Sid Meier

Early life and education

Meier was born in the Canadian city of Sarnia to parents of Dutch and Swiss descent, giving him both Canadian and Swiss citizenship. A few years later the family moved to Michigan, where Sid Meier grew up and studied history and computer science, graduating with a degree in computer science from the University of Michigan. Meier lives in Hunt Valley, Maryland, with his wife, Susan. He met his wife at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Faith Lutheran, in Cockeysville, where he plays the organ. Meier and his wife both sing in the church choir.

Career

Following college, Meier worked in developing cash register systems for department stores. During this period, Meier purchased himself an Atari 800 circa the early 1980s, which helped him realize that computer programming could be used to make video games. He made a few games that were similar to arcade titles at the time. He found a co-worker, Bill Stealey, 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.

Meier founded MicroProse with Stealey in 1982, and by 1986 the company was using his name and face in advertisements for its games. MicroProse at first developed mostly simulation video games, such as Silent Service and F-19 Stealth Fighter. In 1987, the company released Sid Meier's Pirates!, which also began a trend of placing Meier's name in the titles of his games. He later explained that the inclusion of his name was because of the dramatic departure in the design of Pirates! compared to the company's earlier titles. Stealey decided that it would improve the company's branding, believing that it 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 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's 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, and Sid Meier's Colonization, while Jeff Briggs designed Sid Meier's Civilization III, Soren Johnson led Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Jon Shafer led Sid Meier's Civilization V 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 and Empire, 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. Meier eventually left MicroProse and in 1996 founded Firaxis Games along with veteran designer and gaming executive Jeff Briggs. The company makes strategy games, many of which are follow-ups to Meier's titles, such as the new Civilization games and 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 [MicroProse]'s catalog." In 2011, the people search company PeekYou claimed that Meier has the largest digital footprint of any video game designer.

Awards

Games

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

According to PC Gamer, "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." Meier worked with a team on a dinosaur-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 and real-time 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."