When does Civ3 go gold?

[Pembleton]

Originally posted by tniem

Well we will see by sales but I would think more people are waiting for WarCraft III and it will sell more and they are coming out only a few months in between.

With more thought, I guess this is probably right. Also Doom3 should also be pretty big.

[Ilkuul]

Er, excuse me (speaks in a small, embarrassed voice), but what does "going gold" actually mean??

(Coughs and cringes, expecting a barrage of scathing comments...)

[Pembleton]

Originally posted by Ilkuul
Er, excuse me (speaks in a small, embarrassed voice), but what does "going gold" actually mean??

(Coughs and cringes, expecting a barrage of scathing comments...)

Well people aren't born with knowledge, they have to learn it from somewhere...

Going gold means when the final copy of the game is sent to the factory for mass-production. It used to be on a gold disc, thus the term "going gold".

[Nemo]

Originally posted by Ilkuul
Er, excuse me (speaks in a small, embarrassed voice), but what does "going gold" actually mean??

(Coughs and cringes, expecting a barrage of scathing comments...)

no need to fret

programs and games alike go into stages before release:

Alpha = lots of bugs that can crash system; product not finished; things like that

Beta = some minor bugs, may cause some unique systems to crash, product is finished but needs fine tuning (e.g. menues need to be rearanged, or colors changed, things like that)

Gold = all testing is done. it meets QA (Quality Assurance) approval. it is sent to the production factories for mas repoduction and boxing...then to be hauled off to the stores.

[Nemo]

well, empire earth is coming out too. and that will take away from the RTS strategy players. i dont think RTS was out (or at least not popular) when civ II was out (definately RTS was not out during civ I). so the strategy/world history/world domination people are now divided between MANY specific games for them too chose from...all being released within months of each other.

[Provost Harrison]

Well it should be very soon. I hope that the delay between the UK and US release is not significant...

[tniem]

Originally posted by Nemo
well, empire earth is coming out too. and that will take away from the RTS strategy players.

RTS players a lot of times are different from TBS. Although historical gamers might be divided between Civ3 and EE. But if you mean EE will take away from WarCraft3 I think you are wrong. EE is out this fall, WarCraft sometime this spring.

i dont think RTS was out (or at least not popular) when civ II was out (definately RTS was not out during civ I).

Well first RTS game out in 1989 on Sega Genesis two years before Sid made Civilization. The name was Herzog Zwell. First one for the PC, Dune II (1992). And of course the game that changed gaming WarCraft (1994) and WarCraft II (1995) came out before Civ II. WarCraft II, I may be wrong, sold more than Civ II so I would have to say that would be regarded as a more popular game and it was out before that one.

so the strategy/world history/world domination people are now divided between MANY specific games for them too chose from...all being released within months of each other.

Again, TBSers and RTSers are not normally lumped together. I play both but enjoy TBS more. All I am saying is there is no way that Civ III can be regarded as the most eagerly anticipated game of all time. Maybe by us here on the boards but as some have said so elequently, we are not the majority of gamers.

[alva]

Originally posted by Nemo


no need to fret

programs and games alike go into stages before release:

Alpha = lots of bugs that can crash system; product not finished; things like that

Beta = some minor bugs, may cause some unique systems to crash, product is finished but needs fine tuning (e.g. menues need to be rearanged, or colors changed, things like that)

Gold = all testing is done. it meets QA (Quality Assurance) approval. it is sent to the production factories for mas repoduction and boxing...then to be hauled off to the stores.

you've forgot to add to "gold": some minor bugs

[Daoloth]

This is good news, I went to the release dates list at GoneGold.com and under Civ3 it said October 31st, and on status: "Close to Going Gold" in bold and italics.

[dainbramaged13]

i dont think u should worry about warcraft 3 stealing civ3 sales... its coming out 4-6 months later, and that is the amount of time that the average consumer plays a computer game. EE might steal some of Civ3 sales, but i think because of the might of the civ series and its famousness cvi3 will do a lot more sale-stealing than EE.

[Nemo]

Originally posted by alva848
you've forgot to add to "gold": some minor bugs

well, hopefully not

just pray that infograms has a good QA team, and they don't push the product to quickly.

[Sarxis]

I am going to say that there is a 75% chance that CivIII will actually ship on the 30th.

I don't know, maybe a hunch, but I think Firaxis may actually be on schedule.

[Grim Legacy]

Originally posted by Nemo
well, empire earth is coming out too. and that will take away from the RTS strategy players. i dont think RTS was out (or at least not popular) when civ II was out (definately RTS was not out during civ I). so the strategy/world history/world domination people are now divided between MANY specific games for them too chose from...all being released within months of each other.

LOL. Remember Dune2, flyboy. Dune2 was released sometime after Civ1, still well within the DOS era. It was a huge hit and follow-ups were abundant (think Warcraft). Only quite some time later Civ2 came to be. And it stood it's TBS ground firmly.

[tniem]

Originally posted by Nemo
well, hopefully not

just pray that infograms has a good QA team, and they don't push the product to quickly.

All games have bugs. There will be bugs in Civ 3, what is going to matter is how destabilizing these bugs are. We can only hope that Firaxis will patch those things that we need to have patched. I have little hope that Infogrames is not rushing the product, I only have to point to no MP to explain why I have that fear.

[Nemo]

Here is a quote from GoneGold.com:

Had a close call... Yesterday, I received an official notice that Civilization III had gone gold. Two minutes after the e-mail, I received another asking me to hold off on posting, because it may not be true at the moment. Talk about a quick let down. The good news is that the game will hopefully be gold in a day or two and will ship on the 30th of this month. Nice treat for Halloween Day. Super.

That means it is ALMOST DONE WITHIN DAYS!!!!