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

#155 THE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF WAR AND ECONOMICS A peacefull civer writes about the necessity of war... #154 CIV 2 DYING OUT? NOT AT ALL Jay Bee doesn't subscribe to the popular opinion that CivII is on its way out the door, and is prepared to back his statement up. #153 CIVILIZATION III AND MILITARY MAINTENANCE MrFun dispenses three reasons as to why military expenses should be absorbed by individual cities and not the empire as a whole. #152 WHAT CIV3 SHOULD LOOK LIKE Raingoon stands by his conviction that since Firaxis is spearheading CivIII's development, it should play as it looks. #151 HOW AND WHY DO BAD GAMES GET MADE AND PUBLISHED Ex-Activisioner David "Pyaray" Ray gives us an exclusive look at his work that investigates games from bad to worse. COLUMN ARCHIVE

As it's already well known, Activision has announced that they will do no more work on Call to Power II, and don't plan to make any patches for it. This decision has been criticised very much, and Column #150 by MarkG contains good thoughts about it.

Reaction from people playing CtP I was clear - step backwards. How can CtP II have no PBEM, if CtP I has it, we asked. Mr Ogre was kind enough to point to the non-official patch that would let people play PBEM. After tests have been run, this was proved, but there still are two problems.

1. People using some types of No-CD Crack for the game can't set-up PBEM / HotSeat.

2. This is the main. Human-human diplomacy proposals in CtP II PBEM are impossible, only AI-Human and Human-AI proposals are real. As we usually want no AI players in email games, this completely ruins the diplomatic part of the game. Yes, the proposals can still be made on the forums, but how can players send gifts and exchange maps? No way to.

These are the reasons why so many CtP I players refused to buy CtP II and switch to it. Poll "Do you want PBEM to be added?" shows the result at it's best. So, handling around at the CtP II forums, I see that most of the posters there are CtP II players, who haven't ever touched CtP I.

All these facts together led me to the question - should we give up about having PBEM in this game, or is there yet a chance to? Personally I think, there is a chance. Now just remember how many people said thumbs down on CtP I, also with it being to easy. Activision's only response was the PBEM patch, even though great, while the Apolytoners created a nice packet of responses. The best among them is Medieval Mod by WesW.

I am sure that if some good work is done at analysing the CtP II game files, one can find something that needs to be modified in order to enable Human-Human PBEM diplomacy. Personally I am not trying to do this, I just have too little understanding about modifications, and without EasyMod I'm even more helpless. So, I would endorse others to work on it, and try to unleash the true power of Call to Power II PBEM.

Another question I've been asking myself, is actually why was the PBEM ability built in CtP II, but is not normally available? One of possible causes is a programming error, which led to the minus sign in file, and that minus sign hides the button. That's what I first though about, but a number of strange questions appeared again, like why didn't Activision then release an official patch. And also, if they supposed to release a game with PBEM availability, why didn't they make the diplomacy work. In Activison's statement to the Apolyton, they mentioned that they have done what they wanted to, that is a game which has many good things, so on, and they also mentioned that it has Diplomatic Model that is much more better than the previous one.

Second possibility about the PBEM not included, is that Activision were slow at developing the product, and thus were hard pressed by the release deadline. Say, at that moment, they were working on PBEM, when they just had to release the product. They didn't want to completely remove the feature, thus they just removed the button, and released the game. But, still there's no ultimate answer.

And the last question, that has been asked so much by angry CtP II players - should we boycott Activison? Many people have said, "I will never buy another Activision product". I don't think we'd boycott them, as all in all, we should even be thankful to Activison. They are who gave us CtP I, with all its PBEM. They are who gave us CtP II, yet an excellent game for single player purposes. Mr Ogre, who allowed us to have some PBEM in CtP II, is from Activision. Without Activision, the only Civ games we'd se so far would be Civ, Civ II, SMAC and SMAX, what is two games less than now. And, Activison are working on really many projects - they don't just have too much time for us, Apolytoners, and I can understand that, even though I don't at all like it. I believe we could someday yet see an excellent Activision product (perhaps that would be Call to Power III), that we would all say it's excellent.

Let's try to forgive Activision, and hope they will become better in the future.

---------
CtP/AC PBEM Ladder Administrator

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.