Civilization V's Social Responsibility (Community feature; manual example; 31 Aug)

[The_J]

The_J, 2K could give away 50% of their profits to charity and you'd still find something to whine about.

I'm not whining about the donation.
I'm whining about that they take something away from what i wanted to have, and instead they decide for me, that they will donate something.
Maybe i would have wanted to donate myself? Maybe to a group which they will not donate to?

I don't like, that they are trying to force things upon us.
Not, that we have to use steam, not that they decide, to whom i can donate.

The difference of course being that airbags save lives and manuals don't?

...okay, then let's say the interior? That's maybe better.

Greg I looked at the table of contents and I'm rather concerned that I don't see even a small heading for a description of the MP interface, even the Civ4 manual had that. So I'm hoping that your example is just a mockup and not the real thing.

CS

+1

They could have NOT made any sort of manual, after all.

That's the next step.
Manual -> no printed manual -> no manual at all.

What a considerate move on the part of the developers. It's nice to see public relations people using good moral decisions to try to improve their company's public image, rather than, say, putting their game characters on cans of Mountain Dew.

The good morale decissions are just there to calm down the community. Nothing else.

 

[bjbrains]

I thought you said you weren't going to buy the game anyway, I don't get why you're so concerned about being 'forced' to donate to charity-

(FYI, you don't want to donate, don't buy, simple as that. You don't have any right to the game, and acting entitled/complaining about being "forced" to do anything is ludicrous).

 

[marioflag]

I'm not whining about the donation.
I'm whining about that they take something away from what i wanted to have, and instead they decide for me, that they will donate something.
Maybe i would have wanted to donate myself? Maybe to a group which they will not donate to?

I don't like, that they are trying to force things upon us.
Not, that we have to use steam, not that they decide, to whom i can donate.

Quite honestly no one of us donate anything.That's just a communication of social responsibility which objective is to improve 2K public image.The fact that they won't make a paper manual is indipendent from the choice to donate money and this is just a nice way to tell us that and to control damage . Anyway the fact that they will update manual is a really nice thing on behalf of 2K

 

[Mannu]

This is great, can't believe that some are missing the point. Thanks for taking whatever small steps you can to be responsible. Keep it up and keep doing more!

 

[Auncien]

Using charitable donations as an incentive to purchase a product for the purpose of generating profit is manipulative and in my opinion inappropriate. Lending a helping hand is a very respectible activity. Doing so in connection with a for-profit venture is, in my opinion, distasteful.

 

[Louis XXIV]

It stings a bit to not have a manual, but, at the same time, I feel 2k is not giving it to us in the very best way possible. For starters, they're framing the issue as one of environment (which it isn't exclusively, but is still a factor, both in paper consumption and in fuel consumption during shipping). Second, they're doing more than just saying "hey we're saving paper", they're taking other concrete efforts to reach out to the public. Finally, they're releasing part of the manual early (which is better than releasing the whole thing anyway, that would ruin any surprises from playing).

I'm going to actually applaud them for this. I am one of those people who loves manuals (my fondest memories were when I got Civ2 and Alpha Centauri, but didn't yet have a computer to play them. I read both manuals cover-to-cover before installing the games). But, at the same time, that post, with a simple economy of words, has convinced me to be OK with this. I'll miss not having a manual to a degree, but I still have my old ones (SMAC's manual, like most of the production in that game, is top notch). So I'll thank Greg and 2K for handling this the way they did.

 

[Szpilman]

Wow, had no idea this community had so many selfish consumerists. I guess when most people's preferred playstyle is to trump other civs and conquer the world you couldn't expect much better. It's like expecting it from hardcore FPS players. I don't mean to generalize, it's just statistics.

It doesn't matter that companies do CSR because they can deduct from taxes and because it's good marketing in and of itself (since it's very obvious that's exactly why they do it), the very fact that they consider it a good initiative speaks well for them and shows a generally more healthy mindset somewhere within the company, at least.

Thanks for your efforts, 2K! They are well appreciated by some, even if your demographics in general do not.

 

[Szpilman]

Using charitable donations as an incentive to purchase a product for the purpose of generating profit is manipulative and in my opinion inappropriate. Lending a helping hand is a very respectible activity. Doing so in connection with a for-profit venture is, in my opinion, distasteful.

Because it's in for-profit organizations that the most money is?
If they're contributing to the community (moreso than most governments anyways), even if fueled by greed alone, shouldn't we just take what we can get towards a very little better world? I mean, the more people think like that, the less "little" and more "very" it becomes.

 

[Auncien]

Because it's in for-profit organizations that the most money is?
If they're contributing to the community (moreso than most governments anyways), even if fueled by greed alone, shouldn't we just take what we can get towards a very little better world? I mean, the more people think like that, the more that "very little" becomes.

No. We should structure our actions upon principle. Corporations are social parasites, not benefactors.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Honestly, calling a for profit company distasteful for taking some of that profit and giving it to charity is absurd. They could have just kept the extra profit. It's also criticizing any other company that has used a similar tactic in the past (and many do). Do you want to discourage all of them from giving to charities because they might make money from it as well?

 

[bjbrains]

No. We should structure our actions upon principle. Corporations are social parasites, not benefactors.

Well then, you should avoid buying Civ, using the internet, buying a computer, or eating commercial food by that logic. Oh, and using this forum.

Some good is better than no good.

 

[Szpilman]

No. We should structure our actions upon principle. Corporations are social parasites, not benefactors.

Look, I can empathize that capitalism sucks in many ways. It's the worst form of government except all others that have been tried (I'm sure you've read this somewhere )

When you and I run our companies, I'm sure we can expect them to be grounded on our own personal values and principles (I prize mine very much) -- at least until they go IPO at least But most people don't give a f*** about anyone else where it matters, and we can actually see some of that behaviour in this very thread.

So since the world is not going to be socialist, we can, again, take what we can get towards a little saner world. That are many GREAT NGOs doing a hell of a job on many fronts, much better than our stupid governments. But where is the big money in our society? The big whores, the corporations, yes. So just be glad that the population in general actually approves of CSR so much that's it's becoming more common for businesses to see social responsibility initiatives as a marketing option with good longterm ROI.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

Look, I can empathize that capitalism sucks in many ways. It's the worst form of government except all others that have been tried (I'm sure you've read this somewhere )

Winston Churchill said that about democracy. Besides, capitalism is an economic system not a form of government.

 

[sdlufkin]

Some of you guys are making me a little sad. I think I'll take my ball and go home now.

 

[Tylerryan79]

This might be a stupid question, can we look at the manual without being online? I only as because it says it will be updated, so I was t sure if it's a file on my pc or a link to a website holding the file to load on a browser.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I don't see any reason why, at a minimum, you couldn't save the pdf to your hard drive. My guess is that it'll come with the CD, though.

 

[Szpilman]

Winston Churchill said that about democracy. Besides, capitalism is an economic system not a form of government.

Semantics, semantics...

 

[Calouste]

Greg I looked at the table of contents and I'm rather concerned that I don't see even a small heading for a description of the MP interface, even the Civ4 manual had that. So I'm hoping that your example is just a mockup and not the real thing.

CS

Haven't you heard? MP is probably going to be DLC. No word yet on how much they will charge for it.

 

[Auncien]

Some of you guys are making me a little sad. I think I'll take my ball and go home now.

Your ball belongs to the community, comrade...

on topic: I'm totally cool with the pdf manual. Makes sense for them, for us and is environmentally sound.

 

[sdlufkin]

Your ball belongs to the community, comrade...

Aw, crap! Well, if you say so...