Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[GeneralZift]

Surely, any possible sequel to Old World would be called New World?

Nah New World would be the third entry, the so-called... Brave New World... If you will.

 

[Skojardu]

It's kind of delusional to expect that this game is going to become a sudden success among young people looking for multiplayer experience, even with discounts (something no publisher wants to have to rely on for sales, they want to sell their titles at full price or as close to full price as possible)

I work at an online book retailer and my boss out of the blue said he had been playing the same series for 30 years and I nearly swooned when he said it was Civ. Civ players skew towards PhDs (cf Sulla) and librarians. They should not chase snotty teens that would otherwise be playing Fortnite.

 

[Haig]

I said that in my opinion civ switching will flatten civ/leader unique differences.

I feel the same way, I like that a civ empire has its strenghts amd weaknesses, like if in Civ 6 I play Hungary, I need to invest into making the uniques work and use city-states, and there are different ways to do it but it can be costly.

Some civs get unique units early, some late, but personally it was never a problem for me, its like a reward when you finally get those cool redcoats and they are useful for quite long.

Lots of this is matter of taste, but the civ switching feels to me like playing football as FC Bayern Munchen, but then suddenly deciding that you need better defense and switch the team to Chelsea or whatever, all during the same match.

 

[Bug Repellent]

Civ players skew towards PhDs (cf Sulla) and librarians.

That's me. Well, not the librarian part. Nerds enjoying an OCD-like focus on optimization is why we love Civ.

 

[TylertheDestroyer]

I work at an online book retailer and my boss out of the blue said he had been playing the same series for 30 years and I nearly swooned when he said it was Civ. Civ players skew towards PhDs (cf Sulla) and librarians. They should not chase snotty teens that would otherwise be playing Fortnite.

Hilariously I walked in to my tax guy (50-60 year old dude) playing Civ V one year I went to go get my taxes filed. He proudly showed me his 2k+ hours and we bonded over our preference of Civ V over VI.

 

[socratic]

I work at an online book retailer and my boss out of the blue said he had been playing the same series for 30 years and I nearly swooned when he said it was Civ. Civ players skew towards PhDs (cf Sulla) and librarians. They should not chase snotty teens that would otherwise be playing Fortnite.

Civ 7 feels like its actually geared more towards PhDs imo. Historical city names, obscure leaders, specific traditions… this isn’t stuff the average teen gamer cares about

 

[Lazy sweeper]

Considering Civ Vii has 5000 players and Humankind not even 500, that is more than 100% better performance for two very similar games...
Civ VI breaking 25K players barrier is no longer a news...

I hope it will come some general price reduction after the Sun will set over the Switch 2 "new normality" 89$ games...
I want to play Civ VII and being able to joke around this forum as I always did, without risking being
banned for joking about the end of the world too much...

It's not our fault if few people plays it. I consider the n.1 reason the exorbitant costs.
Everything else is just Cherry cream..

 

[Lazy sweeper]

You all got it wrong. Finland is the heir of the Roman Empire.

Finland got to get back its king, it's been out for too long, but it's territories are still held by the Kellog.
Luckily for finnish the church hasn't really completely annihilate the last bastion of the Empire!!!
Idk how much of the Holy part of it survived... that wasn't so good nor holy in the end...

 

[Niallism]

Civ 7 feels like its actually geared more towards PhDs imo. Historical city names, obscure leaders, specific traditions… this isn’t stuff the average teen gamer cares about

I don't know, but I think the average gamer isn't a teen, and teens mostly play FTP mobile games, Minecraft et al, and FTP shooters/battle royales.

I was a teenager when I first played Civ, and I'm sure many here were, but we are outliers.

 

[Core Imposter]

"The game really isn't about being civilized. The competition is what makes the game fun and the players play their best. At times, you have to make the player uncomfortable for the good of the player."
Sid Meier, writing about the combat and conflict between the player and Civs in Civilization 1.

This combined with the strategic scale of the game has been lost in editions 5-7 leaving the series with a limp noodle of a product. The game is now a small scale snoozefest that plays like a scenario or two that in better days would be tacked on an expansion or provided by a mod. It is impossible to suspend disbelief and become immersed in the game. One more turn has been put in mothballs.

 

[Kwami]

"The game really isn't about being civilized. The competition is what makes the game fun and the players play their best. At times, you have to make the player uncomfortable for the good of the player."
Sid Meier, writing about the combat and conflict between the player and Civs in Civilization 1.

This combined with the strategic scale of the game has been lost in editions 5-7 leaving the series with a limp noodle of a product. The game is now a small scale snoozefest that plays like a scenario or two that in better days would be tacked on an expansion or provided by a mod. It is impossible to suspend disbelief and become immersed in the game. One more turn has been put in mothballs.

Given the massive success of V and VI and the OK sales of VII, I think that most players disagree with you.

 

[Civinator]

Given the massive success of V and VI and the OK sales of VII, I think that most players disagree with you.

This is only a speculation. The selling numbers of civ games and liking these games better than former versions of the civ series are two very different animals.

 

[Gorbles]

I work at an online book retailer and my boss out of the blue said he had been playing the same series for 30 years and I nearly swooned when he said it was Civ. Civ players skew towards PhDs (cf Sulla) and librarians. They should not chase snotty teens that would otherwise be playing Fortnite.

We were all teenagers once. I played Civ 1 when I was 10. Not even a teen.

Y'all have some interesting takes, to put it mildly.

 

[protocol7]

I don't think we need to fall back on "kids these days" why civ7 isn't doing as great as it could be, and as we'd like it to. I'm sure there's still young people like we were when we were young people. Some of them may even be here.

 

[Niallism]

I don't think we need to fall back on "kids these days" why civ7 isn't doing as great as it could be, and as we'd like it to. I'm sure there's still young people like we were when we were young people. Some of them may even be here.

I agree. Nor the interminable pain of how intellectually challenging the game is and that we are special because we like a particular videogame.

Elitism in gaming, and nerd-dom general, is both unfounded and unhelpful.

We all just dorks here. Many of us are still snotty (whichever meaning you choose).

 

[Kwami]

This is only a speculation. The selling numbers of civ games and liking these games better than former versions of the civ series are two very different animals.

Well, this is the speculation thread!

But I'm not actually speculating anything here. The original claim was that newer games didn't have that "one more turn" feeling and given sales numbers, that doesn't seem to be true. It's not about whether players of the older games like the newer ones. That's a different thing.

 

[Leucarum]

Well, this is the speculation thread!

But I'm not actually speculating anything here. The original claim was that newer games didn't have that "one more turn" feeling and given sales numbers, that doesn't seem to be true. It's not about whether players of the older games like the newer ones. That's a different thing.

I mean... That's a little bit of a leap/kinda subjective.

There's many reasons beyond a "one more turn" feeling that might underlie lower than desired sales... And what even is "one more turn" feeling anyway. Seems like something everyone's gonna have a differend idea of.

A lot of people clearly aren't vibing with Civ7... But I don't think we can have quite that much certainty as to why.

 

[MutilationWave]

We were all teenagers once. I played Civ 1 when I was 10. Not even a teen.

Y'all have some interesting takes, to put it mildly.

I believe I was 12 when I first got my hands on the original from my neighbor. We played SimCity as well. I memorized the knowledge checks from the manual (DRM of its time). Sorry Sid, I pirated your game as a child, given you plenty of money since, no hard feelings.

 

[Brew God]

Where can you go to see sale stats and how many people are currently playing vs. other versions of the game?

 

[Skojardu]

I don't think we need to fall back on "kids these days" why civ7 isn't doing as great as it could be, and as we'd like it to. I'm sure there's still young people like we were when we were young people. Some of them may even be here.

I am not blaming kids per se, I am blaming the devs' chasing them. My first Civ experience was Call to Power when I was full of snot.