NOTE: This is The Column, a regular feature on Apolyton where anyone can write about anything to do with Civilization or the gaming industry as a whole. If you feel like writing, please visit the article submission page.

PREVIOUS ARTICLES

#149 APOLYTON: THE TRULY INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY Apolyton is a glowing example of globalization at its best, touts Shadowstrike. #148 A LOOK AT A DIFFERENT TYPE OF ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE Winborne chooses to discuss exactly what the title suggests: a different kind of artifical intelligence. #147 MORE BACKGROUND STORIES, PLEASE... DanQ hopes that the tradition of background stories, such as in SMAC, will continue in future incarnations of the Civ series. #146 THE SWEEP OF TIME Zero_Tolerance is intrigued to ponder how Sid Meier's Dinosaurs and Civilization III will mesh together. #145 WHY THE ALT. CIV. SECTION DESERVES YOUR ATTENTION (PT. 2) Ron Hiler wants to convince you that the playing field for TBS games has not been forgotten, but simply had a chance of venue. COLUMN ARCHIVE

How strange life can be. This morning I got Activision's statement in response to the various questions about CTP2. At the end of the day, Dan sent me a "happy" message saying "feel like writing a column? we don't have one" :) So here I am, only a few hours after this announcement which basically ends Activision's part in the history of Civ games, trying to comment about in a logical and useful way.

Why I used the words "logical and "useful"? Well, because the first and easy idea would be to write what Activision did wrong with CTP1 and CTP2. You know, gather all the various things that have been said so far: the failures in the design, the bugs, the lack of support. And what would the outcome be? A few "right on!" responses from some people, a couple others jumping in to say "I told you so" and I would end up drinking in a bar and mumbling about "big corporations" who "don’t care about civers" :D

The second idea would be to write about the schizophrenic situations that we found ourselves into with CTP1/2. From the excitement of the new ideas and the new features, and the larger customizability to trying to think how a civ game could not ship with a world map, to figuring out when saved game of a mod crashes ctp1, to using a fix made by one man in a few days but which could not be done by Activision. And from finding out that everything feels so much better this second time to realizing that the AI is... shy and that while the scenario pack feature seems to work this time, there are again problems with saved games!! Again the outcome would be about the same with the above, but with me ending up in a nuthouse shouting "it's true i tell you! this game has potential!!" :D

In most cases, the third time you get it right. Whining about the issue, sending hate mail or big letters of complaints to Activision or anything like that wont do any good. Perhaps it might help some of you to vent, but after that you'll be left looking for a new game. As for not buying any other Activision game, I personally havent bought another Activision game except from CTP1/2 in my life! :)

Yes, there are problems. Yes, Activision is not going to do anything about it. Still, the ctp2 team allowed for even more customizability. The first results of the med mod and the various AI mods are more than encouraging. I have confidence that eventually we'll find a way to solve the load/save problems, even if it is a ridiculous solution like saying a prayer to The Great Sid, making a turn around yourself and then loading the game! If we did it^* with CTP1, we can do it with CTP2!

In a couple of months, the major mods and scenarios(another thing that the ctp2 team did better this time was that making scenarios is actually possible :)) will be done and the price of ctp2 will probably have fallen to ridiculous prices. At that time, modified CTP2 will be the best civ game ever(until Civ3)

P.S. It is proper to recognize that the ctp2 team members were some of the of most open, friendly and helpfull developers that have passed from our site.

P.S.S. This was not an attempt to judge the overall participation of Activision to the civ genre. Because in that case I should have also talked about the great ideas that CTP1/2 brought, as well as the (good) competition that was created by these two games. The participation of Activision in the genre was overall positive, no matter if some things didnt work out perfectly.

* I still believe that CTP1 without the mods was a decent game worth buying. The mods "just" made it much more balanced and fun. And I still think that CTP2 is better than CTP1 with mods...

---------
About the author: Co-Owner/Webmaster of Apolyton.

Comment on this article!

The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.