Dear Firaxis,
Can I just say that the ongoing debacle that has been Civilization 4 has made me extremely sad. Be aware that I have been a massive Civilization fan ever since I played the first glorious instalment on my 386-sx.
However like any great Empire yours has expanded and has now fallen foul to many failings - the worst of these being: (in no particular order)
1. Forgetting your roots. Civilization has always been for the vast majority of its fans, almost 100% about gameplay. So why do we have this new game that is so intensive on our systems (for no real gameplay gains), and thus it is in no way accessible to all who want to play it. The gameplay is not drastically different to Civ I and rightly so, you had a winning formula then and you still do now. I just dont understand why over 15 years the game is getting much much more system intensive when the gameplay has moved on at nothing like the same level. This is a TBS! It should not be killing our computers to play. Anyone who wouldnt sacrifice a bit of zoom-ability for a bit more playability/accessibility is a fool.
2. All this ties in to point 2, the specifications on the box are nothing short of a lie. People are reading the box and thinking yep, got all that and buying the game and it is disappointing them horribly.
3. Also why release the demo AFTER the game? I know why, so people would buy the game and find that they cannot run it properly, instead of getting a free demo and coming to the same conclusion, its seems like it is all about £££s in the bank!
4. Again to tie in with 3. The game is not finished. Sure it is just about playable for some people but it is not really acceptable IMO. December should have been the release date and November the demo release. Again money driven.
5. Testing, a disgrace.
6. You havent learnt any of your mistakes from the Civ 3 release. Or at least you havent cared about them.
7. Too complacent. People are going to buy anything you produce with the Civ tag because of the brand name, that basically means your quality doesnt have to be as high, you know it, I know it.
8. Bug-ivilization
9. Patch-ivilization
10. Patch Patch Patch-ivilization.
11. Bin-ivilization
I have spent HUNDREDS of hours trying to get this game to work. I have friends who have similar but different issues, not one of us is satisfied with your efforts.
EARN YOUR MONEY, or dont bother in future.
There shant be peace in our time,
P Atherton.
Can I just say that the ongoing debacle that has been Civilization 4 has made me extremely sad. Be aware that I have been a massive Civilization fan ever since I played the first glorious instalment on my 386-sx.
However like any great Empire yours has expanded and has now fallen foul to many failings - the worst of these being: (in no particular order)
1. Forgetting your roots. Civilization has always been for the vast majority of its fans, almost 100% about gameplay. So why do we have this new game that is so intensive on our systems (for no real gameplay gains), and thus it is in no way accessible to all who want to play it. The gameplay is not drastically different to Civ I and rightly so, you had a winning formula then and you still do now. I just dont understand why over 15 years the game is getting much much more system intensive when the gameplay has moved on at nothing like the same level. This is a TBS! It should not be killing our computers to play. Anyone who wouldnt sacrifice a bit of zoom-ability for a bit more playability/accessibility is a fool.
2. All this ties in to point 2, the specifications on the box are nothing short of a lie. People are reading the box and thinking yep, got all that and buying the game and it is disappointing them horribly.
3. Also why release the demo AFTER the game? I know why, so people would buy the game and find that they cannot run it properly, instead of getting a free demo and coming to the same conclusion, its seems like it is all about £££s in the bank!
4. Again to tie in with 3. The game is not finished. Sure it is just about playable for some people but it is not really acceptable IMO. December should have been the release date and November the demo release. Again money driven.
5. Testing, a disgrace.
6. You havent learnt any of your mistakes from the Civ 3 release. Or at least you havent cared about them.
7. Too complacent. People are going to buy anything you produce with the Civ tag because of the brand name, that basically means your quality doesnt have to be as high, you know it, I know it.
8. Bug-ivilization
9. Patch-ivilization
10. Patch Patch Patch-ivilization.
11. Bin-ivilization
I have spent HUNDREDS of hours trying to get this game to work. I have friends who have similar but different issues, not one of us is satisfied with your efforts.
EARN YOUR MONEY, or dont bother in future.
There shant be peace in our time,
P Atherton.
