boycott next activision title or any other Company

[Davor]

I have an idea. Instead of buying a game as it soon comes out why not wait for 2 or so months before we buy the game. This way we show Activison or any other company that we will not tolerate shoddy games anymore.

This way we hit them where it counts in the pocket books, then maybe they will put out a good product that works good and not crashes on a system or any other bugs.

So I say lets get a petion going to Activison and say we will not buy anthor Call to Power game when it comes out untill a few months after its release, if they keep on doing this.

Fool me once shame on you (Civilization Call to Power)

Fool me twice shame on me (Call to Power 2)

What you say?

Davor

[Robm]

If nobody buys it, then how will we know if it has bugs?

[Big Dave]

Ok, how about this then:

If the last game you bought from a company (any company!) was shoddy, research the next one before you buy it. CTP was never finished, CTP2 isn't finished yet..... Will you buy CTP3? I won't!

------------------
Big Dave

Do the Vatican police speak Pig Latin?

[Davor]

I bought Call to Power 2 and returned 3 days later. I always buy my games at Electonique Botique for this very reason. They let you return it and get your money back if you are not happy with the product. For $70 canadian it wasnt worth it. Last week I saw it in a video store for $15 canadian and think its a great game now minor the bugs. Games cost alot up here and C2P2 wasnt worth that much.

I research the games now before I buy but all I got was great reviews from Apolyton and that is why I bought it the first time. It was later the bad reviews came out. The game is good and needs a bit of improvment but not worth $70.

My point is we all ***** and complain but dont do anything about it. I say we all should get together and make a point.

Davor

[Bluevoss]

Well, I agree (technically) but can only offer you luck on your boycott.

The industry has changed. Now with the web, they don't see us as customers. They see us as Beta testers. They can patch to their hearts content.

I play Red Baron 2 a lot. Been playing it for years. But Sierra screwed around with the game (which had bugs that were howlers) for over a year before they finally stopped in mid-screwup and dumped it. The player community eventually fixed it themselves. How pathetic is that? No wonder Sierra desolved.

[jkadabomb]

I personally liked CTP and CTP2 even better. I dont think they are the greatest games but they are still fun. It is purely a matter of opinion.

quote: boycott next activision title or any other Company

or any other company making any kind of product?
yeah, who's with me?



[serious mode on]
you got the game, played with it for three days, returned it, got your money back.
you've got nothing to complain for

[Atahualpa]

wrong thread sorry, I hate it in Linux when the selected window in the taskbar doesnt match the window I am typing in.
Ahhh gnome

Ata
[This message has been edited by Atahualpa (edited December 31, 2000).]

[Davor]

Mark G you made me laugh. I like your post. I am not good with words so I guess I never explained myself to well. I ment if we all got together and threatend not to buy the next poduct then Activision or what ever company would consider really putting out a game that has no bugs.

Just like our Prime Minisnter in Canada he took all us suckers here in Ontario and won an election, cause he knew people in Ontario will vote for him no matter what

Just like Activison they know people will buy the game no matter how well it runs cause they know people cant wait for Civ 3 and this is the closet thing to it.

So if we get together and say we wont stand the practice anymore until they stop patching the game when they say they do alot of extensive QA testing on the product.

Does this make any sense or am I not explaing my self again. (sorry i am bad with words.)

Davor

[jkadabomb]

Hey Davor if you dont like Activision then dont buy its products. Quit your whining and complaining. Some of us do actually enjoy CTP2 and every developer cant make a game that EVERYONE will love(except The Sims). Heck ppl hated Baldur's Gate 2(the greatest RPG of all time).

[Simpleton]

I am totally with Davor on this one! I mean just reading the posts you can see what a shoddy job Activision did in making CTP2. CTP made all the innovations...well one...public works..CTP2 just took our money. Unfortunately, I don't have a Electronic Boutique where I live so I am stuck with an $80 lemon. I will probably play a few more games of CTP2 which makes 8 in total but comon...what type of value for the money is that! I would like to see Activision show some class and put out a good patch addressing all the many problems that have been addressed ( pityful AI, Boring diplomacy, improving the computers war making skills, etc.). I've said this before that it seems that the Activision team is relying on the CTP players to make MOD files to fix the game which I consider a disgrace.
As far as criticism goes I think negative comments are valid. If we never complain then Activision will think everything is ok. So I say let it fly everyone!
In CTP's/Activision's defense I think CTP made some steps forward in the genre (public works, Combat system) but CTP2 really didn't innovate at all. IMHO.

[Fluffygreycat]

I've said it elsewhere, but I feel like saying it here too:

The fact that you think that AI isn't good enough competition doesn't make CTP2 a "shoddy" product.

The game has to be designed to allow the average user playing it for the first time to be competitive within a few hours of sitting down at the keyboard. A super-aggressive AI - even if it was possible, and I'm not sure it would be without massive cheating, which would ALSO make you people mad - would destroy the average 12 year old kid, and would keep right ON destroying him until he put the game down forever. So Activision can make a game for a handful of Civ devotees who bought every game in the genre and played it to death and spreadsheeted the outcome of different strategies, or they can make a game for the public at large. I know who I would make the game for.

Let's face it. You guys are good at the game. People at this forum are probably as good at games in this genre [and "secretly", they're all the same] as people are going to get. The only decent competition you're going to get is each other. Everyone says, "The Mods, the Mods" - but you know, the Mod AI's were sometimes a bit more surprising, but were they "smart"? Were they "competitive"? I think not. Only a human can beat a human at this game, once you've got the game mechanics down, if you're even reasonably good at this sort of thing. It took Them years to come up with an AI that could win at chess, and chess is actually much less complex, takes place in a more discrete and consistent field of action, etc. There are too many possible moves for the AI to analyze for him to be superior to a human without huge material advantage. RTS games make the AI competitive by giving him 5 times as many units - that can't be a Civ solution when all sides are supposed to start out reasonably equally, and when users complain that they don't like the AI to be given a production or time advantage.

Me, I don't mind the AI so much, because I haven't gotten bored with steamrolling my way to world domination yet. CTP2 is fun, and different enough for CTP1 to be worth the $40 I spent on it. It costs me almost that much to take my wife to the movies, and movies are two hours long. I've played CTP2 for at least twenty hours so far. By the time I get bored, I'll have gotten my money's worth - just like I did with CTP1 - and then I'll start loading Mods for novelty's sake. ***** at a game company? Not me. Games like CTP2 are the best entertainment value going.

[TheBirdMan]

I has to be sure, that the savegame bug has been eliminated. I am not yet. That's one reason to wait.


"Only a human can beat a human at this game, "

Agree to that - that is a second reason to wait - for patch no. 2 or 3 or whatever - a patch for PBEM games.


I vote slightly different I know, but from what I reads here, the game isn't worth the money - yet.

But it will be - someday........

[Davor]

lets see. I am whining am I?

Its ok for activision to put out a product out when I try to reload a game and it crashes and I have to start a new game after playing the first one for almost 300 turns.

Its almost like watching a movie at a cinema and then the stop it mid way of the movie. Wouldnt you be pissed?

its ok for activision to say the QA tested the product and it works great, espically the diplomacy. I offer an exchange to anthor empire and they take my tech but I dont recieve their tech after they accepted.

I offer my best City for a tech to see what happens and they refuse. This is great diplomacy?

Its ok to have the same song play over and over again?'

Its ok for all the other gripes that everyone else is complaining about that is not working?

I agree with you that the ai is not the greatest and we have to live with it unless we change it ourselves but what about the features that plainly dont work?

If we dont complain then they will never know what **** they make sometimes.

BTW I love this game. I cant stop playing it but when I play for a few hundred turns and the game crashes and wont let me reload I have a right to be whiny as some one said earler and pissed

I love this game just wished the bugs werent here like they SAID the QA TESTED this product.

IF i sold you a car and said it was running well and you bought it and it ran half assed wouldnt you be pissed even though I said I tested it before I sold it to you? $70 wait $80 when taxes are factored in is alot of money to spend on a half working game when they say it works great.

Davor