[theoh]

The book "The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks was inspired by the computer game "Sid Meier's Civilization" and it paints a picture of a profoundly dysfunctional empire which is governed by the use of an elaborate game. Mark Zuckerberg recently recommended the book, but it's highly thought of by SF fans generally.

("Civilization" was a development of "Railroad Tycoon", an earlier PC game inspired by the boardgame series 18xx designed by Francis Tresham, starting in the 70s)

Just some context.

[theoh]

Just to correct myself: it's Banks's later book Excession which was directly inspired by Civ. The video game hadn't yet been released when "The Player of Games" was published, and I can't provide evidence that Banks was aware of Railroad Tycoon or its predecessor board games.

"Excession" is a good book as well, and appears to draw on email mailing list culture. http://www.tor.com/2015/03/06/on-iain-m-banks-and-the-video-...

[navbaker]

Maybe I was just slow in the uptake, but it took until the end of the book for me to realize the interactions between and lives of the minds were the whole point of the story, not so much the main plot line.