A note from our dev team: gameplay reveal & more coming this August!

You might not have been around at the right time ;).
After the Civ5 and Civ6 release you could find the devs at least regularly reading here, and also for some part commenting on bug reports.
For the rest, I guess they were mostly busy fixing stuff and didn't have time to post ;).
 
Andrew Johnson [FXS] said:
Yep! I worked in academia (and still do, much of the year) as a professor before joining Firaxis; I got my PhD in 2010. I teach on Southeast Asia, religion, and environment and write on similar things (a quick google of "Andrew Alan Johnson" and "thailand" or "anthropology" should get hits, if you're interested). I do primary research (ethnography, and a little archival stuff), though Civ is more secondary research (reading what other people have written, not going out on-site). Though if Firaxis wants to pay to send me around the world they certainly are welcome to do so. Waiting for the day when I can just use my own work as quotes in-game.
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Having studied some anthropology and with Isaan being my second home and favourite place in the whole world, this makes me immeasurably happy 😃
 
Solver said:
[old man mode]

Then there was a time when the devs were frequently posting (Civ3 / Civ4) and when forum regulars turned into devs on future games (Civ4 / Civ5)

[/old man mode]
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It wasn't just in Civ4/Civ5 when forum regulars turned into devs, though Kael may be the best-known by forum name. Trip was a Civ3 modder, and rose all the way to the top.

But yes, there was much Firaxis activity on the forums back in the day... MikeB is the one I remember most from here, Dan Magaha was a forum member who accumulated several hundred posts, and I believe alexman from (primarily) Apolyton was also on the Firaxis side from the start? I'm sure there were others I was not aware of, given my relatively late join date.

It's exciting to see what I hope will be a new era of similar engagement.
 
wow that's interesting! from modding to being part of game team is surely exciting
Solver said:
[old man mode]

Then there was a time when the devs were frequently posting (Civ3 / Civ4) and when forum regulars turned into devs on future games (Civ4 / Civ5)

[/old man mode]
Click to expand...
 
Quintillus said:
It wasn't just in Civ4/Civ5 when forum regulars turned into devs, though Kael may be the best-known by forum name. Trip was a Civ3 modder, and rose all the way to the top.

But yes, there was much Firaxis activity on the forums back in the day... MikeB is the one I remember most from here, Dan Magaha was a forum member who accumulated several hundred posts, and I believe alexman from (primarily) Apolyton was also on the Firaxis side from the start? I'm sure there were others I was not aware of, given my relatively late join date.

It's exciting to see what I hope will be a new era of similar engagement.
Click to expand...

Right, I meant that Civ4 was the first game to have devs or contributors from the forum ranks. Alexman and Trip were recruited by Firaxis for Civ4 because of their Civ3 activity, with several more Apolyton members, myself included, contributing things to Civ4 or expansions under contract. The Civ4 cohort was quite a prominent one, as Alexman led Civ4: BtS, Trip got the honor of leading Civ5, and several other people (like Kael, Dale and I) eventually became full-time devs elsewhere, and others yet (like Elhoim) have published indie games. That's not an exhaustive list!

During late Civ3 development and also Civ4, we had forum participation by Firaxians like Mike Breitkreutz, Dan Magaha and Jeff Morris. Soren was also posting during the Civ3 era.

The modern situation of Firaxis and the whole industry is of course very different (amazing to think that Civ3's sales numbers, great at the time, would be a major commercial disaster now) but it's great to see Firaxians on the forums again!
 
Quintillus said:
It wasn't just in Civ4/Civ5 when forum regulars turned into devs, though Kael may be the best-known by forum name. Trip was a Civ3 modder, and rose all the way to the top.

But yes, there was much Firaxis activity on the forums back in the day... MikeB is the one I remember most from here, Dan Magaha was a forum member who accumulated several hundred posts, and I believe alexman from (primarily) Apolyton was also on the Firaxis side from the start? I'm sure there were others I was not aware of, given my relatively late join date.

It's exciting to see what I hope will be a new era of similar engagement.
Click to expand...

It's harder in the recent years to have devs interact directly. More things end up controlled by marketing/social media teams, and people can take any "official" interactions in a weird say. Just the way things go sometimes. I do think it's always better when you get that direct interaction, and always glad that Andrew is lurking and willing to answer about stuff that he can. I've learned lots of nice historical tid-bits from his interactions on here since he joined the team.
 
I know this forum is about Civ VII that, I hear, is coming up and all that jazz... but before I start to follow those exciting (maybe) news, I just want to know, I really want to know FXS's position on the state of Civ VI: are they done with it for good? Are they fully satisfied with it? Is it the final final very really final for sure state of the game? Definitely no more patches coming up? So far, I'm not aware of such a statement, and please, inform me, if I'm wrong. I just want to know.
 
MrRadar said:
I know this forum is about Civ VII that, I hear, is coming up and all that jazz... but before I start to follow those exciting (maybe) news, I just want to know, I really want to know FXS's position on the state of Civ VI: are they done with it for good? Are they fully satisfied with it? Is it the final final very really final for sure state of the game? Definitely no more patches coming up? So far, I'm not aware of such a statement, and please, inform me, if I'm wrong. I just want to know.
Click to expand...
They actually just hotfixed the console versions and those versions can now do the monthly challenges.
 
MrRadar said:
I know this forum is about Civ VII that, I hear, is coming up and all that jazz... but before I start to follow those exciting (maybe) news, I just want to know, I really want to know FXS's position on the state of Civ VI: are they done with it for good? Are they fully satisfied with it? Is it the final final very really final for sure state of the game? Definitely no more patches coming up? So far, I'm not aware of such a statement, and please, inform me, if I'm wrong. I just want to know.
Click to expand...
I would say there is an incredibly low chance of a patch for 6, though it's not unpropable, though if my recollection is right, the final patch for both 5 and 4 came out before the next iteration was announced, however, 6 also broke a lot of molds we got used to so you never know. But afaik, 6 is done and wrapped up.
 
Hi there firaxian's,

So nice to see you guys are reaching out here.
I am here for almost 20 years now on a daily basis, moding and moding and playing.
Civ is my comfort and joy since.

Im craving for civ7 and a civ that can draw me in once again :) im certain that it will be magnificent.
---
Btw, as per the conversation above,
I too can say civ made me a developer and through it modding, where i took my first steps with python and cpp.

Anyway,
Cant wait.
 
Andrew Johnson [FXS] said:
Yep! I worked in academia (and still do, much of the year) as a professor before joining Firaxis; I got my PhD in 2010. I teach on Southeast Asia, religion, and environment and write on similar things (a quick google of "Andrew Alan Johnson" and "thailand" or "anthropology" should get hits, if you're interested). I do primary research (ethnography, and a little archival stuff), though Civ is more secondary research (reading what other people have written, not going out on-site). Though if Firaxis wants to pay to send me around the world they certainly are welcome to do so. Waiting for the day when I can just use my own work as quotes in-game.
Click to expand...
I just want to say, as someone who is about to start his PhD in history this coming fall (general field is the history of international relations, specifically the Congress of Vienna and early modern diplomacy), it's great to see academics involved in popular media. With the state of career opportunities in academia these days, researching for video games is definitely something that I'm gonna consider.

I can't wait for the PAX West panel and to hear your thoughts on topics that intersect historical research and video game design! I've been having an interest in global history as a perspective, and it'll be interesting to see how much Civ has and could convey those concepts to a wider audience.
 
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