I’ve been really excited about Civilization 4. I am a huge fan of the Civilization series, and have lost so many hours of my life to that franchise that World of Warcraft can’t even begin to compete. At least not yet. So I’ve been very afraid of what would happen next month (the hopeful release date) when I have both my old and new addictions to deal with.
But then I read this article over at news0r. It’s written by the Senior Producer over at Firaxis, and it talks about how much you’ll be able to mod Civ4. Which we all know is a big selling point for games nowadays. Modability adds legs to a title. The more fans are creating new content, the more people will pick up the title several months or even years after the game was released. And most PC games do not have legs, so anything we can do to help is good. But we are still responsible for making the best game we can make.
The game developer must craft the title. They must make design decisions about which features to include and what would be the most fun to play with. In the linked article, this guy says the users will be able to do things like “bringing back Civil Wars caused by unrest, Civ II style!” Ok, I liked that feature of Civ2. Clearly, this guy thinks it was cool too. But if you like it, put it in the game! It is not the job of the fan community to implement things you couldn’t or didn’t want to. If you left it out, I’d like to think it’s for a reason. If there is no reason, then why’d you leave it out?
He goes on, “Don’t like the way the AI reacts? Change it. Want to change the way combat works by adding stack attacks with multiple units fighting at once? Do it.” Um. So you don’t think your AI is good? Or you don’t like the decisions you made about how combat works? I just don’t get this guy! Yes, modding the game is good. They mention how you can add new units and civilizations to the game. Sure. You can build your own custom worlds. Great! But don’t put it all on the consumer. They want to consume! Give us a great game and we’ll play it. Don’t just say “here are some tools, you make the game if you don’t like ours!”
This just felt like a preparatory shot. Like maybe someone wasn’t entirely convinced that Civ4 would please the fans. Well. I can understand, fans can be rabid. They can bite the furniture and the game developer if allowed. Ok. Maybe not that kind of rabid. But some fans don’t want any change whatsoever. They just want the next version with the better graphics and the incremental improvements to the systems they already know and love. Perhaps this article was to let them know that if they don’t like what they’re getting, they can make the same old game they’ve been playing for the last 15 years with the engine they’re buying. But really. Do they need to placate before the game has even been released?
I am skeptical and fearful. At least I know that the soon to be announced World of Warcraft expansion cannot possibly disappoint. I know it can’t. Really. It can’t, right?
One Response to “Civ4 - the Mod”
Oh No! It sounds like they aren’t confident in their product? And what about us stupids who don’t know how to code for civil wars? I want civil wars if I am a crappy leader. I think it’s only normal. Anyways there are tons of horrible mods to sift through before you find a pearl. I will be caught in limbo if Civ 4 stinks. I can’t possibly go back to play an obsolete version, but I might remember all the good times I had with civil wars and stacking units, and not enjoy my newest version. Civ games have been my electronic security blanket for a decade. How will I ever get by if it isn’t up to par?