Thank You, from Firaxis!

FXS_Anton

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Hello, Civilization players! I am Anton Strenger, lead designer on the New Frontier Pass for Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. As the team here at Firaxis reflected on our last twelve months with Civ, the common thread is how grateful we are for you – our players and the community you have built around this game. Your passion, enthusiasm, and insightful feedback have helped us shape this game into something great.

This time last year, we started off the New Frontier Pass with the release of the Maya and Gran Colombia pack. We had just started working from home full time, as COVID-19 precautions swept the world. As hard as that was, it brought into focus the role that our game plays in peoples’ lives. One of my favorite parts of seeing your reactions to the Pass in the last year was how some of you, like me, were able to find a corner of solace and joy in Civ, amidst the uncertain times we were living through. Not being together physically heightened the importance of being together online, through games and internet communities. We had always planned to have six Community Updates throughout the year, to bring free content and balance tweaks to all our players, but these became more important than ever. They were a great way to check in with the community and see what was on your mind. While we had broad sketches early on for what to do with these updates, we stayed nimble, knowing that we would react to you playing the Pass for yourselves and sharing your thoughts. The Barbarian Clans mode, the Tech and Civic Shuffle mode, the various Pickers, dozens of balance changes, and countless other additions were inspired by your feedback, directly or indirectly.

With the New Frontier Pass we wanted to build on our game’s strengths, but also explore new directions that would benefit you, our players. The biggest change was consistent monthly updates, alternating between New Frontier Pass releases and the free Community Updates. “Instead of having our players wait through months for a new expansion,” we wondered, “what if we released an update every month, with more transparency and open communication?” The second big change was Game Modes. After the Gathering Storm expansion, the team at Firaxis was generally happy with amount of complexity and systems in the game, but we also felt a hunger to try more experimental systems. We knew that not all players would like such systems in every game, but we also knew that these systems were bigger than a standalone scenario and could flourish when mixed in with the core game. One of the things that makes Civilization special to me, both as a designer and as a player, is that it leaves room for the player to tell their own story. Replayability and fun combinations of outcomes – whether they mirror real history or diverge wildly from it – are what make our game truly unique. The addition of Game Modes was yet another dimension to add to the core strengths of replayability and player-driven story. By placing the power in your hands, we saw all sorts of fun combinations and results. We saw silly stories like Hercules teaming up with vampires to fight zombie hordes. One of my favorite moments, though, was watching a streamer play on Twitch with Heroes & Legends mode. He explored the ocean with Sinbad only to run into the Bermuda Triangle natural wonder and teleport halfway around the world, and he burst out in surprised laughter. These serendipitous gameplay moments are a joy for us to watch.

The big stars of the show though, as always, were our new leaders and civilizations. In addition to serving those same core strengths of replayability and player-driven story, they are our historical foundation. As with every Civilization release, we carefully considered which leaders and civilizations to add. We considered factors like geography, time period, gender, gameplay, personality, and familiarity. Mixing together classic favorites like Maya and Portugal with surprising newcomers like Gran Colombia and Vietnam resulted in a fun cast of characters. Our team loves to see the flurry of historical interest and research that accompanies our announcement of a new leader. For example, I was surprised to find out how many people did not know about Simón Bolívar, and was happy to play a small role in helping them discover a new part of history! We also loved to see our Vietnamese players posting their excitement about playing as their own civilization in our game for the very first time. Civilization is truly an international game, not only in its content but also in its community. We are honored to be a part of it.

From the entire team here at Firaxis, thank you coming along for the ride in this year of Civilization. Whether you bought the New Frontier Pass right at the start, or only have the base game. Whether you are new to the Civilization series, or been playing with us since 1991. You are the best fans in gaming!

 
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Hey everyone! Many of you know me already from our livestreams, announcement videos, and, of course, Carlbarian—or as we call him around the office, “Carl Drogo.” I was the QA lead for Civilization VI and the New Frontier Pass.

I would like to thank you all so much for all your enthusiasm and support this past year as we released the New Frontier Pass. Seeing your reactions to the new content every month was truly a joy. That is the best part of the job, getting to share our creations with you. Your feedback and responses were critical to the development of the Pass, and the game is what it is today because of you.

I also want to share my personal gratitude for all the love for Carlbarian. Getting to dress up and be Carl Drogo was a lot of fun, but seeing how excited everyone got was unexpected and a very pleasant surprise. It has been a ton of fun getting to stream for you all this past year, and interact with you on various forums.

The New Frontier Pass may be done, but we will still be around. Reading your forums, watching your streams… reading your mind. We look forward to continue to watch you all play and enjoy all that Civilization VI has to offer.

Civ fans, you are the best fans in gaming.


-Carl “Drogo” Harrison
 
Hello, Civ Fans! I’m Ryan from the QA team and I wanted to thank you all for your continued support of Civ and all of us here at Firaxis. Although game development during Covid-19 has been hard, your passion for this franchise inspires us all and has personally helped me stay connected to my love for game development. We take your feedback to heart and we are always encouraged by your enthusiasm for the game and new content. Thank you again for your support for all of us here at Firaxis, you truly are the best fans in Gaming!
 
Thank you Civ fans for going on this exciting ride with us. It was very interesting in QA to play MP against Carl on a daily basis (to this day he still claims he is not a warmonger). Addressing your feedback and having discussions based on your feedback amongst ourselves was a usual occurrence and always a great way to fine tune that feedback before passing it on to Design. Seeing the game evolve with your help was something very special. Remember you are the best fans in gaming, and don't ever change.
 
Hello, Civ players!

I am one of the Lead Animators from Civ VI. I wanted to thank you for your interest and involvement in our pursuit of representing the world leaders accurately. We truly would take all your reactions to our animation choices to heart.

When creating our leader performances, we always dug deep into documentation, videos, and would even reach out to representatives of the actual cultures themselves. We have always strived to create informed and respectful representations of the Leaders. Your comments added that extra piece of information or different view point we had not considered.

It was wonderful to hear how you became emotionally impacted by some of the Leader Animations. And, in some cases, made game play choices based on them.

I feel very lucky to have such a great fan base, who with, their own knowledge and thought, have helped us create this great game.
 
Hi Civ Players!

A quick thank you for all of your support and input.

I've been working in the animation industry for a while but working on New Frontier Pass was my first experience in games. I've been really blown away by the enthusiasm and excitement coming out of the Civ Community. Animation can be a time-consuming process and a lot of times it feels like you do a lot for a little, so to have your work met with such excitement out of the gate has been a truly cool experience.

It's a fortunate thing to be surrounded by such talented people making a project like this and it's equally fortunate to be supported by the community playing it. So thanks for your enthusiasm, thanks for playing the game, and thanks for keeping those leader animations enabled!
 
Hey all! Kevin Schultz here. Civ's former Marketing Product Manager now turned Associate Producer. Also, dog petting whisperer. I wanted to pop in here and say thank you for being the best fans in gaming. I know we've been saying it everywhere lately (and to the point where I've seen some doubters of the comment's authenticity!), but it's true. That wasn't some line our marketing team came up with. It's something that was improvised by Senior Franchise Producer Dennis Shirk during a WorldBuilder video we shot a couple years ago. The comment came straight from a dev and the team agreed with it. We want you to know that you are the best fans out there. It's the most authentic and straight from the devs thing you'll hear us say.

We're very fortunate to have you as our community. In marketing, I got to understand this firsthand. I was lucky to get opportunities to meet many of you face-to-face. Most of the team doesn't get that so communities like CivFanatics are so incredibly important to our entire team. Trust me, we may not always be responding, but we're always here. Continue being awesome.
 
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Hey, my name’s Andrew Cothill and I'm a character modeler at Firaxis.


I can't thank you all enough for your kind words. All I ever wanted to do in my career is be part of something that might help folks smile when they've had a bad day and, because of communities like this, I can feel like we're ALL part of that. Your excitement, memories, stories and feedback inspire me to work to the absolute best I can. Civ fans have a huge part in shaping the game, and not just through gameplay feedback, but through inspiring the team with interchanges like this.


Development genuinely feels like a joint effort between studio and player.


Thank you for making Civ feel so rewarding!
 
Hey everyone! I haven't been on the team long, but because of your passion for Civ, I was able to land a dream job working at Firaxis. I, like you, am a huge civ fan, so I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for enabling me to work on the game we all love so much.
 
Hi Civ fans!

I’m the writer and historian for Civilization. This is such a complicated task, trying to go in depth and help to make the people of another time and place come alive in ways that feel and are accurate. It’s been really wonderful to get your feedback and listen to what you have to say – both critique and appreciation. Your comments on everything from Assyrian politics to Phoenician linguistics to medieval armament are always appreciated (and read, and cross-checked, and noted down). As are your comments on typos. And goofy jokes and references in product names, Voidsinger relics, etc.

It has been an absolute pleasure working for you – the fans – and I just wanted to extend my thanks.
 
Hello Civilization fans! My name is Erika Ward, and I am a junior technical animator on the Civilization team. I have the pleasure of building tools that assist the Animators in bringing Leaders and Units to life! My role can be a bit hard to understand but simply put, I am a warrior and I fight 3D models daily by (politely) shoving skeletons inside them to manipulate their geometry. I may be one of the newer additions to the team and to the player base, but I have been absolutely floored by this community.

My passion for making fun and exciting games comes from the community that plays them. The interaction between a developer and their player base is a feature of game development that I highly value. As a part of the team, I have had the opportunity to watch the Civilization fan base actively shape our game into what it is today. Civilization players are passionate, creative, supportive, intelligent, and not afraid to reach out and give us healthy feedback. Watching your live streams, reading your live chats, and catching up on the hours and hours of player content on YouTube has been an absolute pleasure.

Thank you for being as awesome as you are and supporting us in making a game that we all love and can be proud of. Nobody has fans quite like you guys and for that I am proud. I am sorry this was short, but I really must go now. I have one more turn to take before I get back to work!
 
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