Things I wonder...

[Heliodorus]

An ad hoc collection of things I'm thinking about regarding Civ3 and the Apolyton community:

I wonder if the folks over at Firaxis think they made the game they wanted to make.
Civ3 was fun for me, but nowhere near the legend of Civ2. I know Firaxis had to be excited and enthused about the product as it left the door, at least on some major aspects. If i were them, I'd have been pleased with the AI's answer to ICS, and I'd have been pleased about culture, and resources. But I wonder how they felt as the first couple of months passed. Taking the blatant criticisms aside - I wonder how they look back on the design compromises that went into making a better AI. Do they have any regrets about those decisions now? Do they harbor some ill-will toward Infogrames regarding the rush that lead to shortened play-testing? Do they regret not having a truly public beta test (whether open or closed)?

Sometimes I make these long philosophical posts that I think or modestly ingenious, then no one has anything interesting to add to them, and I regret having exposed my designs on enlightenment. I wonder if that's sort of how Firaxis feels - regretting some of the efforts they went to, or some of the efforts they didn't make.

I guess I appreciate the human aspect of it all. I've always enjoyed designers who share public diaries related to design. I'd be interested to read some from Firaxis, someday.

[godinex]

[Libertarian]

These are utterly fascinating questions and musings, apparently overlooked due to a timing coincidence with the release of the patch.

How individuals might feel is purley conjecture, of course, but it stands to reason that there might be a difference in feelings between those in upper management and the grunts — assuming that Firaxis is not somehow different from practically all other software houses.

I imagine that corporate officers were reasonably happy, since the game has sold relatively well. I imagine that stockholders were ambivalent, since net profits have been unremarkable due to heavy numbers on the expense side of the P&L statement. But I imagine that the grunts were like grunts everywhere: disappointed, not because what they delivered was not the best that they could do, but because it was the best that they were allowed to do.

Early on, developers from all departments were likely giddy with excitement as they reviewed their splash screens, their animated units, and the opening stages of gameplay in which Civ3 stands out as the quintessential strategy game. But, just like anywhere else, as deadlines loomed and administrative knuckles crushed the natural ebullience of the early days, I quite imagine that feelings of regret began to sink in well before the actual release. Regrets that the late game could not be adequately play tested. Regrets that compromises were made in the interface and in key areas of gameplay.

I can almost imagine the exuberance at the initial meetings where the idea of, say, diplomatic victory was discussed. A movie of the player walking into the United Nations, perhaps. Or a graphical representation of leaders voting, with insightful comments from each about the course of diplomacy in the game. Some indication, at least, of why one player won over another.

And then I can imagine the utter embarrasment that would have befallen any normal person when the realization came that nothing more than a popup message box would be offered, suddenly and without context declaring a winner.

I suppose it would have been less sad had it not come so close. Time will tell how far it is able to go.

[Alex]

Helio and Lib: excellent posts, and ones that echo my own feelings and thoughts about Civ3 development.

Given some negative reactions here and on other boards, I wonder if they will look back at what they've done and think: now we have a chance to implement the things we had envisioned before... With the expansion pack, we could really make Civ3 the ultimate experience in strategy games... bring back the wonder movies, boys! Hey, you! Tell me more about your idea of a new government system...

But it won't happen.

[jackshot]

Yes, I think you are right. The biggest tragedy is that the franchise rights don't have any relationship with the guys who would tinker with it and think of it as their baby.

Which has probably been the problem all along.