Favorite aspect of 4x games

[Kana]

Fyron said:
My favorite is the 5th x: eXperience

Then you loved MOO3.

Wiki said:
The fifth X: eXperience

Master of Orion III was marketed as the first 5X game, with the "eXperience" of delegating management via a bureaucracy.In 2002, with the pending release of Master of Orion III, there were claims that this would be the first "5X game". Alan Emrich announced that the fifth X would be the eXperience of delegating the ruler's authority to other leaders:

We've added a 5th X to the list (eXperience) and tried to keep a player's role in perspective. To that end, a player cannot micromanage everything all the time in MOO3. Although you can do ANYthing on a given turn, you simply won't be able to do EVERYthing during a single turn. Some things will have to wait, others you'll have to trust to the Leaders in charge of those areas. Most of the time, you'll MACROmanage a civilization's activities and try to steer the Ship of State along a general course rather than select every item for every build queue on every planet in every system of every sector that you've colonized. And with the expanded amount of playable real estate in MOO3, believe me, you'll THANK us for not forcing you to micromanage all that stuff!.

Master of Orion III received mixed comments from reviewers and players: a few liked delegating control to AI governors, while the majority found this lack of detailed control boring or frustrating.

This new "experience" also included the threat of unrest or revolt if you do not meet the demands of your citizens. However, unrest and revolt had already been seen in the 4X genre. Civilization II in 1996 included features such as civil unrest in unhappy cities, and the possibility of being over-ruled by the senate. In Galactic Civilizations, the player's party can even be voted out of office.

[AgentZero]

I like the exploration, and building my own little economic empire. Hell, sometimes I play 4X games with the AIs turned off, just so I can happily go about exploring the galaxy, developing new colonies and discovering new technologies, without really worrying about being competitive, spending every spare unit of resource building warships and fighters and troops to get ready for the inevitable onslaught of mindless drones bent on my destruction.

[Baron Grazic]

explore - Not only the galaxy, but the research tree

[Azselendor]

MoO3 Made Baby Jesus cry.

[Atrocities]

I like the fact that you can loose yourself in them for days. That for that time you are not some pathetic worker bee drudging away in the day to day grind of real life. No, in those hours, or days you are the God of your realm with the power of life and death in your hands. You don't like the way someone talks to you, you destroy their world. It is an escape from reality that is far more addicting than it has any right to be.

[Xrati]

Life, an addiction, catch it! Never heard it put that way before AT! It will probably make a good slogan someday.