a STATEMENT OF ACTIVISION TO THE CIV COMMUNITY

[JBK]

We need to get our own professional developers to help us with our bug problems, because it is obvious that this capitalists are just in it to make money. I know...I am being rude but these money greedy little piglets, who havent yet mature to see past profit, need to realize that when you drop the consumers point of view or suggestions you also drop that consumer which lowers your profit. Originally I would back the developers of the game, but that is not an original statement, that document is a whole lot of BS and should be printed out, put in holy water, and burned. The ones who donot see what they do with the release of such a document, do not know how much it pisses us as consumer of when the tell us that there will not be any patches because the company is to cheap to spare the labor or that the developers could just be to lazy and not have the will power to make simply/complex systems to fix their bugs!!!

[roalan]

quote: Originally posted by wittlich on 01-20-2001 06:36 PM I just signed on to check the forum....And I can't believe it! Activision MARKETS and SELLS a MULTIPLAYER compatible game - CTP2 - which turns out NOT to be Multiplayer compatable AT ALL. We gripe, we complain, we report the problems/bugs....and their answer? Tough Titties, we're through with this game and we're moveing on to other horizons. I've just gone through my "collection" of computer games, and guess what? I actually own 22 different games by Activision!!! Well NO MORE. Activision, you ROYALLY SCREWED the customers that have in the past flocked to the Activision name - I realize that I have been one of your flock...until now. How do you expect to get away with this type of criminal activity - False advertisement for one? You are not actually expecting your sales revenues to increase in the near future?!?! Mark my word Activision, Firaxis/Hasbro is taking note. Let's see how well they will treat their customers with the eventual release of CIV3...I have every confidence that we will not be treated the same them!! So, on a last note, let's all move on over to the APOLYTON CIV3 Site forum, since the CTP2 is just a waste of time! PS: Apolyton, you have done a great job cutting through the BS and for that I'm thankful and will remain a avid follower of your site Ciao!

Have you folks forgotten Hasbro's BOTF and how there was NO support and everyone said that they would NEVER buty a Hasbro product again. How short are your memories??

[Atahualpa]

About money: I dont think they get the full $30 from the game. I guess they get more like $10 from every box. That makes $5,000,000 then. Still a lot I admit.

Nevertheless look at Starcraft. They are releasing patch 1.8 in the next couple of days. A game that is about 2 years old (correct me if I am wrong).
Or Half-Life where there is still support and all and in fact Half-Life (or its modification counter-strike) is the most played ego-shooter on the net!!! And Half-Life is another 2 years old!

Just some examples of how you can enlarge your community by providing continous support. But well companies dont get money when fans play their game.
If you would have to pay $5 for every month that you play Ctp2 I guess there would be LOTS more support for it!!!

ATa

[Cellerto]

Well I guess this means I will NEVER ever again buy an Activision published game. I do understand that there are reasons why they aren't going to patch the game to the point where multiplayer is playable. The bottom line is that it isn't really cost effective for them. The reason I will never ever again give them any of my money is the fact that as a company they are not capable of shipping a product that is bug free enough to be enjoyable to me. I guess they wanted to wait long enough to announce this so that all the suckers that bought their game wouldnt be able to get refunds at EB. Well fine Activison you got my money this time, but never again. You'll have to find some other sucker to buy your unplayable game (in multiplayer I mean, and if the AI was any kind of challenge without rediculous cheating then I might not mind as much that multiplayer is complete crap).

Yet another annoyed customer.

[CC_Fully_Completely]

a lawsuit?

guys, get real.

Oh, and way to go Activision, you look like a company with its head up its ass.

[Dogberry]

I've been a PC gamer since the days of Apple II, counting back the games that I have and there were quite a few Activision games, the last one being CTP1.

I am always a big sucker on civ game but after CTP1, I have decided to be less impulsive when buying an Activision game. One thing that puzzle me most is Activision's attitude in thinking that they can put out a dodgy game, full of bugs, has a not very smart AI and half the features as promised and just let the general gaming public to create their own mods and patches. This is like people selling Stereo TV which only makes Mono sound and then tell their customers that they have to solder a few more chips onto the TV to make it sounds in Stereo.

I understand that it is fun to be able to modify the game, but that should be done out of curiosity or as a hobby and not as a neccessity in order to make the game works. There are many gamers out there like me who don't have the time nor the patience to search for ways to fix a product which is supposed to do what it says it can do and cost me 99 hard earn Aussie dollars.

Lucky I have hold out this time and save myself a bit of money and frustration. And like many others, I will not buy another Activision games again. I now hope that Civ III will come soon and be as enjoyable as Civ II.

Cheers,

Dogberry.

[JimMac]

As a keen CTP1 LAN multiplayer fan I was looking forward to CTP2.

But after repeatedly reading on Apolyton about what appears to be even worse instability problems than those in CTP1, I decided not to buy it until the next patch, which I was sure would soon be released to fix these problems.

I know nothing about programming, but how hard is it to write stable network code for a game such as CTP2? Look at all the games that get it right such as Warcraft AOK, 7 Kingdoms, C&C, HOMM, etc etc. Beats me, but I cant see how the demands of CTP are any harder to deal with.

Now that Activision are moving on to their next great game, I doubt if I shall buy CTP2, no matter how much the price is reduced in EB.

Disappointing.

So, farewell then to Mr Ogre and all his gang. I hope that someone in Activision learns from this, but probably not.And neither will we, as we rush out to buy the next hyped game.

Jim

(Markos, I guess you can close the CTP2 multiplyer forum now? )

[wittlich]

"Have you folks forgotten Hasbro's BOTF and how there was NO support and everyone said that they would NEVER buty a Hasbro product again. How short are your memories??"

roalan - What is the game "BOTF" by Hasbro? I've never heard of it. The main games I pay by Hasbro are CIVII and RISK.

[WesW]

I share everyone's displeasure and anger over Activision's decision to abandon support for the game, especially when many people are having problems with saved games and such. I am afraid that the Ctp games never really had the support of the Activision higher-ups, and I suspect that the decision to pull the plug on support was made weeks ago. I have talked to people who have visited Mr. Ogre's website, and he has already taken a position at Blizzard on an un-named project. Make of that what you will.

However, please don't give up on the game. If you visit the creation forums, you will see some amazing things that have already been done with the game by the people here, and we are just scratching the surface of what can be done. For those of you who don't have the game, wait until you can get a good deal on it if you can, but I would strongly recommend getting this game. Regardless of what you think of it out of the box, I believe that it has awesome potential, and that we will be unlocking that potential in the months to come.

[Alexander's Horse]

Wes, can you do something about multiplayer thru a mod?

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Chaos, panic and disorder - My work here is done.

[Chris B]

Know this, all you sinners at Activision. You've given up everthing you've put hard work into for the last year or so. You've all forgotten your own names, but we sure haven't. We here at apolyton ( I think i can speak for everyone) will continue to get something out of your game with or without your support. Good luck in these "OTHER PROJECTS"!

[Mike the Nuke]

quote: Originally posted by marster on 01-21-2001 01:55 AM Tell activision what you think. http://www.activision.com/support/email.asp -mario

This could be a good idea. I already sent an email using this hyper-link. I first received the 'automated response', then an actual response. Your emails WILL be read and responded to IF you are courteous and professional. I suggest stating 'postivies' you find or hoped to find in the game. Then state the negatives in a 'positive way' (ie don't '*****' at them or tell them how bad they SUCK in your opinion). Close your email with a 'positive note and state that you are anxiously hoping for a response. Your email, by itself, may not get them back in the
game' of fixing/patching/upgrading the CTP2 game, but emails in mass will or can help. You are not mailing to the BS programers at the support email address (ie those programmers who only came up with excuses). An email or two to these support sites often will be read and passed on with little out come towards change. But, 100's (or 1000's) can make a difference (providing it is not from the same person/email address). They are a company trying to make money. If they are flooded with emails that are similary related, they are bound to take notice. Their financial 'livelyhood' could be at stake.

Things that people on this site want or wanted:

1. Better AI intelligence
2. Bugs fixed (there were/are many {it appears})
3. Hot Seat/ PBEM
4. Multiplayer fixes
5. Others

I recommend that we all team up together. You may not (personnally) have an ineterest in Hot Seat/PBEM or AI intelligence, but stull should voice your request for those additions/improvements. As a team, we can (no guarentees) make a difference. If each of us, on the other hand, only gripes for his/her own deal, we will surely lose all chance. Also, try to make suggestions on how they could get some items in the game. I'm not talking about being a programmer. As an example, I stated to them how they had Hot Seat/PBEM in CTP-1 (it seemed to work OK). In CTP-2, because of the (supposed) improved diplomacy with AI players, these options could not be dealt with. I suggested that they might try a patch that by-passes the 'new' AI diplomacy stuff whenever players chose Hot Seat/PBEM modes, as we are not utilizing AI's (as much) but rather human opponets. This could fix the multiplayer problems too (although I'm not sure of all of them as I do not currently own the game).

Again, there are no guarentees, but if I had spent $50 (or more in some cases)on thsi game, I wouldn't want to give up until I expended all options. Yes, there are some guys out there who program mods for all these games. I've read the boards where many of these mods work fairly well(if you have an interest in what the mods are trying to accomplish), yet have bugs and crashes of their own. In these cases, Activision (or other game manufactures) provide ZERO warrenties and ZERO support (not that any of us is currently excited about Activision's latest support). These mods don't normally fix 'bugs' or add options like Hot Seat/PBEM. Also these guys make most of these mods for free downloads. It takes a lot of work (I'm sure), and if the going gets too tough, they may give up, as they get little in return for their efforts except for 'ego boosters' for their good ideas.

[Imran Siddiqui]

quote: Front Office Football Central is reporting that EA Sports has no plans to issue a patch for its NFL GM sim, Front Office Football 2001. Despite claims from users that own Voodoo based video cards that the game is unplayable due to instabilty problems, the company issued a statement that the it could find no technical problems that were in need of a patch. An EA representative also stated that the company simply had no additional funds to continue to support Front Office Football 2001.

Steve, interestingly, the FOF caught our eye and not the CtP .

Yeah, this PISSES me off! How many patches do they make for Madden, NHL, Golf? But when it comes to a niche market, they bail! ****ing big gaming companies !

[Alexander's Horse]

Hey maybe we could burn Activision in effigy and all dance around it chanting "Death to Activision!"

It sometimes helps to act out


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Chaos, panic and disorder - My work here is done.

[LittleWing]

All these discussions remind me of the ones we had with CTP1. I tried, with others, to make some new things for this game, but when we saw the poor support it had (slic and AI modification support mostly), I totally gave up on this game, though I knew it had great potential.

I see that things have not changed a lot and I'm happy I waited until now to make up my mind : I'm waiting for civ3 !