Rise and Fall... there's a very popular mod for Civ III and IV called "Rhye's and Fall of Civilization" which is mostly about more historic accuracy and civilizations rising and falling. In fact, it's so popular (and well made) that it was included in Civ IV and I'm not sure, but I think they hired Rhye, the developer, to help with Civ IV.
So I'm a little surprised about that bad.
Actually, I don't agree much with Sid at all (which borders on heresy, I know). There are real time games, like the whole Settlers franchise, that do very well and part of the appeal is being the observer, watching your people work and do stuff. It simply depends on what you want your game to be, but that doesn't mean that it's generally a mistake. I can imagine a real-time Civ that could be quite fun. After all, Age of Empires and Rise of Nations where like a mix of Civ and C&C and very fun to play.
And random events, which were reintroduced in Civ IV with the Beyond the Sword expansion, can add alot of flavor to the game. Sure, the hardcore strategists may be put off, but I think most players will find the extra challenges and variety engaging.
Perhaps Sid is spending too much time on civilization forums, listening to the hardcore players. The problem is that those strongly voicing their opinions will most likely be hardcore players whereas the happy masses of civ-fans wont feel strong enough about things to go and complain about it.
@Team Holliwood: thanks for the vid, but I found the enbedded cutscenes of civ-games rather distracting, especially when text appears. Half of my brain tries to read the text and enjoy the visuals while the other half is trying to listen to Sid talk.
