I could make another neverending message, but it's very late here and I should go to sleep
Still, there is a "spirit" of defences for Firaxis that just drive me mad, and I've to answer it.
One example of this spirit are :
Nice work digging that up. Very nice work. Now read it.
Let's review their claim:
Did Civ III ship with an editor that allows players to "greatly customize" the gameplay experience? One would have to be utterly blind or intellectually dishonest to claim otherwise, considering virtually every statistic and and ranking and rating and chart can be altered.
Can you alter advances? Check. You can alter existing advances, or create all-new charts.
Can you alter civilizations? Check. You can tweak and change in a myriad of ways, or even create new civs from scratch.
Can you alter units? Check. I can make a settler run 10 spaces or a spearman nuke cities. Whatever I want.
Can you alter wonders? Sure can, and every damn aspect of them.
Lastly, is there a robust map editor? Well, that world map came from *somewhere*. So did all those others on the web. Dozens and dozens.
So, ummmm ... why did you think this quote backed up your argument that the game did not ship as promised again?
Another one is :
So tell me how they lied on this? It wasnt the BEST editory, but where's the lies? You CAN alter the advances, civs, units and wonders, and you CAN create some decent maps. It might be misleading, especially if you remember Civ2, but the editor WAS included in civ3 and it DID have these features.
I suppose you know have an idea about the kind of spirit we've here.
Now let's check the box.
I don't recall that it was written on the box that the game would NOT crash every 5 seconds.
I don't recall either that is was written on the box that the game will be written in proper english and understandable.
It was not either written on the box that you needed at least one hand and one eye to play the game.
It was not written on the box that you needed a ear and a neural working connections to your brain to hear the sounds that come from the game via the sound card and the speakers.
In fact, I don't even remember that the box of the game was saying that the CD of the game HAS to be in this very box.
Still, I suppose you all expected to find the CD in the box, and the game not crashing every 5 seconds, being in proper english and so on.
Why ? It was not written in the box ! If it's not written in the box, then it means that you SHOULD NOT expect it !
You expected it because of what I'm calling "common standards". Similarly as you expect any game from the year 2002 to NOT be limited to a 320x240 resolution in 16 colors, but rather AT LEAST in 640x480 in 256 colors (really the very least).
Common standard are things that became so "standard" that you expect them to be true even if it's not written on the box.
When someone promise me an "editor", I'm expecting a WORKING editor. When the previous iterations of the game had a complete editor allowing for civ starting positions, unit position, a cheat mode allowing full scenario capabilities, I'm expecting to get AT LEAST the same level of quality in the new editor. It's a SEQUEL, it has to IMPROVE over the past, just like anyone consider granted that the next Quake will not run in EGA, because the past one was already in SVGA.
That's typical of virtually any game editor for any even remotely complex game. You're playing with the numbers that the entire game relies on ... what else would you expect but strange quirks when you play with the game's core?
I always assumed that an editor is a tool made to modify the program WITHOUT crashing it.
Suppose that I sell you a car, and its engine blows up after 5 km. Then you come complain and I tell you :
"That's typical of virtually any materials which endure 100 turns a second. You're inflicting it a very heavy burden, and it has to propel the entire car... what else would you expect but eventual breakings when you inflict such stress on a poor piece of metal ?".
Same things as "common standard" I talked previously : you EXPECT a program to behave without too much crashes, even if it's not written on the box.
Oh, by the way, it's not written on the box that there is no Anthrax in it. I suppose that then if Firaxis put 100 mg of it in each box it would be fine ? After all, if you read carefully the box it's NOT written on it that it's Anthrax-free. If people aren't smart enough to read the boxes then it's their fault if they got contaminated !
Can someone please translate this into a month?
