I see they lied about multi-player

Metamorph · September 4, 2002, 17:25

What a surprise. The multi-player add-on for Civ3 will, in fact, cost money, despite promises to the contrary. Do I win a no-prize?

- Metamorph

Blue Moose · September 4, 2002, 17:46

It is really strange...

Why didn't they just have a simplistic version of multiplayer in the original release? No simultaneous turns, but hotseat, lan, and so forth.....it doesn't seem to me that it would have been that hard to include. Then PTW would have just made it better.

-Moose

zulu9812 · September 4, 2002, 18:02

yes - this has been discussed to death on countless occasions. Time to stop trolling on this one!

Blue Moose · September 4, 2002, 19:12

Ahh, I didn't know that (though I guess it isn't surprising).

-Moose

Oerdin · September 4, 2002, 19:18

Yes, a large capitalist company lied to us in order to squeeze ever possible cent out of us. The question is why are you surprised?

ixnay · September 4, 2002, 19:43

Was MP ever actually promised? All I remember hearing was "We're working on some really cool multiplayer ideas; we'll give you more details later."

JtheJackal · September 4, 2002, 20:11

Instead of giving us a simple, boring multiplayuer in a patch they give this huge complex really nice multiplayer game with a bunch of extras thrown in. How dare Firaxis!

Blue Moose · September 4, 2002, 20:40

My comment on surprise was regarding how this issue has appearently been hashed out many times before.

Anyhow, they could have given us barely adequate multiplayer, and then improved. Not that it makes much difference at this point.

-Moose

WarpStorm · September 4, 2002, 20:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin
Yes, a large capitalist company lied to us in order to squeeze ever possible cent out of us. The question is why are you surprised?

What large capitalist company are you talking about? Not Firaxis, I hope. Last I looked they only had about 40 people total.

asleepathewheel · September 4, 2002, 21:03

WarpStorm · September 4, 2002, 21:30

You're right. No point feeding the trolls.

Oerdin · September 4, 2002, 21:36

Quote:

Originally posted by ixnay37
Was MP ever actually promised? All I remember hearing was "We're working on some really cool multiplayer ideas; we'll give you more details later."

Everyone who preordered the game was promised MP but three weeks before the release they annonced there would be no MP. No one who bought the game after they were MP was listed as an enclosed feature was offered a refund or a rebate for the missing features.

It seems to be a standard practice by software companies to over promise early on so as to build up the number of preorders then drop a number of features a few days before release. In the retail business that is called "bait & switch" and it is against the law, however, in the software business it is just another tactic to increase sales.

Apocalypse · September 4, 2002, 22:24

Mine school has done the bait and switch method on occasion when people pick classes. A year and a half ago everyone signed up for Creative Writting with this one cool teacher. Instead we got this semi-ok teacher. We ended up singing happy birthday to her everyday though so it was fun.

I buy every SidGame so I really don't care about this issue.

Cyclotron · September 5, 2002, 00:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin
Everyone who preordered the game was promised MP but three weeks before the release they annonced there would be no MP. No one who bought the game after they were MP was listed as an enclosed feature was offered a refund or a rebate for the missing features.

Could I get the phrasing or a quote of this promise? I would like to see exactly what was promised to you.

Wise Ass · September 5, 2002, 00:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Blue Moose
My comment on surprise was regarding how this issue has appearently been hashed out many times before.

Anyhow, they could have given us barely adequate multiplayer, and then improved. Not that it makes much difference at this point.

-Moose

Barely adequate MP from one of the companies considered to be at the pinnacle of game design...

That would have no effect of future sales or on the reviews the game received.

Seriously Firaxis did the right thing... as a company.

statusperfect · September 5, 2002, 02:33

Quote:

Originally posted by WarpStorm

What large capitalist company are you talking about? Not Firaxis, I hope. Last I looked they only had about 40 people total.

Infogrames Interactive. The source of all evil.

Firebird · September 5, 2002, 03:13

Oh, stop trolling.
Either software-development costs or you will have to wait for people to make Freeciv in their sparetime (finishing it around 2010). And I whould rather pay 45$+35$ for a rather good game and a well-done XP containing well-done MP than paying 45$ for a half good, half bad game with MP that most people doesn't have the time to play. The MP of PTW looks like it will be much more usefull than the MP in any TBS-game ever before.

If they keep good XP's, with relevant extensions, comming at around 35$ each, I will buy them. If they make a product I like and feel gives adequate bang for the buck, I will pay them for making it.

It is quite fair actually.

zulu9812 · September 5, 2002, 03:49

I still maintain that they said we'd get a patch with multi-player, in either March or May (I forget which, but I think March). Then again, multi-player isn't why I'm going to be buying PTW.

XOR · September 5, 2002, 06:52

I personally liked multiplayer the way it was in CTP1. 6 seconds (configurable by player) per city to move your units. Everyhing else (diplomacy, citiy queue, etc.) you can do at any moment.

WarpStorm · September 5, 2002, 07:19

Quote:

Originally posted by zulu9812
I still maintain that they said we'd get a patch with multi-player, in either March or May (I forget which, but I think March). Then again, multi-player isn't why I'm going to be buying PTW.

Find this quote please. I've never seen it.

Cyclotron · September 5, 2002, 14:13

Yes, could anyone actually give me this quoted promise?

ACooper · September 5, 2002, 14:37

It was never promised. Period.

Robert Plomp · September 5, 2002, 18:34

Don't be so inpatient to pre-order games you can buy on the day of the release.
I always could so far (for the last 6 years)

if you pre-order a product 1 month before it's release, you might expect that one day things will have changed during the last month.

I agree, what Infrogames did was wrong,
but again, you should have known. (MP was questionable already for weeks prior they said it was in)

Oerdin · September 5, 2002, 18:51

Quote:

Originally posted by WarpStorm What large capitalist company are you talking about? Not Firaxis, I hope. Last I looked they only had about 40 people total.

Alright then a small capitalist company...

Oerdin · September 5, 2002, 18:57

Quote:

Originally posted by cyclotron7
Yes, could anyone actually give me this quoted promise?

The quote was on the Civ3 wed site before the game was released. It has since been removed from their web site. There was a list of features and high points that would be in the game and a link to were you could pre-order the game. MP was listed as one of the enclosed features.

MarkG · September 5, 2002, 18:58

never promised

end of troll