Sid Meier interview: 'Learning is part of any good video game'

The Civilization creator talks about galactic exploration, childhood inspirations, why he's happy to avoid freemium - and dinosaurs

"Oh, it was a sad and dark time! We had to make our own fun," says Sid Meier before his mock-sorrow dissolves into laughter. We've just asked him about the games he grew up with.

Given that Meier was born in 1954, those games weren't played on a screen, yet they nevertheless had a strong influence on the video games he went on to create as an adult, from the seafaring adventure Pirates! to his seminal strategy series Civilization, and the upcoming title Starships.

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