You dun goofed EA

WhiteWeaselWhiteWeasel Join Date: 2012-11-25 Member: 173197Members
edited March 2013 in Off-Topic
EA ruined Simcity.

Totalbiscuit coverage:


11:13 for 2nd one

Every review on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-41018ted-Edition2-SimCity/product-reviews/B007VTVRFA/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

A petition to remove always-on DRM: (41,631 sigs at time of post)
https://www.change.org/petitions/electronic-arts-inc-remove-always-online-drm-from-simcity-and-future-games

Why DRM is stupid and forever will be:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/07/we-built-this-simcity-on-a-shaky-foundation-of-drm/
Don't get me wrong It's a great game, if you can F***ing play it that is.
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  • ScardyBobScardyBob ScardyBob Join Date: 2009-11-25 Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    It always impresses me how many game publishers fail to learn the lessons of Valve and Steam. Steam has DRM (just try playing NS2 when the steam servers are down), but its limited to the initial authentication such that it only prevents you from starting, rather than continuing to play, the game.

    I also find it ironic that their hotfix "solution" is to disable the fastest game speed rather than just temporarily disabling their DRM until they can manage the server load better.
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  • ComproxComprox *chortle* Canada Join Date: 2002-01-23 Member: 7Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Developer, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    The problem is, they can't disable the DRM easily. They "smartly" made the DRM part of the game. The saves are online so you have to connect to the servers to even play. With enough time I am sure they could make a proper offline mode, but as a quick fix this was their only option. Yup, this is why this game is piss poorly designed and deserves every bit of bad press and ridicule.
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  • GamerkatzeGamerkatze Join Date: 2012-06-27 Member: 153711Members


    as big as ea will ever get :/
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  • rockypockyteriyakirockypockyteriyaki Join Date: 2013-01-11 Member: 178937Members
    FUCK EA
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  • rockypockyteriyakirockypockyteriyaki Join Date: 2013-01-11 Member: 178937Members
    EA:one of the biggest hoax pulled on human kind
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    Comprox wrote: »
    The problem is, they can't disable the DRM easily. They "smartly" made the DRM part of the game. The saves are online so you have to connect to the servers to even play. With enough time I am sure they could make a proper offline mode, but as a quick fix this was their only option. Yup, this is why this game is piss poorly designed and deserves every bit of bad press and ridicule.

    That's what Blizzard said about D3. And now it'll be on the PS3 without contact with their content servers. Granted that took six months to accomplish, but it cannot have been more work to do it that way in the first place.

    --Scythe--

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  • TalesinTalesin Our own little well of hate Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7710NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators
    Greed knows no bounds.

    I'd have to also say that it's annoyingly frustrating; I understand the 'region' concept, but I'm annoyed by the inability to save multiple iterations of the same town... I know a lot of people who get frustrated, save the game, destroy the town, then go back to building with the frustration assuaged. Impossible with the 'we keep your saves' model.
    Likewise, the TINY freaking plots are off-putting. This isn't SimCity, it's SimTown at best.

    Really, what I (and MANY others) wanted was SimCity 2000, but with the refinements of the new version (better road layouts, automatic zoning density increases, ability to run utilities along any roadways automatically). What it's really missing is the SCALE of SimCity. Even the freaking ORIGINAL was larger than the tiny plots they've FORCED people into, to try to enforce multiplayer gaming and interdependence between cities.

    No. I don't want that. I want to play the game how *I* want to play it, not how some marketing exec thinks will appeal to the 16-27 short-attention-span mindless iDrone crowd they've been cultivating and pandering to with the last 30-odd 'add on' packs for The Sims.
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  • GISPGISP Battle Gorge Denmark Join Date: 2004-03-20 Member: 27460Members, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester, Forum staff
    edited March 2013
    There is a reason as to why i have boyketed EA, and this just shows why it should remain in effect.
    Hell even an EA employee, have proven that whit simcity they have broken every single of their "values". In a open letter posted on reddit.
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  • CabooseCaboose title = name(self, handle) Join Date: 2003-02-15 Member: 13597Members, Constellation
    Meh, My old ppc Mac OS 9 copy of Sim City 2000 srill works great.
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  • AlignAlign Remain Calm Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 5216Forum Moderators, Constellation
    http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122590-Electronic-Arts-Suspends-SimCity-Marketing-UPDATED
    They've actually resorted to asking everyone to please stop advertising their game...

    It's amusing, but also depressing because it means they've already won.
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  • BacillusBacillus Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58241Members
    edited March 2013
    Talesin wrote: »
    Likewise, the TINY freaking plots are off-putting. This isn't SimCity, it's SimTown at best.
    If we for a moment forget all the DRM mess, this is something that amuses me quite a bit. I think I ran Sim City 2000 with some 166 mhz CPU and maybe 32 mbytes of RAM and it had maps that took quite a long while to build up even with the money cheats. Are we running weaker hardware now or something?

    Usually you can at least blame consoles and all that, but now even that doesn't make sense.

    Edit: So yeah, looking at how much the Simcity 2013 seems to be syncing up with the server, it's at least somewhat understandable that they want to keep the server load manageable. Still, the thing as a whole is ridiculous.
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  • TalesinTalesin Our own little well of hate Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7710NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators
    The only thing that makes some degree of sense is that EA designed it to be run on smartphones. Even tablets would have more than enough power to run a few instances, from a baseline level.
    It'd be the only possible alternate explanation in my mind for the RIDICULOUSLY small plots, the amount of work offloaded to the servers, and the significant mismanagement of the franchise.
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  • elodeaelodea Editlodea Join Date: 2009-06-20 Member: 67877Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    The impression i got is that they've reduced the build space in consideration of server load and their online always design. The plot spaces seemed so small it could only be the result of some kind of technical limitation right?
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  • ScardyBobScardyBob ScardyBob Join Date: 2009-11-25 Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    Talesin wrote: »
    The only thing that makes some degree of sense is that EA designed it to be run on smartphones. Even tablets would have more than enough power to run a few instances, from a baseline level.
    It'd be the only possible alternate explanation in my mind for the RIDICULOUSLY small plots, the amount of work offloaded to the servers, and the significant mismanagement of the franchise.
    Cloud Gaming. Its the future, now!
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  • GORGEousGORGEous Join Date: 2012-02-19 Member: 146762Members, NS2 Map Tester
    I really want to play Sim City, but I really really don't want to support EA. :(
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    Bam. Solved.

    --Scythe--
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  • AldarisAldaris Join Date: 2002-03-25 Member: 351Members, Constellation
    I believe they have gone on record to say that the small plots won't be around forever, and they will expand them in time. Translation: £10 DLC.
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  • AlignAlign Remain Calm Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 5216Forum Moderators, Constellation
    The small sizes are because they actually simulate every single inhabitant in your city at every moment instead of fudging it with math, from what I hear.
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  • ComproxComprox *chortle* Canada Join Date: 2002-01-23 Member: 7Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Developer, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    edited March 2013
    http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/11/simcity-is-inherently-broken-lets-not-let-this-go/ Sums it up nicely. Good to see some site responding without being a wuss about it.
    Claiming SimCity fixed, by removing the server queues, random crashes, lost cities, server drops, and the artificial restrictions placed on the game just to make it run, is like claiming a broken leg fixed because you’ve mended the crutches. The game, by its very design, is hideously broken, and like Diablo III before it, it has only served to scream a complete disregard for sense and a massive disregard for customers. So what we mustn’t do now is say, “Well, teething problems.”

    These aren’t teething problems. These are continuous deep-running flaws designed to cripple the game for you as a player, simply to serve some nebulous notion of protecting the game against piracy.
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  • XythXyth Avatar Join Date: 2003-11-04 Member: 22312Members
    It's really funny because they had a pretty brilliant business model here.
    They have a huge consumer base, both hardcore and casual.
    The game style is just begging for DLC and micro-transactions (SC5: Statues, SC5: Highways, SC5: Trains, SC5: Parks and Recreation, $2 for 1 billion ingame currency, $.50 for a new airport)
    Add in a fascist DRM that stamps out casual piracy for that extra 5% margin

    The real genius I think comes from the sort of data scraping they could do from having 500k server stored player cities. Trying to come up with an idea for the next DLC pack? Well what are the major problems peoples cities are having? What do most players spend their time doing? What DLC packs see the most in-city usage? You could not wish for better consumer metrics than that.

    The punch-line is that EA is too incompetent to implement these otherwise brilliant(in the capitalist sense) features without being so conspicuous that they alienate their non-casual user-base.

    Hilarious.

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  • WhiteWeaselWhiteWeasel Join Date: 2012-11-25 Member: 173197Members
    Yes.
    http://blip.tv/dragon-ball-z-abridged/two-saiyans-play-sim-city-6548564
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  • BacillusBacillus Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58241Members
    Xyth wrote: »
    It's really funny because they had a pretty brilliant business model here.
    They have a huge consumer base, both hardcore and casual.
    The game style is just begging for DLC and micro-transactions (SC5: Statues, SC5: Highways, SC5: Trains, SC5: Parks and Recreation, $2 for 1 billion ingame currency, $.50 for a new airport)
    Add in a fascist DRM that stamps out casual piracy for that extra 5% margin

    The real genius I think comes from the sort of data scraping they could do from having 500k server stored player cities. Trying to come up with an idea for the next DLC pack? Well what are the major problems peoples cities are having? What do most players spend their time doing? What DLC packs see the most in-city usage? You could not wish for better consumer metrics than that.

    The punch-line is that EA is too incompetent to implement these otherwise brilliant(in the capitalist sense) features without being so conspicuous that they alienate their non-casual user-base.

    Hilarious.

    Heh yeh.

    I'd always like to believe mess ups like this have some greedy, but still rational and brilliant ideas behind them. However, way too often it just seems that the business is run by some greedy asshats with very limited sense of anything.
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    The plot thickens.

    --Scythe--
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  • AldarisAldaris Join Date: 2002-03-25 Member: 351Members, Constellation
    Scythe wrote: »
    The plot thickens.

    --Scythe--
    Also, read the comments. There's some posts about how the game simulates a city at higher pops, causing complete breakdown of the model.
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  • ComproxComprox *chortle* Canada Join Date: 2002-01-23 Member: 7Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Developer, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Yup, here is a few videos showing just how much "AI" this game has: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/13/simcitys-sims-dont-seem-that-smart-after-all/

    It's like the AI was coded by a first year C++ student.
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  • ellnicellnic Join Date: 2010-07-19 Member: 72559Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    This is why I very rarely pre order games. NS2, Sims 3, Red Orchestra 2, and Garrys mod are the only games I have pre-ordered in the past.
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  • ScardyBobScardyBob ScardyBob Join Date: 2009-11-25 Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    Comprox wrote: »
    Yup, here is a few videos showing just how much "AI" this game has: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/13/simcitys-sims-dont-seem-that-smart-after-all/

    It's like the AI was coded by a first year C++ student.
    Its a bit of a disaster for Maxis/EA, but I must admit those videos are hilarious. Game should really be renamed lemmings city.
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  • XythXyth Avatar Join Date: 2003-11-04 Member: 22312Members
    Does EA just dump fresh college grads onto these projects or what?

    Just, oh, the incompetence oozes out of every aspect of this game I feel embarrassed by proxy.
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  • XythXyth Avatar Join Date: 2003-11-04 Member: 22312Members
    I feel like the fact that there's a sale on Anno 2070 right now is more than just coincidence.
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  • MonkfishMonkfish Sonic-boom-inducing buttcheeks of terrifying speed! Join Date: 2003-06-03 Member: 16972Members
    SimCity gets more hilarious every day after people find out just how broken it is. I mean it's almost 1 1/2 weeks after the game's launch and it's still broken. Servers are still fucked, achievements, leaderboards and cheetah speed are still disabled. The "simulation" is all a façade.
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