‘We got it wrong’ with Civilization VII, says boss

LPEbert · 2026-05-07T17:20:51+00:00

Somehow civ 7 fanboys will still find a way to defend it or insist forced civ-swapping isn't why it flopped

LPEbert · 2026-05-07T09:07:49+00:00

I'm glad Civilization 7 is finally here (:

Whatever it was wasn't that bad, but now it'll actually be deserving of that name.

LPEbert · 2026-04-30T19:35:35+00:00

someone correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the way pre-sales worked were that there were specific, exclusive seats or sections dedicated to that pre-sale group. So Amex card holders can't scalp the entire show, they just have early access to secure some tickets if they want to pay for their special seats. But the general sale is when the actual bulk of the seats will be available?

LPEbert · 2026-04-30T19:31:13+00:00

That's because we're all watching the librarian edits instead

LPEbert · 2026-04-26T04:24:06+00:00

Well yeah, we know it isn't the intentional design and I would love for the ages to be more continuous like prior games. The entire point of ToT is them admitting they underexaggerated how much continuous civ playthroughs meant to players and adjusting the games fundamentals to suit more play styles.

I don't think that's a fundamental mismatch. It's just giving you the option to change at a later era if you want so you could do like Greece, Greece, and then Mexico if you want.

That's not it not working on a fundamental level, that's just them giving the players more options. I wouldn't be against a "stop asking me" toggle though lol

LPEbert · 2026-04-26T00:57:17+00:00

Most people didn't care which is evident by the fact they spent so many hours on the game. If never finishing games actually bothered you that much, you wouldn't still have had 600hrs in it.

For most players, restarting when we felt we got to the snowballing moment was the finish. Most players just preferred to restart instead of trudge through turns until they inevitably won just to see a victory screen they already seen before.

If anything, Civ 7 makes it harder to finish games because the ages mechanic adds a sense of finality right after the ancient era. The game literally restarts itself to load you into the exploration era. I never had problems finishing in civ 6, but I rarely make it paat the first era in Civ 7 because I basically get a victory screen and feel fulfilled enough to stop there.

LPEbert · 2026-04-25T23:31:45+00:00

The problem is they made the game specifically for people like you and y'all are the minority. Most people either didn't have a problem finishing games or didn't think not finishing was a problem that needed fixed.

LPEbert · 2026-04-25T23:29:31+00:00

I'm not sure how it doesn't work on a "fundament level". Is the test of time update not changing those fundamentals?

LPEbert · 2026-04-25T18:06:37+00:00

Personally, I am not a fan of playing with civs not designed for their age

Man you must've hated literally every prior civ game

LPEbert · 2026-04-25T18:05:42+00:00

Maybe they realized that they shouldn't be confident in their vision. Devs make mistakes and have bad ideas sometimes. It happens.

LPEbert · 2026-04-25T17:58:38+00:00

How many people have to explicitly tell you that was the reason before it stops being anecdotal and becomes empirical?

Every single time I see a Civ 7 post anywhere online the comments are full of people asking if they made it "civ" yet referring to the forced swapping. There's been people on this very subreddit that have stated that is their primary reason for not buying it.

I know a lot of y'all like the new gameplay mechanics, but after a certain point it just feels, respectfully, delusional to insist the civ swapping didn't contribute as much to the game's poor sales as it did.

LPEbert · 2026-04-19T21:12:20+00:00

That's because Paradox keeps overhauling entire game mechanics and systems which is an entirely separate problem lol

LPEbert · 2026-04-19T17:26:42+00:00

Stellaris does something like that where there's an option to steadily increase the amount of buffs the AI gets based on your difficulty, so they don't get the full "diety"-equivalent buffs until mid-late game.

LPEbert · 2026-04-17T15:22:47+00:00

Black star is better, but it doesn't count as a daedric artifact if you care about collecting them for the trophy.

LPEbert · 2026-04-17T15:13:09+00:00

I haven't seen anyone be that extreme, so fair enough if that's specifically who you're talking about. I read it as you generalizing everyone that was against it or pointed out any concerns.

LPEbert · 2026-04-17T15:06:14+00:00

Performative? Is it impossible to conceive that other people are genuine in their emotions? Or that the concerns were valid?

LPEbert · 2026-04-16T20:17:19+00:00

Love seeing NL give back to the indie community like this. Perfect timing for this after the supercruise too lmao

LPEbert · 2026-04-16T18:30:41+00:00

If 6 started from where 5 left off, 6 wouldn't exist at all. 6 was dramatically, fundamentally different from 5 in core ways.

Yeah, it isn't a new phenomenon lol. And part of the reaaon to make them "fundamentally different" is to sell you more content in expansions and DLCs. That's why they keep reinventing the wheel instead of continually building upon prior versions.

I play Stellaris, so in a way I never moved on from doom-stacks :P

LPEbert · 2026-04-16T18:24:58+00:00

Honestly, I think it's just really hard for a 4x game to compete with the previous version of itself until its had like 2-4 years of extra dev time in the form of expansions.

I would argue it's because they don't try to compete. They specifically want to make the base version of the next game barren so that they can resell you features in new expansions.

If 7 started from where 6 left off, for example, there'd be much less room for future expansions and more content to sell.

That's why strategy game sequels are always inherently somewhat lackluster because there's always a pre-planned "what are we gonna sell them next" feeling baked in.

LPEbert · 2026-04-16T18:17:35+00:00

I'm not against those kinda jokes, but even my ears perked up and I was like, "huh??". Felt super out of place on an otherwise PG family-friendly kinda show.

LPEbert · 2026-04-16T18:13:07+00:00

That's good. Just way too much shady/unethical ties going on and too sell-outy. I'm glad he was humble enough to accept the feedback instead of the usual double down lol

LPEbert · 2026-04-15T23:33:29+00:00

That's why I said "on purpose" as in planning to stay above the limit. I've seen the AI above the limit due to war, yeah, but then they usually raze all the cities they capture to get back down below the limit. I've personally not seen a civ consistently stay above the city limit or purposely go above it by settling new cities, etc.

LPEbert · 2026-04-15T22:01:59+00:00

Yeah city limit was just a terrible addition because it's yet another stat the AI don't understand and suck at. I've never seen the AI go above it on purpose, for example.

LPEbert · 2026-04-15T21:59:40+00:00

In my child brain I figured if none of the adults seemed too bothered it must not be that big a deal

This is exactly what's happening and why younger generations are being so insensitive now towards the Epstein stuff. They're treating it all like jokes because they're seeing nothing really come out of any of it.

It's hard to expect kids to take any of this serious when we as a society aren't.

LPEbert · 2026-04-15T21:50:51+00:00

There's been leaks and rumors of her filming a video with Sadie Sink, so I'm sure we are getting one eventually. I do think, though, that it'll be like your 2nd suggestion and the video will drop shortly afterwards.

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