[Barnacle Bill]

I think turn-based 4X games are going to continue to fall farther behind other genres in terms of taking advantage of increased computing capabilities. The market for such games is small, so nobody will invest the resources it takes to bring such a thing to market. I think the SE series is probably the only long-term viable business model - a joint labor of love between a programmer of the basic game engine and talented modders. There is probably enough money in selling the game engine to keep a one-man-band operation like MM going, and the modders do their thing for free as a personal creative outlet.

I'd love to be proven wrong and see a return to the era where several of the big game software houses had an active big-budget turn-based 4Xer series. I'd also love to see Bill Gates name me his sole heir. I just don't expect either one to happen.