I work for the Intellectual Property Group in the Litigation Department of one of the nation's largest law firms, I play CIV religiously, and I have a few comments about the prospect of a lawsuit against Firaxis:
Firstly, I think everyone here is vastly underestimating the legal costs associated with such a litigation. A litigation of this sort would consist of a lot more than simply getting a lawyer, filing a lawsuit, and showing up at the couthouse to argue in front of a judge.
Simply discussing the issue with a lawyer is the first step. A respectable lawyer in this field would probably cost at least $400/hour, and this fee generally must be paid regardless of if the potential litigation progresses any further than an initial in-depth discussion. After that discussion, the lawyers then must conduct an initial review. A team of lawyers will generally be assigned to this task. The initial review will generally consist of multiple interviews with the purchaser of the game, an in-depth review of any documentation the purchaser has produced, an in-depth review of the game, as well as a research of relevant legal issues. This process, even for the most mundane issues can easily surpass 100 billable hours, with each hour costing probably an average of around $300/hour, if the potential litigant is able to work out a nice deal with the law firm. Lastly, please keep in mind that the above narrative only refers to a lawsuit involving one plaintiff. Obviously, these costs skyrocket for each potential plaintiff that may be added.
After the initial review, the lawyers then make a determination of the merits of the case and find the laws that have been abrogated. This is when it starts to get really expensive. First, there are court filings, the initial complaint. The initial complaint is always amended. After that there are interrogatories and requests for production. Now, the costs of preparing court filings is not particularly exorbitant, but afterwards that changes quickly. Firaxis' doubtless has myriad documentation pertaining to CIV 4, and each file that pertains to CIV 4 would be produced by Firaxis. A team of reviewers comprising your lawyers will then have to review each and every document. Then there are depositions for every plaintiff as well as every programmer that worked on CIV 4. After that, the plaintiffs would need to retain at least one expert in software development. A qualified expert with any kind of previous courtroom experience will easily cost around $500/hour. He will need to be paid to review their documents, prepare reports, give depositions, and then testify.
And on top of all of that, you have all the legal wrangling. Orders to Show Cause, Summary Judgment hearings, and the plethora of motions that are filed in actions like this all cost significant amounts of money, especially if the you have to pay your lawyers to travel significantly.
I cannot stress enough that every action undertaken by your lawyers as listed above must be paid from the plaintiff's pocket to a tune of probably around $250/hour, if you get a good rate.
Not only that, but these costs will generally be significantly less for Firaxis. Most of the original work for Firaxis would be done by their in-house counsel. Plus, they wouldn't even need to start building their defense until the plaintiff filed a complaint. Even then, almost all of the relevant documentation would be Firaxis', and they are likely very familiar with their own documents, so their discovery-related costs will ultimately be negligible as compared to the plaintiff. Most of Firaxis' costs will be put into filing motions to extend the litigation, experts and legal research.
Finally, after what usually amounts to several years, the case may finally come up for trial, and a trial like this would probably take a minimum of 3.5 days. Then, you are relying on a jury of your peers to remain focused while Firaxis does absolutely everything in their power to confuse and mislead them. Plus, you are also hoping that they see things your way and not only find them guilty of the charges but also compensate you enough to cover the costs of a litigation that probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to execute.
Thus far everything I have said pertains generally to corporate litigations of all sorts. Obviously, it would make little sense for Bob from Albany to file a lawsuit on his own unless he was a masochist that really needed to blow a couple hundred thousand bucks. Accordingly, we are probably talking about a class-action lawsuit, the mechanics of which I am not quite familiar with.
Many class-action lawsuits are funded by a core group of primary witnesse/plaintiffs, but they are usually almost completely funded on a contingency basis, which means the law firm only gets paid if they receive damages or a settlement from Firaxis.
This is what prevents Bob from Albany from making a trip down to New York, popping in to a top-notch law firm, finding a new associate, and convincing him to file a class-action suit. I'll bet that this has actually happened, maybe not in specific reference to CIV, but with other games, and the same thing happened as would happen at my law firm. Namely, the associate would listen to the potential plaintiff, take in the merits of the case, and do a little research. He would map out the potential costs of such a litigation and review case law to determine the probability of achieving a monetary reward, either through favorable verdict or settlement. My guess is that this kind of superficial review has been done many times by firms big and small, but so far no big case has gotten to court on this issue because they find too big problems:
One: It would be extremely costly.
Two: The chances of recouping any of the money spent on the litigation would be extremely low.
Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the chances of success, either through a settlement or favorable verdict, is higher than I think. I doubt it, but I can's say for certain. I haven't looked at any case law, nor have I worked on any cases that are similar to this.
But, I have played every iteration of CIV since Civ II. I play BTS almost every night, and I have not downloaded the "unoffical" release. And with that said, were a lawsuit to ever be docketed on this issue, and if I were contacted by either party to testify concerning the game, I would say that I have played BTS extensively on a computer that barely meets the minimum requirements, often times for hours on end, and I have never once found the game to be so buggy as to be unplayable or unenjoyable. I feel that I have been repaid many times over for the meagre $40 or $50 I initially spent for the game.
Maybe it is a disappointing development to some people, but the Internet has changed the computer industry. Personally, I think it is great. Instead of snail mailing the manufacturer or buying the latest software just to fix flaws in the original product, all I have to do now is navigate to a website and download the appropriate file, regardless of whether my problem is with my mobo, a device driver, the O/S, or some other piece of software.
The main price I pay for this convenience is in the frustration and costs associated with the occasional buggy product. Now, by no means am I a big-time gamer. On my computer I have all the Half-Life games, all the Call of Duty games, most of the Total War Series, and CIV, Warlords and BTS. Out of the box every single one of those games has been playable for me, and the game has been exactly what I thought it would be. In short, I have been satisfied by my purchases.
Maybe the problem is that software is just naturally buggy, as a few posters have pointed out. In fact, I'm not sure I have a bug-free piece of software on my computer. My original BIOS didn't like my sound driver. My O/S has tons of bugs that have required dozens if not hundreds of updates from Microsoft over the years. Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel still have bugs and intricacies that have not been addressed. Rome:TW had bugs on its first release, and a very few select units in MTW2 didn't work as claimed. I had a minor graphical bug with either Warlords or BTS. All of these bugs have since been fixed though various updates.
Now, maybe it is true that software developers are releasing products on a shortened development cycle, but as far as I can tell, with only a few extraordinary exceptions, they are releasing software that works for the wide majority of users, and they are doing it earlier than they would be able to otherwise. Once again, it is a cost-benefit analysis, and my guess is that the developers have determined that it is both more profitable for them as well as more desirable for the consumers that software is released in this fashion.
Ultimately, all of these factors doom the prospect of litigation against Firaxis. It would simply cost too much, and the prospect of success would be too low. In fact, I would imagine BTS to be a disastrously poor test case for the type of litigation I have seen suggested on these boards. Surely, there are software products that have more fatal flaws and are produced by more corrupt corporations with deeper coffers than Firaxis.
mm
.... (and mass PR department suicides to follow)
How on earth that got past testing is completely beyond my comprehension (was it even tested at all?).... No attempt was ever made to patch it.........
