Civfanatics, Apolyton and Firaxis.

georges bonbon · November 4, 2003, 12:30

Looking back at announcements about Conquests for the last weeks, I am under the impression that Firaxis considers Civfanatics as a preferred supplier for information to Apolyton.

Firaxis people are more active on Civfanatics than Apolyton boards.

Is this a correct impression?

If so, why?

dojoboy · November 4, 2003, 12:42

Well, if it was to be true, its probably due to Civfanatics being geared toward the Civilization series primarily while Apolyton appeals to more strategy games in general.

FrustratedPoet · November 4, 2003, 14:08

I think dojoboy has it about right. For example, we got all kinds of cool news and interviews from the developers of GalCiv and Rise of Nations, which CivFanatics don't even cover.

/edit: we also had several Call to Power developers posting here a lot (one still does).

grappleman · November 4, 2003, 14:29

yeah, i agree with you guys on that one. Especially as of late. Civfanatics has gotten the release of governments and several other categories of information over the last few days. But good point by dojoboy, apolyton is more geared towards strategy games in general.

Theseus · November 4, 2003, 15:05

P*sses me off.

TechWins · November 4, 2003, 15:20

I know for sure that before the release of Civ3 that there were a lot more Firaxians posting here at Poly than over at CFC. Then after the release a lot Poly people had some mean stuff to say to Firaxians. Firaxians got upset and decided not to post as much here instead over at CFC. That's basically what happened.

alva · November 4, 2003, 15:33

Quote:

Then after the release a lot Poly people had some mean stuff to say to Firaxians.

???
Could you link some threads?

FrustratedPoet · November 4, 2003, 15:39

Try a search for "culture flipping", "collector's edition" and "robust editor", that should be a good place to start.

(we really did get screwed on the editor thing IMHO .. not that that makes Firaxis bad people or anything)

FrustratedPoet · November 4, 2003, 15:43

It seems reasonable to suggest that it was all Infogrames' fault anyway, but what the hell...

alva · November 4, 2003, 15:47

Quote:

Try a search for "culture flipping", "collector's edition" and "robust editor", that should be a good place to start.

Ahh, but nothing recently?

Soren still browses from time to time though

FrustratedPoet · November 4, 2003, 15:53

No I haven't seen anything recently. A few months after Civ3 came out all the whingers left. There was some harsh criticism (again, mostly justified IMHO) about the implementation of MP in PTW after that came out, though.

Boris Godunov · November 4, 2003, 16:19

Quote:

Originally posted by TechWins
I know for sure that before the release of Civ3 that there were a lot more Firaxians posting here at Poly than over at CFC. Then after the release a lot Poly people had some mean stuff to say to Firaxians. Firaxians got upset and decided not to post as much here instead over at CFC. That's basically what happened.

This was the impression I had. It looked to me that once people on Apolyton started turning up a considerable amount of heat, the Firaxis team got very frustrated and decided to go elsewhere. I can't say a blame them, considering a lot of the nasty, childish behavior from posters. Who wants to read the spiteful rants of the hour from Coracle all day?

alva · November 4, 2003, 16:20

Coracle posts (posted?) at CFC too.

WarpStorm · November 4, 2003, 16:21

Oh Coracle was on CFC also (under his alias).

Boris Godunov · November 4, 2003, 16:21

Quote:

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
A few months after Civ3 came out all the whingers left.

That's a wee bit of an exaggeration. There were plenty of whingers around a lot longer than that.

FrustratedPoet · November 4, 2003, 16:26

I suppose that depends on your definition of "a few". And by 'whingers' I meant people who had totally pointless complaints about the game, which basically amounted to them feeling betrayed and exploited because it wasn't their own personal gaming nirvana. Those idiots left pretty early on. The people who had genuine and sensible, well-articulated, problems with the game stuck around for longer and helped make the forum an interesting place.

Alex · November 4, 2003, 17:12

Come on, everybody knows Firaxis hates us. We are always harassing them to work on SMAC 2 (CFC doesn't even know what it is), we always have smart responses to whatever they post and we have Fez. Reason enough for them to hate us.

TechWins · November 4, 2003, 17:18

I think Yin32 scared them off the most with his posts. He trashed Firaxis big time, but I think a lot of it was the truth. Coracle had mainly stupid rants, whereas, Yin32 had more precise posts.

Oh yeah, FP, don't forget to mention to do a search on Multiplayer. I'm sure you can find tons of compliments towards Firaxis on that one.

EDIT: nm it's Yin26 not Yin32. Close enough.

vmxa1 · November 4, 2003, 18:11

I felt that after 3 months the complaints were just boring. In the beginning, it was valid to point out short comings and there were many, espcially MP. Later it was tiresome to read the umpteenth post about PTW sucks, I don't like the culture flip, or combat or you name it.
In any event, the Firaxis people, should be able to deal with any negative post and not respond childishly, I am taking my ball and going home, if that is what occurred.

MrWhereItsAt · November 4, 2003, 18:18

There are at least 4 Breakaway guys in the chat right now, so we aren't being ignored, per se.

Don't worry - Firaxis will recognise us as the best again when our team wins the Intersite PBEM Democracy Game!

zorbop · November 4, 2003, 19:51

Quote:

Originally posted by georges bonbon
Looking back at announcements about Conquests for the last weeks, I am under the impression that Firaxis considers Civfanatics as a preferred supplier for information to Apolyton.

Firaxis people are more active on Civfanatics than Apolyton boards.

Is this a correct impression?

If so, why?

does it matter? arn't we all members of both forums anyway?

Alex · November 4, 2003, 20:03

Quote:

Originally posted by zorbop

arn't we all members of both forums anyway?

I am, but there are lots of poster who aren't, or have inactive accounts at that site (mine is sort of inactive now, I think I last posted there in July).

PrinceBimz · November 4, 2003, 20:26

Quote:

Originally posted by zorbop

does it matter? arn't we all members of both forums anyway?

Took the words right out of my mouth! Yes come on people we all go to both sites anyway. I am a member at both sites and I visit them almost equally. If they had 4 sites as good as these two I would be going to all 4. I am thankful that we have these awesome sites, they both rule. As long as they are both still up and running I am happy.

TechWins · November 4, 2003, 21:00

I think I have oh maybe 2 or 3 posts at CFC. I have no reason to post at two different sites about the same topics. Plus I found Poly first, and I heard Poly beat up CFC before. So no way am I going to post over at the weaker CFC.

j/k CFC is a good site, but I still have no reason to post over there.

Soren Johnson · November 4, 2003, 22:08

Oh, we're still around... the two sites are different beasts though. Civfanatics sort of co-evolved with Civ3 (a lot of newer posters) whereas Apolyton has a pretty long history and wider scope. In other words, there is always someone here to remind us of our past mistakes...

SirOsis · November 4, 2003, 22:09

Poly is my home! I stop by CFC occasionally but almost always post here. I did complain about PTW because it was painfully pathetic on release. From the previews of Conquests they will be redeemed if it is half as good as it sounds.

vmxa1 · November 4, 2003, 22:21

I visit CFC, but almost never post.

notyoueither · November 4, 2003, 22:23

My recollection is that Firaxis lost a lot of interest in Poly around the time of PTW coming out. I'm not sure that was because of a plethora of negative posts or not, however...

Civ3 at Poly has not had an active moderator since MarkG seemed to give up on it (from what I can tell). Ming doesn't even play it (I assume from things I've read). Much of the old guard of Poly look at it as the ugly step child of Civ 2 or SMAC, or something. What dioes all that mean? Well to Firaxis and Atari it looks as if the powers that be of this site aren't really interested in their product. There is a residual attachment, and a large Civ3 poster base so they still pay Poly some attention, but wouldn't you focus on where the owners and moderators are 'fanatics' about your product if you had a choice?

I will say that I appreciate the open atmosphere of Poly a lot. Be that as it may, some of the stuff that was being tolerated in the PTW threads never would have been allowed if someone who cared had been paying attention. I think AH making up stories about Australian consumer law keeping Infogrames from releasing PTW in Australia, and repeatedly bringing it up (which subsequently got reported as news on this site) just about takes the cake. That, and some of the other pure trolls that were tolerated would have led me to conclude that my efforts were better spent elsewhere had I been making that decision as a publisher/developer.

At any rate, that is my POV. I'm sure some will differ.

GhengisFarb™ · November 4, 2003, 22:51

My money is on the fact that Apoly had a LOT of downtime and operational issues during the Conquests Beta and development phase. I think that had more to do with it than just a dislike of Apoly.

Theseus · November 5, 2003, 00:35

Quote:

Originally posted by notyoueither
My recollection is that Firaxis lost a lot of interest in Poly around the time of PTW coming out. I'm not sure that was because of a plethora of negative posts or not, however...

Civ3 at Poly has not had an active moderator since MarkG seemed to give up on it (from what I can tell). Ming doesn't even play it (I assume from things I've read). Much of the old guard of Poly look at it as the ugly step child of Civ 2 or SMAC, or something. What dioes all that mean? Well to Firaxis and Atari it looks as if the powers that be of this site aren't really interested in their product. There is a residual attachment, and a large Civ3 poster base so they still pay Poly some attention, but wouldn't you focus on where the owners and moderators are 'fanatics' about your product if you had a choice?

I will say that I appreciate the open atmosphere of Poly a lot. Be that as it may, some of the stuff that was being tolerated in the PTW threads never would have been allowed if someone who cared had been paying attention. I think AH making up stories about Australian consumer law keeping Infogrames from releasing PTW in Australia, and repeatedly bringing it up (which subsequently got reported as news on this site) just about takes the cake. That, and some of the other pure trolls that were tolerated would have led me to conclude that my efforts were better spent elsewhere had I been making that decision as a publisher/developer.

At any rate, that is my POV. I'm sure some will differ.

As always, I take my hat off and bow to nye as... one of the wise.