#195 Sid Meier (Computer game designer)

A billion Neanderthals were making spearheads in a stone age. A billi from now. It'll be the year one hundred and sixteen thousand one hundred and seventy four AD. With a billion to play with, you could make roughly thirteen thousand round trips to Alpha Centauri.

At the speed of light. Or you could spend it all playing Sid Meyer's Civilization. So I'm told. One billion is the sort of number that is humbling to the point of incomprehensibility. And it is a wildly conservative estimate at that.

The game distribution service Steam only began collecting player data in earnest within the last decade. And one billion is actually the number of hours played on Civilization Five. From its release in 2010, Up through thousand sixteen. A six year window into one game in a series that spans twenty nine years and twelve editions.

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