I smell a conspiracy

[Sparky]

I am a disgruntled Sid fan with rapidly falling faith.

When I rushed to the store in November to get my copy of CivIII, I wanted the works! I loved Civ, CivII, and SMAC, and I wanted everything the Limited Edition offered: the special "making of" video, the designer's notes, and the bonus scenario.

What's this? The video is just a Sid commerical? The designer's note is a scrap of paper? And worst of all, the bonus scenario isn't there?

In fact, no scenarios were. And neither was a functional editor -- no ability even to make my own scenarios! Not to mention that the multiplayer promised by February still isn't out!

But something came to my attention. A wonderful civ fan, undoubtably working in his spare time and without payment, hacked the editor to reveal add/delete buttons, giving players access to create new civs and units!

...yet after 3 patches, Firaxis still couldn't do that. Or chose not to.

And on Wednesday I heard about something new: an expansion pach that promises new civs, new scenarios, new multiplayer. All available to loyal civ players ... for a price.

I smell a conspiracy. I think that Firaxis has known for months that it wouldn't release multiplayer. Furthermore, I think they intentionally have not fixed the editor so that fans would not be able to undermine the profitable expansion pack.

Sid... I am losing faith.

-------------------------------------------------------
"Love of money is the root of all evil."

[Cookie Monster]

You may very well have a valid point. I wouldn't doubt that there are hidden goodies within Civ3. Why let us know about them because you can always make more money with an XP.

Another example of greed........

[Wittlich]

And you're probably right on the mark.

[dojoboy]

Firaxis and Infogrames only owes consumers good customer service which, I believe, they are doing through patches. As a business, they should optimize every angle they have or can create. I would.

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by dojoboy
Firaxis and Infogrames only owes consumers good customer service which, I believe, they are doing through patches. As a business, they should optimize every angle they have or can create. I would.

With Microsoft and there "optimization of every angle" I have no choice. (I hate mac) I'm forced to submit to Gates' greed.

With Firaxis I have a choice. Blatant greed is a big turnoff for me. I hate being taken advantage of. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice shame on me.

[Wittlich]

Originally posted by Haupt. Dietrich
With Firaxis I have a choice. Blatant greed is a big turnoff for me. I hate being taken advantage of. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice shame on me.

But admit it Dietrich, you will, in all likelyhood, still end up buying the expansion...you might not like it, but like all of us, you are still a civer at heart.

[Random Passerby]

Suppose Firaxis wasn't a video-game development house. Suppose it was a road contractor hired to build an interstate bridge. The deadline rolls around and, for whatever reason, they're not done building the bridge--but there is a solid, unbroken path from one end to the other on which a car could concievably drive (I have no idea exactly what steps such a bridge usually undergoes in construction, but just assume that there's a more-or-less driveable surface in place long before the bridge is in stable, finished condition). Would you think anything amiss if, rather than opening the bridge for traffic in its current state, they left all their construction barricades and detour signs up?

Firaxis didn't finish the editor on time. They had two options: They could release the editor "as is" and have to provide support for a buggy, incomplete product at the same time as they were working on it, or they could strip out the incomplete features and release only the portion of the editor which was stable and reasonable finished while they worked on getting the rest of it up to speed.

There's no conspiracy here. A conspiracy would've involved sending men in black after people developing third-party editing tools, NOT telling those people publically and straight up about changes to the file formats. They're no paragon of good development and PR practice, but a sinister evil cabal Firaxis isn't.

[Jawa Jocky]

I smell a .... oh wait thats just me. Sorry I had to much Mexican food and cheap beer last night.

[DarthVeda]

Ok that's it. I've had it. I'm officially not buying any Firaxis/Infogrames product ever again. They are the most dodgy and shifty companies in gaming today. Their business practices are the highest order of highway robbery. I'd go as far as to call Civ3 the "Extreme Paintbrawl" of the genre.

I think they should PAY ME to take this game. I definately already paid for it once. No way should I take it in the ass twice.

And Moo3 is officially on probation in my book after this anouncement...

[louiethelesbo]

Sour Grapes

Originally posted by DarthVeda [/SIZE]
Ok that's it. I've had it. I'm officially not buying any Firaxis/Infogrames product ever again. They are the most dodgy and shifty companies in gaming today. Their business practices are the highest order of highway robbery. I'd go as far as to call Civ3 the "Extreme Paintbrawl" of the genre.

I think they should PAY ME to take this game. I definately already paid for it once. No way should I take it in the ass twice.

And Moo3 is officially on probation in my book after this anouncement... [/QUOTE]

You are a whiner....come on man...open your wallet and help support our buddies at Firaxs.

Yeah..the game is not great..but those people need jobs...now get off your butt and buy the expansion pack. Just be thankful we have a Firaxis to spend your money on..otherwise you would be blowing it on more dope.

[Anfernio]

When you announce that your business is beginning work on a sequal to a product as popular on civilization, the massive amount of fans gather in excitement and cheer them on...Eventually after a few months of this they begin to start getting angry because they announced the new version but it's not out yet. After a year or 2 the fans begin casting doubt on the whole project itself.
The only way around this problem is to release the game earlier than anticipated because you people were cursing them and doubting their abilities. So if it's released early, then there are going to be many bugs, and even some things such as multiplay that were only partially completed.

I've been waiting for a sequal to MOO2 ever since I got it around 1998, I'm in no hurry for them to push it out though.

[zulu9812]

Releasing multi-player as part of an expansion pack is a sham, especially when it was promised as a patch due in March. These new units and civs had better be backwards-compatible with civ3 itself and not just as part of these scenarios.

[Cyclotron]

OK... let's get one thing straight. Firaxis, Infogrames, or anybody else didn't cheat you. They sold a product, and it's tough **** if you bought it and don't like it.

As for an XP, the same thing goes: If you don't want it, don't buy it. But Firaxis did not cheat you (you got what you paid for), and the only reason you say it's a "sham" is because you're too bitter about something not meeting your astronomical expectations of computer game perfection.

[DarthVeda]

Oh give me a break. Stop defending them. Sid is a Mountebank and a charlatan and you know it.

Civ3 is inferior to Call to Power 2, it just got better publicity.

[Dom Pedro II]

I think it goes even farther than just that they wouldn't correct the problems after its release. I think they CREATED the problems before the release.


I think Sid's team might have even had a full scenario editor and multiplayer in it by September and then yanked it at Firaxis's request... or hopefully anyway (I don't wanna blame Sid for concocting this plan). I mean, when Civ3 was still on the drawing board, they KNEW we wanted multiplayer, they KNEW we wanted a scenario editor, and they KNEW we wanted plenty of civilizations... but they chose not to include these things? Bull!

They left them out on purpose, but they couldn't just release an expansion pack in December because A) they wouldn't have reached the peak of sales of the inferior Civ3, and B) if they brought out the pack then we all would have known for sure that they planned it that way because there's no way anybody could have made one that fast. I think the expansion pack has been sitting and waiting all ready to go on a self since October! They waited JUST long enough that people had not completely turned their backs on Civilization, but that they were thuroughly fed up with the inferior Civ3. And the patches kept the skeptics interested just long enough and pulled the loyal fans along by the nose. In effect, Firaxis is making us pay twice just to get Civilization 3 1.0.

Now... I personally find Civilization 3 satisfying. I like playing it, BUT I think its a far cry from what I had originally wanted.

I think we should revolt! Storm the Bastille! Depose the Kaiser! Kill the Tsar! Barricade the streets! Declare independence! Free the slaves! Civvers of the world unite!