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#106 A LITTLE ADVICE FOR CIVIII AND CTPII Sirotnikov dispenses his advice on how to make CivIII and CTPII better than their predecessors. #107 STRATEGY OR SIMULATION? Alert from Glak: why he believes that the style of Civ games is not strategy at all. #108 DEATH OF A GAME korn469 asserts that both Firaxis and Activision can learn from some invaluable lessons from MicroProse as what NOT to do in terms of product support. #109 THE POWER OF A GOOD POLITICAN Gamers shouldn't play demi-god in the world of Civilization, Harel claims, but rather a politican. #110 EXPECTATIONS OF CTPII Atahualpa would like to see us throw our support behind CTPII and give Activision an idea of what we would like to see in it. COLUMN ARCHIVE

What makes a great game? Graphics, sound, playability or reliability? All, I guess. I have been playing TBS games for years, starting with Civilization, then Colonization, then CivII, Civ: CtP and finally Alpha Centauri. Now I'm waiting for CivIII but somehow, CtPII means nothing. Here is why.

Civilization offered hours, days, weeks, and years of playing. I enjoyed Colonization, but not as much. I bought CivII on the day of release. I still play it, the same copy, same CD. It's all I need, and that one patch. Four years, and I keep coming back to it. The same thing happened when CtP was released. I bought it the moment I could get my hands on it, my enthusiasm powered by promises of CivII and then some. Stick to the formula but add features. Sounded great, unfortunately it sounded better than it played. I had some problems with crashes, but I got that hushed. I finished the game once, but unlike CivII, my first action was not to start another game. I started playing something else and eventually uninstalled it to make space for Alpha Centauri.

SMAC was good. It would have been great, had it not been for the alien world. Call me a bore, but it just didn't grab me like Earth does. I thought, implement those features and add some and CivIII will be a dream come true. Needless to say, I didn't play SMAC as much as CivII.

Last night I decided I had been unfair on CtP. I went up to the attic and dug out the box, found the CD and tried to install the game again. It didn't work. It came up with an error, asking me to install it again, which I did. Same message. I went to the Activision web site and found a page explaining what to do. Screen resolution of 640x480x16. Even CivII runs in my normal 1024x768x24. End Task on all but explorer and systray and reconfigure the way the CD-ROM works. Fine, I did all that. I even searched the registry for traces of the old installation. Still, almost smiling, CtP told me to try again.

There has been a lot of talk about what makes a game stand out. I think the first step on the road to greatness is to be able to stand up. Does Activision really think we will rush out to buy CtPII after all this? I doubt it. If I ever play that game, it will be on an illegal copy I acquired somewhere or maybe I won't even bother at all.

I will be buying CivIII for the same reason I will not buy CtPII, experience. I am like everyone else. I don't like getting ripped off, and if I feel I have been, I will take my business elsewhere. I should have been playing a great game now, but instead I am writing this older and wiser. Well, definitely older...
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About the author: "Lay down your weapons, Napoleon, for I am the future, I am tomorrow, I am the end".

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