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If Blizzard can do it why can't Firaxis?
Here is a quote off of the battle.net website
It sounds like from the announcement that they could ship it and patch it later, and with Blizzard's reputation and the legions of rabid warcraft fans (myself included), still make a killing. However Blizzard refuses to do this. They are screwing the most important time of the year, the Christmas shopping season because they want WC3 to be the best warcraft ever.
Now if Civ3 is ready to ship in time for Christmas, that's great, but if it could still use some more development time, then Sid himself should go to bat for firaxis and ask the suits for some more time and money. If civ3 is done right then any delay will be made up in the increased sales from an instant classic. Rushing a game out the door almost always hurts the long term prospects of that game. If the CtP2 team had gotten more development time and more support from activision then maybe it would have sold more than what something like 34,000 copies.
Jeffrey Morris himself said that a completely bugless game is a myth, and I agree with him on that. However, a game free of any showstopping bugs is not a myth. I recently bought Emperor: Battle for Dune, and it was very polished. It didn't have any major bugs, and I have had it for over a month and still haven't experianced a crash with it. Did I mention that I had the absolute minimum specs to run the game? It actually runs fine on my system, sometimes in huge battles it experiances a slow down but for the most part it runs good on my system.
Civ3 can be the best civ or for that matter the best TBS game ever, but for that to happen the team at firaxis is going to have to make some very tough choices. One of the biggest choices facing them is when are they going to release civ3? I'm sure they could probably have the game out in two weeks from now if they wanted to, but that it would just be buggy beta code.
There is a huge difference between a great game and a good game, a good game might just have great game play, whereas a great game will have great game play and all of those small nuances and small touches that sets it apart.
For a civ2 fanatic I'm sure that two things are going to happen. First thing is they are going to complain about how civ3 is good but doesn't measure up to the perfection of civ2. The second thing is that they are going to buy civ3 on the first day it comes out in stores (that is if they haven't already preordered it). But these people don't really count. All of us here are completely biased.
There are probably four thousand people here at Apolyton who are regulars...out of these four thousand people we probably have more Civ, Civ2, SMAC, CtP, C:ToT, and CtP2 experiance than any other group of four thousand people you could assemble. We are a precious resource that firaxis should value, because we probably know everything there is to know about civ. However, we are so biased that I think Firaxis has written us off. We demand excellence but I am sure all of us (including Yin) will buy civ3 at some point or other. Hell most of us have already devoted hundred of hours to civ3 as it is.
We have one demand here at Apolyton, and that is that Civ3 is the best civ experiance ever! We are already in firaxis's corner for the most part, because we are going to buy civ3, so firaxis doesn't have to satisfy every single little whim we beg, plead, and cry for. But trust us firaxis, the better you make civ3 the the more it will sell, and the better it is the longer it will last.
Everything you improve will convince one more player to get the game. Everything you leave unfinished or buggy will convince one more player not to buy the game. Forget the holiday push, just work on civ3 till you agree it is the best civ experiance ever, and then release it...even if it means you have to wait till 2002. That is all we ask, and if you think about it, it really is good advice that will help you years down the road when civ3 is still selling. We have faith in civ3, please don't let your fans down because of pressure from accountants...if Blizzard can shug off the holiday season and wait till Warcraft 3 is ready then hopefully Firaxis can do the same with Civ3.
I hope Civ3 is ready when the game plays excellently with all of the new concepts tightly intergrated into the game, and when it is free of any major bugs, and has the best civ AI yet (one that can win at least 1 out of 3 games against a good player on the hardest level). My worst fear is that Civ3 will be ready when the malls open the day after thanksgiving for the begining of the holiday season.
Warcraft III update - 07/23/2001
Over the past few weeks, it has become apparent that Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos will not be complete for release by the end of 2001. Our development team is hard at work finalizing the product and we look forward to bringing you an outstanding, real-time strategy game in 2002.
Our goal at Blizzard is to make the best games possible. This means that we will not release a game until it's ready. While we could release an inferior product to meet a specific date, we instead choose to polish our games until they meet the superior quality that we know Blizzard gamers and our development teams expect.
We firmly believe that this additional development time will prove invaluable, ensuring that Warcraft III will expand upon the legendary gameplay experience previously found in the critically acclaimed Warcraft series.
Announcements regarding further details and specifics of the Warcraft III beta test will be released in the near future. We encourage you to check our official website at www.blizzard.com for updates, and as always, we thank you for your continued support.
Blizzard Entertainment
Over the past few weeks, it has become apparent that Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos will not be complete for release by the end of 2001. Our development team is hard at work finalizing the product and we look forward to bringing you an outstanding, real-time strategy game in 2002.
Our goal at Blizzard is to make the best games possible. This means that we will not release a game until it's ready. While we could release an inferior product to meet a specific date, we instead choose to polish our games until they meet the superior quality that we know Blizzard gamers and our development teams expect.
We firmly believe that this additional development time will prove invaluable, ensuring that Warcraft III will expand upon the legendary gameplay experience previously found in the critically acclaimed Warcraft series.
Announcements regarding further details and specifics of the Warcraft III beta test will be released in the near future. We encourage you to check our official website at www.blizzard.com for updates, and as always, we thank you for your continued support.
Blizzard Entertainment
Now if Civ3 is ready to ship in time for Christmas, that's great, but if it could still use some more development time, then Sid himself should go to bat for firaxis and ask the suits for some more time and money. If civ3 is done right then any delay will be made up in the increased sales from an instant classic. Rushing a game out the door almost always hurts the long term prospects of that game. If the CtP2 team had gotten more development time and more support from activision then maybe it would have sold more than what something like 34,000 copies.
Jeffrey Morris himself said that a completely bugless game is a myth, and I agree with him on that. However, a game free of any showstopping bugs is not a myth. I recently bought Emperor: Battle for Dune, and it was very polished. It didn't have any major bugs, and I have had it for over a month and still haven't experianced a crash with it. Did I mention that I had the absolute minimum specs to run the game? It actually runs fine on my system, sometimes in huge battles it experiances a slow down but for the most part it runs good on my system.
Civ3 can be the best civ or for that matter the best TBS game ever, but for that to happen the team at firaxis is going to have to make some very tough choices. One of the biggest choices facing them is when are they going to release civ3? I'm sure they could probably have the game out in two weeks from now if they wanted to, but that it would just be buggy beta code.
There is a huge difference between a great game and a good game, a good game might just have great game play, whereas a great game will have great game play and all of those small nuances and small touches that sets it apart.
For a civ2 fanatic I'm sure that two things are going to happen. First thing is they are going to complain about how civ3 is good but doesn't measure up to the perfection of civ2. The second thing is that they are going to buy civ3 on the first day it comes out in stores (that is if they haven't already preordered it). But these people don't really count. All of us here are completely biased.
There are probably four thousand people here at Apolyton who are regulars...out of these four thousand people we probably have more Civ, Civ2, SMAC, CtP, C:ToT, and CtP2 experiance than any other group of four thousand people you could assemble. We are a precious resource that firaxis should value, because we probably know everything there is to know about civ. However, we are so biased that I think Firaxis has written us off. We demand excellence but I am sure all of us (including Yin) will buy civ3 at some point or other. Hell most of us have already devoted hundred of hours to civ3 as it is.
We have one demand here at Apolyton, and that is that Civ3 is the best civ experiance ever! We are already in firaxis's corner for the most part, because we are going to buy civ3, so firaxis doesn't have to satisfy every single little whim we beg, plead, and cry for. But trust us firaxis, the better you make civ3 the the more it will sell, and the better it is the longer it will last.
Everything you improve will convince one more player to get the game. Everything you leave unfinished or buggy will convince one more player not to buy the game. Forget the holiday push, just work on civ3 till you agree it is the best civ experiance ever, and then release it...even if it means you have to wait till 2002. That is all we ask, and if you think about it, it really is good advice that will help you years down the road when civ3 is still selling. We have faith in civ3, please don't let your fans down because of pressure from accountants...if Blizzard can shug off the holiday season and wait till Warcraft 3 is ready then hopefully Firaxis can do the same with Civ3.
I hope Civ3 is ready when the game plays excellently with all of the new concepts tightly intergrated into the game, and when it is free of any major bugs, and has the best civ AI yet (one that can win at least 1 out of 3 games against a good player on the hardest level). My worst fear is that Civ3 will be ready when the malls open the day after thanksgiving for the begining of the holiday season.
) and there are many good ideas seen on this forum, we can get a bit... hmmm, "over-zealous" may be the right word. It seems among most of the excellent suggestions, very little concensus can be reached, which should be attrubuted to the excellence of the Civ series: there is a bit of something for everyone.
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