[yarita]

Bollocks. I'm sticking here until I'm the only one left, if needs be.

Poly and CFC have been around forever; I don't think Official Firaxis Forums would have an effect on that.

[sasquatch999]

I do agree with that. The official forums do tend to censor more stuff then the independents.

[Avaindimik]

Firaxis had a forum during (prior to) the civ3 release.
It was not much of a success.

[diutuartina]

Could Firaxis even afford to? I'm sure their staff have better things to do (coding, design?) then moderate a forum, so they'd be forced to rely on volunteers, who might not share the Firaxis vision, even if they were given a sinecure to do it. It's a pretty big investment for something that might not be a success, and I think that the Firaxians who post here and CFC do so because they know there's already a fanbase who are receptive to their ideas and they don't need their own forum to access these fans.

[cewIdeatovace]

As usual, the Duke makes a strong case. Why "invest" in something that is already there and serves their need. It is in their best interest to support multiple game sites with established fan bases.

Plus, Asher is right as well. A good forum includes both the good and the bad about the game. Censorship is something that happens at many "company" sites. It's tough to have an honest discussion when the product is flawed. Even BTS, after the final patch, has problems.

[indianstory]

Firaxis would have to come up with a 250 MB patch for any site.

[Quick$bux]

The old Firaxis forums were great. Due to some sort of coding issue, any negative comments about SMAC would simply vanish without trace. And sometimes the posters making the negative comments vanished too. Happy days!

[opelayday]

I thought the alpha.owo forums were great, although they lacked moderation almost entirely. It seems unlikely that the lack of moderation would be tolerated nowadays, although Youtube seems to skirt this somehow.

Mainly, I posted on alpha.owo rather than Poly before alpha.owo shut down. The subsequent Firaxis forums left something to be desired as far as I was concerned.

[i6mbwwdh]

More fool them. Negative feedback is more valuable than positive feedback, if you have the capability to sort the nutjobs from those who have genuine grievances. An improved product that gives the customers what they want is the ultimate goal for all companies.

[gIWnXYkw]

Welcome (back?) to the site, Kitschum!

You're off to a great start by agreeing with the voice of reason.

[HartOvara]

I was on the threaded Firaxis forums. This was before alpha.owo. I can bring back Greg to get his stacking debate whipping from Eric Olsen Gulf War vet.