2 page interview with Soren and Barry in April issue of PC Gamer

[croxis]

Issue April 2006 Page 56

There really isn't too much new that we don't already know. They talked about how multi-player was included from the ground up and that helped with the AI-bottle neck in the development cycle. They also had a playable build in 6 months. Soren said he wished they did a public beta at least three months before shipping to catch many of the issues from launch. Civfanatics and ulfn's graph mod was mentioned and how his mod was included in the second patch.

Soren also mentioned that he wished they had time to develop an editor for the game so people can change basic features without having to dig into the xml.

Some news on the next patch: "Besides the upcoming pitboss and SDK releases, our next patch will focus mostly on bug fixes, especially in regards to connectivity within the GameSpy lobby. In the future, we're going to take advantage of the modding flexibility of Civ IV ourselves, so we expect to see some scenarios that provide interesting twists on the core gameplay."

 

[Thunderfall]

Thanks for the report, croxis!

 

[Chibiabos]

Now, if only we knew when that SDK was coming out.

... one more turn ...

 

[Portuguese]

"Could Soren be talking about the expansion pack in the last sentence? "

You already know the answer to that question. You are here only to understand it.

lol
I had to put this Matrix Reloaded quote!!!

 

[Brighteye]

An editor would be wonderful. I'd far rather have an expansion pack that included an editor than have one with an extra scenario or few.
After all, with an editor I can have a lot of fun creating my own scenarios, which with my complete lak of programming ability I can't do now.

 

[croxis]

The question was indeed about patches and expansions.

7 am is also an ungodly hour

 

[josephstalin]

Good news! I would love an editor too.

 

[Ranbir]

Mmm, him talking about scenarios. Expansion pack...or maybe...freebies! (I hope the latter!)

 

[black_mischief]

This patch is long overdue. It is amazing to me that Firaxis takes almost a quarter of a year to fix, what should have been done right the first time. But, I guess we should keep our expectations low from a C-minus level development team to begin with...

 

[Roland Johansen]

This patch is long overdue. It is amazing to me that Firaxis takes almost a quarter of a year to fix, what should have been done right the first time. But, I guess we should keep our expectations low from a C-minus level development team to begin with...

Do you play the game?

 

[croxis]

Well it prolly would have been done better if Take-2 didn't move the releace date sooner last minute.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

This patch is long overdue. It is amazing to me that Firaxis takes almost a quarter of a year to fix, what should have been done right the first time. But, I guess we should keep our expectations low from a C-minus level development team to begin with...

Well it prolly would have been done better if Take-2 didn't move the releace date sooner last minute.

How would you like to be a Firaxis programmer and suddenly have your project due date moved up at the last moment?

That's not even the worst of it. Because the product was rushed by Take-2 before it was ready everyone now blames Firaxis for the problem!

 

[black_mischief]

To Roland Johansen:

I've played with everyone from Tommy, SirPartyMan, RP, to even the noobs and racists that pilfer your Gamespy Internet lobby.

How would you like to be a Firaxis programmer and suddenly have your project due date moved up at the last moment?

That's not even the worst of it. Because the product was rushed by Take-2 before it was ready everyone now blames Firaxis for the problem!

What kind of jackass gets into bed with Take-Two in the first place? Can you possibly pick a crappier distribution partner? A third rate player with a long history of skeptics and doubters around the company for years... and that's putting it politely. Take Two has had questionable accounting practices for a very long time, been forced by the SEC to restate financials, replace board members, and has probably had more CEO changes in the last 5 years than all of the other publicly traded gaming software companies combined.... sure... seems like a great partner to me !

Take responsibility for how you run your business. You guys took an A-quality franchise and turned out a C-level product. But good thing you made the deadline for Take-Two... that helped their Q4 bottom line and will pad all the "Hot Coffee" lawsuits they are dealing with... seems like a good tradeoff... Civ4's product quality and Firaxis' reputation in exchange for helping TTWO's short-term results and making that all important Christmas rush.

Maybe MacNamee and Elevation will really throw TTWO a life preserver and allow Civ5 to be done right... then you can give THEM all the credit for a good product being turned out.... right?

I know business is business. I've been there... but this situation has been ****ed up, and you deserve the criticism you get. You know TTWO probably doesn't give a **** as long as they are moving boxes.

-bm

 

[Sahkuhnder]

What kind of jackass gets into bed with Take-Two in the first place? Can you possibly pick a crappier distribution partner? A third rate player with a long history of skeptics and doubters around the company for years... and that's putting it politely. Take Two has had questionable accounting practices for a very long time, been forced by the SEC to restate financials, replace board members, and has probably had more CEO changes in the last 5 years than all of the other publicly traded gaming software companies combined.... sure... seems like a great partner to me !

Take responsibility for how you run your business. You guys took an A-quality franchise and turned out a C-level product. But good thing you made the deadline for Take-Two... that helped their Q4 bottom line and will pad all the "Hot Coffee" lawsuits they are dealing with... seems like a good tradeoff... Civ4's product quality and Firaxis' reputation in exchange for helping TTWO's short-term results and making that all important Christmas rush.

Maybe MacNamee and Elevation will really throw TTWO a life preserver and allow Civ5 to be done right... then you can give THEM all the credit for a good product being turned out.... right?

I know business is business. I've been there... but this situation has been ****ed up, and you deserve the criticism you get. You know TTWO probably doesn't give a **** as long as they are moving boxes.

-bm

Bold by me.


Sorry, your own bias is causing you to jump to conclusions. I am in no way associated with Take-2, Firaxis, or civ in any way.

The regular programmer at Firaxis as used in my example has little or no say in decisions such as who his company 'gets into bed with'.

Based on your childish inability to refrain from foul language and the highly unprofessional out of control tone of your message I reserve my right to strongly doubt you know much, if anything, about the business world.

Thanks for taking the time to share your opinion.

 

[croxis]

Also it was Atari which sold the franchise to Take Two, not Firaxis.

I suggest you look up your facts.

 

[player1 fanatic]

Anything is better then Atari or Activision...

 

[black_mischief]

Bold by me.


Sorry, your own bias is causing you to jump to conclusions. I am in no way associated with Take-2, Firaxis, or civ in any way.

The regular programmer at Firaxis as used in my example has little or no say in decisions such as who his company 'gets into bed with'.

Based on your childish inability to refrain from foul language and the highly unprofessional out of control tone of your message I reserve my right to strongly doubt you know much, if anything, about the business world.

Thanks for taking the time to share your opinion.

Anyone who has done any real work on Take Two, Activision, and ERTS knows how these players stack up. I don't profess to be the most informed 'businessman', but I know a thing or two.

Your diatribe about the poor low-man on the totem pole coder @ Firaxis really serves no point. We can also say that about the poor janitorial staff at Enron who were unfortunately out of a job... but were really nice guys!! So what's your point?

And grow a sack of nuts, if u cant handle any foul language...


-bm

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: black_mischief - warned for language.

This is a family oriented site, please keep the language as such.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Sahkuhnder]

Anyone who has done any real work on Take Two, Activision, and ERTS knows how these players stack up. I don't profess to be the most informed 'businessman', but I know a thing or two.

Your diatribe about the poor low-man on the totem pole coder @ Firaxis really serves no point. We can also say that about the poor janitorial staff at Enron who were unfortunately out of a job... but were really nice guys!! So what's your point?

And grow a sack of nuts, if u cant handle any foul language...


-bm

Bold by me.


You brought up Firaxis development team with your insults and attack rant in post #9. I stated that the average member of the development team has no say in matters such as release dates or who their company gets sold to. That's the point. Sorry it was too complex for you to understand.

I won't grace you last line with a response.

 

[Commander Bello]

How would you like to be a Firaxis programmer and suddenly have your project due date moved up at the last moment?

That's not even the worst of it. Because the product was rushed by Take-2 before it was ready everyone now blames Firaxis for the problem!

Complete BS.

The programming company (Firaxis) and the distributing company (Take2) typically have a contract, including the delivery date. If one of the parties is to change this contract, the other one has to agree. Period.

So, Firaxis accepted the shift of the release date. Furthermore, it was shifted by just 14 days. And this was half a year ago.

If this 14 days did cause that much problems, time would have been more than sufficient to fix the issues resulting from the shift.
The problems obviously are caused by other reasons.

As it has been reported that the late game never was really tested by humans, but was tested "by extrapolation", this simply means they didn't meet their own schedules.

If they really would have had a running build after six months already (what I doubt) than they have a severe management problem.

Don't try to excuse Firaxis at all costs. They - once again - have proven to face severe problems in managing projects of this size. Almost the same story as with Civ3 and its expansions.