Taboo . . .

It's tricky. I suspect that the initial sales run has certainly peaked; perhaps any new players now are the 'word of mouth' variety who come along on the direct recommendation of a friend, rather than from reading the latest review in a mag or on the Net. Like you, I hope the next version will stimulate new interest, although as Kit once said in chat, it's actually unlikely to because it's NOT on the shelf for people to see. Non-subscribers wont be alerted to it.

I don't think the topic is necessarily unpleasant or scary - it just is what it is. I also feel that there are MANY more people playing than chat here or submit to the Metaverse; I'm not sure if Metaverse traffic is a genuine indicator of game popularity. Not sure what you mean by "decline in Customer Support"? I still have questions answered by email when I ask. When I looked at forming an Empire I did notice LOTS of 'one person' empires that will probably never be activated - I presume they were created in the first enthusiastic rush. I guess Stardock must be happy with their product - they continue to develop it!

Two thoughts:

1) I wonder if they can do a 'cleanup' of the Metaverse, ie just delete players/empires who have not submitted for 2,3,6 months, whatever. Clean out the 'deadwood' from the empires and the boards and leave the ongoing contributors. I know that there is an 'aging' process to scores, but I don't think old ones disappear completely.

2) How about - a complete reset? Oooo...scary. Wipe out all existing empires and all individual scores....everyone start from scratch? Re-form empires, the works? Wombat stands over prone figure of Metaverse on Hospital gurney....holds paddles in paws....yells "CLEAR!!!"...300Kj zap to sternum!! Whew!! LOL

LOL LOL LOL

arghhh... nooooo... then they'll get ppl complaining that they are no longer in the metaverse... when (if) they come back...

and {slaps wombat in the face} thats for even concidering thought 2 .... sheesh... imagine the ruccus there would be.....

me thinks that moving over to GROSS and POSS had addled wombats brains... mind you they were addled in the first place... otherwise he'd have stayed with the ANZACS where he belongs LOL

I believe game mags and websites will carry reviews of GCX when it gets launched so I think there would be many new buyers attracted to a game with rave reviews and a free Xpack.

I'm not sure how the retail copy will be changed with the arrival of the Xpack. Maybe some attractive sticker on the box to say that it comes a free Xpack.

Cotal probably meant a decline in the number of posts made by Stardock folks in the forum. They are probably too busy with Xpack and other new games/software that they just can't afford the time to post as often.

As to cleanup, don't think they will delete old players/empires. Many of them are heroes of the past and even though they are no longer active, their records are still there for all to admire.

IIRC, Frogboy mentioned before that he disliked resetting (lucky for me :p) aka Warcraft ladders.

And just for anyone with an eye for detail...I should have zapped with 300 joules, NOT Kj...oops...broiled Metaverse...sorry....

Mmmmm, well Threadzilla liked it...

Well, as the game says, and metaverse shows.... the universe in not a tidy place LOL
But fromwhat Ihave read, a good cleaning would be in order. 6mo old no-subs should be nixed.
Another thing that might be a problem, is having to be connected to the net to get your game submitted. barring saving your game prior to the last turn would cause a lot of ppl to not submit. As is the cornicopia of nic/addys/names/ect that is required to submit. Certainly not a good indicator of game popularity. Maybe they could add a game feature that puts the final score in a special save file, that once you log onto the metaverse, it up loads the score and deletes the file. or not. lol

It's not on the shelves in the stores because it keeps selling out.

Even though I am right now DLing the full version and waiting on the CD (seeing which ones is done first. snail mail VS 56k). If it were I....I would do an advertising blitz for the DL site and drop the price $10-$15. (DL for $30 bucks or so)

Don't think they would contractually be able to undercut their retail channels. Good idea, though.

That would be me! I didn't like the features I read about GalCiv (in mags, online, or on the box), but after giving up on MOO3, a friend said I really oughtta try GalCiv. Aren't ya'll sorry he did? hehe Well GalCiv has the one feature that matters most - FUN!!! Someone should quote that...



Thank you.



Um... why? :notsure:



This is not what I'm talking about. (As though I have a degree in marketing... anyhow) gamers who shop at brick and mortar stores (the vast majority of us) skip past boxes that we've seen already. Game sellers know the appeal of 'new' so they want to stock up on shiny new unseen box cover art. Is Strategy First planning on shipping out new boxes with new cover art? If not, and if I didn't already have the game, I would skip right past it. Well... free markets are mean. :notsure:

Some interesting suggestions. I feel that some kinda clean up has gotta come around sooner or later. A good point too about the Beta not really helping increase general awareness in the gaming community.

If I may put foward my personal opinion regarding this great games marketing. The Original release has to be 'revamped' so an out of the box purchase has the stability of 1.05 or better. What you buy off the shelf is virtually unplayable and contuary to popular belief I know plenty of fokes who arn't on the net for a variety of reasons or are simply too fickle to give the game a second chance if it doesn't seem to work out of the box. I myself pondered returning this game to the store in disgust at its quality out of the box. I have incidentely done so on a couple occasions with other games that seemed to suck with varied success. But because a friend of mine was playing it also I decided to perservere . . . naturally now I'm glad I did.

I'll never understand why this game was prematurely released without adequate testing, but a moment in time saves nine! How much rooting around and dissatisfaction could have been avoided if it wasn't for the unstable store version release. I'd bet the gamers interest and base would have been absolutely huge if it were not for the painful teethings of the original release.

The Beta is an oportunity for Stardock to fix things up once and for all. Re-release it, Call it a 'Deluxe Edition' or whatever you want . . . but giving it away for free to us privy few won't help the game expand as much as it might otherwise. A re-realesed original and bonus upgrade (even at reduced cost) would net SD much more money and exposure than giving it out for free.

Regarding my comment about Customer Support . . . the basic requests are being met for the most part I suppose. But there is no evolution of these forums and still many requests going unanswered. Stardock are good people I can't imagine they'd let things go intentionly unless thier resources where streched too far . . .

I have said enough, I'd buy shares if I could . . .

Are you wearing a sign on your back that says:
"Flame me, I'm Stupid!"

You know you are asking for it...
LOL

A total reset! Oh yeah, It's bound to happen . . . those solar flares you know can cause absolute 'pandemonium' to data bases! LOL

(Cotal thinking about nothing other than dollar bills starts copying and pasting all metaverse scores into a folder for possible future use . . . )

Did you write this on purpose to get SD's attention?

Now I'm certain Frogboy will drop by to refute that.

I didn't play v1.0 so I don't really know how that version was.

A shiny figure walks into the “Galactic Civilizations Marketing Think Tank” catching Ray in mid-sentence.

A muffled voice speaks from inside a silver helmet. “Did someone request a flame fest?”

Couslee, Blue, Wombat, Hurley, Ray and Cotal all point to Yoda. The little old green fellow searches for an exit, but the flamethrower has him trapped.

FWOOOOOOSH!!! FWOOOOOOSH!!! A veritable wall of fire engulfs Yoda’s corner of the think tank. Nothing but blackened walls and crispy conference furniture remains.

Kit lifts his face shield, scanning his incendiary work. “Right. Carry on.”

Cowering at the opposite end of the room behind a projector, Jedi Master Yoda watches the mad marauder exit. When 900 years old we are, not as fast and wily will we be!

Ray in all honesty it's true! I installed GC on Paul's computer after he put a fresh re-install of Windows 2000 on it last night and kept getting CTD at random. I wanted to convert him over to GC rather than this stupid strip solitare (SS) a 'buddie' gave him for his birthday . . .

. . . I'm a bit of a dramatist but I'd never exaggerate. Anyway I read Frogboy elude to his/(her?) disfatisfaction with the original releases stability somewhere in these forums . . . Hopefully Frogboy understands I'm only tring to help, (Cotal takes her large foot out of her mouth yet again) . . .

AH! DON"T EXCILE ME! PLEASE > >

LOL Kit well done . . . that little wiry rascals too quick for me!

[Message Edited]

I would strongly advise against that. I, for one, don't submit games (I tend towards intentionally trying to break things, and that doesn't exactly spell well for attempting to submit the games afterwards), but I am quite definately active.



I'm already on the record somewhere in the backposting as stating that I would have considered beta2 to be a release quality product. Everything else is icing on the cake (boy am I glad I like icing... mmm. colored sugar...).
~SDC~
[Message Edited]

I'm sure you didn't mean any offense with that statement, Cotal.

But I've read Frogboy mention somewhere that he felt the release version was solid so he might take issue with your choice of words.

As I said, I can't really comment on the release version because I started my games with the bonus pack, which was very stable for me.

Ctotal,
I would also have to refute the statement the version 1 is unplayable. Version 1 was very playable and was released in tandem with a free enhancement pack (to counter piracy). On the vast majority of peoples computers it was stable. There were a very small number of graphics cards that were later found to have problems and later releases fixed these and made changes suggested by players.
You can still load the original verion 1 and play it. I'm not sure why you had so much trouble when you installed it on another computer. The biggest cause for random crashes was background programmes. A clean W2000 install should have had none though. Perhaps you had not installed the latest drivers?

Paul.

~SDC~

Sorry Arcturus - I should have been clearer; I didn't mean delete your board contribution, just scores on the Metaverse. I didn't really mean reset the BOARD in some way.

Kit - thanks for taking care of the muppet LOL LOL LOL

Cotal - I really like the "Deluxe Edition" idea! Puts it on the shelves again in people's faces, gets new reviews in the mags, etc.

And what a crap box the game came in, in Australia. The box art was woeful. The description of the game just didn't sell it. I heard about Galciv on Apolyton: not from any media here. It could have benefitted by a couple of dollars spent on marketing in OZ. Oh well, not many PC games outsell 'The Sims in Nevada'.

Personally, I play it maybe a couple times a week. I tried registering on the Metaverse and submitted 2 games, but they never showed up, so I just stopped bothering to submit them.

As far as "cleaning out" old games from the Metaverse, I would think that would defeat its purpose. Unless it's changed, the initial purpose of the Metaverse was to someday allow the game to "learn" from these past-played games in the database, to allow the AI to grow. I may not be explaining it perfectly, but that's the gist of it. If only "current" games are kept in the Metaverse, then it greatly limits the potential for "learning" on the part of the AI.

Or was that whole idea scrubbed? I could be way off-base, too.

--Mark

I think that on of the disappoint factor is that your score is mess up, like in your team you have a score and then in the individual list you have another, it gets disappointing when you are submiting games and you see your score in the top player list high, but in you empire list is lower, what is going on? Also I don't agree with your score getting lower after few months, somehow degrades with time, that is ridiculous, your score should remain intact as a tribute to your hard work, if you have 1 million of points, hello you earn them, why should be degraded because 3 or 4 months went by. That is absurd. Also you should review the way you score points to avoid teams being in lower positions than they deserve. I don't see in the world of sport a world record being degraded because was stableshed 50 years ago, if you want to beat it, fight for it, don't receive it as a gift.

Another thing should be that if you earn 4000 or whatever score you earn, you should be credited with the whole amount of points no with part of it. It is not fair that you win the game with 15000 points and then get credited with a portion of it.

So if I understand you correctly, Mayito, you’re not fond of score degradation or their division by square roots. :notsure:

I think they both have merit even if I would tweak the numbers some.



There is actually very little difference between Metaverse score and player score. Why is there a difference? Beats me. As far as being ranked high while being a member of a low ranking empire, that’s an issue a player should take up with their teammates.



Score degradation is really quite small. I believe it exists to encourage active participation. No one, and I’d put all my bc’s on this, has EVER received a high rank in the Metaverse because of another overlord’s score degredation.



I believe the division by square roots is an attempt to keep gamers from burning out. If most players pace themselves, they’re less likely to quit GalCiv for good. Also, if they stick around longer, we all have a richer community for a longer duration.

Mayito, I think your fighting against concepts and not their actual impact. Again, because GalCiv1 won’t last for years, score degradation has a minimal impact. As far as the division by square roots, this seems to be a question of personal gratification versus the welfare of our community.

Greetings,

I am new here but don't see the lack of games submitted as a warning sign as much as lack of recent mods. I have so far only submitted my beginning cakewalk game because I can only play part time (annoying having two jobs to pay for little things like computers). I have the two games one step up waiting to be finished but I am a builder and have been doing my best to avoid a cultural victory so I can experience more of the late game tech. The mods seem to have slowed for now although I imagine some of that is waiting for the beta to finish to see what new toys we will have to play with. Mods for GC take a bit more thought and planning than something like Morrowind and I REALLY don't want to see a 'nude torian' patch.

Marketing does seem to be something of a problem as I actually discovered the game while randomly browsing some of the hint files for old games and discovered strategies for the original. Since they mentioned the remake I looked and found some good reviews of it, which led to the demo, which led to buying it. Hopefully the expansion will lead to more reviews to get more converts.