What is Firaxis up to? Civ VI looms in the horizon:

[Antilogic]

I might get a chess.com account to play people I know IRL as well as people I've met on this site, but for my regular chess sessions I'm going to stick of the chess app on my iPad as well as Chessmaster 10th edition.

I used to play a lot against Chessmaster 9000. Never found an exploit that could beat the computer, but it was an invaluable educational experience.



So it looks like there is some concrete hiring and possible movements towards a new Civ now...

 

[Leoreth]

I'm curious what their overall plan in terms of game design and "feel" of the game is.

The community seems to be overall rather critical of Civ5 but was it actually a failure from Firaxis' point of view? Will they continue with its paradigm or return to the more traditional gameplay of previous Civ titles?

 

[plastiqe]

I'm curious what their overall plan in terms of game design and "feel" of the game is.

The community seems to be overall rather critical of Civ5 but was it actually a failure from Firaxis' point of view? Will they continue with its paradigm or return to the more traditional gameplay of previous Civ titles?

Interesting point. They made money on the game and most gaming reviews seemed (wrong) positive when it first came out. So do they even care about all the negative opinion shared by so many of the 'hardcore' Civ fans?

Looking at all the effort they've put into improving Civ V with the expansions, I just assume that they do care more about making a good game than just making money. Anyone with half a brain would realize a good game will make them more money so why wouldn't they want to please their fanbase?

Leoreth have you applied for the Producer job yet? : )

 

[Camikaze]

Firaxians would cry their way to the bank at the suggestion that Civ5 was a failure, and to be honest it's fairly dubious to claim that the community seems overall rather critical, as opposed to saying that it seemed overall rather critical. The expansion packs have drastically changed the general consensus towards the game. Sure, there are people who still aren't fans, but it's quite a minority, and the same can be said about every iteration in the series. Firaxis would certainly not be seeing the game as a failure or as full of huge errors, even though they obviously would be willing to recognise some deficiencies (as they did following Civ4, which is essentially what big design changes like 1upt are a response to). Very many people would say that Civ5 with BNW is the best civ game ever, and even those who disagree would for the most part recognise it as good game, even if trumped by Civ4, Civ3, Civ2 or Civ1, depending on preference.

The combination of XCOM and Civ5 mean that Firaxis has been hugely successful with its major strategy projects, so I imagine it would be unlikely to move away from that. However, a new Civ straight-away is certainly no guarantee if they're continuing to be ambitious.

@plastiqe - the public beta is something they haven't done before, but it's very incorrect to say they've mostly kept to themselves, given how much interaction they have with the community in general, and how prominently they have used the Frankenstein team. The fact that Jon Shafer was a community member surely shows this.

 

[Murky]

An expertly marketted game will sell more than an expertly designed game that few people know about.

 

[plastiqe]

Spoiler :

Firaxians would cry their way to the bank at the suggestion that Civ5 was a failure, and to be honest it's fairly dubious to claim that the community seems overall rather critical, as opposed to saying that it seemed overall rather critical. The expansion packs have drastically changed the general consensus towards the game. Sure, there are people who still aren't fans, but it's quite a minority, and the same can be said about every iteration in the series. Firaxis would certainly not be seeing the game as a failure or as full of huge errors, even though they obviously would be willing to recognise some deficiencies (as they did following Civ4, which is essentially what big design changes like 1upt are a response to). Very many people would say that Civ5 with BNW is the best civ game ever, and even those who disagree would for the most part recognise it as good game, even if trumped by Civ4, Civ3, Civ2 or Civ1, depending on preference.

The combination of XCOM and Civ5 mean that Firaxis has been hugely successful with its major strategy projects, so I imagine it would be unlikely to move away from that. However, a new Civ straight-away is certainly no guarantee if they're continuing to be ambitious.

@plastiqe - the public beta is something they haven't done before, but it's very incorrect to say they've mostly kept to themselves, given how much interaction they have with the community in general, and how prominently they have used the Frankenstein team. The fact that Jon Shafer was a community member surely shows this.

Yeah, my point was they picked the wrong community member. : P
I guess At The Gates will either vindicate or further vilify him.

On community involvement in game design/development; Karadoc once related a story about how he was in the Civ V beta and it was fubar... as opposed to now with the open invitation for anyone to participate in the testing process... big difference.

An expertly marketted game will sell more than an expertly designed game that few people know about.

Hrmmm.. ever hear of a little site called CivFanatics? Things like Steam and Blogs do your marketing for you when you have a good game. Sometimes people are even suspicious of a heavily marketed game ie. "it didn't look anything like the trailer".

I would rate the Civ series as world famous, right up there with Sim City. EA can market Sim City all they want but if it isn't designed or supported well they'll fail. Firaxis in my mind has a similar (not as bad) rep for releasing buggy or incomplete Civ games.

I used to buy Civ games knowing that good modders (Kael, Rhye, Leoreth, Karadoc, etc) would eventually make it worthwhile. The thing is now they're trying to sell us DLC so they can keep making money from a game (which is smart). A well designed game will sell more DLC down the line than a well marketed one.