If Firaxis starts their own forums then are all the independents toast?

[Ming]

If there was a company forum dedicated to Civ IV, we would be pounding on them for a new patch. I mean come on, they release the "final" patch, and it is full of bugs. My favorite is that they took away a promotion class from tanks, but failed to remove it from the player choice menu for selecting promotions. How lame and sloppy is that.

So for reasons like that... it's better to distance themselves from true fans. Fanboys are one thing, but pissed off supporters is another

[DanS]

I thought the alpha.owo forums were great, although they lacked moderation almost entirely. It seems unlikely that the lack of moderation would be tolerated nowadays, although Youtube seems to skirt this somehow.

Mainly, I posted on alpha.owo rather than Poly before alpha.owo shut down. The subsequent Firaxis forums left something to be desired as far as I was concerned.

[Ming]

I've sat in meetings where we would recommend companies set up forums to help their customers out. At first, everybody says great... and they are all for it.

Then they start thinking about the work, effort, and cost of maintianing/manning the forums. And then they start thinking about what pissed off customers would post.

In the end, most think about it, but never execute on it.

[duke o' york]

More fool them. Negative feedback is more valuable than positive feedback, if you have the capability to sort the nutjobs from those who have genuine grievances. An improved product that gives the customers what they want is the ultimate goal for all companies.

[Kitschum]

I disagree. Firaxis would probably have crappy forums full of censorship.

This is true, and the comparison with Paradox proves it. There's several spinoff forums from Paradox OT because of mod clampdown on spam and controversial topics, and the same would happen if moderating at the imagined Firaxis forum became too strict. For on topic though Paradox is still the go-to place.

[Asher]

Welcome (back?) to the site, Kitschum!

You're off to a great start by agreeing with the voice of reason.

[Kitschum]

[Vanguard]

Civ 5!

Please, God, no.

[TCO]

I was on the threaded Firaxis forums. This was before alpha.owo. I can bring back Greg to get his stacking debate whipping from Eric Olsen Gulf War vet.

[TCO]

I've sat in meetings where we would recommend companies set up forums to help their customers out. At first, everybody says great... and they are all for it.

Then they start thinking about the work, effort, and cost of maintianing/manning the forums. And then they start thinking about what pissed off customers would post.

In the end, most think about it, but never execute on it.

I have drank with you. And talked about meetings.