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[Cthulhu]

Does anyone else find it strange that a Roman Spy just shows up out of nowhere claiming to be "new"?

What do we have that the Romans want, or have we angered them somehow?

[Roman Spy]

Relax man, I'm just here for information theft, perhaps sow a little dissent. Haven't researched bribery yet let alone assassination.

[Hamenopi]

The sky is falling!

[Pnx]

Maybe he's a demon in disguise. We should throw him into a magma pipe, and if he survives, he's a demon. If not, his pure blood goes to Toady... and Armok.

[Virex]

Nobody's mentioned Alpha Centauri yet? Or isn't that a steep learning curve by our standards?

[subject name here]

It's about as steep as the rest of Sid Meier's games, since you don't need to read an entire wiki to get the gist of it it's probably not steep enough.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Civ 4.
Oh how dull that was.
Being an evil dictator just wasn't fun.
No different from being a left-liberal tree-hugging pansy.

[Sowelu]

I wouldn't call Alpha Centauri a steep curve.  Sure, the techs are a little mind-boggling at first, but that's what the manual is for...or just play on easy mode for a while.  Besides, the "research a random tech in the categories of your choice" thing balances it out a whole lot, because it's very hard to get the ONE OPTIMAL PATH like in most games and thus expert players won't screw newbies over as completely.  That game is a lot of fun at the beginning.

It's also the only Sid Meier game worth playing via PBEM.

So yeah.  Not a steep learning curve but it IS worth it.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

I love Alpha Centauri.  It was really cool because it didn't try to be funny.

[Deon]

Actually the Alpha Centauri was dual.
At first glance it's not that hard and a mere player can play it on low levels of difficulty (I did it when I was a child).
On the other hand it has a lot of very nice details which are not that easy accessible, like wind/solar heights, east-west hill sides (one under wind has less nutrients), terraforming tricks, different combinations of "empire levers" such as politics + economy, climate changes and global warming.
A lot of nice tricks to do.

And fungus, yes, the living planet is just awesome.

[Sowelu]

Not only did it not try to be funny, but you even got some high psychodrama by the end of it.  The movie for the "Self-Aware Colony" wonder will make you drop a brick the first time you see it, and ask yourself "Should I really be meddling in this?"  You end up not liking Miriam at first--She's a total screwball fundie who starts wars and gets in the way of progress--but by the end of the game, she's one of the most sane leaders left.

In case you're wondering how I can talk about a plot in a Civ-style game...  Every technological advance is accompanied by a little descriptive blurb.  Nobody reads those.  Instead, they read the flavor text:  Sometimes it's a historical quote from one of the leaders' historical libraries (Santiago and her 'Art of War'), but usually it's from one of the leaders' memoirs.  They're spoken by that leader's voice actor too.  They have very compelling personalities and neuroses.

Here's some of my favorite creepy ones from late game (not to threadjack or anything...)

The first living thing to go through the device was a small white rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, the damage was not so great as they say.  -Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "See How They Run"

I loved my chosen. How then to face the day when she left me? So I took from her body a single cell, perhaps to love her again.  -Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Time of Bereavement"

My gift to industry is the genetically engineered worker, or Genejack. Specially designed for labor, the Genejack's muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot feel pain?  -Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"

( http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sid_Meier's_Alpha_Centauri )

Do yourself a favor.  Play.  :3  Getting the next tech has never been so compelling as when it gives you a little bit of the story, too.  And unlike Civ 4, the different playstyles (evil dictator vs. economist vs. Planet freak) really do *feel* completely different.  Playing a different faction is like playing a whole different game.

[McDoomhammer]

I miss SMAC.  I want to play it again but my CD is so scratched to hell it won't install.

[Jreengus]

I kept getting those little plot interludes in the worng order, i always used to get the building your first nature preserve dream before i got the "first" dream confused me until i finnaly got them in the right order one time. what was you guys favourite faction for me it was either pirates or university.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

I always played the UN guys.

Oh, and I love this quote.

As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

    * Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights"

[Jreengus]

Haha I just started up a new game for the first time in a while so I choose the pirates and the game decides to dump me in the freshwater sea! The whole of planets oceans and I get dumped in a pond!

As for my favourite quote:
"A handsome young cyborg named Ace,
Wooed women at every base,
 But once ladies glanced at,
 His special enhancement
They vanished with nary a trace"

-- Barracks Graffiti
    Sparta Command