Atari Sells Civilization Franchise!

[Skanky Burns]

They lurk and on occasion post here.

[Nostromo]

btw, don't the Firaxis guys ever stop by Apolyton? They seem to only go to CFC, did they have some falling out with poly?

It's obvious there was a falling out.

[Joseph]

To many people here at poly said Civ 3 was garbage before it was release. These guys spent 3 years making it and to have a lot people say that, I thing that pi$$ed them off.

I don't have a problem with Civ 3, PTW, or Conquest.

[Japher]

Polytubbies running their mouths off about something they know nothing about?

I have no idea what you are talking about

[Maquiladora]

If its anything people know about on these forums, its what things make a good civ game.

If Firaxis wants someone to tongue-maul their ass instead of give truthful and mostly constructive criticism theyre better off at CFC anyway.

[notyoueither]

Constructive criticism? Heh, you're funny.

Yes, some of that happens here, but far too often it is theads screaming about how the developers are each and every one an asswipe because they didn't do things the way the flamer KNOWS is the ONLY way to do them. I can't count the times I've seen members of the staff of Firaxis singled out and called idiots, or worse. The people who habitually did it are still able to post, and flame.

Not to mention that somewhere along the way, the administration and senior moderation of this site just sort of... lost interest. I know Mark played Civ3 and the expansions, but aside from him, who from this site that matters is involved? It's like the people who drive Poly don't care.

Given that, you would come here to talk about your job?

[Harry Tuttle]

True, very true. But, I do have to say, we have a tremendous amount of talent on this site. The Civ2 forums are a prime example. If they want a great game they should take notice.

At CivFan it seems, beyond the Civ3 forums which have been pretty hot with unit creation, there are a lot of people with very little experience designing mods for the Civ games. Poly, for some reason, garners people who can take criticism, use it, and make their work better. At CivFan, well, I wouldn't say the reception is that open.

[notyoueither]

I agree. I prefer Poly for the open environment, and there is the irony.

However, for the sake of productive discussions with developers, I think Poly was a little too... lax in moderation, and I think that came from the people who matter not really paying attention.

The last time Civ3 had a real moderator was Yin. Yin got tossed. Mark and Ming did their best, but there was only so much of Mark and Ming to go around. A whole lot of feces went through the cracks. In the end the developers show the same interest in this site that the admins and moderators have shown for them. Very little.

[Brent]

Soren posts in the Civ4 forum.

[Skanky Burns]

The Civ3 forum under Yin would have been a scarey place. Possibly more so than it currently is.

[child of Thor]

Not that there's enough info to go on, but i'm guessing the 'rights to civilization' probably dont include SMAC. After all the use of the word civilization was what caused all the legal problems for Activision with their first Call To Power game, so it would follow these rights that have been bought would be fairly literal, which is a shame as SMAC needs updating too.

And IW, i'm guessing you just burned out on CTP2 modding?
My feeling is that the civ genre hasn't really had a proper succesfull remake since going from Civ1 to Civ2, and much of what made that so succesfull - and the potential for future games like it, hasn't really been given a sequel it needs to reach that potential.
CTP was a different kettle of fish but also didnt quite get it right.
Civ3 by all accounts was a smaller step than most people were generaly hoping for?

My main worry is that as 3D has stolen the show, it would be really hard to do a succesfull non-3D followup? And i think most people who are civ genre fans would realise the mistakes waiting(Empire Earth?) if you wanted to do a market acceptable update - it would be so hard to pull of a 3D civ!
And this is the problem, because whomever stumped up £15million euro's doesn't sound like a developer/publisher who is likely to buck market trends....unless it was Firaxis as they have a historic link to the series.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
The Civ3 forum under Yin would have been a scarey place. Possibly more so than it currently is.

Very possibly, but at least there would have been someone paying attention (hopefully).

[notyoueither]

Incidently, I don't think the issue is that Yin was sacked. I think the issue is that he was not replaced. Or at least, that's part of it.

[Skanky Burns]

Or lies with the previously-mentioned fact that none of the staff besides Markos play Civ3. With him off to the military for a large number of months since the games release, the forums were largely unchecked.

[notyoueither]

Yep, but remember this is a big site. Mark has a lot to do, with or without the military obligation. Expecting him to have ridden herd of the flood of civ3 users (of which I am one) would be expecting failure. But that's what happened.