posted 08-07-99 04:18 AM ET        

I never thought this day would come. I figured I would have moved on to a different game, and other places by now. Not quite. But I have reached 1000 posts.

There used to be a couple of cliques that this was important to. I'm not in any of them, so I don't care about it.

To those groups, which the recently returned Imran was a member, I'd still be a brainless newbie. To some who have only been here a week or a month, I'm an old Vet whose always been willing to give a SMAC answer if I knew it. Perceptions are odd.

SMAC had replaced Civ2 on my system since it was installed. But whether it will last, or be replaced in the Test of Time, we have yet to see.

If you will indulge me for a moment, though, I'd like to mention at this time that this board is quite cyclic. This is not the first time that the customers that bought SMAC were outraged. Or that other SMACkers decided to call them "stupid moron dick-heads" for daring to express their displeasure. Just reporting a bug would earn you a hundred words of swearing from the strongest SMAC supporters from time to time. It's just the way it is. Don't let such behaviour sway you, other than to go away. (There are other SMAC resources that are more friendly.) Most of us don't come here for such behaviour. We came to talk about SMAC, discuss whatever issues related to it (whether bug or tactic or experiences), and express our level of satisfaction with the game. Obviously, some are happier than others.

In my time here so far, I have seen many mishandlings and Public Relations nightmares committed by Firaxis. They claim they are making it more of a priority to better focus on Public Relations. I hope they do. But as they have said this before, only time will tell. Small companies do more limited resources than large ones, and something always has to give to make room for something else.

They have claimed they'd like to tap the great resource that is their fans. And they have done this, to some degree, with the Civ3 list. Let's hope that this continues, and is rewarding for all.

To all that I have had the pleasure to debate with here, since my first bug reports in the demo back in January, until now, let me take this time to thank you for the privalege. I may not remember to later.