Quote Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] (SwordsMaster @ Mar. 24 2004,14:57)]Not even 20.I´ll bet that in 5 years time, you´ll have a 4gb processor for the price of an average Pentium 4...
I´ve seen 200 gb processors already (in the Pentagon), so its not impossible at all...

The problem is not the machine, but the time and money that need to be spent developing such a game.By the time they´re done, people´s interests will be somewhere else, so they´ll have to charge wild amounts of money for the game.Its more of a market risk than a technological impossibility.

(Wow, im talkong as if i knew something about markents)
I´m not talking of the actual hardware that much but the massive HD-space you´ll need and the enormous delevoping and storing of that kind of information. When you play your game in the beginning you might want to micromanage city development for the few towns and willages you have but when the empire grows you can simply auto-build with the capitol or any other city as a mold.
Personally I would have no problem in paying some 500-1000$
for that kind of game. Constantly modded by players and patched by the developer for a fee, much like a perscription.
The real potential is that this kind of game won´t be sold on cd or dvd or any other media but rather played online against a central computer somewhere. So you can sign up for a game against hundreds of other players online.