But if they did and stuff was flying around in a frenzied turmoil of accomplishment...wouldn't you reasonably expect an update on any progress since feb?

Haven't i read somewhere in CGW that "QUAKE" was carefully delayed to generate a strangely planned interest in the market?
Haven't i also felt "canned" when MetaTools got under the financial grasp of Corel?

I'll give you a date for Firaxis's preview-site of
>>> CIVILIZATION III <<<

Halloween night 2000! Including pumpkins, masks, candles in the dark, Lara entombed as the guest of honor.

Or even, when it is over and done to the customers satisfaction ONLY... Hasbro's order!

quote: It's a pretty slow Saturday news-wise so I did a little one handed web browsing through the 3D Realms forums and noticed a thread discussing reasons why 3D Realms has not released any screen shots of Duke Nukem Forever. First up -- Big Daddy George Broussard: >>Is 3DR really doing this whole "when its done" "no screen shots" "no real information" for us the gamers or for the competition. Both. Why give away any edge at all to your competitors? I know when we see something cool in another game, we say "cool, thanks" and move on. No reason to tip your hand.And no reason to spoil the game for fans either. Regardless of competition we will never post info on all the bad guys, locations or guns etc in the game. >>>Now, level designer Charlie Wiederhold who proves George's points: We were able to deduce almost all of No One Lives Forever's gameplay elements from the screenshots they have been releasing. I've been playing through it and am almost done and have yet to be suprised by anything in the game or have seen any gameplay elements I didn't know were coming due to the screenshots they had released. Developers can and DO see things in the screenshots other people release and they DO take inspiration from them if they think they can use it and it will help their game. We have no idea what Valve is doing with Team Fortress 2 anymore because they refuse to release information. If they manage to continue this we will be taken by suprise by things they do in the game and they will have the jump on those things compared to everyone else...

Maybe that's why Firaxis has to consult with Hasbro...

quote: We have no idea what Valve is doing with Team Fortress 2 anymore because they refuse to release information

Gooseman (the author of Counter-Strike) said the engine of TF2 kicks ass!

@Civ3: When will be the site update now?
@Firaxis: Whats up with Dinosaurs? The game seemed to be cooler with ever diary posted, but well its ages since the last bit of info was released.

quote: Originally posted by yin26 on 10-29-2000 04:10 AM I agree with their thinking to a certain degree. It's like being told all the good parts of a movie before you go see it.

But I don't want to go into the movie expecting an action movie and the movie turns out to be a drama movie.

That is unless it is a really, really good drama.

------------------
- Biddles

But far more important for me now is time. I can buy any game I want these days, but I really only have time to get into one at a time. So I basically do the same thing: Wait and see.

Despite however much work has gone into the lists, and despite whatever hype eventually surfaces about CIv 3, I won't buy it for at least a month after its release. I'll be here eagerly reading people's feedback, asking questions, and looking for the first talk of what kinds of patches will be needed.

For everyone anxiously awaiting something new on the website, all I can say is: please have patience... development is in high gear and a lot of things are going on right now. We know you are hungry for news and info and game updates and everything else, and we want to give that to you -- we will give that to you, we're just working on nailing down some things first.

Dan
Firaxis Games

quote: Originally posted by HsFB on 11-16-2000 03:32 PM and that would mean buying from their rivals

btw, if you were there or read the transcript of our ctp2 chat, the developers visited the civ3 forum beyond the ctp2 ones...
here is a nice quote from Dave White, Lead Designer of CTP2

quote: I have a 300 page doc from Apolyton with tons of comments and suggestions

quote: Originally posted by Stefu on 11-14-2000 08:47 AM STOP BUMPING THIS THREAD! Geeze golly! You come to this forum, see thread whose sender has that big shiny FIRAXIS after his name, and naturally assume there's more information! IT doesn't take much more to drive one mad!

Well Stefu, Mr Dan posted it in the first place, got some of our anticipation stirred up (ok, we LET our anticipation get stirred up )

So get over it!

Bumps will happen here cuz it is a natural reaction when very little is offered afterwards.

**Thx Dan M for your comments, patience is not as hard when it is evident something will take a while.
***However you have still not answered the question above:
It says:"How many people are now working at FIRAXIS?
WE now have 27 people working here. We've added a lot of talented people to the group recently, so that we can have two complete design teams working on our big projects - Civilization III and the dinosaur game."

*This quote is from the http://www.firaxis.com/civ3/ site.

Yet, I count 25 people in the picture you say are on the Civ 3 team. The quote above says there are 27 working ALTOGETHER at Firaxis. That leaves 2 left over for the other projects is my guess.

So, again, which number is correct?

Tical_2000
Oct 2000 posted November 14, 2000 22:01
"I'm sure Firaxis is pounding out a solid game which gives them valid reason for the lack of game info. After all, I just know Civ3 will beat the life out of CTP2!"

I agree Civ 3 will most likely be much better than CTP2!!
I just want to establish which one is more suited to me without buying them both, then try to play it well for fun.

In one little local town/village near here there are 3 resterants! One does not do breakfasts and specialises in dinners. One is very "local culture" community meeting place type thing. The third is more towards the turist visitors near an attraction closeby.

If Hasbro & Activision were resterants in the same little village of Civilization enthusiasts, it would be like being talked into spending maoney on having breakfast at the Pot Belly Cafe, then running over to the other place, sitting down and paying for another breakfast!

Now if it was known what all each one would be about and when they would be released, naturally those inclined toward CTP "Activisioners" would be happy, and Civ3 folk would be happy, and those who want both would be happy.

But if you can keep everything ambiguous long enough, strategicaly you can work it so many will buy BOTH.

I allready bought CTP once and was dissapointed. I am not at all knocking the game and it had a few great concepts Civ2 does not have. I simply prefer Civ2 over CTP.

I am sure Civ3 will be the game for me,
but the pull to go ahead and buy CTP2 (and again shelf it after Civ3 comes out most likely if I do) is THERE!!

And my problem with things is when we, as often happens, but hopefully not in this case, get yanked around for the SALES ASPECT of games.

1)The seeming discrepancy in numbers on the team, and unjustifyable vaqueness combined with just the right amount of "yeah its commin and gonna be GREAT/SOON hype" makes me curious.
2)Makes me also want to TUNE OUT whatever they say till we get realy near and some consistant info starts coming out.

Anyway when it is all said and done, I realize that they are in the buisness of making money and am prepared to live with it. But if that is the case it ticks me off just the same and I am glad to voice that.

A famous German producer once said something to the effect that " some movies or stories are made for and to tell the story itself. Some are made to make a living"

Is Civ3 going to blow us all away because it was made to be all it can be for us? Or is it going to be made for the making of money? Time will tell. Either way it will appeal to me more than CTP2 I am sure.

quote: Originally posted by Crustacian on 11-17-2000 02:25 PM ***However you have still not answered the question above: It says:"How many people are now working at FIRAXIS? WE now have 27 people working here. We've added a lot of talented people to the group recently, so that we can have two complete design teams working on our big projects - Civilization III and the dinosaur game." *This quote is from the http://www.firaxis.com/civ3/ site. Yet, I count 25 people in the picture you say are on the Civ 3 team. The quote above says there are 27 working ALTOGETHER at Firaxis. That leaves 2 left over for the other projects is my guess. So, again, which number is correct?

I must have missed that question. One of the "missing people" was Dave Evans, our Director of Software development, who was out that day, and the other was probably whoever was holding the camera, though it escapes me who that was.

quote: I am sure Civ3 will be the game for me, but the pull to go ahead and buy CTP2 (and again shelf it after Civ3 comes out most likely if I do) is THERE!! And my problem with things is when we, as often happens, but hopefully not in this case, get yanked around for the SALES ASPECT of games. 1)The seeming discrepancy in numbers on the team, and unjustifyable vaqueness combined with just the right amount of "yeah its commin and gonna be GREAT/SOON hype" makes me curious. 2)Makes me also want to TUNE OUT whatever they say till we get realy near and some consistant info starts coming out.

Well, the hard reality of the situation is that we are still far away from being 100% geared up to talk about the marketing & promotion of this game. We want to tell you all about the game and what it's going to be like and so on, but we also want ensure that what we say accurately portrays the product as it will eventually ship. Several things are still being worked out right now, and we do not want to jump the gun with bad information.

quote: Anyway when it is all said and done, I realize that they are in the buisness of making money and am prepared to live with it. But if that is the case it ticks me off just the same and I am glad to voice that. A famous German producer once said something to the effect that " some movies or stories are made for and to tell the story itself. Some are made to make a living"

Well, this is right and wrong at the same time. Obviously as a company, we exist to make money, not to solve the all the world's ills. However, that doesn't mean that we think that making the best products precludes profitability. Firaxis has done pretty well for itself in the time it's been around, and it's no coincidence that we also make great games. I can tell you that the Civ team's goal for this product since day one has been to make it the absolute *best* Civ game ever. We take a great deal of pride in this game, and I personally hope that all of you will, too.

The cycle continues... time to get frustrated again!

OK, can we get more info on Civ3?

*growls menacingly*

This is a joke.

A Christmas 2000 Dino would save the boat until then, but we have a very big sign about works on Dino almost stopped.

One BIG thing....KEEP HOT SEAT AVAILABLE FOR CIV3. I will not purchase CTP-II because they left it out. CIV2 played well in HotSeat mode, make it work in CIV3.

Larger maps, more units, variety, more Civilization names, better balancing of units. Better unit stacking capabilities (not losing all units in a stack just because one unit in the stack wa lost). Just some items for improvement. Also, keep the unit data listing the same (or similar), such that they can be easily modified or added to by anybody, unlike CTP.

Now back to our CIV2 (TOT) Hot Seat game.