Thoughts on the announced Expansion Pack

[Yosh]

As most of you are no doubt aware, Firaxis recently announced the first details regarding the upcoming expansion pack called Warlords. (link) to the front page of CivFanatics, which overviews the expansion.

While I'm absolutely thrilled with some of the things I've seen previewed for the pack so far, I've found that I'm of two minds with this:

On one hand, some of the new features of WArlords seem to be absolutely nifty - unique racial buildings, more unique units, more leaders, more more more everything!

On the other hand, I'm a little miffed at the news. I've gotten annoyed enough with some aspects of patch 1.52 that I've pretty much put my CIV on hold for the moment - I check the boards daily for some announcement of the long awaited patch. Instead, I see an announcement for the expansion pack. Now, I realize that just because people have been working on the expansion doesn't mean that the patch is being ignored, etc... however the perception to me is that the patch is being ignored in favor of a more direct revenue-friendly project.

I don't pretend to know or understand everything that goes on over at Take 2 or Firaxis any more than I pretend to understand high-order differential equations, but as one of my professors in college taught me: What you're trying to say is not necessarily as important as what other people perceive you to be saying. What I'm perceiving being said is that the now 3-4 month gap between patches with no official word on timelines or progress means that the team has moved on to bigger and better things, and that releasing the SDK and patch are not important. I don't believe that this is actually the case, knowing that developers are human beings who have busy lives and schedules, but again - this is the vibe that I pick up.

Of course, the day after I post this, the patch and SDK will probably be released, making me feel like a complete dope, but hey... gotta get the boards moving somehow, right?

Just a ramble on some of my thoughts on the subject - what are other people's thoughts on this issue?

[Fizban]

As I understand it, the new patch is done and currently in testing. The news about the expansion says to expect it this summer. So, to me, it seems Firaxis did this in exactly the right order -- patch first, then move on to the expansion. It's not as if the expansion has just been released, they've only just announced it.

[microbe]

You have to admit that releasing an expansion pack only half a year after the original game is a bit hasty. Obviously, the devs declared the game is pretty much "done" and moved on.

[Chairman Kaga]

It's not like they just decided yesterday "oh, hey, let's make an expansion pack". It's likely been in the works since shortly after the game was released, or perhaps even before (with the groundwork laid in the original code).

The announcement is more publicity for Take 2 than anything -- "we're working on an expansion to one of our critically-acclaimed best-selling games" surely sounds good to investors. And we all know Take 2 is treading water....

In other words, I highly doubt this affects anything related to patch or SDK release. If expansion work is having an impact on those things, it's been exerting its effect since the game was released, so nothing really changes.

You're absolutely right about the perception, but try looking objectively instead

[VoiceOfUnreason]

How do RB epics, etc, treat expansion packs? Like a patch, and everybody's expected to move up? Or a mod, and no one is?

[dathon]

How do RB epics, etc, treat expansion packs? Like a patch, and everybody's expected to move up? Or a mod, and no one is?

In the past, it has been basically treated as the former. You can't keep people from upgrading to the expansion, and we need everybody to be running the same game for comparison's sake. I do remember right around the last expansion release there were several epics for both flavors, giving people time to transistion and still maintain some participation. But be prepared to upgrade for the long run

dathon

[Griselda]

To be fair, when the expansion packs came out for Civ 3, we asked people what they were playing and tried to host events that matched what the community was playing.

I wonder how much of the current patching and expansion schedule of Firaxis is dictated by the fact that they're now owned by a larger company, Take2, and how much influence Take2 is having on Firaxis' decisions.

[Knupp715]

I'm very exited for this new expansion pak. You can never have enough Civ 8) We do know that Stalin and Churchill are being added to the game. England and Russia both have 2 leaders already and now there will be three. I hope that they will add 2 leaders for at least some of the civs that currently only have one.

Another thing that has really caught my eye is the inclusion of vassal states. They look like they will be tradeable items which really exite me. It will be interesting to learn how they are obtained and what exactly they are. My guess is they are somewhat like Civ3's colonies but hey, what do I know.

To respond to what Griselda said, I have been wondering the exact same thing. Take 2 doesn't look like they are doing too good these days and I, for some reason (even though my thoughts are probably wrong), have a feeling that Take2 is the reason why this patch (edit - expansion not patch ) is so early. My perception on the issue is that they need the money. My only hopes is that this expansion won't be extremely buggy because it is hurried. I would rather get the expansion next November with no bugs, then this summer with lots of them.

[LKendter]

I am probably in the minority, but I am annoyed to hear an expansion pack. I haven't even fully explored the base game yet. There are a lot of unexplored map scripts as an example.
Considering that fact that the base game is still incomplete, I can't cheer on an expansion pack.
July is far to soon IMHO for another module. I still haven't gotten past monarch, and have far to much to explore in the base game.

[Yosh]

I am probably in the minority, but I am annoyed to hear an expansion pack. I haven't even fully explored the base game yet. There are a lot of unexplored map scripts as an example.
Considering that fact that the base game is still incomplete, I can't cheer on an expansion pack.
July is far to soon IMHO for another module. I still haven't gotten past monarch, and have far to much to explore in the base game.

I don't think you're entirely in the minority there LKendter; I have some similar feelings.

Take 2 doesn't look like they are doing too good these days and I, for some reason (even though my thoughts are probably wrong), have a feeling that Take2 is the reason why this patch is so early. My perception on the issue is that they need the money. My only hopes is that this expansion won't be extremely buggy because it is hurried. I would rather get the expansion next November with no bugs, then this summer with lots of them.

I agree with you completely, except that I think you mean that the expansion is so early, rather than the patch

I wonder how much of the current patching and expansion schedule of Firaxis is dictated by the fact that they're now owned by a larger company, Take2, and how much influence Take2 is having on Firaxis' decisions.

I wonder the same thing - how much of this (the early announcement/release of the expansion) is Take2 executives' drive to increase profits (especially in light of restated earnings, acquisisitions that may be questionable in wisdom, etc).

As I'm sure any game studio that's been bought by a bigger company can tell you, having a big corporation as an owner is a benefit and a liability: a benefit because it provides access to resources you could only dream of as an independent studio. A liability because you are now subject to the whims of the company as a whole, which in many situations (not necessarily this one) tends to stifle creativity, quality, and productivity.

Perhaps the success of Stardocks' Galactic Civilizations II, which was reportedly done on a budget of $300,000 (uncomfirmed) will force big game companies to rethink their business models/process.