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MP Another rant: My way to get MP released as free patches
This is my read on a possible scenario. I have written a similar scenario at other threads. But this time, I would like to find fellows to fight for a cheaper way to get Civ3 with MP.
1) October 2001 - Civ 3 SP release. I trust Firaxis that it will bring us a reasonably polished games. Due to lack of public beta, sooner or later there will be some balancing issues discovered. This most likely won't affect casual players. But diehard fans will cry for patches. If there is a public beta, such issues will still arise but maybe at a later time. Price: US$45
2) December 2001 - The last wave of X'mas sale. Price will be reduced a little bit. People will determine whether to buy it or not based on words of mouth or reviews of gaming sites. Price: US$40
3) May 2002 - Civ 3 expansion pack with MP capability release, hopefully with important bug fixs. This will generate another wave of sales. Price: US$35+US$30
4) After June 2002 - Civ 3 and its expansion pack will have slowdown yet stabilized sales. To acheieve this, Civ3 and expansion pack must be relatively free of bugs and balance issues. Price US$30+US$20
As Civilization fans, most of us will buy at point 1. Due to lack of announcement of free MP, some of us may buy at point 3, and some may not buy at all due to perceived bad image of Infogrames (for not released MP free).
My aim:
Best course: Infogrames release MP as a free patch.
2nd best: Infogrames release MP with expansion (not free).
Worst: Infogrames do not release MP nor expansion.
To achieve the aim, I believe that we must make Civ 3 not selling good between (1) and (2). And we must make Infogrames believe that MP is an important enough issue to make people not buying Civ 3. This means:
a) We have to buy Civ 3 as soon as it release. This allows us to have the ethical ground of writing reviews and to have the time to find out good strategy.
b) We have to write reviews to big game sites fast. We will only say verifiable, true things about Civ 3. But we will select what are the things that we are going to write.
c) We have to amplify the balancing issues of Civ 3. The easiest way to do it is to provide unethical strategy that allows people to win the game easily. We can also emphasise that the computer is stupid. (We can always do that no matter how good the AI is)
d) We have to amplify the importance of having MP. This means stressing the fun of playing with family and friends (don't emphasise that it is hard to play MP for turn-based games!) Comparing Civ 3 to other successful MP-orientated games won't hurt.
e) We can say that "It may be the best game of the time after a few improvements like multi-player capability and a better computer opponents. If I were you, I will buy the game after those improvements are made. Not every publisher is as good as Blizzard (the one who gives us Diablo and Warcraft) for providing improvements to a game" (I deliberately avoid the word "patches". Casual gamers hate downloading patches. They want the thing that comes out of box to be good.)
If we can drive down the Civ 3 sales sufficiently, Infogrames will re-think about their strategy.
a) It may drop Civ 3 altogther.
b) It may rush out MP capability to attract customer.
c) It may also offer to release MP free at a later time.
Hopefully Infogrames is clever enough this time to choose c).
I don't think this will affect SP fans here. But we need their silent cooperation. They are intelligent enough to dismiss the trueful yet one-sided reviews by us. They will buy the game anyway. Infogrames will try to sell a Civ 3 expansion pack anyway.
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