For the purpose of this post, I have interchanged the words expansion and addon. I know they mean different things, but I ask you to bear with my appaling grammah. I've been far too involved with Latin for the last couple of months...
I would first like to state that I would pay money for an expansion that had new content (especially if there were new features that hadnt been previously promised). I will not pay for an expansion pack that merely contains features that should have been in the original release. These should be put in a freely available patch, and should only be included in an expansion because the patch happens to be put in that expansion. I also quite like Civ 3. There are some features that still need to be patched (and I was not happy with the screwed air superiority), but overall I have begun to love the game to death. Thats that over with.
Anyone ever heard of a company called Looking Glass Studios? They produced high quality games that rarely needed patches and had 99.9% of the features promised. Anyone know what happened to them? They went broke because of a couple of failed self publishing ventures (part of the blame is on other companies for not sticking to contracts, but its useless placing blame now they have gone done the drain).
The relevance to Civ 3 is that it could be possible, but extremely fething hard for Firaxis to go broke because it waits to finish a game instead of bowing to Publishers or half cocked market reps. They can afford to make a quality game, and they don't need us to pay for an expansion pack to keep them paid.
Blizzard entertainment is an example of a company that needs to release extra products to keep the company going. They provide a free gaming service that has a massive player base. This service may well be a dissappointment to some, but it is actually a major acheivement considering it is free. Blizzard has to fund this service somehow, and it looks like it will be with that World of Warcraft thing. Firaxis does not seem to have any plans to fund some huge gaming service. They do not need our money for a multiplayer addon, if they are out of money already, then something is seriously wrong in the companies finance department.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT I AM NOT DEFENDING BLIZZARD FOR ANY CHOICES THEY HAVE MADE! (but its completely off topic, so lets not discuss it here)
Next point. The fools who run around saying "Yeah, lets buy this game, then lets buy the add-ons, and lets ***** about the people who feel theyve been ripped off because game companies dont have to answer to their consumers" should be shot. It's as simple as that.
I work at Hungry Jacks (Burger King). I'm also a Guitarist. I can be fired from my job at Hungry Jacks if the product (burgers, fries, service. They are all products) I make arn't good enough for the consumer. I play guitar as a support (I play side riffs for bands that need large numbers of guitarists (theres a Brisbane Gothic band that makes use of about 14 guitarists), for bands that don't have enough members available, things like that), and I have only begun to develope a reputation as a decent guitarist. If I perform badly on ONE occasion, my reputation takes a major hit, and I accept it, learn from the mistake and attempt to better my playing so it does not happen ever again.
These experiences can be formed to the conclusion that Firaxis and Infrogames do actually have to answer to us, the consumers, whether it is a fething game or not. I do not give one feth about whether it is a game. It is a fething product that consumers have bought. They also will hopefully learn from the mistakes they have made and better themselves in the future. This does not mean they will, and at the moment I am highly doubting that they will.
I suppose the point of this rather long article is that either Infrogames, Firaxis, or BOTH are fething with us, the consumers. Eventually they will have to answer to us. It is bloody unfortunate that promises are not a binding contract.
Oops. I forgot to comment on Sierra. They are a very proffesional company, but only because they actually have some business sense. They are supporting Valve in its endeavours to fund the mod community because it makes them look good. It also provides loads of new content that they only have to invest a little bit of time and money for (they dont have to invest labour. That makes a huge difference to the cost of the stuff). I could argue about some of the releases they have made, and how buggy they are, but for the main part, yes, they are usually quite good.
