SimCity 5 - Launch Discussion

[SirRobin]

4. We have anticipated the load on our servers ready for launch.

That's a personal favorite of mine. As soon as they say it? You know, that they know, they are lying to you. Its like asking the used car salesman of the jalopy you are looking at has ever been in an accident and getting "not that I know of" in reply.

Seriously, how does Steam manage it over and over again and much bigger companies like EA and Blizzvision keep dropping the ball?

[OmniSkribe]

So I'm little out of tune. Everyone experiencing lags/glitchs in game? Like can't delete properly, can't claim properly etc?

I'm having this issue right now. Damn game was soooo smooth during 5th, 6th march. Damn you european release.

[Deleted]

How dare they try to stop people pirating the game in which they spent months/years of time,effort and money to develop...

How dare they not consider other ways to do this than the obvious failure that always-online has always been at every launch of every triple A game with this feature. How dare they not consider the inevitable fact that they lack the capacity to handle this launch that has always been an issue at every launch of every triple A game with this feature.

[SirRobin]

Thing is - This DRM thing will not really stop people pirating the game. It just screws over the people that actually buy the game.

Now while the "always online" nonsense is probably more about suppressing the used-game market than actually stopping piracy. It does make it harder and less accessible. Of course I don't recall any pirateer, that I know, actually buying what they couldn't pirate. So its hardly like EA is actually going to be getting any money from them anyway.

Still, thank god you can't resell.

[Edge-]

How dare they try to stop people pirating the game in which they spent months/years of time,effort and money to develop...

If you can't figure out a way to do so without punishing honest consumers, don't do it. This kind of behavior punishes honest consumers, and DRM is always cracked anyways.

[SirRobin]

If you can't figure out a way to do so without punishing honest consumers, don't do it. This kind of behavior punishes honest consumers, and DRM is always cracked anyways.

Who says they even need to crack it? With all the outsourcing the big companies do nowadays, its hardly like the real pirates don't have access to all the code well before launch anyways.

[Deleted]

That's a personal favorite of mine. As soon as they say it? You know, that they know, they are lying to you. Its like asking the used car salesman of the jalopy you are looking at has ever been in an accident and getting "not that I know of" in reply.

Seriously, how does Steam manage it over and over again and much bigger companies like EA and Blizzvision keep dropping the ball?

I ask myself the same question, again, even smaller companies like Grinding Gear Games can manage and they have magnitudes less staff/money to play with than EA/Activision.

The thing is, why do these massive companies do it? Is it to save money on server costs at the cost of their reputation and word of mouth advertisement or are they just so big and bloated that they cannot make the necessary calculations/preparations for a launch?

I only see two possible explanations for it: Penny-pinching/Bean-counting or sheer incompetence, both of which I would imagine are a bad thing and I will explain my thinking below:

1. Penny-pinching - You save money on server hardware/support but you enrage your playerbase causing them to rage on forums/social media/blogs/reviews and cause potential buyers to hold off or abandon your product and future products. You save money in the short term, but you lose a lot of potential sales from positive word of mouth.

2. Incompetence - Hiring people to predict needed capacity and having them not do their jobs properly. Pretty self explanatory really. Nothing like paying somebody to not do their job properly. Same results from this, negative word of mouth.

I don't know where this post is heading, but yeah. Will be interesting to see if people take notice of this terrible launch or just shrug it off as just another online-only release.

EDIT: And another thing regarding DRM being to counter used games market rather than pirating. Is there a used market for PC games that I've missed? Because as far as I've always known, serial keys and online registration stop reselling of PC games.

[Tierbook]

i wish i could play the game today... i got it installed yesterday but now the game is checking for updates and has been for the last 20min really tired of this shit

[Frozenbeef]

Why do people even pirate games? -.- I can understand with new films as they offer no alternative other than going to the cinema which really isn't that practical in todays age of internet users.. However games can just be downloaded after release and saying i will purchase the games i like is the same as going to the cinema and saying i will only pay if i like the film 0o

[Tradewind]

I got mine downloaded late Monday/early Tuesday morning, however you wanna look at it. Had a blast playing it despite the small city sizes and until the servers crapped out last night, which only became an issue when I closed the game and tried to log back in.

Still had fun, number of fucks given about "always online" is pretty much nil.

[SirRobin]

EDIT: And another thing regarding DRM being to counter used games market rather than pirating. Is there a used market for PC games that I've missed? Because as far as I've always known, serial keys and online registration stop reselling of PC games.

I recall I've reused keys and was able to avoid registration before.

[Badpaladin]

Why do people even pirate games? -.- I can understand with new films as they offer no alternative other than going to the cinema which really isn't that practical in todays age of internet users.. However games can just be downloaded after release and saying i will purchase the games i like is the same as going to the cinema and saying i will only pay if i like the film 0o

You don't combat your enemies by shitting on your allies. There's a fair share of assholes who pirate, are able to purchase without breaking any trade laws, and refuse to purchase anyways - but DRM like this really only goes against the consumer base they should be striving to keep. I feel especially strongly because I care deeply about the developers and think they deserve not only competitive pay, but a stable career. "Online-Only" and other DRM schemes contribute to the already volatile nature of the industry.

[SirRobin]

Why do people even pirate games? -.- I can understand with new films as they offer no alternative other than going to the cinema which really isn't that practical in todays age of internet users.. However games can just be downloaded after release and saying i will purchase the games i like is the same as going to the cinema and saying i will only pay if i like the film 0o

Well "pirate" doesn't always mean free. Its like buying Windows 8 in a market for twenty bucks. It may work just fine but I seriously doubt Microsoft got even a penny out of it. So while you might like something. It doesn't mean you think its worth the price the original producer wants you to pay.

Piracy is another way of not having to pay full price. Just like the used-games market. The used-games market is more socially acceptable too, which actually makes it the bigger threat.

[Badpaladin]

Piracy is another way of not having to pay full price. Just like the used-games market is.

No, it's different. The product has to be legalized for resale, and such resale has to be done under the conditions described. Any other resale is illegal. Piracy would fall into the latter category, if one were to call it a means for "not having to pay full price".

[SirRobin]

No, it's different. The product has to be legalized for resale, and such resale has to be done under the conditions described. Any other resale is illegal. Piracy would fall into the latter category, if one were to call it a means for "not having to pay full price".

Oh there is a legal difference to be sure, but they are both ways of not paying the price the producer wants you to pay. Since the used-games market was more socially acceptable, it actually made it the bigger threat since there is little the industry can do about the real pirates.

[theredviola]

Call me a DRM idiot, but why isn't registering online (with a serial number) and logging online at least once upon purchase enough to combat piracy?

[Iamanerd]

You don't combat your enemies by shitting on your allies. There's a fair share of assholes who pirate, are able to purchase without breaking any trade laws, and refuse to purchase anyways - but DRM like this really only goes against the consumer base they should be striving to keep. I feel especially strongly because I care deeply about the developers and think they deserve not only competitive pay, but a stable career. "Online-Only" and other DRM schemes contribute to the already volatile nature of the industry.

I'm going to have to agree with you on all parts, as I'm sure the developers worked hard on this and it's EA forcing this always-online and in the end its going to hurt them. I was planning on buying this but I waited to see how release plays out and so far it's very off-putting and I'm most likely going to be waiting awhile. This type of DRM screws us the users/playerbase and doesn't stop pirates as there's always a way around it.

[Badpaladin]

Oh there is a legal difference to be sure, but they are both ways of not paying the price the producer wants you to pay. Since the used-games market was more socially acceptable, it actually made it the bigger threat since there is little the industry can do about the real pirates.

You can't classify an illegal activity that strictly benefits the consumer as one the legal system has determined acceptable and conducive toward good business. They're simply too disparate to offer the same classification. Whether or not the suits at EA or other such companies like the idea of used games is irrelevant.

[zaxlor]

Call me a DRM idiot, but why isn't registering online (with a serial number) and logging online at least once upon purchase enough to combat piracy?

You crack the server that requires authentication and host your own, OR just hack the game to think it's already authenticated and dosn't even have to talk to a server.

The more you treat your customers like criminals the less they respect you and the less business you recieve. Or, that's how it should work. Maybe EA has metrics that proove otherwise. If companys like CDProject can have no DRM in titles like The Witcher and their new Cyberpunk game and turn a profit, why can't EA?

[Iamanerd]

Oh there is a legal difference to be sure, but they are both ways of not paying the price the producer wants you to pay. Since the used-games market was more socially acceptable, it actually made it the bigger threat since there is little the industry can do about the real pirates.

This is for PC, so last I checked there is no "used copy" so why even bother with this DRM style? The only other reason is pirates.