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[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Locutus
Nah, Civ1 is still the best.

[Tassadar500]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle


*is*

Hopefully not for long.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Lord Nuclear



Hopefully not for long.

Well whatever happens with Civ4 peoples' opinions on Civ1 V Civ2 aren't going to change.

[Japher]

What about Galatic Civ 2?

[Atahualpa]

I am fine with 2006, the longer they have time, the less excuses this and that isn't in the game...

[Rasbelin]

This thread is turning into discussing which Civ title is the best one, while the essential question was how ACS should respond to the release of Civ IV. Not to mention how to compete with CFC on the subject. Heck, this will soon get pointless, so back to the topic.

Honestly speaking new Civ players won't be caring what Civ III is like in comparison to CtP2 or Civ II, as they will anyway play it. Neither will they care about that when it comes to Civ IV. Let's face it. If we want them, we need to be there with the stuff n' goods, not a bunch a moaning ol' tarts. "Oh why didn't they get Brian Reynolds back?" They won't even know who he is. And they certainly won't mind it. We need to feed the masses, which CFC has certainly picked up on. Especially as a UGO network site (ie. trying to reach the popular gamers).

The question is where will people go for details once general gaming portals start feeding the masses with Civ IV previews. Also the launch of the official site will have a certain importance, as having visible references there to ACS will be essential for having new players finding ACS. When they look with eg. Google or Teoma, the highest probability is to have the official site at the top of the results, so they most likely head there first. From there they get forwarded to fansites. We need to get this traffic ahead of CFC. This will be pending on search engine listings and linking to us in previews/reviews, official sites and press releases.

Harry Tuttle has some good ideas on what to offer the newcomers. Unfortunately some of the ideas have been already used by CFC in some form. However we can always try to do it better. So far they only have a forum (AFAIK). We can still beat them by ASAP opening a Civ IV coverage and a knowledgebase (I think that's a better way to summarise everything Harry Tuttle wanted to get on display). We also need a fresh way to think about Civ IV. Forget all disappointments in terms of Civ III, not be too old fashioned and instead concentrate on being The Civ IV Site.

As for the question of how CFC differs from ACS, I think CFC is more hybrid and vivid as they haven't focused that much on having a broad and "something for everyone" coverage like ACS has, but instead focusing more of its resources on what's hot and current. This happen Civ III, IMO. We put up a good show, but they still got the 1st place. If we don't beat them this time, ACS becomes even more of an authorative Civ site, rather than a site spearheaded for the newest of the new in the world of Civ.

I suggest putting up a special Civ IV editorial team for ACS which would be trying to be 1) the CNN of Civ IV news (ie. the first to report any news and also proactively getting more details to ensure being first), 2) putting together a showcase about Civ IV (screenshots, previews, etc. and up-to-date feature listings), 3) creating and supervising a Civ IV knowledgebase, especially trying to aim modders and generic FAQ type info. These shouldn't be some ol' tarts (except maybe their chief editor), but preferably Civ III players with lots of interest for the latest Civ developments.

Just how I see the difference and what find to be the necessary steps to gain a better momentum ahead of Civ IV.

[DrSpike]

Strangely, that all sounds very well thought out.

[Harry Tuttle]

Excellent ideas Rasbelin. I totally agree.

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Japher
What about Galatic Civ 2?

Yeah...that's a title that I'm looking forward to. A pity that GalCiv1 never gathered much of a following here at 'poly.

Asmodean

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Asmodean


Yeah...that's a title that I'm looking forward to. A pity that GalCiv1 never gathered much of a following here at 'poly.

Asmodean

Indeed it is...indeed it is. I do have high hopes for GalCiv2. If your looking for a really good AI, then this should fit the bill.

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Rasbelin

I suggest putting up a special Civ IV editorial team for ACS which would be trying to be 1) the CNN of Civ IV news (ie. the first to report any news and also proactively getting more details to ensure being first), 2) putting together a showcase about Civ IV (screenshots, previews, etc. and up-to-date feature listings), 3) creating and supervising a Civ IV knowledgebase, especially trying to aim modders and generic FAQ type info. These shouldn't be some ol' tarts (except maybe their chief editor), but preferably Civ III players with lots of interest for the latest Civ developments.

Very nice.

This might be obvious to some, or a totally ludicrous post, but how can we position ACS with Soren and/or Firaxis to get information first?

It seems from reading some posts from members at our site that there are people that may have a relationship -- or the possibility of getting an email read by Soren and company. I don't want to name names, but I hope the most connected members of ACS are reaching out to the developers to at least be on the "unofficial mailing list" of news, screenshots, etc.

To me, Apolyton is a better civ site than CFC...let's keep it that way. Oh, great post Rasbelin.