From: akhiani@ricks.enet.dec.com (Homayoon Akhiani)
Subject: Re: To the Defense of Pax Imperia
Reply-To: akhiani@ricks.enet.dec.com (Homayoon Akhiani)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 16:30:09 GMT


In article <1ihdpsINNk07@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, cg533@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (James Eugene Alloway) writes:
|>From: cg533@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (James Eugene Alloway)
|>Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
|>Subject: To the Defense of Pax Imperia
|>
|>
|>Look, Pax Imperia is a complicated, ambitious game.  It has serious graphics,
|>ai, astronomical data, etc. It is also a version 1.0.  It will have bugs. Any
|>game, in it's first edition, does.  This includes all games, not just 
|>computer games.  Ever hear of errata? 

if you look at a BUG from certain point of view, you will see the BUG as
a intelligent ("ai") piece of code with astronomical intelligence!

you can sell 1 unit of any metal at any price to the computer oppenenet.
Do you call this "ai"? I call it stupid computer oppenet.
How can you play like this? Where is the challenge ?

"errata": if I sell you a BOX as a computer, and on "errata" sheet tell you 
that "buy the way the keyboard does not function", would you buy a form me.
I expect the bugs in a commerial product to show up as a very obscure cases.
in PAX, every thing I touched has a bug in it.

|>The only thing they can be faulted with
|>is promising too early a release date. They have said they will give free 
|>upgrades, and are working hard to get those out.  This is not electronic
|>arts , not a company of people who have no other job but game programming.

I guess that is why they don't care about the customers! 
creating version 1.2 (pie in sky) depends on their free time form their real 
job!
The more I looked at PAX, the more I get the impersssion that PAX is a 
product of day dreaming of a couple of young people with "NO real design/
programming experince",(with the Quadra 950, with a very big screen) 
With a help of a great advertiser, they manage to sell a LEMON. 

PAX Imperia is like a nice looking sport car from outside, but when you try to
drive it, you figure out that there is no engine.

|>I haven't had that much 
|>problem with it, and I am patient that the upgrades will solve what problems
|>I have.  Relax, and take an extended cruise to the arm of Orion.

What do you play? are you just listening to its music and clicking here and 
there with no side effects in game.

Don't get me wrong, if they finally (ever) come out with version 1.2, I will be
the first one to pay top money for it. But from what I see in version 1.01
future looks really bad.

I usually purchase games as soon as they advertise it, I order HellCats before
it was released. great game, version 1.0, very stable.

PAX: on the box it said "real time", doesn't work!
PAX: on the box is said "multi-player", How many people out there are playing
     multi-player PAX, Don't you think it is much faster and more it is more
     enjoyable to play a board game instead?

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Homayoon Akhiani                               "Turning Ideas into ... Reality"
Email: akhiani@ricks.enet.dec.com     "The words are mine, and not my employer"
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games