rules of game design that have made him so successful.This book is not a deep dive. Each chapter, which generally covers a game or two, provides some insight about how a game was developed and why it worked (or did not work) for the player. But the chapters are short, and many of them concentrate on just one aspect of the game or Meier’s philosophy. The two things I found most interesting were the inspiration behind each game, and the gameplay rules that Meier learned over time.It’s not a tell-all, and it doesn’t cover much about the video game business. You won’t get a play-by-play about the development of Civilization VI. Meier says that he left much of the business side to his partners. Instead, this is a book about the creative process.Meier touches on enough of his personal life to give you a general outline of his life and some of the real-life hobbies that led to some of his best games. Again, most of the details are left out, but there’s enough there to be inspiring. The thing I found the most surprising in the entire book, is that despite his high position, Meier continued to be an active participant in the programming of his games (or at least the prototypes) late into his career.In short, Sid Meier’s Memoir! is limited in its scope. It’s mainly about game design and the creative process. But it does that well. You won’t quite feel like you’re in the trenches with the team making Civilization, but you will feel like you have a sense of where their head was at. The lessons about game design and the creative process that Meier provides are drawn from deep experience and most seem self-evidently true. The writing is clear and the insights are real. If you loved his games or you want to make games, you should read this book.
4.0 out of 5 stars It's Sid Meier! If that means something to you, you will probably love it.
I grew up with Sid Meier's games and love them to this day. I also love reading about early video game development -- it was quite an interesting industry at the time and I find it fascinating to read about the various small shops that were responsible for some great early games.This is all to say, I am very squarely the target audience for this book, and I really enjoyed it. But, quite frankly, it wasn't a great book. The prose was fine, the insights were fine, the organization of the book was fine. It was a pretty good book about a topic that I am extremely interested in. If you are even modestly interested in Sid Meier or early game development, I think you'll find this a worthwhile read. If those topics don't appeal to you, then you should probably look elsewhere.This is not a great piece of literature. It's not Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. If you don't bring an interest for the topic, I don't think you'll find it as you read the book.
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Read
I really enjoyed getting a look inside Sid Meier's head and a first hand recap of his career. His positive outlook has a tendency to minimize the conflicts he encountered along the way, making this more of a warm story of a game designer looking for and finding inspiration than a thrilling climb to prominence in an industry. Given the events that unfold, a different person writing could easily have told the latter story, but that's not Sid Meier's style. I liked the humble telling of remarkable events, and especially the perceptive analysis along the way.Overall I found the book inspiring, and I enjoyed reading both his experiences as well as his insights on game design and life.
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it even though I never played Sid's games
Although I have been an avid video game player since the advent of the PC in the mid 80s, and have seen almost all the title mentioned in this book come by... I never really played them.Nevertheless, Sid's insight into game design and his experiences in the industry made me love every chapter.
3.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Bland
While I'm very impressed with the success Sid Meier has achieved as a professional game developer, this book is surprisingly bland. I imagine that if you have an intense affection for one or more of his games, it's cool to go "behind the scenes" about what was happening in Sid Meier's life at the time the game came out, but if you're a professional software developer and/or game developer, there is limited value in these pages.I wish this book contained more stories about the challenges Sid and his co-workers had to overcome in creating certain games, or the tools and/or programming languages he used to build games (and why he picked them). It would be cool too to learn about the challenges in porting games from one platform to another.I don't want to give the impression that this book is poorly written; Sid Meier is clearly a real smart guy who loves building and playing video games. I just wish he gave us more of a "behind the scenes / under the hood" look at game development.
4.0 out of 5 stars A must for any fan of Civilization
Since I retired I have been indulging in pleasures I didn't have enough time for, and gaming is one of them. I have been a huge fan of the Civilization series, and also have fond memories of Railroad Tycoon Deluxe. But Civilization is the one that has absorbed thousands of hours of my life over the last 3 decades, and it is still my favorite gaming experience. So when I saw this memoir was available I had to get it, and I'm glad I did. Now, to be clear this is only something of interest for a fan like me, but there are a *lot* of Civilization fans out there. You need only check out the many YouTube channels, web sites, subreddits, etc. devoted to this game to see how popular it is. This memoir simply tells the story of Sid Meier's life in computer games, as the title advertises. I had a good time reading it, and I'm glad I purchased it. If you are also a fan of Civilization in it's many versions I think you will enjoy this work.
Świetna książka napisana z typowymi dla Sida lekkością i humorem
Fajnie przeczytać historię życia kogoś kto przez lata był synonimem świetnej, pozytywnej rozgrywki w budowanie, przeżywanie przygód i poznawanie świata przedstawionego. Do tego prawie zawsze w nieco innej konwencji, świeżej tematyce, zawsze wykonane ze smakiem i solidnością. Książka pozwala poznać całkiem sporo o życiu prywatnym i młodości Sida, zrozumieć dlaczego tworzył takie a nie inne gry, a także wiele zabawnych faktów i historii. Pokrzepiający dowód na to że gry wideo to wspaniałe hobby dla każdego.
Great
Delivered as expected. Great quality
Inspirador
He descubierto que Sid Meier había hecho más juegos de los que yo pensaba y a los que también había jugado hace décadas. Un relato inspirador y un vistazo desde dentro a los primeros días del mundo del desarrollo de lo que ahora llamaríamos juegos indies.
Eine informative und lesenswerte Zeitreise mit Sid Meier!
Ich habe dieses Buch spontan ca. 1 Monat vor dem Erscheinungsdatum gekauft, und es nach der Lieferung in zwei - sehr kurzweilig empfundenen - Etappen innerhalb von 24 h ausgelesen. Für alle, die selbst Computerspiele (vielleicht sogar von Microprose) ab dem Beginn der 80er Jahre gespielt haben oder damit zu tun hatten, werden hier viele Erinnerungen an bekannte Spiele-Titel und Namen von damals aus der Branche aufkommen.Das Buch ist in relativ einfachem Englisch geschrieben, so daß auch nicht so geübte damit gut zurecht kommen sollten. Der Autor erzählt auf angenehm unterhaltsame Weise seine und die Geschichte von Microprose, beginnend mit ersten Programmierversuchen zur Schul-/Studienzeit, bis später zu den großen Hits wie Civilization.Ohne jemals in langweilige oder langwierige Belanglosigkeiten abzuschweifen erfährt der Leser hier sehr viel an Hintergrundwissen und bislang schon bekannte Details werden noch ein wenig mehr mit Anekdoten, persönlichen Erinnerungen und Geschichten von 'damals' ergänzt.Für mich ein empfehlenswertes Buch für alle, die schon die 80er Jahre am Computer miterlebt haben, oder die ein wenig mehr von den Anfängen der Spiele-Industrie und über eine der damals prägenden großen Firmen erfahren wollen.
Fantastic description of the early days of computer game development.
Fantastic description of the early days of computer game development, particularly around the massively popular Civilization series.
Similar suggestions by Bolo
More from this brand
Similar items from “Business & Industry”
Share with
Or share with link
https://www.bolo.ae/products/U1324005874