Civ VI Lead Left Firaxis - Final Nail In The Coffin?

[aieeegrunt]

Now that's a bit condescending, isn't it?


You're mainly right... except if you imply that ALL engineers are the way you describe them. Hint: I'm one of those E guys... and I take offense whenever any general idea about a population or a worker is being set out as a universal truth. Being unpopular doesn't make you stupid or useless...

Maybe it’s a mechanical eng thing

Anyway, my point was: sure QA is needed, but QA will not (and cannot) rectify a poorly written code, when no unit testing is done by the developer himself. Expect that and you're basically trying to fingerpoint why the program will not work, rather than writing clean and good working code.

You need both for your work to be good.

 

[blackbutterfly]

Anyone watch Downfall on Netflix?

Thankfully Firaxis don't make software for airplanes
In Boeing's case people died. No laughing matter but a tragic story about a catastrophic QA failure due to corporate greed (and capitalist ethos).

(This is relevant to discussion re: QA, developer burnout, software engineering process, brand loyalty, etc.)

 

[vorlon_mi]

Looking at this another way -- it's a new approach, an innovative business decision to release game modes for a game that can be used independently, or together. That's not an approach that they used for any of the previous members of the Civ franchise. Civ 5 had expansion packs and patches, but all were designed to work together. Similarly for Beyond Earth and Civ 4 and its expansion packs.

Was this new approach successful? They did sell a lot of copies of NFP. They might even be able to track increases in sales of the base game that correspond to release of the game modes; perhaps new people bought Civ 6, just for the ability to include zombies.

The new approach also introduced many opportunities for bugs to creep in, for game balance to be disturbed (especially in single player), and for other issues (bugs or game balance) in the base game and expansions to remain unaddressed. It's hard to say whether that is a blemish on the monetary success of NFP or not even relevant to the evaluation of NFP's success.

Perhaps the best way to measure success of Civ 6 is the ongoing play statistics from Steam. Are the numbers steady, indicating that a base of people still like the game well enough to keep playing? Are the numbers growing? Are the numbers declining, and how does that decline compare to other game titles in the months after their final content is released?

While I expect that Civ 7 will have expansion packs of some kind after the initial release, it will be interesting to see if they continue the trends of DLC that is integrated with the base game; game modes that can be turned on and off; and the balance between the two.

 

[Riekopo]

I'm pretty disappointed with Firaxis' support of Civ VI. Compared to Paradox games which are supported for 10 years which is what I want with Civ. To me it doesn't make sense to stop working on Civ VI when it's popular and there's still so much more that could be added to it.

 

[Zaarin]

I'm pretty disappointed with Firaxis' support of Civ VI. Compared to Paradox games which are supported for 10 years which is what I want with Civ. To me it doesn't make sense to stop working on Civ VI when it's popular and there's still so much more that could be added to it.

IMO Civ6's problem is an excess rather than lack of content. Content bloat only compounds the incoherence of the core systems.

 

[Alaindor]

IMO Civ6's problem is an excess rather than lack of content. Content bloat only compounds the incoherence of the core systems.

Agree to that, but lack of support is mostly demonstrated by ignoring the blatant game-breaking bugs that hinder the game since last NFP "patches". Those brought much more issues than actually meaningful content.

 

[Zaarin]

Agree to that, but lack of support is mostly demonstrated by ignoring the blatant game-breaking bugs that hinder the game since last NFP "patches". Those brought much more issues than actually meaningful content.

Agreed. The current bug-ridden state of the game is its biggest problem.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Agreed. The current bug-ridden state of the game is its biggest problem.

And the fact that it has been left in that state is a sign of extreme short-sightedness on the part of the Corporation behind the game.
I am certain that I am not the only gamer who absolutely will not buy Civ VII when it comes out. For the first time since Civ 2, I will wait and see if the game is worth my time and money instead of assuming that will be the case and shelling out the money as soon as the game is available. I no longer trust that any Civ game will be worth a dime out of the box.

 

[Zaarin]

I am certain that I am not the only gamer who absolutely will not buy Civ VII when it comes out. For the first time since Civ 2, I will wait and see if the game is worth my time and money instead of assuming that will be the case and shelling out the money as soon as the game is available. I no longer trust that any Civ game will be worth a dime out of the box.

This has become my policy for pretty much every company I used to trust except Supergiant.