Civilization Has Gone Too Corporate

SorvinoBackhand · November 28, 2001, 09:22

Am I the only one who thinks that this iteration of the Civilization series feels much more corporate than in the past? First came the GREAT LIE about Multiplayer, now Infogrames FINED a fan. What the hell is that? Fining fans of the game ?!

Civ used to be a lower overhead, more player-oriented franchise. Sid Meier apparently once had control of the broad direction of policy. But his mystique is fading in the tightening grip of the publisher and its marketing wing.

Clearly, Infogrames sees a cash-cow when it looks at sites like Apolyton, not devoted fans seeking a good game. It is a shame how far that fan loyalty is now evaluated, and exploited, as a direct dollar assest - a near-captive market - rather than as a equal and critical part of the franchise' success.

In their later work, I hope Sid and Firaxis will move on to a new publisher that does not regard the fan base with such contempt.

kailhun · November 28, 2001, 09:46

Fine a fan? How do you fine a fan?
Doesn't really work:
Infogrames: you have been naughty, give me $200,-
fan: No, now bu**er off.
End of story.

What happened?

Robert

ScottVib · November 28, 2001, 10:09

Read the German Translation Gaff thread, currently below this one.

Bleyn · November 28, 2001, 11:32

Well given that the computer gaming industry is now, I believe, a multi-billion dollar industry, the corporatization of games is somewhat inevitable.

Back when the original Civ was released, a lot of games were still being made on showstring budgets by people who were more interested in making the game than in ever seeing any money off of it.

Now it typically requires a lot more time, a lot more people, and way more $$$ to make a video game. And while Sid may be doing pretty good, he's no George Lucas.

Unfortunantly, this means that good small design companies like Firaxis, QuickSilver, or Brian Reynolds' Big Huge Games have to work with big time publishers. And when you boil it all down, the people in charge at the publishing companies are business people who are out to make more than just a buck or two. And they are going to take actions to protect their percieved ability to make said money, even if it doesn't make sense to us.

And trust me, its not worth bothering. It will never make sense to us. I used to work in tech support for a computer company. More than once we had to suffer with the results of a bad marketting decision that we could have told them would hurt the company if they had bothered to ask us.

Will this change any time soon? Probably not. Is there anything we can do about it? Well unless you can manage to round up every person in Western civilization mis-trained by the skewed values of the corporate world (no doubt reinforced in no small part by similarly skewed values in business schools world-wide) and reprogram them to eschew personal greed and hold quality and long term gain as their highest values.... forget it.

My suggestions... hope that Moo3 and Civ3.x(or whatever we wanna call the now almost inevitable expansion) are better... maybe start a campaign to target video game publishers on the next Jake Day... Worship the False Bobs... Go do your Christmas shopping...

That last aught to really take your mind off of corporate greed

Wolfgang76 · November 28, 2001, 11:34

As much as I disagree with how Infrogames dealt with the translation it is thier legal right. With games sales not doing what they once did and companies refusing to use normal business sense in budget control they need the funds that would be lost due to the translation. Yes, the translation is not a full thing but it would effect some sales. Maybe not a lot but enough to change the profit range on the game in europe. People in the US have to realize that Germany as a whole buys more computer based games and the United States on average especially strategy games.

2cents...

SorvinoBackhand · November 28, 2001, 11:57

I agree it is IG's right to pursue intended and malicious copyright infringements. But Kai (that poor German guy) contacted them, in good will, with his translation idea! And IG's first response was to fine him ?! Good grief. That is not how savvy marketing responds to zealous fans. We are the people who buy these games...

Indisputedly IG pursued Kai with excess.

MORE IMPORTANTLY IG'S OVERREACTION DEMONSTRATES JUST HOW FAR SID MEIER HAS LOST CONTROL OF THIS FRANCHISE.

To be sure, IG pulled back. The fee against Kai for IG's legal expense was waived (how generous of them), but Kai - probably some hapless fan who knows nothing of lawyers - was forced to acquire and pay for one himself nonetheless. Even worse, he was banned from further modifying the game at the risk of a future 10K FINE !! Holy lord. Who does Infogrames thinks buys these games?

And isn't the Civ series supposed to be mod-FRIENDLY? Should the guy who released the Roman Catholic Church faction mod for SMAC pay such a fine? He's probably running for the hills right now.

This is all very unfortunate for a game franchise that otherwise has been so promising and intelligent in the sea of so many mediocre PC games. Now where do we turn ?

Adm.Naismith · November 28, 2001, 12:20

I'm suggesting MarkG and DanQ to close down any "MOD files area" inside Apolyton. AFAIK they are risking to be on the bad side of a Infogrames' lawyers letter ASAP.

The webmaster of the german site hosting the free mod translation, has been attacked as hard as if he hosted a hacked version of the game.

That is unbeliavable, as a punch in face of the spirit of game support all the fan's site used to be.

If Infogrames want to trash the fan support, let be so. Not the smartest move under the sun, but that's my opinion.

Wolfgang76 · November 28, 2001, 12:39

Unfortunatly "Corporates" only look at the bottom line now andnot at relations. Mods actually improve the bottom line as it increases the sales of the base game that the mod is for. Unforunatly the translation wouldnt. Please understand I am not justifying the heavy handed resopnse from infrogames nor saying this was a good way to improve realtions, simply stating the "corporate reason". Leagaly the right thing to do but a Bad way of doing it.

2cents...

Deathray · November 28, 2001, 12:55

Of course Sid has lost control of his franchise. Interplay own the Civilization name. Its a shame, but there you go. A lot of franchises are bought up by rich publishers as cash cows. Personally I think that there should be a "league of developers" of something like that, in order to force publishers to adheer to certain rules (i.e. You will give me enough time to make my game. You will let me make the game I want. You won't pull the plug suddenly and without warning).

As for Kai, well, they're within their rights to sue him, but he doesn't really deserve it. IMO it was a very bad marketting decision. Basically, it amounts to the small number of sales that might be lost by people downloading the English Civ 3 and translating it to German versus the bad publicity they will get from this move. And if one of the gaming magazines gets hold of it, the results will not be good for Interplay.

MarkG · November 28, 2001, 13:03

please post in the original thread for the topic
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=35672