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Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer,
designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
, and producer of several
strategy video game Strategy is a major video game genre that emphasizes thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to achieve victory. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, as a genre, strategy games are most commonly defi ...
s and
simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...
s, including the ''
Civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). ...
'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with
Bill Stealey John Wilbur Stealey Sr. is an American game developer and publisher who founded MicroProse with Sid Meier. He also founded (in 1995) and is the current CEO of iEntertainment Network. Business career Stealey took a job with General Instrument as ...
and is the Director of Creative Development of
Firaxis Games Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were ...
, which he co-founded with
Jeff Briggs Jeffery L. Briggs (born March 10, 1957) is the American founder and former President and CEO of Firaxis Games, a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States. He was previously a game designer at MicroProse but left that com ...
and Brian Reynolds in 1996. For his contributions to the
video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...
, Meier was inducted into the
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
Hall of Fame.


Early life and education

Meier was born in
Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...
,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada, to parents of Dutch and Swiss descent, giving him both Canadian and Swiss citizenship. A few years later, the family moved to
Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, US, where Meier was raised. He studied history and
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
, graduating with a degree in computer science from the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1975.


Career

Following college, Meier worked in developing cash register systems for department stores. During this period, Meier purchased an
Atari 800 The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...
c. 1981, which helped him realize that computer programming could be used to make video games. He found a co-worker,
Bill Stealey John Wilbur Stealey Sr. is an American game developer and publisher who founded MicroProse with Sid Meier. He also founded (in 1995) and is the current CEO of iEntertainment Network. Business career Stealey took a job with General Instrument as ...
, who had a similar interest in developing games, and shared the games that Meier had developed. The two decided to launch a new company for computer game development.


At MicroProse

Meier founded MicroProse with Stealey in 1982. After a few initial 2D action games, such as Meier's platformer ''Floyd of the Jungle'', MicroProse settled into a run of flight simulation titles beginning with ''Hellcat Ace'' (1982) and continuing with '' Spitfire Ace'' (1982), '' Solo Flight'' (1983), and '' F-15 Strike Eagle'' (1985), all designed and programmed by Meier. By 1986 MicroProse was using Meier's name and face in advertisements for its games. In 1987, the company released ''
Sid Meier's Pirates! ''Sid Meier's Pirates!'' is a video game created by Sid Meier for the Commodore 64 and published by MicroProse in 1987. It was the first game to include the name "Sid Meier" in its title as an effort by MicroProse to attract fans of Meier's ear ...
'', the first with Meier's name in the title. He later explained that the inclusion of his name was because ''Pirates!'' is very different from the company's earlier titles. Stealey decided that Meier's name would make those who purchased the flight simulators more likely to play the game. Stealey recalled: "We were at dinner at a Software Publishers Association meeting, and
Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
was there. And he kept us in stitches for two hours. And he turns to me and says 'Bill, you should put Sid's name on a couple of these boxes, and promote him as the star.' And that's how Sid's name got on ''Pirates'', and ''Civilization''." The idea was successful; by 1992 an entry in '' Computer Gaming World'' poetry contest praised Meier's name as "a guarantee they got it right". Meier is not always the main designer on titles that carry his name. For instance, Brian Reynolds has been credited as the primary designer behind '' Sid Meier's Civilization II'', ''
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri ''Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'' is a 4X video game, considered a spiritual sequel to the ''Civilization'' series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet ...
'', and ''
Sid Meier's Colonization ''Sid Meier's Colonization'' is a video game by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier released by MicroProse in 1994. It is a turn-based strategy game themed on the early European colonization of the New World, starting in 1492 and lasting until 1850 ...
'', while
Jeff Briggs Jeffery L. Briggs (born March 10, 1957) is the American founder and former President and CEO of Firaxis Games, a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States. He was previously a game designer at MicroProse but left that com ...
designed '' Sid Meier's Civilization III'', Soren Johnson led '' Sid Meier's Civilization IV'',
Jon Shafer Jon Shafer is an American designer and programmer of computer games. He was the lead designer of the strategy game ''Civilization V'', developed by Firaxis. Currently, Shafer is the president of Conifer Games, a video games development company ...
led ''
Sid Meier's Civilization V ''Sid Meier's Civilization V'' is a 4X video game in the ''Civilization'' series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010, on OS X on November 23, 2010, and on Linux on June 10, 2014. In ''C ...
'', and Will Miller and David McDonough were the designers of '' Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth''. After the release of ''F-19 Stealth Fighter'', Meier focused on strategy games, later saying "Everything I thought was cool about a flight simulator had gone into that game." Inspired by ''
SimCity ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim ...
'' and ''
Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'', he created '' Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon'' and later the game series for which he is most widely recognized, '' Sid Meier's Civilization'', although he designed only the first installment. Around 1990, Stealey wanted to expand MicroProse to produce arcade games, which Meier felt was too risky. Unable to resolve the matter with Stealey, Meier quietly sold Stealey his half of the company but otherwise remained with the company in his same role.


At Firaxis Games

MicroProse, after it had become a
public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
, merged with Spectrum HoloByte in 1993 under Spectrum's name, with Spectrum as the operating company. As a cost-cutting measure, Spectrum cut many of the jobs at MicroProse at 1996 and consolidated much of their operations. Meier, along with MicroProse employees
Jeff Briggs Jeffery L. Briggs (born March 10, 1957) is the American founder and former President and CEO of Firaxis Games, a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States. He was previously a game designer at MicroProse but left that com ...
and Brian Reynolds, were dissastified with these decisions, and opted to leave the company to form
Firaxis Games Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were ...
in 1997. Firaxis continued to develop the same type of strategy games that Meier had developed at MicroProse, many of which are follow-ups to those titles, such as the new ''Civilization'' games and a remake of ''Sid Meier's Pirates!'' (2004). In 1996, he invented a "System for Real-Time Music Composition and Synthesis" used in C.P.U. Bach. '' Next Generation'' listed him in their "75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995", calling him "a prolific developer of some of the best games in icroProses catalog". According to Firaxis employees, Meier has been constantly developing a special game engine since around 1996 which he uses to prototype his game ideas and which he has not shared with anyone else. Dennis Shirk, a senior producer, said in 2016 that Meier would sometimes arrive at the office and announce he had a new game prototype for the company to try out and see if it could be developed further. The engine is believed by Firaxis employees to be based on his original ''Civilization'' source, but expanded over the years with updates that he or other engineers will write for him. Meier worked with a team on a
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
-themed game starting in early 2000, but announced in an online development diary in 2001 that the game had been shelved. Despite trying various approaches, including
turn-based In video and other games, the passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. This is usually done in one of the two ways: real-time and turn-based. Real-time Real-time games have game time progress cont ...
and
real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
gameplay, he said he found no way to make the concept fun enough. In 2005, he said, "We've been nonstop busy making other games over the past several years, so the dinosaur game remains on the shelf. However, I do love the idea of a dinosaur game and would like to revisit it when I have some time." An autobiography, ''Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games'', was published on September 8, 2020 by W. W. Norton & Company.


Development style

''Computer Gaming World'' reported in 1994 that "Sid Meier has stated on numerous occasions that he emphasizes the 'fun parts' of a simulation and throws out the rest". "Meier insisted", the magazine reported that year, "that discovering the elusive quality of fun is the toughest part of design". According to ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'', "Though his games are frequently about violent times and places, there is never any blood or gore shown. He designs and creates his games by playing them, over and over, until they are fun".


Personal life

Meier lives in
Hunt Valley, Maryland Hunt Valley is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, near the site of the Maryland Hunt Cup Steeplechase. It lies just north of the city of Baltimore, along York Road (Maryland Route 45), parallel to Interstat ...
, with his second wife Susan, whom he met at Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Cockeysville Cockeysville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 20,776 at the 2010 census. History Cockeysville was named after the Cockey family who helped establish the town. Thomas Cockey (1676� ...
, where he is the Director of Contemporary Music. The couple lead contemporary music worship. Meier has a son, Ryan Meier, who works for
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three gradu ...
.


Awards

*In 1996,
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
put Meier at the top of their listing of the "Most Influential People in Computer Gaming of All Time", calling him "our
Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
, our Spielberg, our Ellington". *That same year, '' Computer Gaming World'' ranked him as eighth on the list of the "Most Influential Industry Players of All Time", noting that no game designer has had as many ''CGW'' Hall of Fame games as Sid Meier. *In 1997, ''Computer Gaming World'' ranked him as number one on the list of the "Most Influential People of All Time in Computer Gaming", for game design. *In 1999, he became the second person to be inducted into the
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame The D.I.C.E. Awards (formerly the Interactive Achievement Awards) is an award show in the video game industry started in 1998 and commonly referred to in the industry as the "video games Oscar". The awards are arranged by the Academy of Interac ...
. *In 2008, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Game Developer's Conference. *In 2009, he came fifth in a ''
Develop Develop or DEVELOP may refer to: * ''Develop'' (magazine), a trade publication for the video game industry * ''Develop'' (Apple magazine), a technical magazine formerly published by Apple Computer * Develop (chess), moving a piece from its origina ...
'' survey that asked some 9,000 game makers about their "ultimate development hero". *In 2009, he was ranked second in IGN's list of "Top Game Creators of All Time", and was called "the ideal role model for any aspiring game designer". *In 2017, he was awarded the Life Achievement by the
Golden Joystick Awards The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be vote ...
.


Games

The games developed, co-developed and/or produced by Sid Meier:


References


External links


Sid Meier's biography and games history at Firaxis.com
* *
Official site for "Sid Meier's Memoir!"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meier, Sid 1954 births Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees American Lutherans American people of Dutch descent American people of Swiss-German descent American video game designers American video game programmers Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Living people MicroProse people People from Baltimore County, Maryland People from Sarnia University of Michigan alumni Video game producers