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[City Builder]

So, it would appear with the site redesign of Citiesxl.com that they have ditched their forums.  I think MC believes this will shield the game from people speaking their minds about how bad the game is, and in reality with the way things have become on the web where almost all new games of a moderate or higher budget have websites with forums I think again they are simply shooting themselves in the foot.

Having a forum for a game is a big part of creating a community around your game and one that helps the game to sell.  Without an official forum there is a lack of community.  Suprisingly they have still maintained the beta forums but as soon as the game goes gold I would expect the beta forums to be erased too.  I only wish that I could capture all of the threads on the beta forum for posterity and somehow apply them to this forum, it would be a real eye opener for those not participating in the beta of Cities XL.

[pad11]

geez, i noticed this too...i went over to log in to see the response to MC's pay extra for everything idea and couldn't find the forums.

This is, frankly, a stunning turn by MC...what on earth has that company become?

pat!

[City Builder]

I think they're seeing themselves as being the new French EA, trying to nickle and dime their consumers to the poor house.  With the recession still going on, gas prices still at $3.00 a gallon, it's not a good time to try to nickle and dime your consumer.

But even EA has forums for their community, and they just ignore the negative posts, actually EA reps ignore almost all posts anyway, but atleast they have a place for people to get together and converse or rant if they wish to.  I remember the sims 3 forums for the first month were almost exclusive of rants about sims 3, and the mods did what they should, they allowed people to rant until they were done, now it's back to that sweet as apple pie forum (it's so sweet sometimes it seriously makes my teeth hurt), that official sims forums have always been.

Point being that MC should follow suit, let people rant about it after they bought it, make the forums for registered users only to write in the forums, and eventually they'll be left with the base of players that like their game and the negative posts will fall away into the annuls of their forums.  But I don't think they have suits that make decissions that are smart enough for that.

[pad11]

This is just a sad situation...

and I don't know if anyone heard, but Ascaron (makers of Patrician, Port Royale and Sacred series) has filed for Bankruptcy...It appears that Sacred did them in, which is a shame...but apparently the developmental costs for those two games were staggering...

big bummer...LOVED that developer....

pat!

[Khalan]

I hadn't heard that...
That is a shame, they were a great developer.

[pad11]

I think they can survive, but they must re-organize and downsize...hopefully they can come out a better, more streamlined company w/ their core, original gaming goals in mind...

pat!

[CoconutKid]

I think they [Ascaron] can survive, but they must re-organize and downsize...hopefully they can come out a better, more streamlined company w/ their core, original gaming goals in mind...

pat!

I guess you have not noticed. Kalypso Media bought the remnants of Ascaron and is bringing out a following on for the Patrician series. They are beating a wide path among the German game developers.

As you may recall, they are the publishers of the Tropico 3 game, and the DEMO will be released later this week.

[pad11]

Holy crap CK! I had NO Idea!!

That is awesome...of course I knew that T3 was coming out soon...but I had NO idea about them buying Ascaron!  Do you have any stories, links, etc.?  This is AWESOME NEWS!!

pat!

[City Builder]

Sadly Ascaron closed their doors on Aug 1, this year, there is a skelleton crew still lingering around over there to finish up the Sacred 2 expansion which was supposedly 99% finished and only needed the remaining staff to clean it up a bit.

From what I understand the buyers didn't buy Ascaron but rather it's IP, Ascaron is no more according to the sacred 2 forums, all staff has said good bye last month.

I gotta admit it makes me a bit sad because I really enjoy Sacred and Sacred 2.  Sacred 2 was a huge endeavor, the game world is absolutely massive and the humor is abundant.

I thought it was Kalypso that bought the IP of Ascaron but the more I think of it, I seem to remember reading that it was/is Deep Silver that bought Sacred 2 anyway, don't know if there was/is anything else worth anything else out of Ascaron.  Maybe they split it up and sold certain IP to Deep Silver and some to Kalypso and hopefully retained some for themselves for old age retirement.

[pad11]

http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/48472/Gaming-Minds-Studios-launch

This is GIANT News!  Also, Daniel Dumont, the founder of Ascaron, is the new head of Gaming Minds Studios, where over 18 former Ascaron developers, now work!

So this to me, is at least something positive...particularly since we're looking at Patrician 3! (or for the U.S., Patricain 4 since P2 plus expansion was marketed here as P3).

pat!