Over in Apolyton and CivFanatics people are talking about the recently divulged fact that human players cannot become Vassals to AI players. For those not up to date on their Civ, Vassalage is a new concept introduced in the freshly released expansion pack, Warlords. Much like GalCiv's surrender options, one civ can Capitulate to another when losing in a war, or choose to swear fealty when at peace if its relations are good and the potential master is very powerful.

I was stunned to learn today that the relationship is strictly one way, and the Firaxian who officially broke this news vaguely said that this was to prevent exploits. I cannot imagine what those exploits would be, and it occurred to me that 95% of the gaming population probably can't either. I see this decision as a great example of why I'm so fond of Stardock. I believe that if this company designed a system that was deemed by the designers to be so flawed that power gamers could exploit it (in single player games where they are, by definition, not hurting anyone else) to a bad end, that Stardock would have: axed the system due to inherient flaws; repaired the system in a way that makes it non-exploitable; or let the Power Gamers ruin their own fun in recognition of the fact that the vast majority of the gaming world will appreciate the feature and its full options.

I am flabberghasted that Firaxis made that decision, but almost the first thing I thought of were Brad's discussions about treating the human and AIs equally, designing solid features, and treating the vast majority of gamers as more important than {or at least as important as) the tiny niche of Power Gamers whose primary function is to beat games at imopssible levels and bitch to developers and tell normal players they are stupid.

The "wow" factor of a major expansion pack is nearly entirely vanished for me because I recognize that its own designers saw such a flaw that they prevented the human from using it (excpet in multiplayer against other humans where it is apparantly not a game breaker), yet let it go through just to provide that same "wow."

Stardock, I hope you continue to remain a cut above the average. Keep on raising that bar!