Firaxis, CPT2 has just gone gold. Attention is being diverted from the far-cooler-sounding Civ3.

Although it won't sound cooler for long without more info.

But- oh well, welcome back and stay out of OT

Firaxis has NEVER made it a priority to deal directly with its fans in a consistent manner. And the few times that is has (there used to be public board at firaxis.com for example), nobody was spefically tasked with making sure it ran smoothly. Or, in some cases, the person(s) put on the task had nearly total inability to deal with (often outrageous, but that's life) complaints from fans.

Now don't get me wrong: Dealing with the public is perhaps one of the worst aspects of any job. The public is often ignorant, nasty and loud. On the other hand, the public has the money...so it's a thin line.

Anyway, in the cases when they tried to be good with the public, lack of experience and true dedication to the task resulted in public relations trouble. There have been sparks of brilliance by a few people over the years, but they faded all too quickly as the brilliant people had to go back to their programming etc.

Curiously, though, we'll be in for a treat soon enough. I'll explain: As the game actually comes close to release, you'll see Firaxis launch their usual strategy:

* Some Firaxis people will appear out of thin air and sound really cool responding to us for a while, etc. We'll meet major players in the company...maybe even SID!

* Perhaps a forum or two or three will be put up at Firaxis.com and we'll get all kinds of information over a short period of time. We'll feel like kings.

* People will be posting lots and lots of all over. It will seem like paradise.

* Even our direct e-mails will get answered within a few days! Euphoria!!!

Then the game will be released. Undoubtedly there will be some bugs/"features" in there. People will begin to post about the bugs, and the number of Firaxis people posting will dry up in proportion. Those staff not specifically paid to deal with complaints will naturally drop off and try to remember the days of pure joy. Soon, with what Firaxis staff remains, phrases like "user error" and "quality control is a moving target" will sprout up like weeds. This will enrage some people with legitimate problems and still many others with no legitimate problems whatsoever...

Two camps will be born. Those who like the game as it is but would happily take any patch that might come and those who start talking about lawsuits. We'll hear the "Would you accept an automobile that wouldn't start?" argument for the 1,000,000th time. People will cite the case against Origin and say, "Good luck."

This will further alienate the once-happily-posting Firaxis people. Jeff Morris will try to make sure that the most complained about problems are fixed. He will, in fact, succeed, but a number of people still won't be satisfied. They'll keep on posting about liars and cheaters and frauds. That 1% will threaten to make the forum unpleasant for the 99%.

The Firaxis boards (if any) might simply be deleted. At any rate, Firaxis will stop talking entirely (perhaps understandably, perhaps not). They'll look at the one or two or three patches they released and say, "Hey, that's more support than most companies give. Time to move on."

And they'll move on. We'll all move on.

Let's face it: Public relations is NOT a Firaxis strength. On the other hand, their games are usually quite good (I have a bad taste about SMAC, but I'm letting that one slide...). Sure, I'd love them to up their public relations effort, but in the grand scheme of things, I'd be happy with a great game and qaulity support even if no Firaxis person ever posted another message again...

quote: Originally posted by DarkCloud on 11-07-2000 08:33 PM Andz, I thought you told us on the CGN forums you were gone for good!?!?

well, well...

hey, I thought the CGN would stay alive! but now it'S almost dead!

there are only a few people posting, and that sucks...

quote: Originally posted by Steve Clark on 11-08-2000 05:54 PM BTW, I was on the old CompuServ Microprose forum with Sid, Brian, et al when the news broke about them starting up a new company. I remember a number of us asking about investment opportunities and such. Sid especially was very active in that forum and posted several dozen messages a day. Anyone else remember those days?

Well, not those cuz that was just before I had my Internet connection, but Brian was pleasantly active on the alt forum(s) when SMAC was about to be released and Firaxis even made a demo because many fans asked them to. This is much friendlier than most other companies.

I know pretty much everything CtP2 has to got to offer in general, it's not like we're gonna see anything really big and new, so why do I feel less excited wanting that game, compared to a game I know almost nothing about.

you should apologize for calling ContradictioN an idiot before you get any apologies. yin26, maybe you don't like ContradictioN, but talk about a double-standard.

the Mac community - thats a secret society, but still, its also just a computer...

I know we need to be just a little bit more patient, but it is soooo hard.

Please firaxis! If we promise only to say good things about firaxis, will we get some info sooner ??