Firaxis! Why?!

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I don't see why one HAS to buy every expansion pack. Until I beat Civ4 on the highest level, it's still challenging, and there's no real need to make the game more challenging. I'm considering getting BtS, which apparently makes Warlords obsolete (i.e. all the core upgrades in Warlords are included in BtS). So in about 3 weeks, I will never 'need' to buy Warlords.

As for Civ2... I only paid for 2.42 and ToT. The other versions were downloaded. I suspect that's how many people got hold of FW/MGE.

[Henrik]

MGE wasn't an add on, it included the entire game.

A multiplayer add on was sold separetly as well (commonly abbreviated as MPE I think). MGE included everything from both the expansions before it (but unfortunatly tweaked the AI to be more agressive which somewhat messed up some older scenarios for the two other add ons).

[Shrapnel12]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
I've been disliking Meier's gang ever since they ripped me off with Civ2 and the endless stream of add-ons, which is why I still haven't bought Civ4 yet.

I had a sarcastic reply prepared, but I don't want to start a flame war, so I'll simply ask, "Why bother posting here if you hate Civilization and don't want to have anything to do with it?" Talk about too much time on your hands.

[Tiberius]

If I understand correctly he doesn't hate Civilization, he only hates paying 3 times to have the full game. I can understand where he comes from. I don't like it either that the initial game always lets place for expansion packs. I don't know whether this is a conscious decision to keep making money even years after the initial release, or they simply don't have enough time to include all the features from the very beginning, or maybe both.

Anyway, it is up to you to decide whether you buy an expansion or not or wait a few years and buy a gold edition. I bought Civ4 they day it hit the shelves, but I haven't bought the first expansion yet, because I considered that it doesn't deliver enough for the money. Now I will buy BtS probably.

People who hate civ don't post here, because they are not interested. I know I will never post on a Quake or Doom or whatever FPS fansite. People who post here are obviously civ fans, even if they are not in awe of the new releases ( I still think that Civ2 was the best civ game ever. It's not that I don't like Civ3 or Civ4, but tzhey were/are nowhere close to the fun that Civ2 provided to me. A question of taste, obviously)

[DrSpike]

The key point that invalidates his argument in the Civ2 context is that the two main expansion packs offered scenarios only. Nothing was held back from the original game, and many chose to continue playing this for many years.

And those that wanted extra scenarios were able to choose to buy the expansions.

[wodan11]

When people say "held back from the original game" this implies that Firaxis could have put all that cool stuff into the original game for the same price. Plain and simple, this is not the case.

The programming resources, added to the manufacturing cost, are the "cost of goods" of the game. The cost of goods either is dictated by or dictates the selling price. A rough guideline is 25% of the selling price. (50% goes to the retail store, 25% to the distributor, and 25% for cost of goods.)

All this means that there is no way Firaxis can blithely add in features which will require another 200 (or whatever) hours of programming man-hours without either taking out features equivalent to those 200 hours, or by raising the selling price.

So what's the solution? Either we don't have those features period, or else we "spread out" the selling price over several expansions.

Wodan

[Brutus66]

I really think the charge that Sid's group holds back content is unfair. If you really want a taste of someone purposely holding back content to realize more profit you need look no further than Will Wright (The Sims, The Sims Pets, The Sims Seasons, The Sims Ad Infinitum ), yet there seems to be no shortage of people that can't wait for Spore.

[MasterDave]

I have been a proud member of Apolyton since 1970! Even though I was only one year old at the time, I knew that Apolyton was the superior fansite for a game that would be coming out in about 21 years.

Of course, about my only posts lately have been in Rah's Saturday game thread, but until BFS became imminent there has not been much to talk about besides the old favorites that refuse to die (why can I play Stalin and not Hitler, bananas are for hippies , etc. etc.)

I have looked over at CivFanatics once or twice and it just looks like more of the same except with FAR MORE SCREAMING IN CAPITAL LETTERS, trolls, flame wars, and all the usual stuff that makes game sites annoying.

I guess I prefer Apolyton because I am sort of familiar with more of the posters, and there is usually a sense of decorum and maturity here, and I enjoy thrashing one or two of the site owners in multiplayer on a weekly basis (that is, when I am not getting smushed under yet another Dominae Chariot rush). We don't need to have an inferiority complex because more people go to another site. It is quality that matters and not quantity of members when it comes to posing the same old poll a thousand times about who the best leader is or which trait combo is the best, etc., etc. etc.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by DrSpike
63 in almost 6 years here. In your face.

Is there one place in the world where you do not spam your questionable wisdom in huge numbers?

Back in your face!

[DrSpike]

Less than 10 posts a year is hardly spamming.

[Harovan]

True, but less than 10 per year is what I have.

You have at least 10.5 (if we assume exactly 6 years - you said almost)

Spammer!

[Japher]

Did someone say spam!?!?!

Also, spamming other forums really has nno point now that OTF has post count enabled.

The fact that there is no point is the point!

I have a CFC account, sadly. I posted there before here, I think, but left after taking yet another poll on if "Like" is the same as "Like Like" or some similar BS that can only spawn from the likes of teenage angst and raging hormones.

If Firaxis wants to entertain them, that's kewl. At least it's a Q&A on what has been done and not a list of what we want to see in the next CIV. God, I can only imagine what sort of crap we'd end up with if it were up to CFC to help desing a civ game... Probably something with furries, a SIMs mod, and GDRs.

[Solver]

Don't be so negative. Many of the beta-testers are CFC folks - some are simply brilliant.

[=DrJambo=]

lol, who gives a crap whether it's there or here... personally I visit both and quite enjoy the fact that there's twice as much to read about.

This site could do with a bit of a forum revamp though...

[Robert]

Originally posted by Solver
Don't be so negative. Many of the beta-testers are CFC folks - some are simply brilliant.

'Some' as in 'None'?