My Conclusions about the Firaxis-Community relations

[yin26]

So when we add up all the returned Civ3 and the sudden drop in its price going into the very holiday season it was meant to rape for cash, do we say that horrid PR had actually NOTHING to do with that?

If your claim is the game sucked entirely on its own, I'd meet you half way.

[CharlesUFarley]

Originally posted by XPav

I'm a programmer, and you're right -- nothing is impossible in technical terms.

A couple things.

1) That message gives confirmation that there will be multiplayer. What if there isn't?
2) Never, ever give time estimates out to those that aren't signing your checks. What if something else comes up (person gets a new job, company gets sold etc etc) that pushes those dates back?
3) The word "trouble coding" is too unspecific. What does it mean? That the programmers are stupid? That its taking longer than expected? Does it taking longer than expected mean the programmers are stupid?

The only acceptable communication would be:
* Multiplayer will be in our expansion pack (or deluxe edition, or whatever).

I totally agree with everything you said. Time estimates are a horrible idea, they almost never work. However, people may not understand too much about the game design concepts or how the magic is done. But all that programmer garble can be translated in a way that they will understand. So to suggest that a game company alternatively says nothing, due to the lack of understanding between "consumer-designer" is a bad way to do things. But that's probably just my opinion. But it has been known to affect sales in many companies, wouldn't you agree? Your idea about the "Multi-player will be included in our expansion pack" is also another great alternative. But, it's also kind of vague. And another issue that often arrises in the Civ-Community is that when Firaxis or Infrogrames speaks, it's always so vague and hard to make any conclusion of. My father works for a company called "SearchLight Inc" they design software for Law Firms. And when new firms contract them out, they always have questions before they sign the contract. But with "games" you simply have no idea, until you "buy it". And to gamers that's a grey area. Most people rely on the "ads" or the "magazine reveiws" to tell us whats going on. But you can't even rely on that, because obviously not all these ratings and reviews are acurate. So the *last* and only hope we have is from the what the designers tell us. Because there is always that benifit of the doubt that a "designer won't lie, or incriminate him/herself". And people go for that.

Firaxis' client/customer is Infogrames.

Not us.

However, Infogrames doesn't want to deal with us, but some of the Firaxis folks have volunteered to talk with us.

Now they're in the not-so-enviable position of taking the flak from the community but not having full control over the direction of the product.

Since we do not have the full details of the contract between Infogrames and Firaxis, we also do not know how Firaxis gets paid (royalties, no royalties?), and we do not know how much money Infogrames pays Firaxis to do post-release patching.

Another fine point you make. But if Firaxis has very little or no control at all over the product direction, then that's a bad business decision. Or in simpler terms, I wouldn't sign the contract if I didn't agree to the terms. Perhaps Infrogrames is easy to deal with, and they're an easy sale. Which saves Firaxis money in the long run. But in my opinion they should shop for a better client so that they can produce the kind of results they really want to. Especially meet the expectations of their long time fans and community. However this is all fiction, as we discuss it. Because what will be, will be. But I've heard nothing but bad things about Infrogrames so far, and I'm not please at all with the final product (Civ3), it turned out nothing like I invisioned. However, I still strongly believe that SOMEONE should deal with us, whether it be Firaxis or Infrogrames, or even someone closely affiliated with them. As long as we're not "left in the dark" so to speak.

(now I'm saving this post in notepad so that if Apolyton tells me its busy, I can still post it later).

thats funny. I should start doing the same thing.
Charles.

[CharlesUFarley]

At the end of the day, its a business, and when you line up the numbers and weigh the pros and cons, its pretty obvious why Firaxis doesn't pay as much attention to these boards as you'd like: Its just not worth it.

Yeah I can see your point. And beleive me, I'm not disagreeing with you. But not all of us are "clawing" at Firaxis in the manner that you suggested. Some section of the fans that are distressed are actually in it for some information and a bit of direction that is all. Again, to simply suggest that "Firaxis is too bogged down, with better things to do than answer hate-mail" or "none of our employees will do the dirty" is in many ways a cop-out. There are SO many ways they can handle the PR and address the public, as I said before, and this is the LAST time I'm going to say. They can write indirect "newsletter-style" posts, addressing the issues in a "ONE-POST" email. That way they don't have to answer to every little fan. Get my point, for the last time?

They don't actually have to talk to anyone, they can post "public newsletters" letting us know what's going on! rigth?

Charles.

[Steve Clark]

When everyone was screaming and hollering about the stuff Firaxis was allowed to put up at civ3.com (or the impatient whining about not getting new stuff on a regular basis), I countered with that pre-release info really means nothing...it's what comes after the release that means a great deal to its customers. I do NOT agree that developers should be at fan site forums at all. However, I do agree that they need to communicate as much as they can through their website. civ3.com has no value at all at this time, but hopefully in the near future it would.

(Farley, not to bring this up again, but those posts earlier were directed solely at my friend and fellow husband/father, yin. Basically, he feels that the time and effort in the past 2 years here at Apolyton should amount to something. I contend that it should amount to nothing except as time-killing entertainment.)

[XPav]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by CharlesUFarley

They can write indirect "newsletter-style" posts, addressing the issues in a "ONE-POST" email. That way they don't have to answer to every little fan. Get my point, for the last time?

But how much time does that save you? You've still got to have someone comb through all the forums looking for all the questions and issues, reading all the posts, collecting the questions, and then you have to have this person march around to everyone on the team to ask them the questions that they'd know the answers too.

Firaxis is a company of game designers and programmers. Not PR folks.

[Libertarian]

Firaxis is a company of game designers and programmers.

Do you have evidence for this assertion?

[XPav]

Originally posted by Libertarian


Do you have evidence for this assertion?

http://www.firaxis.com/company_team.cfm

Alright, I was wrong. Most people at Firaxis are artists.
There are some programmers, producers, the usual admin folks, and a corporate PR person (that deals with mags & the like).

That's it.

35 people.

Most of them on the pointy end of the stick.

I can count at most six people that aren't directly involved in the creation of games.

Is that evidence good enough for you? Do you understand that there isn't anyone there to provide good southern suckup paragraphs for whiny people on forums?

[MarkG]

1) civ3.com is hosted on infogrames servers but is updated by Firaxis(Dan)

2) firaxis has the total of two people for pr and marketing

[Libertarian]

Do you understand that there isn't anyone there to provide good southern suckup paragraphs for whiny people on forums?

Hmmm... Seems to me you'd be a perfect fit for their PR department. Why not apply?

[Golgo13]

I think that too much attention in these forums has been placed on Firaxis and little to no attention towards Infogrames. I think better communication with the Civ community is possible and should be pursued, I also believe that vilifying Firaxis is misguided. I think Infogrames is much more responsible for the lack of communication than Firaxis. Most definitely they should post some information on Civ3.com. Right now the web site looks like it was made to promote a game from five years ago, not two months.

[eRAZOR]

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS


Lib:

The thing is, I *am* being up-front and honest, I'm just not able to give you all the answers you seek. I wouldn't have bothered to explain any of this (or post here at all) if I wasn't concerned about the feelings of fans.

Dan

Dan you might not be aware of it but you are promoting posting without actually communicating information a new form of art.

*stunned*

[eRAZOR]

Originally posted by yin26
And when Quicksilver decided to cut some of the features they were hyping, they LOUDLY and CLEARLY and OPENLY explained why ... on the official site. And what was the fan reation? "Well, that sucks, but I'm glad they were honest with us."

Find the honesty with Firaxis. Not the 'after we've beaten them over the head and yelled and kicked and screamed at them for weeks' kind of "Firaxo-honesty," either.

I don't want to be coddled. I want to be respected (collectively, not me personally) as the person whose pockets are paying for their office space and car. And for that, I don't want to be promised the moon and delivered a beta. I want to be levelled with and not have to search 1,000 odd-ball threads for a scrap of a hint of information.

I don't want backpeddling and semantic games, either. If you hype MP, the editor and, indeed, the entire game itself as 'the best in the genre,' then I damn well want some honest answers (again, not after screaming for them for weeks) as to why MP and the editor are basically non-existent and the game itself is a bore, to put it lightly.

Tell me point blank: "We screwed up, but we're gonna fix it. Help us to do it." Cause, frankly, if Firaxis DOESN'T think they screwed this release, then they aren't just too proud to save themselves ... they're just clueless.

If Firaxis' plan is to bury its head in the sand because we big bad whiners are just so mean, that's fine by me. With its head in the sand, the Firaxis ass is just begging to be kicked. Oh, not by me, but by the big bad marketplace of whiners with holes in their pockets not quite big enough for a company seemingly unable to pay for enough storage space for its ego and incompetence.

Sure, some will argue that the whiners have holes in their heads and not in their pockets. Well, then, I suppose Firaxis is only for the 'elite' gamer: All 12 of you.

ROFL

[CharlesUFarley]

Originally posted by Steve Clark
When everyone was screaming and hollering about the stuff Firaxis was allowed to put up at civ3.com (or the impatient whining about not getting new stuff on a regular basis), I countered with that pre-release info really means nothing...it's what comes after the release that means a great deal to its customers. I do NOT agree that developers should be at fan site forums at all. However, I do agree that they need to communicate as much as they can through their website. civ3.com has no value at all at this time, but hopefully in the near future it would.

(Farley, not to bring this up again, but those posts earlier were directed solely at my friend and fellow husband/father, yin. Basically, he feels that the time and effort in the past 2 years here at Apolyton should amount to something. I contend that it should amount to nothing except as time-killing entertainment.)

I completely disagree. That is no way to run a business. That policy is for the birds. If I ran a company and I ignored my customers because simply "I had too many" I would most likely lose a huge percentage of those customers. Firaxis "owes" some form of response to its consumers, even if it's from their "home-site" as long as they "respond". And I would pay *more* attention to the "angry" customers because they've found problems with my product, and the only way I could improve my product is (unfortunetly) through them! So my point is, Firaxis should not only "respond" but respond with some morales.

So in other words you're half-right on this issue.

As for you and yin, I was only defending an issue I agreed with. I have no idea what's between you and yin, nor do I care. Sorry.

Charles.

[CharlesUFarley]

Originally posted by XPav

But how much time does that save you? You've still got to have someone comb through all the forums looking for all the questions and issues, reading all the posts, collecting the questions, and then you have to have this person march around to everyone on the team to ask them the questions that they'd know the answers too.

Firaxis is a company of game designers and programmers. Not PR folks.

All good points. All I'm saying is, to merely "not respond" is out of the question, they'll lose sales. I don't think they'll go out of business due to bad PR. But since when was PR bad for sales? Public relations is only bad for the employee who has to do it. And as far as I know, keeping in touch with the consumers is healthy for a growing company. It will only increase sales! But you say that PR will hurt the production, this maybe true, but I would rather sacrifice production to satisfy the hungry fans in order to increase good public relations, which in the long run increase sales and popularity. It's a business maneuver, either they do it, or they don't. The overall sales of a company can and will determine their fate.

Point: PR will increase sales, no PR will hurt sales.

Charles.

[Comrade Tribune]

The Firaxis/Infogrames Argument

OK, some people seriously retreat to the position that Firaxis sells to Infogrames, not to the players, so customers should direct their complaints to Infogrames.

NASA sells the Challenger to the Government, I suppose, not to the masses at large. So, if the Challenger explodes, the people should really complain about the Government, not about NASA?