2K and Firaxis

[AriochIV]

I'm not sure that "old fashioned" is such a bad thing in this case. Newer companies are more engaged in social media, but I haven't seen that result in better games. Customer feedback is important, but if you make your design decisions based on a show of hands, you get a bad product every time; nothing of quality was ever designed by committee.

2K seems to be a relatively benign corporate taskmaster; they seem for the most part to just let Firaxis make the games they want to make. Imagine how things might be if Firaxis had been bought by EA.

 

[NASAROG]

I would not Trust Sid or his company for any reason. I bought Railroads, Civ 4 Colonization and was here for CiV 5 release.

They have done nothing to suggest they deserve any trust for years. Now, I am not like the OP, I would much prefer they sit in an ivory tower and make fun games. Since the so called fans have been part of development, we gamers have gotten the shaft by getting crappy products.

Whoa, I thought I was jaded.

 

[Randall_Flagg]

Whoa, I thought I was jaded.

Railroads, Civ 4 Colonization, Diablo 3, Simcity, Godus and Tropico 5. I have a right to be jaded.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Simcity 2013 was an affront to mankind.

 

[Aeson]

I think they could do a better job of communicating with the community. There are a select few that get picked to test the games, everyone else is left in the dark until the big game news gets exclusives. (This is 2K's decision. Firaxis doesn't call the shots on marketing AFAIK. Firaxis used to be much more active in the online communities.)

While game design shouldn't be done on social media, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be on social media. Getting new players excited about the game happens there, as does keeping their interest between releases. Ultimately bringing in new players and keeping veteran players engaged is good for the series, good for those who love it.

----------------

I don't have a problem with IAP or DLC. All an expansion is is one big DLC anyways. Whichever model helps keep the player base active and involved, generates excitement for new players, and the funding rolling it is the best option.

 

[gunnergoz]

Want to talk disappointment? Lets talk about Rome 2. Or SimCity 2013. Or any number of recent Kickstarter projects that ended up being nothing but promises and hot air. I am not claiming that Civ V or XC:EU could not have been better, only that I feel I have more than gotten my money's worth of entertainment from them, certainly as compared to a lot of dollars spent on games that I tried once and wiped forever from my HD.

 

[NASAROG]

Railroads, Civ 4 Colonization, Diablo 3, Simcity, Godus and Tropico 5. I have a right to be jaded.

Indeed, but I didn't know that these Diablo 3, Simcity, Godus and Tropico 5 where Sid Meier/Firaxis properties.

Having said that, I agree with your jaded perspective, because you are right for several reasons: your money=your time, those games are garbage, and everyone is entitled to their opinion...

Gofus.. UGH!

 

[Randall_Flagg]

No they are not part of Firaxis. But they all, but Kalypso have one thing in common. They are the old school game developers. It is that which has me jaded in my golden years of gaming.

Proudly Banned from Every Godus forum on the intraweb.

 

[Lord Shadow]

For the record, Diablo 3 has become quite decent since the removal of the cursed auction house.

But I fear we're veering off-topic.

 

[Nikolai II]

I think it's a little odd to suggest that they don't have much dialogue with fans, given each Civ title in recent years features quite a number of those fans in the credits.

This.

 

[Lancor]

Having played a lot of Blizzard games they do definitely not resemble one another. Both companies have their aging management and "heroes" but I feel like Blizzard has had to evolve with its more mainstream consumers.

....

See, that is what I am talking about. Civ5 was streamlined to be a more mainstream experience. The same thing Blizzard did with most of their games.
Sure, there are differences between them, mostly about the business size. But both turned their eye to the crowds and altered their niche products to the masses while barely reacting to their fans' wishes.

 

[Osmotic]

Given the extraordinary resurgence of board games which feature a blinding variety of game mechanics, I want to believe that a computer game company could innovate with an entirely fresh take on the serious strategy game. There obviously is the risk that such a game would appeal only to a small audience. Clearly that is where the appeal of Civ and XCOM is for the dev/publisher: it has a large user base that has already been made familiar with core game concepts. Starting a new style of game/new franchise is probably too risky for a large mainstream established studio. The issue is that serious, quality strategy games are very hard to make for indie shops, which leaves the genre in a bit of a marketing/game design dilemma.

 

[rastak]

No, no, no. Railroad Tycoon had its chance with Railroads. Now where's the Sword of the Samurai remake? That game was gold.

Spoiler :

I loved that and Covert Action. I recently bought both off GOG.

 

[Osmotic]

Railroads, Civ 4 Colonization, Diablo 3, Simcity, Godus and Tropico 5. I have a right to be jaded.

"Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt." — Zora Neale Hurston

 

[Acken]

I don't follow Firaxis PR too much but regarding Blizzard... they have quite fell down in recent years in my eyes. They're so... arrogant. I have no better words for the massive amount of time they've neglected fans opinion and just stated "we think its more fun that way, shut up" (especially regarding D3, SC2 and some Bnet 2.0 functionalities). And then have to wait for the next expansion for them to finally listening. Also I have no interest in their last F2P stuffs...

I've been quite satisfied with Firaxis products in the recent years in comparison.

 

[Callonia]

Nope, Firaxis don't sit in an ivory tower.

I have Pandora, FE:LH, Sins of the solar empire, Warlock, AOW3 and whole bunch of Strategy games from japan. Admittedly the number of my strategy games from japan outnumbers the western ones.

And Blizzard? Why mention them? They're completely lost their vision and continue to get more worse over time.

Reason 1: They removed the roar emote from berserker rage everytime i pressed it.
Reason 2: Removed Roar emote from Untamed Blade whenever it procced.
Reason 3: Made town guards godly.
Reason 4: Not that fun to explore anymore with so much removals and smashing.
Reason 5: Removed Vengeance sparkly hand whenver it procced for ret tree.
Reason 6: Orb of deception accessory used to change your gender as it transformed you into opposite sides of race horde vs alliance. And if you did certain tricks you could transform into different race instead of orcs for humans.
Reason 7: And most worse of all, they removed my seal of command. T_T Instant uninstall after loss of seal of command. I didn't really like seal of vengeance cuz it was so dang boring while seal of command gave me big numbers and enjoyable 2hander jumping attack while 1hander spinning attack animations.

I could go on forever about blizzard but common theme is Remove anything that's fun and replace it with something boring and they've been doing it for many years. Is very unhappy with it and I can't contact a blizzard dev to tell them to stop it and leave my fun stuff alone. If they didn't remove basically every tiny thing I liked about wow I would be still an subscribing customer of blizzard for wow despite the plague of chinese gold sellers and hackers.

So, Firaxis isn't that bad at all, they don't remove the fun stuff only exploits. Which is why I have spent more time with Civ series than I did for world of warcraft.

 

[rkade8583]

What's with all this Blizzard bashing? They're ok. I remember vanilla WoW. Some things needed to be pruned... Molten Core.

I'll agree with the other people who've said Firaxis (or their 2k handlers for sure) are "old fashioned."

 

[Randall_Flagg]

"Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt." — Zora Neale Hurston

What did this ignorant idiot have to say about being jaded? That is the word I used right?

 

[leif erikson]

Moderator Action: Getting personal. If you wish to have this discussion, turn down the trolling and flaming.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Kolbeg]

To sum up I´m not judging the products from 2K + Firaxis. I´m talking about the image that I have of them in my head, based on the way they produce their products and communicate.

They sit there and work on their product, every now and then they trow a little something to the community, usually just a 3-5 screenshots, or a 200 word introduction to a new Faction. Mechanics are very loosely explained and others remain a mystery almost forever. Its like they are almost forced to communicate, and when they do its an absolute minimum I feel.

Then all of a sudden some German Gamer´s Magazine creates an article that contains way more info then had ever been released before. It is so weird, poor information management and still my total image of how this game is going to be or feel is very much in the dark.

Are they intending to make some additions in an expansion, how do they want things to feel, what is their vision? Other then just its gonna feel "similar to people that have played Civ5" and "also feel nostalgic to people that played good old SMAC". Yeah yeah nice sales pitch!! BUT what about game mechanics, design philosophy and AI.

I used Blizzard perhaps unfairly, but just to point out how they openly discuss or more like inform the community about the progress, direction and vision of their latest product, the new Wow Expansion. It does not matter if you like the product or not, just how the company talks to the community. And it is not about always listening to the community its about informing it.

Do Firaxis ever respond to any posts on their forums, or join discussions there?