Holy S***! NO Multiplayer Until Spring!

[Imran Siddiqui]

To just say, "The publisher made us do it; we have no control" is extremely weak IMHO, and makes me question the ability of these developers to own up and accept responsibility for their actions. If developers can't deliver on their promises by a mutually agreed upon deadline, then DON'T SIGN THE DAMN CONTRACT!

Uh... without that publisher there WOULDN'T EVEN BE A CIV3! The only reason there is one is because the publisher (which owned the Civ name) wanted to do one!

[Sarxis]

Ahh, screw it!

I will probably buy CivIII the first day it is released. I am a chump for new games, especially one that has the potential that CivIII does- the potential to waste more of my precious hours on this planet.

I will still be disappointed with no MP being included with the initial release, but who cares what I think anyhow. But at the same time, I blame Sid Meier for the crap CIV has had to endure the past few years (CTP 1 & 2, ToT, and now CivIII [maybe, and maybe only a little crap]).

Sid, you should never have sold or shared the rights to the CIV name! Let it be a lesson to you, and other creators of original ideas, that corporations only see $$$$, and not the true value of any product.

[tishco]

hasbro did publish rollercoaster tycoon
so there!

[Rasputin]

did it have MP ???

[OzzyKP]

My Letter to Dan from Firaxis

Dan,

I am certain you have visited the Apolyton forums and noticed the incredible uproar generated by the leaked information that Multiplayer won't be released with Civ 3 in October.

The gaming community is VERY UPSET. We all are very discouraged to see this lack of concern for the player's interests and the apparent mindset of scrapping everything for your bottom line. We don't like having our interests put on hold for another 8 months and then charged AGAIN for the same product we should have gotten in October.

Many others who weren't even initially angry about the multiplayer decision/rumor are now becoming angry with the delibirate wall of silence you all have crafted around the issue. If you are going to delay it then so be it, but don't hide it from us.

Also there is the question of pre-orders, many people pre-ordered the game with the understanding that Multiplayer would be included as was advertised. Indeed still today Amazon is selling pre-orders with the bullet point mentioning Multiplayer, if you truly have no intention of putting that in, and people who bought that game thinking ther would be MP you could be held accountable by a lawsuit for false advertising.

I HIGHLY recommend you do what you have to do put MP in with the game. If you have to push the game back a month to work on it, so be it, but you are getting very bad PR from all this. You know that word of mouth sells games, and right now thousands of people on here are telling their many thousands of friends that we are being ripped off and not to buy Civ3.

Currently with the disgraceful handling of this by you and/or your publisher I have decided to NOT buy the game I have anticipated for many, many months. I sincerelly hope something happens on your end to convince me to again give you my hard earned money for your product.

-Alex Koroknay-Palicz

[Chow Yun Fat]

I abide to MarkG's request. Sorry for threadjacking.

This is my read on a possible scenario. I have written a similar scenario at other threads. But this time, I would like to find fellows to fight for a cheaper way to get Civ3 with MP.

1) October 2001 - Civ 3 SP release. I trust Firaxis that it will bring us a reasonably polished games. Due to lack of public beta, sooner or later there will be some balancing issues discovered. This most likely won't affect casual players. But diehard fans will cry for patches. If there is a public beta, such issues will still arise but maybe at a later time. Price: US$45

2) December 2001 - The last wave of X'mas sale. Price will be reduced a little bit. People will determine whether to buy it or not based on words of mouth or reviews of gaming sites. Price: US$40

3) May 2002 - Civ 3 expansion pack with MP capability release, hopefully with important bug fixs. This will generate another wave of sales. Price: US$35+US$30

4) After June 2002 - Civ 3 and its expansion pack will have slowdown yet stabilized sales. To acheieve this, Civ3 and expansion pack must be relatively free of bugs and balance issues. Price US$30+US$20

As Civilization fans, most of us will buy at point 1. Due to lack of announcement of free MP, some of us may buy at point 3, and some may not buy at all due to perceived bad image of Infogrames (for not released MP free).

My aim:
Best course: Infogrames release MP as a free patch.
2nd best: Infogrames release MP with expansion (not free).
Worst: Infogrames do not release MP nor expansion.

To achieve the aim, I believe that we must make Civ 3 not selling good between (1) and (2). And we must make Infogrames believe that MP is an important enough issue to make people not buying Civ 3. This means:

a) We have to buy Civ 3 as soon as it release. This allows us to have the ethical ground of writing reviews and to have the time to find out good strategy.
b) We have to write reviews to big game sites fast. We will only say verifiable, true things about Civ 3. But we will select what are the things that we are going to write.
c) We have to amplify the balancing issues of Civ 3. The easiest way to do it is to provide unethical strategy that allows people to win the game easily. We can also emphasise that the computer is stupid. (We can always do that no matter how good the AI is)
d) We have to amplify the importance of having MP. This means stressing the fun of playing with family and friends (don't emphasise that it is hard to play MP for turn-based games!) Comparing Civ 3 to other successful MP-orientated games won't hurt.
e) We can say that "It may be the best game of the time after a few improvements like multi-player capability and a better computer opponents. If I were you, I will buy the game after those improvements are made. Not every publisher is as good as Blizzard (the one who gives us Diablo and Warcraft) for providing improvements to a game" (I deliberately avoid the word "patches". Casual gamers hate downloading patches. They want the thing that comes out of box to be good.)

If we can drive down the Civ 3 sales sufficiently, Infogrames will re-think about their strategy.
a) It may drop Civ 3 altogther.
b) It may rush out MP capability to attract customer.
c) It may also offer to release MP free at a later time.

Hopefully Infogrames is clever enough this time to choose c).

I don't think this will affect SP fans here. But we need their silent cooperation. They are intelligent enough to dismiss the trueful yet one-sided reviews by us. They will buy the game anyway. Infogrames will try to sell a Civ 3 expansion pack anyway.

[tniem]

Chow Yun Fat,

If the game doesn't sell because we are trying to make a point to make MP, what makes you think that MP will suddenly be an importnat issue for Infogrames?

If you look at history, if a game doesn't sell, no time is wasted on patches or expansions. CtP2 was released with the promises of patches to fix MP and other bugs. Low selling game, Activision didn't waste time on the few people that bought the game.

If Civ3 doesn't sell with the SP only version, there will not be MP.

[Chow Yun Fat]

tniem:

I agree that if the sale figure is WAY TOO LOW, the publisher will drop the game altogether.

However, I believe that if the sale figure is a bit below expected, Infogrames may think differently.

I believe that the reviews that the MP fans writing will affect the buying decision for some other gamers, but not large enough to trigger for disastrous Civ 3 sales. This is a risk that I am willing to take.

In addition, my view is that writing to Firaxis on this issue won't help. The final decision will be by Infogrames.

I had bought CtP but not CtP2. I was not satisfied with CtP so I decided to wait for reviews before buying CtP2. If Activision had provided the MP patches that made fans to write better reviews, CtP2 might have a much better sales. At least I would consider buying it.

[Oligarf]

I knew they would listen to me

Those Firaxians are probably doing something with my MP idea.
I think the will try to make it more RTS, so it is a probable blockbuster on the net.

And if the MP-addon isn't that expensive, I will buy it.

Oligarf

[Inverse Icarus]

Oligarf, there have been rumors that allies can move at the save time, effectievly cutting down time (unless there are no allies)

[dennis580]

Man you whiners are pathetic

Makes me anymore glad that Firaxis didn't waste very much time or resources on MP.

[OzzyKP]

Good strategy Chow Yun Fat but how can we expect to hurt their sales if we all run out and buy the game as the first step?

Also I believe everyone here would prefer if MP were introduced at the same time as SP, so if we can convince Firaxis or Infogrames that their sales will be hurt by their decision to not release MP then they might put it in before they release it. That is out ultimate goal whether it is realistic or not.

But yes, solid, well thought out reviews critical of the game are the best way to handle this after the game is released, we certainly need an organizied effort to do so.

[Swissy]

I just had a horrible thought. What if Infogrames is french for Activision

[Rasputin]

if civ3 SP sells well, there will never be a freeMP patch!!! To get MP included now or later for free, civ3 SP must not sell well!!!!!

[TCO]

Fat chow,

Very nice scenario.

I would either buy the game and then buy the addon. In which case, Ive spent an extra 20 or 30 bucks to get SP for 6 months.

Or I would wait until may/june/july and buy it then.

Sid has a history of playing games wrt civ (remember the Civnet fiasco...it came out right before Civ2... or how Civ2 shipped with muliplayer hooks in the game "turned off" like an Intel processor?)

They are just getting the maximum money they can. nothing wrong with it. Civ is an incredible game and they deserve lots of money for it. more than for a normal game.