Firaxis should hire a forum-reader

[Louis XXIV]

Soren said that he has considered fan suggestions (or at least that he is aware of them). But, let's face it, a lot of ideas suggested are probably very different from the direction they plan to go with the game. Also, considering all the other work needed to be put into the game, how much time would a developer have to read the pages and pages of suggestions.

So why not hire (or appoint as an un-paid position) someone who is told what direction they plan to go, and than have him look for good ideas that fit well and aren't difficult to impliment, so he can show the idea to the rest of those hard working Firaxis employees?

I wonder who would vollunteer for such a job

 

[ainwood]

A lot of the firaxians do frequent the forums, and there were members of the Civ3 beta testers who were forum members. I think many of the ideas are getting through (I've seen firaxians in this Civ4 ideas forums quite often).

 

[Solver]

And which is why we at Apolyton did the Civ3 and the Civ4 list. It contains the majority of ideas that have been proposed, is absolutely huge, yet categorized and nice to view, and gets sent to Firaxis.

 

[sir_schwick]

Juding from the 'proposed' direction post recently done, many of our ideas have been implemented. Like Democracy, the system works.

 

[spankey]

Just a question, since I am a novice in the gaming community--Does a company like Firaxis feel free to use ideas in these forums, or are they worried about idea sources and legalities around them (ie someone coming after them for royalties)? I would think that ideas posted publically are free game for anyone with no strings attached. But I am curious to hear from those familiar with this industry.

 

[Civrules]

Well, pretty much ideas that are posted here in such a public place are ideas that Firaxis can take and add to the game, if they see that idea as a good one, and worth working on.

Now, I remember the old days... Back in 2003. Before the release of C3C, Jeff Foley from Atari used to post a lot (since he's in marketing). But now, I hope that when the new publisher company is revealed, someone from the same department comes here and posts and lets us know about things, just as Jeff has (he has done a great job, too). We're quite used to it, since this is almost always the case before the game is released. However, it may be a bit too early now. So, we will see in the months ahead.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Yeah, that was my major disapointment with Atari selling Civilization. I thought Jeff Folley was a really nice guy.

 

[Solver]

If Firaxis bought the rights, it's for the better. My experience with publishers is that they suck. They gain more from games than developers do, who do all the work, publishers press the developers for release dates, etc.

Jeff from Atari was a nice guy, but I appreciate much more how guys from Firaxis posted here and on Apolyton in 2001, listening to players and discussing the game. Soren Johnson also made a post on Apolyton concerning Civ4... that's what matters, interaction between players and developers.

 

[teccuk]

Hah, that sounds like the most boring job in the universe. I mean reading these forums for hours at a time, who would want to do that....?

 

[rhialto]

It's a dirty, hard, boring job, but for the sake of the civ community, I will happily take on this odious burden.

 

[eddie_verdde]

It's a dirty, hard, boring job, but for the sake of the civ community, I will happily take on this odious burden.

lol you can also count on me...

 

[TheDS]

You can have it. Though I'm often on one forum or another, I rarely can stand to stick around one forum for more than a week any more. Either there's just not enough to read, or every newbie asks the same 5 stupid questions, or every game-designer-wannabe comes up with extremely anal-retentive suggestions that take up 5 pages and say nothing, or there is way too much stuff to sift through all the chaff. Finding those 10% of good ideas that are well thought out and well conveyed gets tiring after a while. I'm starting to sympathize with grouches!