Is Civ loosing steam? By that I mean not as popular as before?

[Davor]

Is the Civ series loosing steam? No I do not mean Steam from where you have to activate Civ V, but I mean is it loosing it's popularity?

I was on gamespot and I don't see Civ V in the top 10 at all? I remember there use to be a time when Civ was in the top 10, but it's not now. With only 2 months before release and not even in the top 10? I remember when Civ IV was in the top 10 months before it was released.

I am wundering if the Civ phenomenom has peaked and is now loosing steam and rolling downhill a bit? Or is it just the other games are more popular the Civ, but then again, that would mean Civ is not as big as once it was if it can't compare to other games like Civ III and Civ IV has done.

So do you think that Civ V is loosing momentum as a franchise now or it will be as popular as before? Do you think Civ or the genre is a niche market now and the popularity has worn out now.

I know we on the forums love it, other wise, why would we be here? But what do you think over all? I find it wierd that Civ V is not in the top 10 at Gamespot. There are other games that are in the top 10 and it's months and months away from being released. With Civ V being released around the corner now, I thought it would be in the top 5, but it's not even in the top 10.

Your opnions?

 

[Mark Havel]

Wait'n'see for the first pre-orders figures.

 

[CoolLizy]

Gamespot != The Entire Consumer Base

Whether or not it's in the top ten on a given site doesn't really mean anything either way. Sales numbers, as Mark Havel noted above, are a greater indicator of success or failure, and it's going to be several months before we see those.

 

[AriochIV]

Gamespot's "Most Popular" rating has to do with page activity on their site, not on user rankings. There's really not a lot of information being released on Civ V right now to generate page views on Gamespot.

If you want a taste of how popular Civilization is (at least amongst the game press), have a look at everyone's "Most Anticipated Games of E3" features; Civ V is in the top 10 of nearly every one.

 

[Davor]

Thanks guys for the comments. But like I said before, there was lots of things been released about Civ V now, so I thought there would be more traffic for Civ V on Gamespot.

Like I said before, Civ IV was in the top 10 before and I got lots of info for the game from there. I am just surprised it isn't the same for Civ V thats is all.

It will be interesting to see how well Civ V sells, but we will not know since they never release the sales figures of games, unless they breake some records.

But time will tell. Thanks for your comments guys.

 

[Carver]

Thanks guys for the comments. But like I said before, there was lots of things been released about Civ V now, so I thought there would be more traffic for Civ V on Gamespot.

Like I said before, Civ IV was in the top 10 before and I got lots of info for the game from there. I am just surprised it isn't the same for Civ V thats is all.
...

I love Civ; I have never been to the Gamespot website; I am not alone.

 

[paradigmx]

It's not that has become a less popular game, it's that the game market has ballooned in recent years with more than 60% of Americans calling themselves gamers compared to about half that when Civ 3 came out. In reality, Civ is probably a bigger franchise than it's ever been, it just now has to compete with absolute monoliths of franchises like Call of Duty.

 

[Commander Bello]

It's not that has become a less popular game, it's that the game market has ballooned in recent years with more than 60% of Americans calling themselves gamers compared to about half that when Civ 3 came out. In reality, Civ is probably a bigger franchise than it's ever been, it just now has to compete with absolute monoliths of franchises like Call of Duty.

And it may suffer at the moment from "great" business decisions taken by people who most probably have never played any civ-style TBS in their whole lifetime.

 

[AlpsStranger]

And it may suffer at the moment from "great" business decisions taken by people who most probably have never played any civ-style TBS in their whole lifetime.

This just in! Commander Bello doesn't like Civ5! We'll hold a press conference later to shed more light on this shocking development.

Moderator Action: please do not flame other members on the forum

 

[PieceOfMind]

It may be loosing Steam but I don't think it's losing steam yet.

Thanks guys for the comments. But like I said before, there was lots of things been released about Civ V now

Not really. People have gone to great lengts to dissect what information we do have, but on the whole not much is known about the actual game yet. The main things we know are the things that would have been mostly obvious just by the fact it's the next civ game.

 

[Pouakai]

Thing is, most of the current age of gamers prefer games where you can shoot a bullet into someone's heart and watch the blood.

 

[Silverdawn]

It is the #2 upcoming game on http://pc.ign.com/ (after Starcraft II).

 

[Carver]

It may be loosing Steam but I don't think it's losing steam yet.

In this barbaric world a subtle turn of phrase is a beautiful thing.

 

[Kid R]

Civ is still the top banana TBS game and as such it's guaranteed a decent market *if* it's good. I'm sure the market will be pretty merciless if it's not.

Is the genre as a whole losing steam, perhaps so. Kids I know play fewer board games than kids a generation ago, so that may have something to do with it.

God help the world being run in 2025 by people who grew up playing call of duty rather than Monopoly and Diplomacy

 

[Shurdus]

Even if some users will be disappointed by civ5, it will also introduce new playrs to the series. So whatever you may hear or see on these boards means next to nothing. What you see here is people being frightened by new things because they fear it may not work. They want things to remain as it was, because they grew accustomed to the old ways and they know and trust the old ways.

 

[Provost Martin]

Civ is still up there. Just look at the media coverage and awards Civ5 received at E3. And the way main stream media has reported about it. There's certainly a buzz going on, and it's getting stronger.

 

[Commander Bello]

... because they grew accustomed to the old ways and they know and trust the old ways.

And because they know from experience that change for the sake of change often turns out to be something less desirable.

 

[Shurdus]

And because they know from experience that change for the sake of change often turns out to be something less desirable.

Maybe, but it is hardly fair to not give steam a chance. Sure we could go into detail like you did about the system being harsh for people with slow connections, but to me that sounds like being completely unreasonable.

People with slow connections who buy this game choose to be faced with more difficulty than users with broadband connection. Why would we care if they brought some annoyance to themselves?

 

[Kid R]

... change for the sake of change often turns out to be something less desirable.

This is a shocking opinion to hear in the context of discussing creative work. So much so it could almost have been written by a media corporation boss

 

[PieceOfMind]

Not everyone gets to "choose" to have a broadband connection. Depending on location, the only broadband options (e.g. wireless or satellite) can be extremely expensive. Maybe that's what you mean by "choose"?

EDIT.. This a reply to Shurdus.