I'd personally prefer if they put it in the Application Data directory like every other application, and provided a shortcut to it for easy access (Shortcut would point to %APPDATA%\GalCiv2)

As has been explained in other threads by Brad Himself, Microsoft practices reccomends that you put save files in the My Docs folder. A lot of games do it. Stardock was just following the MS standards.

IMNSHO this sucks. I love Gal Civ 2 with all of my heart. But I set my C: drive as a system only drive. I'd like the option of placing these files elsewhere. Others seem to agree. I hope that if enough people speak up about this, that it will be changed. But I don't expect it.

There are ways to move your 'my documents' so that windows will use another location, like on another drive if you have multiple drives. I think you can change the location with TweakUI or one of the other PowerToys for WinXP (MS extras that give some power back to windows users.) A simple google search should yield some options.

It's pretty standard to use my docs or app data these days, especially with OSes like WinXP that facilitate multiple users on one box.

Of course, it's also fairly standard with most software to provide options - most winapps are configurable such that you can dictate default save locations. Games rarely provide this option though. You must not own many recent games if galciv2 is the only game putting saves in your my documents folder. I have multiple there and some in app data too.

If you are so bothered by having a galciv2 folder in your 'my documents' folder then use windows explorer to find that galciv2 folder, right-click on it to get properties, and check the 'hidden' checkbox, then you'll likely never see it again (unless you customize your file viewing in explorer to always show hidden stuff like I do

Makes me wish that NTFS supported symbolic links in a user friendly manner. . . If that were the case you could move the directory to wherever you want and put a symbolic link to it in the place where the game expects to find it. NTFS apparently supports this though a feature it calls "junctions", but I've never actually seen them used and have no idea how to use them. It certainly doesn't seem accesible through Explorer.

Yeah, it has become more standard for game saves and other user specific files to be put in the My Documents folder. I may be the only person, but I like games to do this. For one, I know where to go for all my user-specific files such as save games. No more figuring out which company made the game and then finding that folder in the Program Files directory. Also, when I uninstall a game, i can safely delete the directory that it was stored in without fear of losing my saves in case I want to reinstall and play more at a later date.

Microsoft insisted on game developers doing this because certain versions of XP do not allow a user to write to subdirectories of "Program Files" except during program installation (i.e. you couldn't save your games).