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[Glix]

Don't worry man, Carl's got plenty of fans round my way.

He's getting a stew on.

 

[Lysander91]

I'm in the minority on this site that doesn't really care about always on DRM, or day one DLC, etc, since I think that it keeps initial prices down (services like Steam I even view as beneficial), but when you sell someone a product and it doesn't work as advertised due to the DRM that's a different story. IMO that deserves legal action against or compensation from the publisher.

 

[missolini]

I just bought the game. My plan is to play somewhere around christmas.

 

[Philia]

Certain games, like sports titles don't seem to last more than 2-3 years but Darkspore is still running when like 40 people play that game. I don't doubt if Simcity 4 had this DRM when it launched it wouldn't be playable officially by this time.

Yeah, its just disgusting that they can charge 60 dollars for something that may have only a 2 or so years shelf life. :\

 

[Kerub]

Shieeeet.

 

[Yawnier]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

I am probably among the younger group of gamers on GAF and I agree with what you say.

It's my birthday so my wife took the kids out for the day so I could play some SimCity.

Things are not working out as planned.

Haha, oh man.

 

[SapientWolf]

I think some people might be legally entitled to a refund at this point.

 

[Liamario]

Is there any justifiable reason why there is a requirement for the game to be always online.

 

[Revven]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

This post gets all my feels.

So much truth in this post.

 

[WhiskeyKnight]

So Polygon review is down to a 6 till servers are back?

If Polygon's going to be changing the review score based on the state of the servers, shouldn't it get a zero while they're down?

 

[PhaZZe]

It's my birthday so my wife took the kids out for the day so I could play some SimCity.

Things are not working out as planned.

happy birthday

 

[Arcteryx]

All I can say is that times change. Think of the music industry trying to peddle $20 albums and justifying the price by saying here are 15 songs, only one of which you care about. With the advent of the internet, companies had to adapt their models to prevent piracy and eventually the music industry has settled on selling songs rather than albums and offering licenses to companies that charge a monthly fee for service. The movie industry is also adapting as well (albeit rather slowly). The games industry is adapting (probably for the worse right now), but I am confident that the more high profile releases that get fucked up the closer we're getting to reaching an equilibrium like the music industry has right now.

The problem with what you just said is that those are BENEFITS for the consumer. Always-on is NOT a benefit. Being able to buy one single song or stream a movie online instead of having to physically rent it...those are benefits.

Times change...sure, but they should change for the better. Hindering the consumer from using the product they just purchased...that isn't progression.

 

[Something Wicked]

Good. Now, everyone should go play SimCity 4, which actually requires some brain cells to play unlike Baby's First SimSuburb Online. The DRM is not even the worst part of this game.

 

[ruttyboy]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

Fucking bravo man, bravo. Everyone should read this.

 

[AOC83]

Is there any justifiable reason why there is a requirement for the game to be always online.

No.

 

[ultrazilla]

It's my birthday so my wife took the kids out for the day so I could play some SimCity.

Things are not working out as planned.

Awe man that sucks. Happy Birthday though!

 

[Sheeshor]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

This so much. I hate how EA gets away with the worst bs.

 

[Grief.exe]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

It's a sad day when tons of people spent $60 and now can't play the game on day 2 of its release.

On the other hand, it's good to see Always-on DRM bullshit continuing to show people why it's a bad practice and needs to be axed completely.

Vote with your wallets people. I ain't going anywhere near this game.

 

[nhlducks35]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

 

[Alcoholikaust]

server is up...lets see how far we get now...

 

[endresults]

Awe man that sucks. Happy Birthday though!

I imagine that if the SimCity loader I'm staring at could talk, that's exactly what it would say.

 

[Gnub]

UPDATE: Wednesday 03.06.2013 (16:00 EST / 21:00 GMT / 13:00 PST )

We are still working hard to resolve a problem that is at the heart of the issues which some players have reported. To that end, we are currently rolling out a server update which we believe will improve performance considerably. This will involve restarts over the next 4-5 hours across all of our current severs. Minor player impact may occur, such as trading not working consistently and the region wall not working occasionally.

Oh....

 

[admartian]

Why not just get the BlackBox/Reloaded version...?

 

[PSiCHO]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

Repped.

 

[Jake Tower]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

Hear, hear!

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Oh....

gj, EA.

I learned my lesson with Diablo 3. I'll sit this out a few months, then re-evaluate it then.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

My first console was an Odyssey II. You're pretty much on the spot. This is why I stick to sites like GOG for my DD's and purchase everything else on disc that doesn't require an Internet connection, unless it's required for gameplay (i.e. MMO or online FPS).

 

[red731]

Oh dear god. This thread boomed while I was just taking a shower.
I posted this in the other Simcity thread, but now it is more appropriate -

click to see more on dorkly.com

and ultrazilla said the truth...*bow

 

[Mendrox]

Oh....

Welp... gotta finish up the last two episodes of Katanagatari and going to sleep. I will be playing when all of you americans will get so sleep lol.

 

[Rich!]

Was thinking about this, then realised just how much fun I used to have with Sim City 2000 on the ps1.

Brought it from GOG. Thanks guys!

 

[Kill Your Masters]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

This can't be quoted enough. Bravo.

The industry is driving towards a cliff and the brakes are broken.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

Well said!

 

[Grief.exe]

UPDATE: Wednesday 03.06.2013 (16:00 EST / 21:00 GMT / 13:00 PST )

We are still working hard to resolve a problem that is at the heart of the issues which some players have reported. To that end, we are currently rolling out a server update which we believe will improve performance considerably. This will involve restarts over the next 4-5 hours across all of our current severs. Minor player impact may occur, such as trading not working consistently and the region wall not working occasionally.

Oh....

"which some players have reported"
"Minor player impact may occur"
"such as trading not working consistently and the region wall not working occasionally"

Its funny the words they are using and the problems they are actually describing. Seems like its not affecting that many people, and makes you believe everyone is playing just fine! There aren't any problems like not being able to connect, or losing entire cites, etc.

 

[FACE]

oy vey!

Yeah, don't.

You should edit that post.

 

[sangreal]

At the end of the day, it comes down to economics. Is it economical to spend hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) on a server farm to handle the heavy initial load when you know that load will drop down to just 10%-20% after the first week? I don't think any company can justify that cost. It's much easier to swallow the bad press and chalk it up to "our game launch was TOO successful!" and save the money.

it's hosted on the amazon cloud. there is no hardware investment, just the cost of running servers while they're active. the whole point is the ability to scale up/down as demand requires. I imagine there are other issues like migrating regions between servers

 

[Nokterian]

I'm fine with this, if we Europeans can't play yet, NO-ONE CAN. Muaaaahahaha!

Spoiler

Our servers are going to be completely fucked too, right? ;_;

I feel a disturbance in the force. Yes, our servers in the EU will be gimped.

 

[Cru Jones]

I was curious about this. Can't EA have a bank of servers that they can allocate to different games depending on demand (that's virtualization, right)? Or are there some unforeseen costs or technical barriers I'm not aware of?

Those banks of servers would still have to be on the books though. Sure, they could spread those costs across multiple projects, but its still more money being spent to save customers a day of headaches. In the long run, all of our complaining probably doesn't do much to hurt sales and EA would be stuck with Hardware that would be constantly aging and not in use 100% of the time.

 

[antitrop]

It's my birthday so my wife took the kids out for the day so I could play some SimCity.

Things are not working out as planned.

That's pretty sad.

 

[TheNamelessOne]

Oh....

"Minor player impact" Yeah right....

 

[Metalmurphy]

I'm fine with this, if we Europeans can't play yet, NO-ONE CAN. Muaaaahahaha!

Spoiler

Our servers are going to be completely fucked too, right? ;_;

Twice as fucked, cause all of the US is already moving over EU servers.

 

[Metroidvania]

IMO, DLC and its cost aren't quite the same as the other stuff mentioned. Stuff like that is up to the individual consumer, and how they judge the quality/quantity of when the DLC releases, and what the DLC offers to the player that they are or are not looking for to enhance their experience.

But stuff like microtransactions in a full console/PC game as opposed to a truly free-to-play zero initial cost game are entirely despicable practices made for pay-to-win or time-saving revenue.

Online DRM is in the same boat as microtransactions. Though it's supposed to prevent piracy, and it does accomplish that, any other "reason" behind it such as a "connected world" is merely an side "benefit" to the consumer that people should take into account but realize just how much of an anti-consumer policy online DRM is.

Not being able to play a single-player version of the game you paid for is absolutely despicable and hugely anti-consumer in nature.

 

[GenericUserName]

Can royal fuck-ups like this cause a small crash in the industry akin to the one in 1983?

Between the asstastic debacle that was Aliens:CM and this, I sure hope so. Or, rather, I hope the 'beeg naem AAAAAAAAAaaaaaa pr0dy00sarz' crash and die in the ensuing fire.

 

[Nokterian]

I consider myself a bit "older" of a gamer at 41. I grew up with Vectrex, the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2..basically when video gaming was in it's infancy.

You younger guys and ladies are "inheriting" the legacy of home gaming and what you are supporting with always on DRM in today's games is not something you should support nor be proud of.

You only back up claims from the likes of EA who state that gamers love micro-transactions, free to play models and suspect DLC(some of which is cut from full games to monetize it later).

Remember just buying a game, putting it into your console and playing it? Now we have internet activations, always on DRM, micro-transactions, DLC instead of mod tools and upcoming consoles that may block used games.

That's not what gaming is about. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's corporate suits sitting in an office thinking of additional ways to screw over you younger folks and extract more money from your pockets.

They're using the guise of "development costs", "next gen" features and so forth to justify the nickel and diming of your wallets.

Don't embrace this legacy. Don't support it. If you support it, you only have yourselves to blame when your "digital future" some are so eager to embrace is locked behind pay walls or downed servers.

Please fellow gamers, wake up and don't support this.

 

[mnannola]

Always online single player game = wait for steam/origin sale. Buying this stuff on day 1 is just asking for trouble. Hopefully more people learn this lesson so this crap can stop.

 

[Syph Medwes]

Haha awesome. That's my favourite version too.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I think I'm gonna go buy that right now and play a real Sim City game.

This so much. I hate how EA gets away with the worst bs.

They're not going to get away with it though. This is all going to come back and bite them so fucking hard.

 

[Yasae]

It's like launch day on an MMO.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

edit

 

[Chet Rippo]

I think I'll just wait on getting this game.

 

[Oppo]

Q: What is your refund policy for PC digital downloads?

A: Unfortunately, EA does not offer refunds on any products downloaded through Origin. EA reserves the right, however, to offer refunds under exceptional circumstances at its sole discretion.
For full details, please go to our terms of sale

So game is broken and there's no recourse. Really is amazingly dickish on their part.