02-05-2003 21:14									#1
	Campaign for Mac PTW Put an end to popups!

Al Schilling's email address:

aschilling@destineerstudios.com

Generic letter:

Dear Mr. Schilling,

I am contacting you to express the wishes of many, that your company, MacSoft Games, would choose to port Sid Meier's PTW over to the Mac. A decision to port PTW would also be consistent with past business decisions regarding the Civilization series. In addition, I would expect a PTW Mac port to sell very well in spite of the MP cross-platform inability with PC users. Many Mac users I've spoken with are interested in PTW for its additional civilizations, features, and MP capabilities with their Mac-user friends. It is my hope that MacSoft Games chooses to port PTW in the near future. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tom Herring (dojoboy)
Apolyton and CivFanatics Center member

Last edited by dojoboy on 02-05-2003 at 21:22

	04-05-2003 04:42									#2
	Re: Campaign for Mac PTW Get a bigger avatar today!

quote: Originally posted by dojoboy Al Schilling's email address:

I can't advise against this strongly enough. If you want to show your support for a Mac PTW port, the last thing you should do is organize an e-mail spamming campaign.

	04-05-2003 05:28									#3
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This was meant to be a positive effort, Brad.

	04-05-2003 09:08									#4
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bradman: then how would you recommend us to get a PTW Mac port campaign going?

	04-05-2003 22:05									#5
	Re: Re: Campaign for Mac PTW Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by bradman I can't advise against this strongly enough. If you want to show your support for a Mac PTW port, the last thing you should do is organize an e-mail spamming campaign.

hi ,

, ..... a campaign with positive requests and encouragements tends to have positive results , ......

have a nice day

	04-05-2003 23:02									#6
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That's what our thoughts were on it, panag... that's why I'm wondering about bradman's logic.

	05-05-2003 02:11									#7
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I'd have to agree with bradman on this one; no one wants to have to deal with thousands of emails. Subjecting this guy to an unwanted deluge of emails isn't going to help your cause.

Why don't you start one of those online petition things? I have my doubts about their effectiveness, but it seems like a smarter play than this ill-fated spamathon.

	05-05-2003 02:39									#8
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First off, it won't be "thousands of e-mails" and second off, online petitions are even less effective.

The original idea was an actual letter-writing campaign. You know, snail mail? Though in this day and age e-mail seemed the more popular and effiecient solution.

After all, IMHO this isn't spam, it's a group of people from here (myself, dojo, Gatekeeper (anybody else?)) who would really like to see PTW ported. How else are we supposed to let Macsoft know that we'd buy it if they made it?

	05-05-2003 02:46									#9
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hi ,


, maybe we could have a chat with them , ....

some feedback would be welcome , .....

have a nice day

	05-05-2003 02:51									#10
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chat would be nice, but 'till this summer I know I wouldn't be able to participate with them... likewise we'd need our chat program back up and running here.

	05-05-2003 02:58									#11
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quote: Originally posted by FlameFlash chat would be nice, but 'till this summer I know I wouldn't be able to participate with them... likewise we'd need our chat program back up and running here.

hi ,

try this > http://apolyton.net/cgi-sys/mchat.cgi?channel=apolyton

well it does not have to be a chat , a turnthread would also be nice , ....

have a nice day

	05-05-2003 03:02									#12
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Not familiar with turnthreads...

	05-05-2003 03:09									#13
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quote: Originally posted by FlameFlash Not familiar with turnthreads...

hi ,

a chat but in thread form

we had it a long time ago with the first civ demo game , .....

have a nice day

	05-05-2003 03:17									#14
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Kinda like what we're doing now, eh, panag?

	10-05-2003 20:19									#15
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Sending requests to companies asking them to make a product is far from Spam. They want to know what people will buy. Smart businesses are always interested in such feedback from consumers.

	10-05-2003 23:24									#16
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

Snail mail is no guarantee, either.

At the newspaper I work at, we receive a lot of "form letters" (mainly from partisan political types) with a constituent's signature. The letters say the same thing almost verbatim, with only the signature being different. We publish the letters, but they get *last* priority over those who can write their own thoughts w/o having to rely on some party appartchik to do their thinking for them.

If something like that arrives in Macsoft's mailboxes, they might ignore it as well. So the only way to get their attention may be to make phone calls and/or write long, stylized and personalized letters (preferably in calligraphy in blue ink on real parchment). Either that or we can get a for-hire interest group to "inform" them of their "constituents'" concerns.

My point? It's probably not worth the time or effort. If a well-intentioned effort is automatically viewed as spam and nothing more than form letters with signatures, then it's Apple's loss (and, indirectly, Macsoft's), Microsoft's gain.

Gatekeeper

	11-05-2003 01:33									#17
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hi ,

, maybe we would have to wait till the e3 event , lets see what comes out of that , ....

have a nice day

	11-05-2003 10:01									#18
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Brad explained why he thought it was a bad idea on another forum. To paraphrase him loosely, the decision to port Mac games is traditionally made by the success of a PC game, from which a calculation can be made as to how successful a Mac port would be. You can read what you want into the absence of even a development announcement at this point.

In addition, an email campaign could be annoying, and quite possibly have the effect of seeming to have little popular support, if not enough people wrote in.

	11-05-2003 13:57									#19
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Hmm ... well, from what I understand, the PC release of PtW wasn't a bomb by any means.

Gatekeeper

	11-05-2003 15:46									#20
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quote: Originally posted by Gatekeeper Hmm ... well, from what I understand, the PC release of PtW wasn't a bomb by any means.

Have you seen the sales figures?

	11-05-2003 15:49									#21
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If it wasn't doing badly it should.
Civ 3 is utter crap, not the fault of the mac porters to be sure, from what I've seen they've done well (and they've been a lot more forthcomming when it comes to contributing on the boards than firaxis ever was). The Game is flawed to begin with however and nothing can change that.

I'm still playing civ2, which even with the comming of PTW has loads of more features especially when it comes to MP and Scenario building...

	11-05-2003 16:05									#22
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Well, this thread has been a bit discouraging. What I thought would be a positive effort, is seen as a negative all the way around by many. In fact, MacGamer Forums banned me, permanently, for the same thread. They do have no petitions listed plainly above their forums. It just didn't register. Oh well, I've just had to become somebody else.

	11-05-2003 22:56									#23
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quote: Originally posted by bradman Have you seen the sales figures?

No. I take it that PtW did *bomb* on the PC after all, sales-wise?

Gatekeeper

	11-05-2003 22:58									#24
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quote: Originally posted by dojoboy Well, this thread has been a bit discouraging. What I thought would be a positive effort, is seen as a negative all the way around by many. In fact, MacGamer Forums banned me, permanently, for the same thread. They do have no petitions listed plainly above their forums. It just didn't register. Oh well, I've just had to become somebody else.

Why'd they react so severely? Have they had problems with petition campaigns in the past?

Gatekeeper

	12-05-2003 20:42									#25
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Well, I thought it was a good idea too, dojo...

* FlameFlash shrugs...

So I suppose all we can do is sit and wait and hope?

	14-05-2003 01:13									#26
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quote: Originally posted by bradman Have you seen the sales figures?

hi ,

, could you post them for us

have a nice day

	14-05-2003 03:17									#27
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quote: Originally posted by panag could you post them for us

No, companies consider that to be confidential information, and sadly I'm in no position to share that info without getting my ass sued off. Txurce made a good post though.

	14-05-2003 22:34									#28
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quote: Originally posted by bradman No, companies consider that to be confidential information, and sadly I'm in no position to share that info without getting my ass sued off. Txurce made a good post though.

hi ,

well if they are so higly confidental then what would you do if one would go to the public county offices , ....

and a company who does that is not transparent , ......

how where one to believe for example what is a good product or not , .....

what about investors , ....

they might consider it "confidential" yet they are missing out on a huge amount of marketing , ......... & pr , ....

have a nice day

	15-05-2003 15:04									#29
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quote: Originally posted by panag well if they are so higly confidental then what would you do if one would go to the public county offices , ....

If I understand you, I don't think that will help.

quote: and a company who does that is not transparent , ...... how where one to believe for example what is a good product or not , ..... what about investors , .... they might consider it "confidential" yet they are missing out on a huge amount of marketing , ......... & pr , ....

I'm afraid I don't understand.

Did I mention Txurce's post? He seems like a pretty smart guy.

	15-05-2003 18:29									#30
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quote: Originally posted by bradman Did I mention Txurce's post? He seems like a pretty smart guy.

I'm hurt Brad, you've never said anything like that about me.

Okay, sales of PTW obviously had to be good enough for Firaxis to decide on another Civ3 expansion. Right?