facebook civ alpha

[jtb1127]

Buy more! Buy more! Buy more!
BUY MORE

 

[Horizons]

Are you all forgetting that video games were a niche market until Nintendo Wii and Xbox and all the other kiddy/silly stuff? That is the way of the computer game world now - spend, spend spend for shallower and shallower games. At some point serious gamers may have to drop Windows and move to Linux and develop serious games on that platform instead.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Facebook games are designed to be hyper-easy, hyper-simple, and to lure people into spending real money for in game advantages. They also operate by encouraging you to rope your friends in, in effect recruiting them into a pursuit designed to make them spend money.

There are a lot of repulsive ingredients mixed into that package, and it looks as if that's the direction that Sid wants to go. People are reacting badly because it will be terrible for the sort of games that we tend to like if he succeeds.

I haven't played any facebook games but I did for a very short time play the game Civony (now known as Evony - I criticised them in their forums for the "boob advertising" but those threads disappeared ) so I'm a bit familiar with the shady practices that go on. Don't you think it's too soon to judge what civ facebook will be? Yeah it's probably going to be terrible for several reasons but wouldn't it be fairer to make those criticisms than to simply mix in the criticisms of other games?

This is Sid Meier after all. I know most civfanatics have lost faith in him but I doubt he's lost all sense of ethics.

I guess I can see the angle of disappointment/frustration that civfanatics would be feeling with SM working on this game because it means he isn't working on some other project that would in the civfanatics' eyes be a better game. Really though, since civ1 I don't think he has really been the driving force behind the improving civ games anyway.

 

[Spoonwood]

This is Sid Meier after all. I know most civfanatics have lost faith in him but I doubt he's lost all sense of ethics.

I have no idea if the following is true or not, but it does give us something to consider about Sid Meier:

"Bunten departed EA for Microprose, and was reportedly given a choice between doing a computer version of the Avalon Hill board game Civilization or a version of Axis and Allies. There are claims that Sid Meier talked Bunten into doing Axis and Allies (which became 1990's Command HQ, a modem/network World War II game), while Meier did Civilization, which went on to become one of the best-selling computer games of all time." From the Wikipedia on Dan Bunten

 

[PieceOfMind]

What are you getting at? It's interesting info (if true), but how is it relevant?

 

[Tatran]

What are you getting at?

The Wiki link gave indeed interesting info, but not what Spoonwood quoted.

 

[blind biker]

The Wiki link gave indeed interesting info, but not what Spoonwood quoted.

Welp, Tatran, the day may be approaching when you will have to update your avatar, by adding a yet more devolved hominid to the series.

 

[code9]

What are you getting at? It's interesting info (if true), but how is it relevant?

I think what he's getting at is that Sid didn't even do much on Civ1, because the idea came mostly from the board game which translated nicely into a computer game. His name as the "designer" simply stuck onto the franchise as a brand because most users think he had a lot to do with designing.

I always said, Sid isn't much of a designer, and in all interviews with Firaxis since Civ3 they mentioned that Sid would simply walk in, check what they're doing, say a few things, and leave. They (the lead designers) may or may not even pay attention to him. Sid is just a public face.

However, Bryan Raynolds (one of Civ designers) is behind Zynga, so Sid may be a little jealous of how rich he's become.

 

[code9]

Oh and, I just read the news.

Rumor: Acitivision may take over TakeTwo.

I guess we all know what that means. If you thought Civ5 was milking the crowd, get ready for Civ6: The Cheese. CivWorld will fit really nicely in the Activision portfolio.

 

[need my speed]

Was Civilization 3 not made by Activision or something? I seem to remember that Civilization 3 was located inside an Activision map...

 

[He-Who-Hunts]

I wont pass judgment until I've had a chance to play it.

call me a sucker but I still get excited about another civ!

 

[Tatran]

@ blind biker

The original picture had a sixth hominid.
To the right was a mirror image of the first one.
Will it be that bad?

 

[need my speed]

Don't hold any illusions, Facebook Civilization will be centered around a button called 'BUY MORE'. You can of course play the game without spending real life money, but then you're limited to a the technology Agriculture, Farms to build on the land, Warriors as units, and Monuments as buildings. Click on it, and you get the following list:

BUY CIVILIZATION
BUY LEADER
BUY UNIT
BUY RESOURCE
BUY IMPROVEMENT
BUY TERRAIN TYPE
BUY FEATURE TYPE
BUY BUILDING
BUY CITY
BUY GAME OPTION
BUY GAME SPEED
BUY MAP TYPE
BUY MAP SIZE
BUY AI

Ad infinitum.

In other words, be prepared to lose a trillion Euros while playing with brain dead humans that sit in front of their PC yelling 'kekeke' and 'mommy pizza NOA!'.

 

[jtb1127]

don't hold any illusions, facebook civilization will be centered around a button called 'buy more'.

buy more!

 

[jtb1127]

@ blind biker

The original picture had a sixth hominid.
To the right was a mirror image of the first one.
Will it be that bad?

It won't be a mirror image of the first one it will actually be a very small and simple single-celled prokaryotic organism.

 

[Xenobenignitas]

If Activision do buy Take-Two. Does that mean Call to Power will return?

 

[Louis XXIV]

Casual gamers are Firaxis' new beloved and target audience. For Civilization 5 as well as the facebook game. It certainly is very plausible.

Fine, I'll be a little more emphatic. It isn't true.

 

[Thormodr]

Fine, I'll be a little more emphatic. It isn't true.

Do you have proof that they are testing the product with long time fans then?

Not that I really care that much but it makes the most sense logically to test it on the intended target audience first.

 

[CivFanaticMan]

Civ world?...

 

[Drawmeus]

If the facebook game takes off and is a huge success they will never make a single player PC version again. Look at WOW. The last single player warcraft we got was III how many years ago?

Same thing will happen.

Eh... they're not abandoning single player (SC2 has come out since WoW, Diablo 3 due next year). They might be done making single-player Warcraft games, but I imagine that would have a lot more to do with the fact that coordinating the storylines with WoW would be a nightmare than it would have to do with single player not being worth enough money for them.