Slashdot Mirror
Take-Two to Publish Next Civilization Game
An anonymous reader writes "Take Two Interactive announced today that they have acquired the rights to the Civilization franchise. They also announced Civ 4, saying that "Civilization IV will also set a new standard for user-modification, allowing gamers to create their own add-ons using the standard Python and XML scripting languages." Okay, so XML's not a scripting language. But it's nice to see open source tech in a major PC game!" Civ IV will be released under the new 2K Publishing Label we reported on yesterday.
Oh, boy. Let's see here. We have some idiot on Slashdot saying that Freeciv has a crappy interface. Did this person:
* Explain WHY it is freeciv has a crappy interface?
* Explain how the interface can be changed so as not to be so crappy?
* Said anything that can even be construed to be constructive cricicism? (Clue: Constructive cricicism is cricicism that people can use to constructively improve things)
No, of course not. And, to top it off, the idiots called Slashdot moderators moderated this up to five.
OK, I can see this getting modded up to five if it explained how it is FreeCIV's interface could be improved. Heck, it's trivial to go to freeciv.org and add a page on why the interface is crappy and what can be done to improve it (freeciv.org is a Wiki these days).
However, this is just an empty flame, plain and simple. Let me exaplain something to this flamer:
The people who write Freeciv aren't getting paid. They are doing, excuse me, a SHITLOAD of work making FreeCIV a game that I feel is an excellent game. FreeCIV 2.0 had shitloads of features that I've never seen Civ have, such as allowing both top-down and isometric viewings of any map, allowing a map with hex tiles, allowing toric and non-wrapping maps in addition to maps the wrap east-west like Civilization, a lot of customibility in the map generation that Commercial CIVs don't, customization units, several possible rulesets people can play under, etc. And, oh, a damn good AI.
And, what do the free software devlopers get for all of their work? Some asshole on Slashdot who tells them, without going to any effort to support their argument, that the interface is somehow "crappy". Yeah, these people worked their butts off, didn't get paid, and all they get on Slashdot is a stupid flame. And them some moderators take this stupid flame and mod it up to 5. WTF??
You know, I'm convinced that Slashdot is one of the bigger asshole magnets on the internet, and this kind of flamage of volunteer developers supports my assertion. I once had a four-digit ID on Slashdot; I gave it up when it became clear that Slashdot was on its way to hell. According to Alexis, Slashdot readership is slowly declining, and I can see why. Slashdot has become a culture which encourages hate, and discourages love and positive thinking.
OK, I'm off my soap box. I'm sure the parent can help FreeCIV become a better program by explaining why it is FreeCIV has such a crappy interface; I am sure the devlopers will be very responsive to his feedback, and I am sure he can do a lot to improve FreeCIV.
I used to be an open-source developer, but have by and large given up on it because I got sick and tired of getting flamed by anonymous assholes on Slashdot.