How come Civ V doesn't have an expansion yet?

I began playing the Civ series with Civilization III and in my experience these games don't show their true potential until the second expansion. Conquests improved Civ III enormously and so did Beyond the Sword with Civ IV. That's why I am surprised (and frustrated) about Civ V's lack of expansions. DLCs are simply not the same; they add scenarios and civs but don't change the game mechanics one bit (at least, as far as I know).

I don't understand why Civ V doesn't have any expansions yet. Was it a financial failure? (that's hard to believe considering it's been among the most-played games on Steam since its release). The game design suffered from an inherent flaw and Firaxis didn't know how to fix it? Did Firaxis simply gave up on it? Or it's simply that DLCs are more profitable?

Oh well. If it hasn't even been announced yet, I guess we won't see an expansion for Civ V.

 

It looks like they went with the DLC model instead of expansion packs for profit reasons. It was certainly not a financial failure. It has top charted on steam on several occasions.

I think you also need to look into causation vs. correlation. I'm not sure if you would be happy with Civ 5, but I don't think your enjoyment of it would have anything to do with whether or not it is an expansion pack.

It seems like another conclusion you could draw from the same evidence would be that Civ is getting better as a series as they develop it.

 

Agreed. Civ 5 seems to mesh much better with DLC installations over the course of the game's lifespan than with a flat out expansion. You get pick and choose what you want and it give Firaxis stuff to be released on a constant basis to consumers instead of setting up a big, dedicated timetable for what the next expansion release.

 

Yup I agree, I like the DLC push rather than an expansion style update.

 

I agree that DLCs are better for content consumption as they let you pick and choose what you want to play.. but at the same time, as the OP stated DLCs are just added content, they never change alter game mechanics which has happened is almost all Civ expansions.
Additionally, if some one is a Civ fan i.e. plays it enough to warrant buying DLCs then I'm sure they'd prefer an all out expansion. You end up paying much more bit by bit for DLCs than you would for the same, if not more content for an expansion. The only good thing about DLCs is that it keeps the new content coming in more regularly..

Edit: According to the following thread at the 2K forums, most people seem to agree with me regarding expansions better than DLC's
http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?61009-DLC-vs-EXPANSION

@OP maybe you'll have more luck finding the answer to your questions over at the 2k forums..

 

I'd rather see an expansion than these stupid DLC's which only offer maps and some graphics. If you want more leaders you can downloade quite a few mods, some of which are quite nice.

I am a huge civ fan but Civ V failed to hold my attention more than a couple of weeks. It was so buggy at launch, and it is quite obvious that fireaxis isn't that interested in listening to it's fans which is a shame. The patches have been slow and not enough.

What I like about Civ V is the new combat system, one unit per tile and the hexes. After trying some mods (NiGHTS and another one I can't wuite remember) I've pretty much given up on Civ V and gone back to Civ IV which in my opinion is a much better game.

Fireaxis blew it with Civ V. The fact that the lead designer left the studio shortly after it's release speaks for itself. Hopefully Civ VI will be released and take the new elements from V into a better game like IV was.

 

It might be worth a second look, there have been a few major patches, even pretty recently. I bought the GOTY edition recently for like $12 about a month ago, and it has played rock solid so far. I'd disagree with you as far as them blowing it- Civ 5 seems to have sold well and is one of the most played games on steam. It also has very positive critical reviews.

The lead designer leaving the studio after the game launch means nothing. His job function is complete, he very well may have decided to move on to another project after working for on this for a few years for positive reasons.

I'll also be the first to acknowledge that a buggy release is both much too common and can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

 

I am giving Civ 5 another chance. I bought it when it was released and was very disappointed. Now, however, I am having fun. Maybe it's because my expectations were very low, but I tend to agree with masterchef: the patches have improved the game. I'd say it's almost ready for release now.

In my opinion, professional reviews are rather meaningless when it comes to a game like Civ because it's impossible to find the flaws of a game of this complexity in the little time reviewers have. The best review I've read of Civ 5 is this one: http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ5/whatwentwrong.html

 

We were just talking about how come Civ V doesnt have an expansion yet and the whole expansion vs dlc..
and here it is..

Gods & Kings expansion announced...
Read more about it here - Men, Gods And Kings: Civilisation V Expansion | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

 

Talk about timing!!

 

Just saw this, and I have to say that I actually am a bit optimistic about this expansion. I certainly will be paying attention to reviews/fan feedback before purchasing it though.

Hopefully this will fix many of the flaws that has plagued the game, and make it even more immersive

 

How cool is that! When I opened this thread, I knew they wouldn't be able to handle the pressure.

I know I should do the same but I'll probably buy it right away, unless I have a lot of work at the moment. Civ 5 has improved significantly since launch, but it was still a disappointment. Still, I owe too many hours of enjoyment to this series, so any Civ game is almost an automatic buy for me.

 

I like.
http://www.2kgames.com/blog/civilization-v-expansion-pack-announced 2 minutes ago.

 

lol. well, there you go.

 

Naval melee units were always there. Order a destroyer to "drive" over an embarked unit and it'll be 1-shotted. If you bombard it, the destroyer will deal 4,4,2 damage per shot.

 

It seems that you've shamed them into throwing an expansion together.

That's pretty funny.

 

the point still stands that I'll probably end up preferring Civilization 6 in late 2013 than Civ 5: expansion in 2012. I don't think that the quality of being an expansion pack makes it more desirable. Somehow that idea seemed to be at the root of this.