Solver: It's always great to see Activisioners support the community, even after three years. And one more thing about the Source Project, has it brought more popularity to CtP? Do you think that only the current CtP players will be using the improvements, or do you maybe believe that it could potentially lead to some influx of new players?

Locutus: Well, when the news of the release of the source code came out, it went all over the world. Everyone from Slashdot and the BBC down to small German, Polish and Russian Linux websites reported the news. This did seem to lead to somewhat more activity on the Apolyton forums (aside from what could be expected from the regulars) and to some new people joining the community, but there was no mass-influx of new blood. Most people were simply enthusiastic about the news; I think only a handful of people actually picked up the game (again) to give it a(nother) try. Some of that probably has to do with the fact that a lot of people assumed that now the game was open source it would also be free, which is not the case. And buying the game can be a bit of a challenge these days as it is becoming increasingly harder to find in shops (both online and offline), especially if you’re not satisfied with a second-hand copy. But of course, it may well be that many people are waiting for a new patch to come out before they start playing again. Plus, I know for a fact that the vast majority of people, including many regular Apolyton posters, is simply content to playing the game without posting about it on the forums (one piece of evidence for this is that the CtP2 files in the Apolyton Directory are downloaded no less often than Civ3 files, and that while most CtP2 people seem to prefer downloading files from the homepages of the creators). So it’s very hard to measure how popular this game is anyway, at least until we release a new patch and can track the number of downloads.

If we only release a patch or two with conservative upgrades and bug-fixes, I don’t think things will change drastically from the way they are: the core of the community that has been here for the past three years will remain, modifying the source and creating new mods as they always have, while others people will continue to join and leave as time goes by, on the tides of the wider Civilization community. In the past, many well-known Apolytoners (from Velociryx to Albert Speer) have given CtP2 a (sometimes second or third) try and I’m sure many others will do so as well in the future, source code or no source code. The main difference now is that although it’s getting increasingly harder to find new copies of the game, the existence of new patches and updates will probably also motivate people more to find a copy. Once a patch is released, many people who already own the game but who shelved it will undoubtedly be tempted to give that patch a try, but I don’t expect many of them to stick around in the long run, at least not in the CtP2 forums. The only area that I believe may see a structural improvement over the current situation would be MP: currently MP in CtP2 is somewhat buggy and limited, which makes it an unattractive game for many MP players. But with the most glaring bugs and exploits fixed and new features such as PBEM currently under development, the MP community may well see a permanent rise in activity.

If we actually manage to release a full-fledged sequel in a few years, there’s no telling what might happen. It may still be that things will remain as they are now, but it may also very well attract a lot of new people to the game (and return a lot of old ones). However, for that to happen it will be important that such a sequel is in every aspect competitive with other TBS games on the market, and that PR is handled professionally. I doubt the game will ever become as popular as it was in the days immediately following its release, but a structural growth of the CtP2 community is certainly not outside the realm of possibilities, especially if we continue to release new patches and updates to that sequel as well. But that’s all really pure speculation. If it happens at all it will happen years from now, and anything could happen in that time.