Lopsided negativity towards Civ V a consequence of circumstances?

[_hero_]

It seems the majority of posts right now are anti-Civ V. I have to wonder if maybe that's because the people who like the game are too busy playing it? I have to say I found it enjoyable. It didn't drag on nearly as badly as Civ IV late game. Only reason I'm not playing right now is that I have to share my desktop with others and the laptop I'm on now can't run it.

I've played every Civ game ever made and I can say it's not a terrible game. I'd say it's clearly ahead of Civs 1,2, and 3. I'd put it about on par with Civ IV vanilla. It has more "uniqueness" to it that IV did, but it's a little harder to jump right into coming from IV than IV was coming from III. The changes from IV to V are more in your face. Unlike some people though, I think that's a good thing. It feels more like I'm learning a new game than a continuation of the old one. It's like going from Civ II to Call to Power/CTP2 was. That's good for me though. I'd personally had enough of Civ IV. Those who are complaining clearly hadn't had enough of IV. Well then keep playing IV until you're bored with it. V will be patched and improved and you'll come around. You know you will.

 

[Mercade]

It's a natural effect of the fact that people whine more than praise. Masses enjoying the game don't visit the boards, but people who think they have something to whine about, will. Friday I'll download the demo and some time in October I'll get around to buying the game and I'm sure that I'll enjoy it as much as I did Civ3 and Civ4.

 

[WuphonsReach]

Having played the demo for a bit tonight - I'm inclined to wait until the first major patch before I spring for the full game.

It does feel like I'm learning an entire new game again, which is good/bad. There's enough differences between Civ4 and Civ5 in the UI department that a lot of old knowledge isn't carrying over. (Why is food now represented by "green apples" instead of "bread slices", for instance... that's an example of an unnecessary change.)

So it's going to take me at least a few weeks of plinking away at the demo for an hour here or an hour there until it starts to click and make sense. It's not sucking me in right away like Civ4 did. Which indicates to me that there's some spit and polish missing.

 

[Arkalius]

Yeah, people are less inclined to seek out a forum for speaking praise of something than they are for airing grievances. Why would anyone want to interrupt a perfectly enjoyable session of one-more-turn-syndrome to come and deal with the haters here, given the option?

I too have played every Civ game back to the original and I've loved every one of them, including this one. Instead of trying to assess this one as a comparison with its predecessors, I instead just try to enjoy it on its own merits, and it's a very fun game, like each of the previous ones were. I can't wait to see what the expansions will bring.

 

[ohioastronomy]

Or it could be that there are serious problems with Civ 5. It's very rare for a major release to get mixed reviews, for example, but Civ 5 has definitely had some. I'm more concerned that the most worrisome problems will crop up after you crack the system (weak combat AI, annoying practical aspects of the stacking limits, irreversible social policy changes, arbitrary design decisions like the apparent inability to remove buildings, etc.)

 

[cdog]

(Why is food now represented by "green apples" instead of "bread slices", for instance... that's an example of an unnecessary change.)

Wasn't food in alpha centauri green apples? I thought it was so it made me smile.

 

[Multiball]

Or it could be that there are serious problems with Civ 5. It's very rare for a major release to get mixed reviews, for example, but Civ 5 has definitely had some. I'm more concerned that the most worrisome problems will crop up after you crack the system (weak combat AI, annoying practical aspects of the stacking limits, irreversible social policy changes, arbitrary design decisions like the apparent inability to remove buildings, etc.)

Thats not true, most major pc releases get mixed reviews in the community, i hate mw2 and gta 4 and i spent days complaining on forums to vent my anger at these games, i didnt get my moneys worth in my opinion so i wrote bad reviews. its human nature to complain..

But then fallout 3 or mass effect 2 or assassins creed 2 all games i love i have never written a review or a praise thread on a forum despite all 3 games being awesome. It just isnt an issue i got value and enjoyment that exceeded my expectations so i left it at that,

its obvious why negative comments outweigh positive ones, the internet is a forum of anger and venting anonomously, people especially younger spoilt kids have a much higher "entitlement" requirement. Therefore they whine and nitpick where ever anyone will listen. Sadly you have to put up with it till the release date fanatic lose interset and move on to a new product to conplain about, the normal reviews can start to push through.

 

[ohioastronomy]

Thats not true, most major pc releases get mixed reviews in the community, i hate mw2 and gta 4 and i spent days complaining on forums to vent my anger at these games, i didnt get my moneys worth in my opinion so i wrote bad reviews. its human nature to complain..

But then fallout 3 or mass effect 2 or assassins creed 2 all games i love i have never written a review or a praise thread on a forum despite all 3 games being awesome. It just isnt an issue i got value and enjoyment that exceeded my expectations so i left it at that,

its obvious why negative comments outweigh positive ones, the internet is a forum of anger and venting anonomously, people especially younger spoilt kids have a much higher "entitlement" requirement. Therefore they whine and nitpick where ever anyone will listen. Sadly you have to put up with it till the release date fanatic lose interset and move on to a new product to conplain about, the normal reviews can start to push through.

To clarify, I didn't mean mixed reviews in gaming forums; that is indeed universal. Usually the gaming websites and magazines lavish praise on major new releases, even mediocre ones. Frequently this is deserved, but sometimes not. The fact that professional reviewers have significant reservations about this game moves the forum reaction away from the usual and predictable stuff that you've correctly identified as common.

 

[Chibiabos]

A lot of loyal fans of the Civilization series, including a number like myself who have been playing Civ since the original debuted, have been disgusted with the forced bundling integrated into the current title. I've had my account on civfanatics for years.

There are plenty of people like yourselves who obviously don't care, but despite so many posts in so many threads, many refuse to accept that not everyone likes having choices taken away about whether or not they want to buy into Steamworks.

 

[Maniacal]

To add on to some of the good points already mentioned, I'd say fear of change is playing its usual role.

 

[Tylerryan79]

To clarify, I didn't mean mixed reviews in gaming forums; that is indeed universal. Usually the gaming websites and magazines lavish praise on major new releases, even mediocre ones. Frequently this is deserved, but sometimes not. The fact that professional reviewers have significant reservations about this game moves the forum reaction away from the usual and predictable stuff that you've correctly identified as common.

What bad reviews are you speaking of? I must have missed those. The two worst ones I've seen so far were scored 80, that's still good. The majority has been 90s up. If your talking about the few negative comments in some reviews did you notice how they all scored it great? Please post me some links, I'd like to read these reviews you speak of.

 

[devilhunterred]

To add on to some of the good points already mentioned, I'd say fear of change is playing its usual role.

It's not the fear of change, it's the unnecessary and completely pointless changes that make people angry.

Why remove tile animation?

Why replace coins, bread and hammers with brown, yellow and green circles?

Why is religion removed instead of enhancing it?

Why is espionage removed?


CIV 5 is a sequel to CIV 4, it's meant to be an enhancement on all overall aspects. Instead what we got is a hexagonal non-stacking simplified, streamlined CIV 4 with many major features removed.

 

[Gath]

It's not the fear of change, it's the unnecessary and completely pointless changes that make people angry.

Why remove tile animation?

Why replace coins, bread and hammers with brown, yellow and green circles?

Why is religion removed instead of enhancing it?

Why is espionage removed?


CIV 5 is a sequel to CIV 4, it's meant to be an enhancement on all overall aspects. Instead what we got is a hexagonal non-stacking simplified, streamlined CIV 4 with many major features removed.

In all fairness the coins used to be arrows.

 

[migkillertwo]

It seems the majority of posts right now are anti-Civ V. I have to wonder if maybe that's because the people who like the game are too busy playing it? I have to say I found it enjoyable. It didn't drag on nearly as badly as Civ IV late game. Only reason I'm not playing right now is that I have to share my desktop with others and the laptop I'm on now can't run it.

I've played every Civ game ever made and I can say it's not a terrible game. I'd say it's clearly ahead of Civs 1,2, and 3. I'd put it about on par with Civ IV vanilla. It has more "uniqueness" to it that IV did, but it's a little harder to jump right into coming from IV than IV was coming from III. The changes from IV to V are more in your face. Unlike some people though, I think that's a good thing. It feels more like I'm learning a new game than a continuation of the old one. It's like going from Civ II to Call to Power/CTP2 was. That's good for me though. I'd personally had enough of Civ IV. Those who are complaining clearly hadn't had enough of IV. Well then keep playing IV until you're bored with it. V will be patched and improved and you'll come around. You know you will.

I imagine that the only kinds of people who would hate Civ V are hard core civ veterans, or people who picked up Civ V thinking that it was some kind of RTS, kind of like why I bought Civ III.

The former group IS the kind of group that would post here on civ fanatics. everyone else who likes the game either just doesn't post here on civ fanatics, or may very well be too busy enjoying the game.

Yeah, I think your point is mostly sound.

 

[bernlin2000]

I'd agree with being on par with CivIV vanilla, but its been so long since I played CivIV vanilla I'm only guessing that . It's a phenomenon with all products: people that like a product rarely will say so, but when people hate it they almost always will say something. I think I've heard a 10 bad: 1 good ratio tossed around before, and I wouldn't be surprised if it applied here

 

[Shackel]

Maybe people are tired of businesses not taking the extra time and just tossing out half-completed buggy games all the time.

I know The Sims made a lot of money off of breaking the game up and selling it, I know that MW2 made gigantic amounts of money by releasing things from the past, and I know that Paradox made a lot of money off of making a patch an EXPANSION PACK, but it is still ANNOYING AS HELL to the fanbase.

If you push crap like this on to a fanbase, you better hope your game doesn't end up like Modern Repkiller 2 and alienate everyone.

 

[digitalcraft]

Oooooor it could be because some people like in depth complex empire running games instead of combat strategy games and this is not that. I know you didn't think it possible that certain people might just plain validly not like it, but I think it's possible.

 

[NovaDream]

My only real gripe comes from the fact that the units and resource icons on each tile are too small. Blue Marble would be certainly welcome.
I like the new combat system. In my first real war, chokepoints actually meant something, and made the fight strategic, which Civ wars IMO rarely ever are. But given that the units are too small it gets a little cumbersome for me. But thats a minor grievance right now.

I like that the game pacing feels slower to me somehow, dont know if its just me, but reminded me of the Civ II and III days, where games didnt feel like races. Civ IV always felt like a race against the world, and didnt give me a sense of the ebb and flow of time.
I still think there are diplomatic modifiers, just not overtly visible numbers, and I prefer that. Again, reminds me of Civ II.

And while im no super genius that totally understands every nuance of Civ IV, theres definitely lots of strategic gameplay in Civ V. The decisions of what to build and when are pretty important in this game, especially during that expansion, which drags on for a while in this game.

 

[Duo]

To add on to some of the good points already mentioned, I'd say fear of change is playing its usual role.

This. Also, people love to complain!

 

[lorno47]

Finally took a break after playing all day the last 2 days, game is so much better then Civ 4 at release it's not even funny. It is definitely not Civ 4 2.0, which is good imo. Combat is actually fun now heh. Although sometimes I miss being super lazy with SOD when I'm moving 20 units around >.<