I like the Civ games, but I do think that Civ4 was very buggy, and basically unfinished, when it was released. We all bought the game, because we assumed that a game that was released to be played would be a finished product.
Instead it still doesn't run properly on a significant minority of systems, and multiplayer (apparently: I don't play mp) is atrocious. If you're going to release a game early because you need the money, your priority once you've got the income to keep you afloat is to fix the game for all those people who've just bought it.
Since we all have to agree to ridiculous licenses that no other industry would get away with, we can't make any claims about not being fit for the purpose for which it was sold. So we wait and hope that a game that's barely worth £20 will be fixed so that it runs properly and becomes the best game of a popular series rather than a foolish investment.
I'm certainly not going to be buying any expansion pack until the game actually works, and even then I'll probably wait. I feel like I've been screwed once, and so I'll want to make sure that the expansion is worthwhile before I lose another lump of money.
