OpenCiv3 - The Title

[Maniac]

Why do you call it OpenCiv3?

It's only the first game of the series - so it certainly can't be '3'. And you guys say yourself we don't have to keep our ideas in the sphere of eg Civ2. Your title - actually plagiarism - doesn't indicate that. It says that it just one more of those dozens of Civ-clones.

[Victor Galis]

Yes, a civ3 clone, with a little more depth. I think that was the objective.

[amjayee]

Just a quick answer, I'm in hurry... I have said Openciv3 is a project name only. Personally, I would have wanted to change it a long time ago, but the other team members objected it; they thought that civ3 is such a popular name it would draw attention etc...

My point in wanting to change the name is the same as you pointed out; it references to existing games, making it sound like a clone, which it will not be. Propose names for the game, so it can be changed as soon as possible! Since we want to be democratic in making this game, there's not much to do if people don't come up with a good name. And when we finally name the game, people complain that the name sucks etc... oh, well.

PS. Victor: a civ3 clone? How can we clone a game we know practically nothing about? Well, perhaps our view what civ3 should be like.
[This message has been edited by amjayee (edited June 16, 2000).]

[Victor Galis]

"PS. Victor: a civ3 clone? How can we clone a game we know practically nothing about? Well, perhaps our view what civ3 should be like."

-I think I left off the " " after "civ3 clone."

... since I'm in California now, I think I have access to some old ideas (/partial components of The List which never got sent, since they were composed at Firaxis.com)... I will post those shortly. I already have posted one in Population.

[dan ward]

Quite simply changing the name, or even discussing a name change at this point is silly. OpenCiv3 works. It's short, easily remembered and most importantly it gives the reader plenty of information about the project All these facts make it the perfect title for the PROJECT. The final game will have a proper title, this title will be appropriate for the final game.

For those people who seem unclear OpenCiv3 is a Civ-clone, it's not Imperialism, C&C, Quake or AOE. Why am I labouring this point? Because a project must have goals and if we can't decide on what type of game we're producing we will get nowhere. Developing a game where everyone adds features from their favourite game will fail. There must be a focal point that keeps everyone pulling in the same direction and for this project it is Civilization. Adding cool new features is fun but to produce a great game we must stay focused.

amjayee: the game will be in the same genre as Civ, our name associates us with that genre and will help attract more people to the project. This is a good thing because it means will have more ideas and more developers to make those ideas into reality.

[heardie]

To shed some light on this:
The name is a sort of manifestation. when the project was first organised I was called it Open Source Civ, due to its open source nature, which is evident at http://members.xoom.com/acchiron/opensource
Thehn over time the name slowly evolved into Open Civ 3, mainly due to the naming of the mailing list to that particular name.

[The Joker]

I agree that OpenCiv3 as name is far from ideal. The reason we called it that was propably that it would be our vision for what Civ3 should be.

I am for changing the name. But It must be done now, in the initial phase of the process. When the game is almost complete (although the point is that it would evolve slowly and always, as long as people wanted to play it) people will have gotten used to calling it OC3, and changing the name then will just add confusion and possibly mean that some people will not play it as they wont know that the game is what used to be called OC3.

When the project started I called it OpenCiv. I thought it fitted pretty good. I think that possibly OpenSourceCiv will be too long and odd a name.

But the coolest thing could be if we found a name that indicated more than a civ-clone - like Clash of Civilizations. At one point in the process I thought about the name Builders of Destiny, but after I heard about Manifest Destiny I realized that this name would be too similar to that.

I don't have any ideas for a good name right now, but I think we should change the name if we can come up with a good replacement.

[dan ward]

We could spend time discussing a name change and even more time doing the work to change it, & making sure everyone knows what the new name is, or we could;

1. Design the game
2. Code the game

[Guildmaster]

Yeah Dan! Naming the game now is like naming a child before it's born. You can try do it, but it takes away from the magic I think.

[amjayee]

Ok, I agree our agenda should be to make a game into the civilization genre, not some other... but also clearly state we will not simply copy civ or civ2. We will take what was good in them, and add new features. I agree that Openciv3 is a perfect name for the project. But also I agree that we need discussion about the name - it does not take away much time for other things, and we don't need to change the name right now.

But we will need a name soon. When we have a name, we could request for our own forum in apolyton, and perhaps get a domain name for the game - there are places that give out domain names free, but no space for the site, they just add a link to the actual site. But of course there's no hurry...

But I do think we could use our own forum. Should we try to get one simply with the name openciv3, or wait until the name has been decided?

[The Joker]

Although OpenCiv is not at all a perfect name I think it could be a good one for our game. No matter what we need to remove the 3 from our name. Since we are making a first game the 3 has no place what so ever in our name. OpenCiv has the advantage of being very close to OpenCiv3, so noone will be confused about what our name is.

But no matter what I think we should change our name as soon as possible, before people will begin knowing the game as OC3. OC3 is really a bad name.

[dan ward]

I'll say it again.

OpenCiv3 works. It's short, easily remembered and most importantly it gives the reader plenty of information about the project All these facts make it the perfect title for the PROJECT. The final game will have a proper title, this title will be appropriate for the final game.

If you are confused the three refers to the version of Civilisation we are basing our game on. Civ came out around 1990, Civ2 around 1995 and Civ3 will come out around 2000 therefore we want to make clear to everyone that the game is using current technology.

[amjayee]

Well said, dan. I agree.

But you people can keep sending suggestions for the final name, though. It does no harm, and we will be needing a name eventually, so it's good to start giving some thought for it, too.

[VetLegion]

In another situation I would agree with you completely Dan. I a recent disk format I lost my folders with links, but believe me, both OpenCiv and OpenCiv2 exist. I dont remember exactly what are they like but I am 100 percent sure I ran into them. (I sometimes search the net for civ resources).

I sont know how comfortable you folks are with name "civilization". I dont live in the US and I dont care about their copyright laws. Civilization III sounds like a nice name to me

It would be best to keep some notion of civ in the title. A few proposals to think about:

III noitaziliviC
The Peoples Civilization
Call to Civilization
Clash of Nations
Path of Destiny
Manifest of Mankind

My all time favourite is however:
The Leader And His Little Tribe



But seriousely, the specifications we put for a name till now:
- have civ in the name, for association
- reflect the fact this is an open source effort
- reflect that we want to use modern technology
- the fact it is not a clone but a new game
- be easy to rimember and sing while you shower

are very difficult to obey. Let me hear yours

[amjayee]

VetLegion, you nearly got me killed with this message of yours.

quote: Originally posted by VetLegion on 06-26-2000 04:11 PMIII noitaziliviC

I was at work when I read this. I hope my workmates weren't too suspicious, but I laughed out loud. But; Noitazilivic? It sounds actually quite good. Kinda Russian.

But basically, your name suggestions had some good ideas. Keep suggesting, folks.