posted 04-07-99 12:51 AM ET        

http://civilization.gamestats.com/ctp/

If you are interested in buying CtP or have already, please read this--if you agree with me, please visit the site above and express your support. I should note that I didn't do this on the Firaxis Forum because, other faults aside, Firaxis does seem to be listening. The have at least, if sometimes for the worse, released 2 patches already, and there is reason to believe they are dedicated to making this the ultimate TBS game around. The verdict is still out on Activision, but it looks bleak in comparison]

Fellow Gamers:

I am not an enemy of Activision. I'm an enemy of the current trend in the gaming industry to treat the first release of a game as a "work on progress," subject to patches as the company then sees fit. I'm an enemy of ignoring beta-testers, rushing to market, and leaving the paying customer to sit patiently for the fixes that might never come.

My intention with this Declaration is to gather as many supporters as possible and, depending on Activision's speed and dedication toward fixing ALL of the issues that should never have been handed to us in the first place, I will send your comments to every on-line game magazine there is. From GameCenter to Thresh's Firing Squad. And, in any event, your comments will be passed on to Activision for their consideration.

I am constantly amazed that companies like Activision will spend tens of thousands of dollars promoting a game, buying retail space and waging lawsuits, but seemingly refuse to abide by Law One: The customer is always right. Your fastest route to making your millions, Activision, is customer satisfaction--not as a process of endless patches, but as a commitment to Total Quality Assurance before and after the game's release. You had a golden opportunity to rise above the current corporate irresponsibility and earn our respect and money. You chose not to.

If nothing else, I hope this Declaration will help an undecided gamer realize that he or she should wait to buy Call to Power. And in that waiting hurt Activision's profits. On this topic of money, the mantra from corporate executives is always the same: "We release our games when we do to maximize profits. This is a business."

Yes, this IS a business--and it's time the gaming company pays.

Please show your support below. We will all, company and gamer, benefit from helping change this industry for the better. Remember--it's our rushing to buy games on release day that has helped fuel this problem.

_______________________
Please note that I consider the following to mean:

"Disapproval": You have bought the game and feel that only a patch can make the game work as it should--nothing unreasonable, just obvious bugs and basic gameplay issues. You also do not feel like taking the next step:

"Intend to Return": You have bought the game and either plan to return it outright or plan to return it and buy it again later (at a lower price) after Activision has hopefully taken care of its customers. Simply tell the sales clerk that bugs in the game make it unplayable. Even if they don't take the game back, Activision's reputation with retailers will take a big hit. It will cost them more to rush their next game to market, thus making them more sensitive to the quality of their first releases.

"Refusal to Buy": You hope to buy the game, but refuse to do so until sufficient support has been shown by Activision in terms of quality patches and response to customer feedback.*

*I assume, of course, that everybody here is willing to see this work out so they can buy a hopefully great game. If you won't buy it in the future even if Activision makes all the right corrections, you probably aren't a fan of this genre anyway.
________________________

Declaration Status: Refusal to Buy
Age: 28
Profession: Executive Assistant to a University President
Reason(s) for Declaration Status:

I refuse to pay to become an ignored beta-tester.

Yin, please send my comments to Activision and Thresh's Firing Squad at:

http://www.firingsquad.com/default.asp

(Please help me collect every on-line game magazine Web address you can think of--Thanks.)

posted 04-07-99 01:01 AM ET            

Well, I do agree with everything in that post. And it should also be extended to Interplay.

But I'm not really intending to buy CTP regardless, so it would be misleading to post a complain on their site.

posted 04-07-99 06:56 AM ET            

I'm sure that soooooo many people and companies hate you for being such a pain up their a$$es ! Do you get a lot of hate mail and flames ?

I used to think, when I read your earlier posts on this forum: "Who is this idiot?" (and the hundreds of messages answering every post that had your name on it did nothing to help that), but then I saw the reasoning (and the fun and sarcasm ) behind your posts...

I have to agree with you... I think I've been Yinlightened !

posted 04-07-99 08:13 AM ET            

How long until we reach critical mass?

"Tough to say--two weeks, maybe three. Depends on Activision really. How well they handle damage control, that sort of thing."

Brilliant. Stroke of genius the way you spent the last few weeks looking like you hated Firaxis...I should program Miriam to do something like that...

"I know. Nobody saw the Activision thing coming. Not a soul."

You look so damn reasonable now by comparison. The Master Plan is kickin' in! Let's YINCINERATE the bastards!

"Uhhh, O.K., Mr. Meier. Sure. Whatever you want. Say, can I get that patch now?"

All things in due time Yin. All things in due time...

posted 04-07-99 12:01 PM ET         

Actually, from the rumblings I've heard inside, Activision considers this to be their "baby" and they have basically said "It will be released when it is done, not before." Saita Junki, lead dev has been quite vocal about that.

I think they learned their lesson from HG1. 'Sides, if you played Battlezone, you'll realize that the Darkside is much, much more powerful...

posted 04-07-99 01:52 PM ET            

1) An obscure fluke with new techology, such as the Pentium III or something like that which was unavailable during development.

2) New features.

Bug fixes, yes, often are necessary but if the game's not finished, it shouldn't be on the shelf. Nobody buys a music CD then downloads the last track from the Internet because it hadn't been recorded, or has to ring a helpline to find out who the murderer was in a mystery, and games are absolutely no exception. The SMAC ones I quite like, because although they fix bugs they also add new stuff to the game such as the lines to the destination point and borehole cluster and the game is perfectly playable WITHOUT them. On the other hand, the original builds of Tex Murphy : Overseer in which disk 5 was labelled Oversser5 instead of Overseer5 and as such couldn't be used is not. (who was the 'overseer' of this one), or - yes - Frontier : First Encounters, the ultimate bug ridden pile of junk, are a joke and should be treated as such. I haven't played Call to Power yet so I don't know how badly that one's bugged, but if it's anything like Final Fantasy VII (I hate playing that with the 'savepoint' system since it frequently crashes during the battles. I'm utterly stuck now because every time I beat Hojo at the end of Disk 2 my system locks up.)