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#57 A BUBBA'S EYE VIEW: INTRODUCTION Roger Oepkes introduces a series of articles for the Column. #58 WAR AND CIVILIZATION David Emery is looking to strike a chord between reality and simplicity in gaming. #59 A BUBBA'S EYE RATES SMAC (Part I) Roger Oepkes writes about the successes of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri #60 MULTIPLAYER CIV... Die hard multi-player advocate Kwang quits #61 A BUBBA'S EYE RATES SMAC (Part II) Roger Oepkes writes about the failures of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri COLUMN ARCHIVE

Pretentious developers will always give you one reason (excuse) or another when they develop a product with bugs, or other "flaws," as perceived by the public.

*"It's not profitable for us to debug EVERYTHING."

*"We just don't have the budget to hammer out world-class graphics, besides, we cannot get the game out to every platform."

*"We cannot add option so and so because it would destroy the balance of gameplay."

Being in the front lines of software support, I have to agree with the developer who stated that the public will still buy the product if it's flawed. The corporation can put out crap, but if it's the best CRAP out there, the public will still buy it, since there is nothing better. It's like voting for the President of the United States. The choice of the lesser of evils.

As one developer stated, gamers will complain about bugs until their face turns red, then still buy the product anyway. If the game is buggy, but there is nothing better, no competition, then they will gladly give up their $40 for enjoying a good game.

The truth of the matter is that the Civ series is the hottest selling computer game EVER. Just by slapping that name on a game, your company has guaranteed sales. And not just a couple of copies. We're talking hundreds of thousands.

Now, you ever buy a music CD from a band you enjoyed, only to play a couple of tracks and realize that the music was absolute garbage? Makes you pretty mad, doesn't it? When you read the liner notes more closely, you find out the producer has changed, along with 90% of the band, so it wasn't really your favorite band at all. Some company just slapped together some tracks really quickly and marketed an entirely different band under an old name. You feel betrayed and used. Guess you were a "moron," part of the "stupid buying public," as one pretentious developer put it.

Civ2 was a great game. I bought it, and thought it was awesome. Actually I bought it twice after I lost my first CD. Although, I thought it was a bit shady when I learned that Brian Reynolds essentially developed the entire game. "SID MEIER's Civ 2?" Whatever...

Anyway, like all hard core gamers on Apolyton, after a while, I started to picture how the game could be improved. And the first thing was the graphics.

Say what you want about Call to Power. But one thing is for sure, CTP put out the heat on developers to clean up their interface and improve their graphics. That's good competition.

However, I found the graphics in Alpha Centauri so bad, so UNINSPIRING, to the point that it was literally INSULTING. How can you guys at Firaxis look at yourselves in the mirror after slapping together something that looked like a 9 year old edited it on a pirated copy of Paint Shop Pro? Most of the guys who have made scenarios have produced FAR better designs than were in Alpha Centauri. And they don't have the backing and resources of a corporation. They, instead, have alot of HEART. Have you guys lost your heart and soul for the game so much that you're just worried about making money? Is the fire still burning?

Sid has stated in an audio interview that he is looking more for great gameplay over hot graphics. I am here to call out Sid on this.

I want to challenge he and Brian to produce some solid graphics for once.

Now Firaxis is working with Hasbro to develop Civ 3. This is probably the best thing to come along in the Civ series ever. Hasbro is a multi million, probably multi BILLION dollar company. Given the resources available, there should be NO EXCUSES for giving us some crappy graphics. NONE. ZERO. I don't want to hear about budgets, and I DON'T want to hear the age old copout about balancing gameplay for all platforms. YOU CAN DO BOTH. You've got the resources available to go out and get the best graphics programmers in the world. SO GO GET THEM.

You have guaranteed returns on you investment here. You can just slap Sid and Civ 3 on the box, and it will still sell very well. So profit isn't an issue.

Sure, you can take the easy way out, throw something together, and the public will still buy it. But will you be able to look in the mirror, and say, "yeah, I gave this my best, I put my heart and soul into this game..."
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When Derek is not playing civ, he is a Systems Engineer in Los Angeles, Calfornia, USA

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