Indeed. But that's his problem. He's been in a hole for 30 years while the gaming industry grew and evolved exponentially through the actions and competition of

Indeed. But that's his problem. He's been in a hole for 30 years while the gaming industry grew and evolved exponentially through the actions and competition of thousands of individuals and companies. His vision of simulating complex systems with simple approximations from mathematical formulae and algorithms has been realized countless times. You mentioned some great (and sophisticated) examples but honestly, almost every single game has some elements of these these design ideas. It's nothing new ... and honestly kind of obvious. Anyone who wants to make a strategy game has to figure out how to believably simulate behaviour on computing devices of the time. If you're talking about computers in the 80s, you are forced to find simple mathematical expressions because a more complex simulation will bog your game down. So I'm not even sure how novel his ideas were, even in the early 80s. This is also why it's so hard to meaningfully come up with something novel by thinking really really hard about it in a secluded cave. You need to refine your ideas by constantly testing them in the market of ideas either through collaboration or concrete implementation.