Last chance to participate, going to wrap this up tonight so if you have an interest in this game, go for it and don't be shy :)

Human resources have considered all options and decided to hire MadalinStroe for the full-time job position of Battle Worlds Kronos commander. Thanks to everybody and congratulations to the hiree!

Thanks to this giveaway, I now understand that hiring people is a difficult task and I understand why most companies just play it safe for most positions, meaning they hire the person with the most experience rather than taking a risk by hiring someone who they feel has potential and could learn fast. Seems a bit unfortunate because it makes upward and lateral mobility more difficult. Several years ago, I once applied for a job as a scientific illustrator where my job would have been to draw vector graphics of human bones using Adobe Illustrator. I don't have any experience with that program but I've been using CGI tools since 1991 and Adobe Photoshop since 2002 so if I had to pick up Illustrator, it would be a piece of cake because the two programs share a lot of the same functions and interface. Plus, I have experience making freehand drawings of bones in pencil on paper - which is drastically more challenging than doing vector graphics where you can correct and adjust everything very easily even if you can't draw a stick. Not to belittle the complexities of mastering advanced computer programs but compared to the traditional side of the craft, picking up digital tools is relatively easy. Which is why any halfway decent art school requires all students to study traditional drawing/sculpting as a foundation before teaching CGI programs.
So anyway, that face-to-face job interview went very well and the boss wanted to hire me but later on the employees (who didn't meet me personally) decided they wanted someone who already knew how to use Adobe Illustrator and they had the final word. I think it's good that the boss listened to his employees on the matter, after all they are the ones who would have had to work with me directly. Nevertheless, it's unfortunate when you aren't even given the chance to prove that you can pick up something very quickly. Why don't I just learn Illustrator by myself? To be honest, I have little to no interest to spend any time with that program if I don't need it for personal work and no particular motivation to learn this tool for a prospective future job. It wouldn't make much sense anyway now that I think of it, there's plenty of graphic designers who are passionate about vector graphics so they are better suited for any such job, I would only end up hating it. Since I have little appreciation for making vector graphics, I would be entirely unfulfilled and have no pride whatsoever in my work. The pay for that particular job would have been quite good ($4900 right from the first month - back in 2006 that was worth more than now) but I'm still glad that I didn't get the job because it would have required me to move to a secluded place and working indoors in an office full-time, not my thing really.
To get back to why I'm telling this story, as I said thanks to this giveaway I now understand why the employees of that company with the bone drawing job chose someone else. With the giveaway here there is no risk since I don't have to pay anyone a salary for this "job" and yet I chose the person who seemed to have the most experience with the TBS genre so it appears I'm playing it safe, as well. Which means, I wouldn't have hired myself back in 2006. It's kinda ironic, as life very often is :)

It was smart thinking to plant a seed of doubt. It doesn't make a big difference to me if someone plays the game or not but if someone does play the game and plays it to the end, they then benefited more from the prize so surely that is the optimal outcome. Naturally, I don't know if you played the games you listed but your list in its entirety gives the impression that you know the genre well. Many people don't even know about e.g. Gorky17, and if you play that kinda stuff then Battle Worlds Kronos should be in good hands with you and if you played King's Bounty you should have more than enough patience to see it through to the end. I don't even know how long Kronos is as I've only played the first couple missions. With 50+ games installed, I progress at the speed of a snail, switching between games to keep things fresh. Most often, I'm not motivated to stay with one game at a time unless it's an easy one, e.g. I just finished Secret Files 2 in pretty much one take, it's definitely easier than the first game. Sometimes, I move a game into the fast lane, just did this with Halfway which I decided to replay in a higher difficulty and it was so much fun that I focused on doing just that for a couple sessions until finishing the campaign. But that is rare, most games don't excite me enough anymore these days :/

Anyway, congrats again and check your PM for the code!

Thank you for the gift, awalterj!

The reason I like TBS games is because they allow me to progress at my own pace. In the beginning I get to take my time and consider all my options, but once I get accustomed to all the rules I can just quickly end my turn. Also TBS games tell most of their story between missions, which allows me to play individual missions over the course of several days, if I don't have enough time, without loosing track of the story. Turn-based is just the perfect game mechanic for me.

As far as games keeping my interest over longer periods of time, I found that I quickly get bored with modern military/World War 1&2 themed games, while science-fiction/fantasy themed games maintain my attention. I think it's mostly having to do with the fact that I already find it modern conflict unappealing, mostly due to the disconnectedness that comes from long range sniping, usage of drones, carpet bombing, not to mention how unfair nuclear bombs are, but add to that the drama of human on human conflict and you just lost all my interest. I also notice that some ancient history games maintain my attention, mostly because the close combat conflict is much more visceral and the combat feels much more fair. You didn't pick up a sword and start fighting another army if you hadn't prepared for years before that. While nowadays almost anybody can pick an autaomated weapon and start spraying bullets everywhere.

However science fiction/fantasy games, almost always have a clear evil antagonist that is not human. While playing these types of games, it's easy for me to look past the glorification of violence and just enjoy the pure brutality.

As far as storyline goes, I like my heroes to be heroic and my villains to be villainous. I don't need some melodrama, about the poor unfortunate bad guy, that is just another soul forced to do horrible things to survive. The moment in the story that someone does anything demeaning to his fellow human, then that character lost all my sympathy. And after that point if the story keeps pushing the character as being anything other that pure villainous, then that's where I just stop.

You're welcome!

I'm a bit more open towards settings although I have little interest in playing any games featuring ongoing conflicts where people are dying as we speak. Once it's history, I'm fine with it - with certain limitations. I don't really get into the cause of any faction anyway, doesn't matter to me if I'm playing GDI or NOD or if it's a WW2 game I don't care if I'm playing the Germans or Russians etc as long as the mission design is interesting. There are limits though, e.g. I wouldn't play Concentration Camp Tycoon or SIM ISIS the beheading simulator. There are limits to my ability to abstract and everyone draws the line somewhere.

Plus it's a lot more fun to watch an Age of Empires style battle as opposed to a modern battle. Not sure about fairness though, on one hand highly trained and heavily armed cavalry will simply ride a freshly recruited peasant army into the ground which seems a bit unfair. On the other hand, if the peasants get to exploit the right kind of terrain as happened in the Battle of Morgarten, it's going to be unfair the other way around. But I know what you are referring to, it's the evenly matched battles when two armies of equal size and quality would meet on an open field and it predominantly came down to command & morale. But even there, not very fair for a veteran infantry soldier to get hit by a stray arrow, undoing years and years of experience and training in a second.

Anyway, fairness is overrated and one pretty extreme example is the battle of St. Jacob an der Birs in 1444 where 1500 Swiss fought against a French army of 20'000 in a battle that lasted 10 hours. In the end, the Swiss force was annihilated completely as they refused to surrender and fought till the end, killing 4000 of the French. Not a fair battle but epic nonetheless. After the battle, the French decided they wouldn't advance any further because there was a Swiss army of 20'000 standing at their destination and seeing as the 20'000 strong French army suffered such heavy losses against just 1500 Swiss soldiers, the French came to the conclusion that advancing further to meet an actual full size Swiss army was going to be a very bad idea, to express it mildly.

Yeah I think non-human enemies are more fun in some ways, it's also more interesting to have all kinds of monsters/aliens in all shapes and sizes so mere human enemies seems like wasted potential.
When humans in RL fight against humans, they generally need to demunanize each other before they can kill each other, and politics/religion/tribalism are the ideal tools to exclude members of your own species, sadly.

Except for Darth Vader!

In RL, I fully agree with your sentiment. There is a point of no redemption and I set that point fairly quickly. In fiction, I'm more lax about it because villains didn't really kill anyone or do anything bad for real, it's just made up so I don't mind if they are redeemed and change to the good side or vice versa. As long as it creates interesting missions and quests.