Video: Troll or Mistake?

[Cobalt_Blue]

As an aside, if it is a puzzle, i'm wondering if maybe the city-states have actual leaders and agendas?

That would, frankly, be awesome, AND it would help explain things like Scythia, which I'm told we don't really~ know all that much about. She'd be a great leader for a militaristic city-state. And Alfonso would be a great leader for a religious city state. Etc.

 

[Bosque]

I believe it is intentional. The camera focused to infinity instead of on the devs...

Spoiler :

Also, note that the hallway with the poster is well lit, while the foreground is in darkness.

 

[darko82]

I changed my mind again Almost, but not this time.

 

[m15a]

Here's a full screenshot for reference. Please, at least look at it before pointing out some evidence for how the "puzzle" was staged.

Spoiler :

Also, note that the hallway with the poster is well lit, while the foreground is in darkness.

Sometimes in offices some rooms are lit more than other rooms (particularly, hallways don't need to be as well lit). They don't have special puzzle lighting in offices.

 

[darko82]

Those people were moving etc. One of them uncovered the wall for like half a sec.

The light sources come from a different source, not camera. There are lamps everywhere as always. I can see a lamp over there, small lamps and one bigger.

We can ignore lighting. The camera is focused on a group of people. One of them moves and uncovers the picture.

 

[AriochIV]

Now we see that dark side of that wonderful human pattern matching ability that made such short work of what was a pretty difficult puzzle.

Now people are overthinking everything. Everything must fit a pattern. Everything must be a clever conspiracy.

 

[Haig]

I think it was a small mistake, but I don't think it's really a big deal they have to worry about. A vast majority of Civ fans will continue to get the slow leader by leader updates.

I agree with Monado, most players are not members of reddit civ or civfanatics and are unaware of the leak. Besides I think majority are just interested in general game mechanics and features and not which specific leaders are in.

 

[kaspergm]

I think it's an oops. It does seem to screw up their general scheme of bit-by-bit revelation too much to make sense, plus it takes away control from them with regards to what we know and what we don't. My guess is they were not aware that the list made it into the footage, and if they were, they probably thought it was too blurred for us to make any sense of it (which, really, would have been my guess as well).

 

[lacond]

In my opinion this video aims few target

1) it's a marketing video first, and the objective is that people talk about it. Firaxis is really professionnal in their own communication, and nothing, never, is part of mistake.

2)) We can feel that they're really proud of their team and their work so they show themselves her office. They also know that people who watch that video would love to be in!

3) It give some clues, and as usual those clues are well dosen. in this video, everyone can see that is it a leader wall of fame. But the image isn't in good definition. they probably didnt' bet on such a great and fast fans investigators to resolve it!
So no mistake to my point, just an under estimation of what community is able to do with it!

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

I think it is an intentional leak. They don't want to officially confirm things, since some of the civs/leaders could still change a bit (remember Pueblo => Shoshone). Besides there will still enough hype around the uniques, so why not. The part of the video including the portraits doesn't make much sense if it was unintentional. I mean normally it should be more clear that the developers/workers are discussing about the game since it is for marketing purposes. Otherwise it would give a bad impression about Firaxis. Also with the devs with their backs to the camera and as already said the portraits in the center and the camera zoomed to infinity are some other reasons why I think it is intentional.
Whether it is troll or puzzle? I hope there is a part of troll in it, but that it is mostly puzzle. The part of troll is that for example 1 or 2 leaders are not on alphabetical order. Or one of the portrait is of for example of Sid meier (remember the barbarian leader in civ 4) or Ed Beach .

 

[Graethyenne]

So here's my two cents, unsolicited though it may be.

Could this have been a mistake? Sure, it's possible.

But speaking as a Lawyer, a Publicist, an entertainment industry professional, and a game designer, the number of screw-ups that have to happen for that to be the case make it less likely than a deliberate leak.

1) the camera was shooting b-roll unrelated to what was being discussed in the audio. So it wouldn't have been given free reign to wander. It was only shooting exactly where it was supposed to, and exactly what it was supposed to shoot.

But what if it was given free reign to go wherever? Well then, anything that wasn't explicitly allowed to get out would have been taken down or covered with a drape. This isn't a small, indie studio, this is Firaxis who publishes through 2k.

But let's say that it slipped through and made it onto the tape.

2) if anyone, literally anyone, from the design team reviewed this video before it was approved they would have noticed the pictures, and called shenanigans right then and there.

But maybe they figures it was safe to let it slide cause they were blurry and stuff?

Nope. That team knows this community, and they have watched it dissect with a scalpel every second of footage that has been released. I'd be shocked if anyone at Firaxis with enough knowledge to be the yay-or-nayer on a video release could possibly make that mistake.

But if no one reviewed it at all that could explain it right?

3) if no one at Firaxis reviewed the video at all, that could explain how a mistake if this order could happen. But then *someone* is probably on the chopping block for releasing un-reviewed video content.

And let's not overlook how perfect this "slip" was.

4) 1 second of video footage that "looks harmless" but provides just enough information, with just enough give-aways and organization to the layout of said info to allow a dedicated team of superfans with access to the internet to play a fun and satisfying ARG for a day without officially spoiling any unknown content.

The other possibility is that while it wasn't explicitly planned, it was let through on purpose once it was caught. That splits the difference between oops and planned I suppose, but in the end it is more the later than the former.

 

[nunor]

I'm inclined to agree with the above.

 

[bite]

So here's my two cents, unsolicited though it may be.

Could this have been a mistake? Sure, it's possible.

But speaking as a Lawyer, a Publicist, an entertainment industry professional, and a game designer, the number of screw-ups that have to happen for that to be the case make it less likely than a deliberate leak.

1) the camera was shooting b-roll unrelated to what was being discussed in the audio. So it wouldn't have been given free reign to wander. It was only shooting exactly where it was supposed to, and exactly what it was supposed to shoot.

But what if it was given free reign to go wherever? Well then, anything that wasn't explicitly allowed to get out would have been taken down or covered with a drape. This isn't a small, indie studio, this is Firaxis who publishes through 2k.

But let's say that it slipped through and made it onto the tape.

2) if anyone, literally anyone, from the design team reviewed this video before it was approved they would have noticed the pictures, and called shenanigans right then and there.

But maybe they figures it was safe to let it slide cause they were blurry and stuff?

Nope. That team knows this community, and they have watched it dissect with a scalpel every second of footage that has been released. I'd be shocked if anyone at Firaxis with enough knowledge to be the yay-or-nayer on a video release could possibly make that mistake.

But if no one reviewed it at all that could explain it right?

3) if no one at Firaxis reviewed the video at all, that could explain how a mistake if this order could happen. But then *someone* is probably on the chopping block for releasing un-reviewed video content.

And let's not overlook how perfect this "slip" was.

4) 1 second of video footage that "looks harmless" but provides just enough information, with just enough give-aways and organization to the layout of said info to allow a dedicated team of superfans with access to the internet to play a fun and satisfying ARG for a day without officially spoiling any unknown content.

The other possibility is that while it wasn't explicitly planned, it was let through on purpose once it was caught. That splits the difference between oops and planned I suppose, but in the end it is more the later than the former.

I'm starting to agree with above, they would have covered this up or said don't film this, if this is an oops it must have gone through a lot of people not noticing for it to happen

 

[stealth_nsk]

1) the camera was shooting b-roll unrelated to what was being discussed in the audio. So it wouldn't have been given free reign to wander. It was only shooting exactly where it was supposed to, and exactly what it was supposed to shoot.

if you look at the whole video, this part looks like very logical. This video is about introducing the team and it mixed video fragments of the leaders, the current work (carefully picked) and just random video pieces showing people and office. They all done the same.

But what if it was given free reign to go wherever? Well then, anything that wasn't explicitly allowed to get out would have been taken down or covered with a drape. This isn't a small, indie studio, this is Firaxis who publishes through 2k.

It's not CIA either. Larger companies had leaks.

2) if anyone, literally anyone, from the design team reviewed this video before it was approved they would have noticed the pictures, and called shenanigans right then and there.

3) if no one at Firaxis reviewed the video at all, that could explain how a mistake if this order could happen. But then *someone* is probably on the chopping block for releasing un-reviewed video content.

Of all civfanatics who watched the video carefully for any piece of information only someone like 100th noticed it. Come on, we have airplane in the film Troy and watches on Nazguls' wrists - and the films are edited with much bigger attention to details.

 

[CGPanama]

My suspicion is that this was supposed to be an easter egg that might not get noticed until it was pointed out by Firaxis after they release. Then they could point back and say, "see we showed you them all back in July." I think the mistake would have been in underestimating the enthusiasm of this crew.

 

[Guama]

Actually, now Firaxis will announce all its videos like: "This week, B5 finally revealed!" or "Let's meet the Civet State!"

 

[IdiotStyle]

Actually, now Firaxis will announce all its videos like: "This week, B5 finally revealed!" or "Let's meet the Civet State!"

please show your respect to the all mighty Civet.It's not something to joke about

 

[rastak]

My suspicion is that this was supposed to be an easter egg that might not get noticed until it was pointed out by Firaxis after they release. Then they could point back and say, "see we showed you them all back in July." I think the mistake would have been in underestimating the enthusiasm of this crew.

Nah, it was pretty obvious if you were freezing with each scene change and by now they should know that's what people do here. When BNW came out Ed laughed at how the community could deduce the smallest details from the smallest clues (paraphrasing).

I'll say it again. The fact they were shooting in Firaxis would mean they'd check over the short video to ensure it didn't show something proprietary.

That said, here's a new theory that just came to mind. Forgive me if someone else already proposed it. This wasn't planned but when they reviewed the video they noticed it said "hey, Leave it in. It's blurry, let's see what those guys do with that".

 

[Felis Renidens]

I don't know if they intended it on filming, but I tend to agree with those who think it was allowed to stay on purpose.

They know the community and how crazy (in a good way) are people here.

Anyway it just made a rather bland video interesting.

 

[MrRadar]

I believe the semi-intentional "Easter Egg" (sort of) theory could be the most valid.
If they really did not want us to see those pictures, they would not have been there, in the dead centre of the frame, brightly lit, yet blurred enough, to become a "telling without really telling" case.

The video goes on pouring out the same information we've been given many times before, the same "unstacking cities" blah blah, and then two thirds into the video time, when you have already exhausted all your attention spans with all that movement on the screen and the huge CivRev poster just finished off your last pockets of concentration and hope , the next frame gives you some silhouettes at the somewhat dim foreground and something brightly lit in the background, fully visible just for half a second, then someone partly covers it and it's off the screen. 1 second frame. Surely overlooked by the most in their first viewing. For some super-aware the subconsciousness might have kicked in a few moments later - wait, what was that? More people (would have) detected it under scrutiny while rewatching and pausing.

So I'd say, it was not an oops, rather a "why not?", or even a substantial and only gem of new information in all that droning on the things, heard and seen many times before.