note: This is The Column, a part of Apolyton where primarily Markos and Dan write whatever we want :). Well, not just the two of us. The Column is open to everyone. If you feel like writing submit your article to civ2@gamestats.com

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#38 KILL THE REVIEWERS!? Fed up with CTP's negative publicity, MarkG isn't going to take it anymore. #39 THOUGHTS... With momentum from last week, MarkG goes multi-topic this time around. COLUMN ARCHIVE

While most people decide if they love a game or not at the first sight, it took a few weeks for me before I was sure about my feelings towards CTP. During these weeks my opinion changed a few times though. First, about the general reviewer. Weird enough half the reviewers love the game, and the other half seems to hate it. How can that be? Are some of the reviewers nuts? I think we should respect all of them, since they're all professional. It's their living. Easily screaming that they all suck is an easy, but wrong conclusion. I think the reason is that you can't review Civ:CTP, or any Civ-related game, at first sight.

Why not?

Good reasons might be that the game is to 'big' and has ways to much features to learn in a first sight. Like you can't review it as well while you only played the first age. You really have to get used with Civ(-related games) before you can judge about it. Even when you're a hard-core CivII player, you can't understand CTP in 5 minutes. (I can say that since I've played Civ and CivII since 1992). A side note is that you might've found out that your friends dislike Civ, after playing it for 5 minutes, or they become addicted after playing it for 5 days.

SIDE NOTE

APOLYTON: GOING ON 10 MONTHS Can you believe it? It's almost been 10 months since this site launched, and we're very excited about the stats we've gathered ever since then. In fact, it just keeps getting better! Who says things don't appreciate with age. :)   MAIN PAGE   Aug.:   9148   Sep.:   13776   Oct.:   15979   Nov.:   16143   Dec.:   20797   Jan.:   22410   Feb.:   19175   Mar.:   30431   Apr.:   46973   SMAC F. PAGE   Jan.:   7134   Feb.:   17634   Mar.:   24540   Apr.:   20759   MAIN PAGE   Oct.:   8400   Nov.:   8467   Dec.:   10647   Jan.:   13828   Feb.:   13464   Mar.:   38705   Apr.:   65716 DanQ & MarkG

Now about my love. At first sight, when I read all the reviews about CTP (before I got the game) I loved it. I think that's very realistic, since I only saw the pictures and the screenshots. I saw the beautiful graphics, and I read about all those new features. Finally, good trade routes, good combat ideas, new wonders, new advances looked promising. Macro managing, new ways of terra-improving etc. etc too. When I only read about it, I really became excited. Then I finally downloaded the game from an illegal server (sorry, I didn't have the money to buy it, and I didn't have time to go to the shop either, but I wanted to play it ASAP. I bought the game 10 days later though.)

When I installed the illegal download, I started to play. Everything was different, and as an ancient Civ-player, I felt like I lost control about my civilization. My units did things I didn't want them to do. I hate using my mouse that much, enemies didn't want to sign peace treaties, I wasn't able to enter my city-screen, since it was splitt up in 10 other screens. I had to push the "next unit" button all the time. Well, I got really annoyed.

Though, a Civ fan as I am, I didn't gave it up. I thought about my happiness when I read about the game, and now I wanted to enjoy it. So I went into the options, and re-did all the keys. Now I was able to run my empire with my keyboard again. I started again.
And the more I started to understand the new features, the more I started to like them. And then I became addicted. Playing till 02:00 am again. (I had to work next morning, otherwise it would've been 05:00 am). My conclusion was that it's easily impossible to say anything about Civ:CTP before you understand it. CTP is, like Civ, a game for people that want to invest time in it. People that play with the intention to enjoy it. It sounds hard, but it's not for the general Quaker. You can't even compare it with chess.

So if you did form your opinion, without playing it too much, go back to the game. Play it till you understand it, and then decide again.

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.