When I was little I used to watch my father play it without either of us really understanding the mechanics (especially population). Now I've returned and after several games I've caught on and managed to obtain a Space Race victory on Noble!
When I was a child I'd watch my father play it but neither of us actually caught onto the mechanics so we happened to lose even on the lowest difficulty. For example we didn't understand how population worked, or unhappyness or squalor. Now I have returned, I have tried the newer games in the series in the meantime and they just didn't feel as cool. I also tried to up my difficulty since I saw pros play on deity and Noble did kick my ass many times until I understood how everything worked and what was the best strategy.