4x means what?

[Baron Munchausen]

I think it's shorthand for the operations you have to carry out to play the game:

eXplore the universe
eXpand your empire
eXploit resources
eXterminate the enemy

[Montana_Mike]

Thanks. That make sense.

Hmm, it must be a "new" term to help refine game classifications. "New" being less than 1-2 years. Tsk, tsk, tsk. This younger generation is passing me by. ;>

[Zanthor]

I figured 4X meant that this is a 4th generation game. EI SE4

[disabled]

Did anyone hear about MOO3's new thing. they are saying they'll add 'eXperiance' to the 4x formula

------------------
------------------------------------
HADRIAN AVENTINE
pacea@solar-outpost.com
http://www.hyperionbase.com

[capnq]

quote:

---

Hmm, it must be a "new" term to help refine game classifications. "New" being less than 1-2 years.

---

According to


http://moo3.quicksilver.com/diary/index.html
Alan Emrich popularized the term in his Computer Gaming World columns after hearing it used by Tom Hughes. He doesn't mention when that was, though.

I first saw "4x" defined on the Website for the current Version of Reach for the Stars.

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 06 July 2001).]

[henk brouwer]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
I think it's shorthand for the operations you have to carry out to play the game:

eXplore the universe
eXpand your empire
eXploit resources
eXterminate the enemy

---

in that case they should have named it 4e instead of 4x....

[Puke]

I think they used to be 4-R games before marketing discovered that they could do it with Xs and make it look cooler on a box.

I recall that 'Research' was one of them in the old formula, but I cant quite think of what the other were. or maybe it was with Ds, that would allow for Discover, Destroy, Develop... heck, i dont remember. I think that this X stuff seemed to start just after SMAC came out, since theirs were Explore Discover Build Conquer.

------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)