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Some words on basic game ecnomics
Oh Civ3 is incomplete! The Sky is falling! Et Tu Sid Meier? Why Hast Thou Forsaken us?
The cries across the Civ community can be heard for miles as everyone is complaining about something incomplete in the game.
Yes, you are all basically correct. The game has numerous annoying bugs, especially later in the game. Multiplayer is non-existant, a mortal sin in todays game market (though more forgivable then it otherwise would be due to the nature of Civ3) And the editor is rudimentary and incomplete at best.
But who do we have to blame?
The obvious finger point hits on Firaxis, but I have news for you boys and girls, they likely didnt want to release it when they did.
Oh im sure the company line was that they felt it was finished, but lets understand something, they dont publish the game.
Firaxis is the developer, nothing more. The game is marketed and sold by Infogames, a rather large publishing company that markets games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon and Unreal alongside such big winners like Deer Hunter, Transworld Surfer, and Spy Fox.
Obviously this company is more concerned with its bottom line then the quality of its product (as it should be, being a capitalist enterprise)
So the answer to the question "Why was Civ3 published before it was ready?" becomes obvious.
It was actually smart marketing. Beyond the obvious attempt to have the game in stores before the Christmas shopping season, you must also look at what will come out after Christmas.
Warcraft3, The Sims Online, Master of Orion III, Team Fortress II
All coming out first quarter of 2002. Not uncoincidentally, all of those developers publish their own games, allowing them to set their own timetable. Civ3 competeing for dollars in the normally tight first quarter of the year simply would yield less intial buying at the premium price. As it is, Civ3 is the only real significant game on the market right now, and thatll continue until after christmas.
Civ3 will be a great game, because a great team that does honestly care about the game is working on it. Unfourtantly business descions have caused the game to be released before its ready. Those of us who bought it will simply have to be patient and await the patches, and those who are choosing to wait will have to wait as long as they normally would have for the game had it been delayed until its finished, and in the process will get it for cheaper.
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