people just love to make lame excuses...
first of all, you shouldn't even compare "Sid&Co" to Blizzard Entertainment. They are two birds of different feathers, one is a cheap sh*t that doesn't take care of their own customers and the other DOES take care of customers and act professionally.
Yes I love Blizzard, and I'm not ashamed to be a kiss-ass, but only for them
You talk about Diablo2, and try to compare it to Civ3 in terms of bugs... okay lets compare:
game:
D2- out of the box, you could finish the game and explore every aspect of the game.
Civ3- bugs:air superiority , corruption unbalance, culture flips, and a bunch more you could find just by skimming at these forums.
forums:
D2- d2.net, a great place to meet other players and chat about pvp, item qualities, monster drops, character development. And something which could count as a "bug" in the conceptual sense: "compared to others Sorcy's firewall is too strong. "
Civ3- Now, unless you're blind, half of all posts after the release of Civ3 has been about bugs, and the unbalance of game concepts.
patches:
D2- from my personal experience, I do not recall Blizzard posting names of certain bugs before releasing a patch for it. Usually, they are done mysteriously, and things are taken cared off before people notice them.
But then again, I never experienced any bugs and Yes I'd know if there was since I visit the only place where information flows -- the forums.
Civ3: "Wheres the patch?" "Hey, know when the patch's coming out?" "What will the patch do?"...................................
result:
I don't feel the need to bash Civ3 and the "great" Sid on the account of Blizzard. They don't measure up even close to Blizzard for those two to fit in the same category.
(dont burn my house fanboys)
btw, to the idiot who tried to shield Civ3 by saying something about D2 patches: obviously you know nothing about D2.
Those patches are for balancing elements of the game, i.e skills, money, monster loot, monster difficulty, pvp, for BATTLE.Net only! You don't even need those patches if you're just a single player type of guy. The game could be played from start to end using version 1.00!
All this talk is not without actual leading evidence either.
Those that remember, long ago, when Civ3 was still under its developmental phrase, some guy asked Firaxis whether they will be offering beta testing. ANd the response he got was: "we'll be doing our own closed testing."
...
Apparently, that was not the case. Since we, as customers, are performing their "beta" testing right now. It's really no different.
They left out an entire phrase of production, and are using us to support them with notable bugs.
So, for all of you who want prove something by comparing a great, responsible company who at least test their freakin product to Sid Meier: Go play some more Civ!
Thats the best cure for ya!
edit: haha, ironfang, great minds think alike. I just read your post and noticed we both mentioned their evil strategy for beta testing.
of Firaxis basicaly said,
. They are going to make some MAJOR changes 
... this is stuff that only happens in Beta testing, not after production. Why? Because documentation SHOULD be complete and reflect the "ideal" functionality of the post beta product.
manuals (Manuals are what makes the games expensive, along with the box), and burn'em.
Firaxis!
