SimCity 5 - Launch Discussion

[procne]

You people are still crying over the launch? The servers work fine, I've been playing practically constantly for a full week and never been kicked or disconnected. My only problem was with full servers and that is fixed now. The DRM has also done it's job, searching on popular torrent sites i can't find any cracks. When crysis 3 and other popular games were first released a crack was available within minutes of launch.

Uhm, it's no longer about launch, but about EA and their lies I guess. Short version:
- EA doesn't admit that online-only was mainly for DRM
- Modders prove that servers contribute almost nothing to actual gameplay and that game can run in offline mode just fine
- Modders prove that game can handle bigger cities
- Bloating population numbers to make cities "seem" bigger
- Broken resource / traffic handling
- EA hiding their customer support number
- EA deleting threads about mods

[hiragana]

This whole thing is hilarious yet sad at the same time, if i could have much bigger cities like in sim city 4, offline play and be able to edit regions then i would probably buy this game.
Reading the articles has been hilarious though, i remember i stopped buying all new ea games years and years ago, but cant remember why, good to see i had no part in funding this disaster.

[SirRobin]

You people are still crying over the launch? The servers work fine, I've been playing practically constantly for a full week and never been kicked or disconnected. My only problem was with full servers and that is fixed now. The DRM has also done it's job, searching on popular torrent sites i can't find any cracks. When crysis 3 and other popular games were first released a crack was available within minutes of launch.

Servers work fine? Uh... No they don't. I decided to pick up this game so I could see for myself and, you know what? I'm on my third server already. I try to join a city I've created before and all it shows for population and simoleons is "0." The first time I try to join it tells me its unable to load. If I try again it will get stuck on the loading screen. So you may not be having issues but the servers are hardly, "fine."

---------- Post added 2013-03-17 at 09:51 AM ----------

...snip...

OGM's have been part of the online landscape for a long time. Whether someone is or isn't? Is pretty much besides the point anymore. Over the last couple of years it seems, to me, that the marketers and the trollers are running neck and neck in the war over products' e-reps. The marketers encourage "straight" talk from devs because they get paid too. The trolls encourage the same because they want to prop the devs up since the farther they fall afterward? The more entertaining it is.

---------- Post added 2013-03-17 at 10:06 AM ----------

Should mention that while SimCity, compared to its previous iterations, is a dumbed down shallow reboot. Its right up my kids' alleys. The level, hehe, of "challenge" is perfect for my ten and seven year old's. A bit too challenging for my four year old but that may be more of a still developing eye-hand coordination issue. So if you have kids in elementary school? This game would probably be great for them.

[krunksmash]

Simcity is fine. yes they had a rough launch but things are smoothing out a few changes I would like to see are improved police/fire AI, a server wide chat room, ablility to change a private room to public( if this is in please tell me the hotkey to open the menu), and filter options to weed out full maps

[Rukh]

You people are still crying over the launch? The servers work fine, I've been playing practically constantly for a full week and never been kicked or disconnected. My only problem was with full servers and that is fixed now. The DRM has also done it's job, searching on popular torrent sites i can't find any cracks. When crysis 3 and other popular games were first released a crack was available within minutes of launch.

And we all know how Crysis 3 became a financial failure right? OHWAIT. It's almost like EA are needlessly being greedy shitholes to grub every last cent and don't care of they shit all over the normal customers. Almost.

[Deleted]

You'd think 2 weeks after launch things would have died down, but nope. How much worse can it get?

I think the real tragedy is so many people were looking forward to the newest, greatest simcity game and got sold a sack of doorknobs. And the kicker is there's no game currently that lives up to the hype SC has created. Or is there?

[SirRobin]

And we all know how Crysis 3 became a financial failure right? OHWAIT. It's almost like EA are needlessly being greedy shitholes to grub every last cent and don't care of they shit all over the normal customers. Almost.

Nor is it like we actually need a crack. The real pirates must be laughing their asses off.

[Zigeuner]

I've clocked up 129 hours since launch so I'm enjoying myself. Just to wade in with links about the offline play....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...lopers-vision/

I'm not too bothered about being online or offline as I'm playing in a region with a few RL friends so I'd be online anyway.

[Ravenblade]

I've clocked up 129 hours since launch so I'm enjoying myself. Just to wade in with links about the offline play....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...lopers-vision/

Less than one year ago:

On that note, those of you who can't tolerate EA's Origin and online-only games should tap out early before you get excited about this: Yes, you will have to register an Origin account in order to play, and yes, [...] in order to start playing. EA has confirmed that you will not be kicked out if your connection is interrupted.

Vision has become the convenient exit argument for some developers these days. While having a vision - yes, even a flawed vision like that one - at all is a noble thing to have it does not protect you from having to iterate further. At the moment they do sound a bit like Bioware in that regard. It seems to me that their pride is in the way and to silence obstinate critics they have to carpet-bomb the laid out issues with repetitive PR measures. If I am the audience to be convinced they are doing a fine job of keeping me away. It's like they deliberately only want to primarily appeal to new SimCity players.

[Darsithis]

You people are still crying over the launch? The servers work fine, I've been playing practically constantly for a full week and never been kicked or disconnected. My only problem was with full servers and that is fixed now. The DRM has also done it's job, searching on popular torrent sites i can't find any cracks. When crysis 3 and other popular games were first released a crack was available within minutes of launch.

I'm just as happy that is it finally working right. Now just bring back my Cheetah speed and I'll be set

[SirRobin]

I'm having more fun waiting to see what blows up in their faces next. Than actually trying to get cities I've already created to reload. Its like they added a god-mode to EA Maxis itself. "Your Volunteer Moderator Censors Support Number" was a great disaster. As was "Customers Can't Play Because You're Too Cheap." "Refuse Refund Requests and Threaten Account Ban" was a classic. Though the "Your Studio Manager Gets Caught Lying" disaster is starting to spawn to often. Need to mix it up with other disasters like "Let Players Grief Other Players Cities."

[Mouri Kogorou]

pre-purchased SimCity, got dead space trilogy for free. i say good deal.

[Valeron]

Coincidence?

http://www.ea.com/news/from-larry-pr...hip-transition

CEO of EA has resigned.

[SirRobin]

Coincidence?

http://www.ea.com/news/from-larry-pr...hip-transition

CEO of EA has resigned.

Meh... SimCity was probably just the last straw. Personally I've always figured that the main reason he's been able to keep it for as long as has, was because no one else wanted the job.

---------- Post added 2013-03-18 at 03:53 PM ----------

Oh what the hell, you talked me into it.

I'll take the job.

---------- Post added 2013-03-18 at 04:01 PM ----------

Psst... Larry... Call me.

[Sephiracle]

Meh... SimCity was probably just the last straw. Personally I've always figured that the main reason he's been able to keep it for as long as has, was because no one else wanted the job.

---------- Post added 2013-03-18 at 03:53 PM ----------

Oh what the hell, you talked me into it.

I'll take the job.

---------- Post added 2013-03-18 at 04:01 PM ----------

Psst... Larry... Call me.

CEO is only there to make as much money as possible. You're just going to have to drain the shit out of franchises to appease the shareholders.

[Wilian]

http://www.streetinsider.com/Hot+Mgm...s/8193332.html

Just from another link.

After all the mistakes with Bioware (Naming studios after Bioware, then renaming then back after bad backlash) to this, it's no surprise. He's the kind of dude that would probably enjoy ruining everything for everyone for proper profit.

It's not for no reason videos like this are made. It makes perfect picture of him:

[SirRobin]

CEO is only there to make as much money as possible. You're just going to have to drain the shit out of franchises to appease the shareholders.

Well I doubt I could do worse than he has.

[Flaks]

Man its like Diablo III all over again...

[SirRobin]

Man its like Diablo III all over again...

Oh come on, this one is so much juicier.

1. EA's preparations proved to be a joke with only a million playing. Maxis's previous games, Sims 3 and Spore, met or beat those sales numbers in the first week or two.. So even less excuse for them to "underestimate" sales. Diablo had millions, plural, playing.
   
   
2. EA claimed, a year ago, that you wouldn't get booted if you got disconnected. They lied.
   
   
3. EA claimed that it couldn't be played offline due to needing the servers. They lied.
   
   
4. EA claimed they had hundreds of thousands of sims running. The community found the game was fudging population numbers.
   
   
5. A dev leak that SimCity didn't need the servers.
   
   
6. The community found a way to play offline.
   
   
7. EA not only refused refunds but even threatened to ban an Origin account.
   
   
8. The community found a way to directly grief other players in SimCity's regions.
   
   
9. An "overzealous" EA moderator censored out their support number on their own forum.
   
   
10. The studio's manager actually titles a blog post, "straight answers," but doesn't include many. And leaves out the bits she's already been caught lying about.
    
    
11. The community found another way to play offline.
    
    
12. The reviews start tanking, metacritic is down to 64 so far.
    
    
13. Abysmally bad AI (like for traffic) that would have been horribly obvious during any serious testing, apparently caught EA by surprise.
    
    
14. Two weeks after launch and rollbacks, repairs, and losing cities are still happening.
    
    
15. Shortly after reading that EA's reboot took two weeks to even break a million in sales? The head of EA, the much reviled whether deserved or not, John Riccitielo, suddenly resigns.

And I might be forgetting one or two others. We even got soap opera drama due to some wondering if this SimCity's daddy is really Maxis or... Zynga.



The only fail nugget Blizzard can wag over Maxis's head is getting raided by the Korean government and at the rate they are going? Wouldn't be surprised if it happens soon.

[Wilian]

Sim City is a product that just keeps providing amusement for free.

http://www.abload.de/img/13636346978524qkye.jpg