Excellent Tech Support

[John-SJ]

I have been hanging around Cafe Tropico lately and spending some time on their furums. PopTop tech support has been getting a lot of praise for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Phil Steinmeyer (PopTop president) engages in tech support himself. Check out this thread and see what I mean.

The linked thread is just one example I have read about on the Cafe Tropico site of PopTop's commitment to tech support. Would that all *cough* Firaxis *cough* developers would follow their shining example.

John-SJ

[Grumbold]

If only Tropico was an interesting game to play. I was quite relieved it was a bit unstable because it allowed me to take it back to the shop with a clear conscience. After sales service can certainly make or break a potentially great game, there is no doubt about that, but only if the game shipped with bugs that need patching or additional gameplay features that could not make the production cut. Civ III has a lot of potential to follow the SimCity 3000 and Civ II examples (even if it relies on fans to do it) and have lots of additional extras for download to keep the game interesting.

[John-SJ]

quote: Originally posted by Grumbold on 05-16-2001 10:44 AM .... After sales service can certainly make or break a potentially great game, there is no doubt about that, but only if the game shipped with bugs that need patching or additional gameplay features that could not make the production cut....

Which is why I hope Civ 3 will follow the Tropico example, a game that shipped virtually bug free when compared to some games nowadays. The biggest issue so far has been with copy protection and a crash bug that affected a small set of configurations. I believe those have been fixed in the first patch. There have been no major game play issues reported at all! As a counter expample there is Alpha Centauri... 'nuff said.

Firaxis is capable of producing a dynamite game, but a lot of people are really turned off by it's half-hearted tech support in the past. This may be because of it's association with EA, I don't know. If that's the case then I hope Firaxis gets another publisher for whatever comes after Civ 3. If EA is not the issue then I hope Firaxis gets it's act together becuase another game like SMAC will sour me towards Firaxis for a long LONG time.

John-SJ

edit: (P.S.) And you're right, I don't find Tropico terribly interesting either, more like one of the most fascinating games I've played in years!


[This message has been edited by John-SJ (edited May 16, 2001).]

[John-SJ]

quote: Originally posted by Grumbold on 05-16-2001 12:04 PM Firaxis have had their tech support problems but you only have to look at CtP2 for a shining example of how bad they could be if they really tried.

Obviously there are worse tech support staffs than Firaxis, that much is obvious. My point however is not that Firaxis is the worst there is, but that there are better ones out there. My hope is that Firaxis will strive to be the best!

quote: I'm confident that Civ III will be compelling enough to want to load from the last save even if it does crash once an hour.

I'm glad that you have such high expectations for the game. Too bad your expectation for support is so low though, I'll bet Firaxis/EA is breathing a sigh of relief to learn that people will accept even a totally broken alpha test as long as Sid's name is on it.

My enthusiasm is not so high though. There is NO GAME that I would continue to play given the conditions you mention.

quote: Sadly the same could not be said for Tropico. But I won't go into its flaws on the Civ3 board.

That's fine, but I find Tropico a very rich. complex simulation. It's extremely intricate and there are countless ways to play it. In many ways it's a lot like Civ. Oh well, to each his own, right?

quote: One final word: PopTop have shown great enthusiasm for the first month post launch. It will only be truly great support if they are still showing unwavering commitment after a year or more despite the team members who have not left the company working hard on a new project. [This message has been edited by Grumbold (edited May 16, 2001).]

Agreed! As of yet I have not seen any company that does this though, so based on what we have (rather than what would be nice) I'd have to say that PopTop is doing a splendid job! I'm sure that we can agree in our hope that Firaxis does as well.

John: patch 1.02 is out plus map editor.

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[This message has been edited by joseph1944 (edited May 16, 2001).]

[Grumbold]

Firaxis have had their tech support problems but you only have to look at CtP2 for a shining example of how bad they could be if they really tried. I'm confident that Civ III will be compelling enough to want to load from the last save even if it does crash once an hour. Sadly the same could not be said for Tropico. But I won't go into its flaws on the Civ3 board.

One final word: PopTop have shown great enthusiasm for the first month post launch. It will only be truly great support if they are still showing unwavering commitment after a year or more despite the team members who have not left the company working hard on a new project.
[This message has been edited by Grumbold (edited May 16, 2001).]

I have Tropico Also and it is fun.

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[The Rusty Gamer]

Those interested might want to go to http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum22/HTML/000830.html?10 to discuss Tropico.