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#200 CIVIII: ICS EMBRACED The origins and future of "Infinite City Sleaze" #199 WHAT CIV IS NOT There's whole incredible world beyond our computers #198 THE NATURE OF SEQUELS A really extensive review of some of the biggest games series #197 THE FIRST ONLINE RELEASE It's a new internet age and Civ3 is the first civ game of it, says Rasbelin #196 WHAT MAKES A GOOD CAR Not exactly a "if civ3 was a car" comparison #195 CIV III AND MOO3, PART II: TBS HAS A FUTURE We're here to stay! COLUMN ARCHIVE

Ok, we've all experienced the {Dr. Evil voice} "praisers" and the "whiners," as well as those that praise the whiners and whine about the praisers. I'm going to venture out on a limb and assume that most of us fall in between these two sides of the spectrum. We all need to admit deep within ourselves that *maybe* the whiners are just saying things that need to be said, if perhaps in a twisted, negative way.

FICTICIOUS CASE SCENARIO: Meet Bobby. Bobby is 14 years old, and has raked leaves for his neighbors all freakin' Autumn to scrounge up $50 for his beautiful copy of Civilization 3. Upon entering the store, he sees the Limited Edition for only $10 more, so he begs his Mother for an extra $10 (and the tax, of course.) When he gets home, he really could care less about the extra stuff in the tin, and puts the cd into his computer. Surprise. The game won't run. Bobby's only avenue at this point is to write to Tech support, and -as many young teens do- vents his severe anger, frustration, and hopelessness at Apolyton. Two days later, and despite the fact that his complaints only warned a guy to *not* buy the game (yet), tech support emails him with his magical solution, thus making it the best Christmas ever for Bobby.

FICTICIOUS CASE SCENARIO 2: Meet Joey. Joey is a 23-year-old dude that works at Target. He buys Civ3 with his $450 paycheque. He takes it home, installs it fine, plays for 30 hours -straight into his next shift- and *BAM* what's this? His fighters are worthless against bombers. This has completely ruined the last 30 hours of his game, as well as the desire to start a new one. He feels that his $50 is wasted (as well as his job) until a patch comes out three weeks later. He complains to his buddy David.

FICTICIOUS CASE SCENARIO 3: Meet Jimmy. He's a 17 year old dude with some birthday cash burnin' a hole in his pocket, and he's lookin' at Empire Earth and Civ3. He see's Bobby's very obnoxious post about severely hating all things Firaxis. He buys Empire Earth. Two weeks later, after the patch, he buys Civ3, installs it with the patch, and realizes that Civ3 is really cool. What he doesn't know is how much agony Civ3 would have caused him if he had gotten it two weeks earlier.

THE BIG BAD FINAL CASE SCENARIO: Meet Kadorkusmus. He wanders into Target and meets up with the head of the software department about Civ3 vs. Sim Septictank 7000. David, the dude working at the time, tells Kadorkusmus that he had heard that his co-worker -- the newly fired Joey -- had many great things to say about the game, except that late game was really unfinished. Kadorkusmus goes home -without the purchase of either game- and checks up about this at a crazy site he found called Apolyton. He researches everything about the bugs and what not, and concludes, "You know what? These complaints have validity, but I know that I've only got a couple of hours to play each day." He buys Civ3, likes it, and never even gets to the Modern Age until 2003.

THE BIG POINT: The "complainers" all have valid points. They might be very *redundant* points posted in a not-so-respectful manner, but they all feel that something could be better. Granted, Firaxians probably don't take it personally, and even though I'm SURE that they don't pour over every word of every thread, they get the point when 5000 people yak about stacked movement. Let them complain, I say, just make sure they complain in a completely rational, civilized, appropriate manner... Or we'll just have to up and assimilate them when MP comes out.

* no disrespect is meant to Target, it's employees, any associated affiliates, products, or agencies, in part or in whole, or to the makers of the fascinating Sim games. Sim Septictank might actually be a good game to satisfy my morbid curiosities...
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Audio Engineer

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