Sid Inyerview On Gamespot UK

[tishco]

https://www.gamespot.co.uk

Interview with Sid Meier!

Including: Is Civ going to come out on a next gen console?
I dont know the answer yet, havent got that far

I am first so narninarnina!

[SpencerH]

It seems to be similar comments to what was on the German site. I'm still stunned by some of them!

[tishco]

i havent been on german site
sorry, what comments are stunning?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Yo Vel,

Perhaps Sid is a bit nervous 'bout Candy's Bra


SM: It probably is more difficult, certainly games cost millions of dollars today and they cost a tenth of that ten years ago. On the other hand there's a much richer history to look back on and the profession is a little more well-defined. The internet provides an avenue for guerrilla design, or low-budget design, and it solves distribution problems. So if you're a brilliant designer who has a great game idea, you can put it on the internet and get a buzz going.

[SpencerH]

I'm not rabid about it, I realize its just typical interview banter, but here are a few quotes from Sid and Soren that caught my eye

Well, we've been able to keep the things that really made Civilization popular and fun to play - that one-more-turn idea

Maybe its just me, but I dont get that with civ3 (as I did with all previous versions)

People had been asking for us to expand the diplomacy system, give them a lot more options and this game really has a lot that you can do in terms of negotiating

Its better than civ2 maybe not as good as SMAC, but it still could be better

From Soren

We almost wish they could come to us earlier on in the process! We've seen a number of great ideas from the fans since they actually got hold of the game and we've incorporated a lot of them into the patches that we've released.

How could it have been earlier? There were ideas from fans (as there are now for CIV4) from day2 (if not day1).

From Sid

What we saw with Civ II, and we're starting to see also for Civ III, is that a community evolves around the game using the tools that we provide for creating scenarios and maps, changing rules and adding units, that really extends the lifetime of the game through a number of years.

Well hopefully we'll get the editor to do that at some point in the future

but we've been very happy working with Infogrames too, they've done a great job supporting Civ III

[Wittlich]

And during the entire interview, not one mention was made about ther possibility of Multiplayer support for Civ3!

[SpencerH]

I've been reading the German and Italien versions hoping to get a snippet about MP. Nothing.

[Velociryx]

Thanks for pointing that out, Ogie!

I doubt that Master Meier has even heard of us yet, but he's right. Guerrilla design...that would be us.

I'm not sure I get his point re: a much richer history/better defined industry.

Seems to me that neither of those things are critical to the success of Guerrilla design. ::shrug:: But then, why should Sid know much about that particular topic...it's not like he has to worry about finding a publisher....lol

Ah well, perhaps we'll yet make them stand up and take notice....

-=Vel=-

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Aaaah I see now.

Your the one that always votes banana on the 'Poly polls.

You guerrilla designer you.

[SpencerH]

Vel

For the short term, do you really need a publisher? Why let them take the profits? Start slow with a bank of fast CD-R burners and advertise here and at other similar sites. If its good (or promising) word of mouth will get it sold.

[Gibsie]

Whoo for Sid

[Velociryx]

Og...yep....now hand over that banana if you know what's good for you! I'm jonsing for one!

And Spencer....quite right! In fact, we're gonna be making use of what we jokingly refer to as the "pusher-model" for marketing our game (first one's free...after we get you addicted we'll start charging).

For the most part, with the advent of a growing number of high speed connection solutions on the 'net, I'm hoping we can avoid traditional media anyway. Oh sure, we'll need to burn some copies and send out to folks who have no access to fast connections, but where possible, I'm hoping we can handle the bulk of game requests via download.

So the plan goes something like this: We're doing this open source and in java....that rings all the right bells over at the Source Forge and Slashdot sites (LOTS of potential eyeballs there). We're planning to give it away when we're finished with Version 1.0....get a buzz going on about and around it, get people hooked on playing it, and talking with us about ways of improving it, and at that point, when it's time to secure financing for the company and doing it for real, we can go to the money-men with live data in hand (x-number of users right now, x-number of fansites right now, and the following plans for taking the game commercial.

Contrast that with the way most businesses approach the money guys....with a sheaf of papers outlining what they wanna do, and no clear idea if it'll even be popular or not! I'm hoping that with our approach, we can generate such momentum behind the game, that securing a round of financing to make an even better version won't be seen as much of a risk at all....

-=Vel=-

[SpencerH]

Sounds great . I'm looking forward to my first version.

[fezick31]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Vel

For the short term, do you really need a publisher? Why let them take the profits? Start slow with a bank of fast CD-R burners and advertise here and at other similar sites. If its good (or promising) word of mouth will get it sold.

That's a great idea and all, but for all the bad, there is the fact that publishers also provide legal backing. Case in point is CtP vs Civ2. IF sid had pushed Civ 2 out of his garage, he would have had a tough time of sueing Activision, as he would have had to hire his own lawyer (and a cheap one at that), and would of had to stop development in order to pursue the legal action.

For all the crap that comes with using publishers, there is the positive. It may screw the consumer over sometimes, but it is usually a much better deal for the developer.

[Spec]

. I like Civ3 very much but this article is made to sell the game. Civ3 is not that complicated and the diplomacy system is really NOT as good as Sid says it is. And he didn't mention that the game crashes for no reason and kills my saves once in a while.

Did he ever played the game?

Dont get me wrong, I still play the damn game...

Spec.