Ambivalent. Civ was the second game I ever played (after Elite and before Railroad Tycoon/AlphaCent
), my father gave it as a birthday present in '91 then played thousands of hours himself XD
But I have little faith in the franchise these days. Its no longer grand strategy (though original civ also has 4x elements), each version suffers more and more abstraction of concepts and mechanics in the name of smooth play for the modern gamer. To my mind they were doomed the moment they first ported it to the xbox (i hated that title), games of such complex depth (and ui) do not suffer that translation well. Since then the PC platform has kinda followed that theme, I miss the game that had so many shortcuts I made kboard overlays.
Loved I (and AC) and II, III. (plus call-to-power for the 2 extra map dimensions)
The cultural border mechanisms were a worthy addition in 4 but it was already far from old Civ.
It just gets shinier each time, but the heart is gone.
Edit: Curiously enough my biggest regret with Civilization is that its so fast. I learned it on an Amiga 600 with 6 floppies. When you hit 'EndTurn' in the mid-late game you were looking at atleast 5-8 minutes of AI before it was your go, even longer approaching victory. Our empires used to last for weeks or even months, we'd make maps and talk strategy. From Civ II onwards its a 'normal' modern gamelength because suddenly you are on PC. If im entirely honest, I still prefer Civ I on the 600 to FreeCiv on my quadcore, because conquering the world is something to savour.