My sentiments exactly.

I hope you enjoy civ V. Im looking forward to it myself. However if you have been seeking to make a purchase decision based upon what you read here. I think you may have a very warped view of te game.

Posters here tend to be extreme. Overly positive or extremely negative. Lots of people posting here with axes to grind that feel let down as the game didn’t (and probably never will) conform to their ill-informed preconceptions. Even those whose pre conceptions were not ill informed seem to have built up unrealistic expectations based on hopeful posts submitted in beta or taking devs comments out of context.

Many who enjoy the game are simply getting on with playing it. It soon eats up hours, so much so there is little time to lurk here either spouting unrealistic praise or undeserved bile. The game has a lot of flaws and these may or may not get fixed. the game may not be all it may become however to me it has already returned the purchase price in fun value and time filled, I believe many would agree with me if they could be bothered to read the depressing swamp this forum has become.

Having purchased the game and also pre-ordered Civilization V I would throw my 2 cents in.

I'm very happy to have bought the game to support the developers.  I know they are doing their best and have great intentions and I respect that and trust Brad will get the game where it needs to be.

Yet, I have played the game for many hours over the course of 4 or 5 games, and though it is fun at times, it has been a struggle to keep the energy and enjoyment up.  For a while the newness alone can carry a player along.  I've really *wanted* to love the game, I've kept up the moment with patch and hotfix news, and I've played many turns.  I haven't even had any crashes, not a single one, so from a technical standpoint it's been pretty solid (other than the combat animations and map scrolling type of things).

Unfortunately, I will also be playing Civ 5 and not looking back for a while.  I know that Brad has said he doesn't think Civ 5 is a competitor, but sadly he is wrong.  With their release being so close I think many did stay on the fence and will now head to Civ.  The two games are not mutually exclusive, and someday in the future they might both have a place of honor on my harddrive.  Just not today.

Unlike some of you, I will not be getting Civ 5 until they release a couple of expansions, if then.  I might wait until they release Civ 5 complete with all the DLC already in it.  I am kinda pissed about the DLC.  I hate micro-transactions on my PS3, and hate it even more on the PC. 

Enjoy Civ 5, while I enjoy Elemental.  No, I am not a fanboi, nor am I a troll.

Have a nice day!

I agree. I own the game, and although I am enjoying it right now, I wish I had waited about 6 months to buy it. It is definately a work in progress. Mediocre right now, but moving towards greatness. Anyone who doesn't own it should probably wait a few months and see how it is after patch 1.1.

I am a waiter too.  Really want to play the game.  But want to play a polished version.  I know some people like seeing the game evolve, but not my style.  If I had bought it back when it came out, I would have already moved on before I got to play a polished version.  I tend not to linger on games too long.  I guess I am a dilettante when it comes to gaming.

Don

I'm sure it's better to have trolls who pay than polite people who don't care

I completley get that I'm one of those who likes seeing the game evolve, but I can understand where your coming from with wanting to play just the polished version.

Unrealistic expectations? Ill-informed preconceptions? Then why are the devs even offering two expansions for free? 
I'm all for cutting the devs some slack, but let's keep a bit of perspective. It's nice if the players can show some extra-patience but they are totally right if they need to complain.
The game is FAR from finished by any definition, it lacks features that have been advertised and/or are basic requirements for a game of this kind. Let's see:

-Multiplayer is not present (advertised).
-Epic Scale battles are removed for good (subtly advertised).
-A Map generator is not even present (BASIC requirement, and we're a month in).
-The AI, as stated by the lead programmer, basically cannot work with the mechanics as they are right now (BASIC requirement).
-Modding: the game is not as easily and readily "moddable" as advertised.

Add to that the technical issues, which have been massive, widespread and game breaking, though I still may consider them "secondary". And this settles the "undebatable" points.

But let's also mention (theoretically it's a matter of opinion) that the features that are present, and do work, have almost universally been reviewed as shallow, boring AND unbalanced. And the UI... well, point me to some nice comments about the UI. All that remains is potential. Which is something, granted, and the reason why I'm still here. Yet I think the forums have reacted the only possible way given the situation. Well ok maybe I did expect a bit too much (what with the MoM references and all)...

If you sense a bit of bitterness it's because recently I've seen perfectly legit posts being censored or locked, and this has reduced my willingness to "publicly smother" my own disappointment. There's still room for recovery of course: we're talking about mistakes, not "felonies", but let's not put too much blame on the players, either.

What is the purpose of this thread?

Meh, I bought the game just because I wanted to support them, and I know that some day they'll iron out the kinks.

Why wait till then to buy it? Atleast with stardock, they know when they put out a game that is below par and will do what they need to do to fix it. Unlike certain companies who release Call of Duty games and NEVER fix any of the cheats or hacks -.-

What is the purpose of this post?

That's fine, and SD has earned that reputation, but unfortunately they've also lost it on the release of elemental.  Brad violated his own gamers bill of rights on this one, and admitted it.  Eventually.