Firaxis Ripping us all off!

[Mylon]

I'm curious about what the expansion will hold. I mean... Civ 4 is _very_ moddable. It is possible that the expansion won't do anything that a mod can do. Or would be inferior.

 

[LogicSwitch]

CIV is a franchise, much like movie sequels, games have expansions, those expansions raise revenue for current and future product development, one could argue the game was rushed but I have news for you, lots of other things today and in the past where rushed to market, examples include everything from the car you drive to skyscrapers. Its for you the consumer to decide if the price warrents the value of said product, if it dosnt meet your standard for quality, dont buy it.

Example , I stop watching the "Friday the 13th" movies after third movie in the franchise, I didnt however go and protest at the movie production company, I simply didnt buy the product. Welcome to the exciting world of capitalism, being selective in your purchases is the name of the game.

Btw, I plan on playing and buying Civ expansions and reversions because of the high quality of play for the low price (consider you pay 3-8 dollars to watch a hour and a half movie).

 

[Meffy]

(consider you pay 3-8 dollars to watch a hour and a half movie).

Oh, no I don't. :-D Haven't paid to see a movie for longer than the majority of voters in the latest "how old are you" poll thread have been alive. Far too expensive and they've made very few films that interest me.

But that's just a quibble. You're absolutely right -- rated against movies or similar modes of entertainment, Civ IV represents monstrously good value per buck. And best of all, it's not passive. Civ engages the mind in a way no movie can!

 

[Urederra]

I like Civ IV, even unpatched I didn't find a single bug until I went multiplayer.

I also like it, but there are bugs, Iron works doesn't work in the unpatched version.

Maybe you are a bit of a fanboy, like I was, I must confess, but there were many bugs, and the release of the first patch was very funny. It didn't work, and there was a thread in here that was the fastest growing thread I have ever seen, very funny to read the excitement of the people first, and the complaining because the patch didn't work, and the fustration of the people when the patch was removed 2-4 hours later.

I like Sid Meier, I think hes a great game designer, and there really are only a handful of them left. (Chris Taylor, Peter Molyneux, Tim Cain, Feargus Urquhart)

I like Sid too

So, please, relax. These people need to eat. Of course they're going to keep patching the game and we should reserve judgement for the expansion until it comes out.

I need to eat as well. And I don't think Sid Meier is having problems paying off his mortgage. Civ IV is a good game, don't get me wrong, but the expansion don't seem appetizing so far. Plus, CIVGal II guys neet to eat as well, and their game looks nice, so my spare money is gonna go to them. New whole game for the price of an expansion, wow!, I'll take it.

You all like Civilization enough to be in this forum. That must mean something.

I used to be a fanboy too.

 

[FranklinNoble]

I think the expansion packs are a great way to extend the life of a successful game, and give fans more of what they want.

It's an economical decision... not every feature, bell, and whistle can be included in the intial release. So, we get a solid game to play (well, solid after a few patches), and, really, I don't feel like I'm missing anything now.

The expansion pack will give me more scenarios, more units, more civs, and more leaders. That's a good thing, and worth paying for, in my opinion.

 

[Meffy]

Yup. Or shift your point of view just a bit and the "game plus expansions" product-line model becomes a way to let consumers choose whether they want to try the basic version or pick one or more super-duper editions. "Empowering," to use a management-speak buzzword. (Oops, I mean leverage the buzzword. You can see I'm not a management type...)

 

[Gumbolt]

Least the company is still interested in civ 4. Guess it will be a year or so to civ 5


Perhaps christmas 2007?

 

[ctindell]

I really don't see anything Firaxis is proposing that the modders haven't already implemented.

I won't be dropping any more money on this game.

 

[warpstorm]

I really don't see anything Firaxis is proposing that the modders haven't already implemented.

I haven't seen the Warlord unit, yet. (Which I am assuming is the military GP).

 

[Till]

I haven't seen anything that would make me want to buy the expansion thus far. The one feature i would love to see is faster performance. I'll probably end up buying it anyway, when there are no more vanilla SGs.

 

[Panda]

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy Warlords.

I certainly will.

FIX CIV4 ORGINAL BEFORE YOU RELEASE ANY BLOODY EXPANSIONS THANKYOU!

I recently read of a study saying one third of all electronical devices returned by customers, claiming them to be defect, work actually fine. The problem were the customers being too stupid to use them properly.

Anyone dare a guess how high the ratio with Civ 4 is?

 

[Bast]

The solution is simple. Just don't buy it.

Meanwhile, there will be many like me that will.

 

[THARN]

I don't see enough to the expansion that warrants me to spend $29.99 And I'm only guessing thats what it'll cost. If they ask for more they're nuts. civ 4 in its current state is good enough for me., I'll save my cash for medeival 2 total war.

 

[warpstorm]

I don't see enough to the expansion that warrants me to spend $29.99 And I'm only guessing thats what it'll cost. If they ask for more they're nuts. civ 4 in its current state is good enough for me., I'll save my cash for medeival 2 total war.

It's your money. Do what you feel is right.

 

[Drakan]

This is what I felt Civ IV was missing. I'll probably like the game more once both expansions are released. I just felt the vanilla core game was missing out essentials, such as MGLs i.e. Warlord. I welcome the expansions and will buy them.

I'm starting to believe that the way Creative Assembly are heading with TW they are going to increasingly attract a wider fanbase from Civilization.

 

[marioflag]

That all content isn't simply put in CIV4 but is implemented in expansion it's simply normal it's the market's law and firaxis as other companies needs to make money.What i hope is that Firaxis will have a better transparent and honest policy toward their customers.Not that i suffered from memory leaks or other problems because the game ran fine on mine but i think that was dishonest to launch a game knowing that a lot of people which will buy the game couldn't run the game.About the expansion i hope that Firaxis will not treat me or other customers as a stupid monkey which pay for everyone of their products also if this is not so good.So i hope we won't see only eye candy addon like leaders portraits, or a few units more considering that i will pay 30$ i expect that at least there are improvements in gameplay like in diplomacy or espionage. These are my 2 cents

 

[King Flevance]

I don't have a problem with the idea of an expansion pack, we all know Civ 4 vanilla needs it really. But I think it needs a patch more. The fact that there already is concept art, screenshots of some of the new features, and scenario designs shows us that alot of their resources have been put into the expansion now and the patches to the core game put in the closet.

Do I think there will be a patch? Sure. But that isnt the point. My game still wont run on a system that SHOULD be running it perfectly fine. It is SO comforting to know that Firaxis is more worried about what they are gonna throw in to the expansion rather than help me out. I have sent 2 emails to them now to still not hear from them.

As far as I am concerned, Firaxis has done a poor job of supporting its users and I wont be buying the expansion pack on release. I refuse to simply "hope" Firaxis will get their act together with the expansion and be wrong about them.

I agree with the OP on the main viewpoint of Firaxis having its priorities out of order on this. I have owned this game for 5 months next friday. Who knows if it will be running on my computer 6 months after purchasing it. But hey, at least I can burn money on an expansion that I have little faith in my computer running it.

 

[MrCynical]

It is SO comforting to know that Firaxis is more worried about what they are gonna throw in to the expansion rather than help me out. I have sent 2 emails to them now to still not hear from them.

You'd do better e-mailing 2K. Firaxis has already produced the next patch, but it is being held up waiting for 2K's QA. I don't think there's anything else Firaxis can do on the patch until it's done in QA, so they might as well be doing something on the expansion.

 

[warpstorm]

Besides that, Firaxis doesn't really have a tech support department. They are basically all programmers and artists. (And less of them than some people seem to think. Firaxis is a very small company.)

 

[yumyumtreetree]

pretty simple...

(PC meets MIN specs) + (Many players cannot finish SP game) = Vanilla still does not work for many players

VERY enjoyable game, but not finished. Sure would like to see the designers make $$$, but fixing vanilla should be all-hands priority.