WIRED talked to Stardock CEO Brad Wardell about Sorcerer King and the different approach it's taking in a 4X game.

"In most empire-builders with magic and quests and psychopathic dark lords, you play the plucky up-and-comer. If you’re a dude, you usually look like Fabio, or if you’re an elf, because elves are always in these games, you’re an elongated, emaciated and peroxide-washed Fabio. You click some buttons, study some spreadsheets, hammer the “next turn” button, marshal your army of foozles/multitude of peaceniks, and raze/propagandize the map.

But what if you lost badly? And what if instead of starting over, your next game was played in the wreckage of that world as the down-and-outer everyone beat?"

Read more at WIRED - http://www.wired.com/2014/10/sorcerer-king-interview/