note: This is The Column, a part of Apolyton where anyone can write about whatever he/she wants :) If you feel like writing, submit your article via the article submission page

PREVIOUS ARTICLES

#113 CIVILIZATION III: WARGAME OR DEVELOPMENT Be not a warmonger, Father Beast comandeers -- let peace lead you down a more enlightened path. #114 CIVII: DEITY STYLE Bauser discussed his strategies at winning at the Deity level in Civilization II. #115 TERRAFORMING ALPHA CENTAURI Alexander shares his future Civ suggestions. #116 WHY CIV IS THE GREATEST AND WORST GAME EVER MisterHungry is taking Civilization head on in debating its historical roots. #117 HISTORICAL APPLICATION OF ALPHA CENTAURI Keith Medlin showcases Alpha Centauri for its historical applications. COLUMN ARCHIVE

Greetings Apolytoners. Seeing that the whole community is reluctant to write a column, I'm taking things on my hands! :) Here goes my 20th article, which will hopefully be the first of a trilogy!

OBSERVATIONS
I've noticed two things recently. The first was that CTP2 while it was shown on E3, we ended up seeing one real preview(CGO just copied a PR blurb) and a few screenshots. Perhaps it wasnt given much attention from Activision itself, dont know. The second was the recent Gamespot poll on TBS games. 5-6 Editors, and not one mentioning CTP. Coincidence?

DO WE WANT CIV ONLY FROM SID?
One thing that one of the Gamespot editors noted was that there are a lot of civers who would only play a civ-like game if it was associated with Sid Meier. I could agree that there are many people who considered CTP as a blasphemy(other serious, other just joking), but I'm wondering about the reviewers as well. Could this be the reason CTP got a lot of mediocre and negative reviews? Are we addicted to Sid?

THE FREEDOM OF NOT BEING NOTICED
The bottom line is that so far CTP2 has goten less attention in news sites than CTP1. Perhaps it's too early. Still, this is quite logical as the release of CTP1 had a lot of controversy following it: the law battle and the agreement with Microprose, the close release time to Alpha Centauri, the use of the Civilization name, need to say more?

Where is the freedom you ask? Well, if nobody pushes you to release the game tomorrow, and to be worthy(if not greater) of a tradition such as civ1's and civ2's, you feel a bit safer, don't you?

CTP1 FANATICS
Yes, these people exist! ;) Dont know how representative on the whole civ community our latest poll was, but 1/3 of the people who voted said they were going to buy CTP2 asap. If I was an "Actigrammer", I would feel a bit more confident. Given the fact that the announced improvments were highly welcomed on the forums, CTP2 is very certain to have a good start in the sales charts.

SO WHAT? THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!
Exactly! So what if CTP2 makes good sales for a week based on the generic previews and the fanatism of ctp1 players? CTP2's obligation is to prove that CTP1 did not need the Civilization name. That it is a great game on it's own, able to be easily compared to Civ3. CTP2 has to be the game that someone after a few hours of playing it will say "Good God, Firaxis has a difficult job matching that with Civ3!". With the kind of things that will make us say while playing Civ3: "hmm, saw that aleady in CTP2." or "nah, that stuff was better in CTP2". If things like that dont happen(and we're talking about the big majority of the civ community not just a part of it) then it will simply become a small chapter in the history of civ games. "Yeah, Activision made a couple games, but they weren't much" the future historian :) will say...

DO IT FOR THE GENRE!
If not for... pride, CTP2 needs to be great for the whole civ genre. We just can't make it with a new version every 4 years. Nor is it... healthy to have just one company working on a games. We need more games, with variations, with new ideas. Would CTP2 have borders if it wasn't for SMAC? Would Sid be talking for advanced trade in Civ3 if it wasn't for CTP1?

FREE OR OBLIGATED?
I dont want to make a final conclusion. It would certainly be a interesting question in an interview with an Actigrammer... What do you think?

Next time: Freedom and Obligation of Dinosaurs. send me your thoughts and I'll combine them with mine.
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Note on the author: Owner/Webmaster of Apolyton

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