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[Syphon Filter]

Welcome to PC gaming and soon to be console gaming :/

There are a few that have the drm. The majority don't.

 

[faridmon]

The only thing that I get from this, is how terrible Polygon is and how many of Neogaf users still read it and base their interest on it.

I really hope this opens the eyes of people to how terrible that website is. P

 

[Yasae]

I don't think "gamers" have asked for it. But I do think the casuals who run out in droves to buy the "newest" version of last year's game which is nothing more than a 0.000001 version upgrade for 60 bucks are the issue.

Casuals don't have their finger on the pulse like most "gamers" do. Sadly, while we have voices, we are but a few drops in the bucket.

Would "casuals" enjoy this oh-so-wonderful server downtime too? If no, they aren't the problem either.

Blame the right entity/entities.

 

[Haunted]

Also features bigger cities.

 

[eosos]

And to think I almost bought this game.

 

[Yamauchi]

I have no plans to buy Sim City, what's it got to do with me?

Not all gamers, of course. Only those who have recently purchased games from Blizzard, EA, or any publisher pushing this anti-consumer technology.

 

[Professor Beef]

The only thing that I get from this, is how terrible Polygon is and how many of Neogaf users still read it and base their interest on it.

I really hope this opens the eyes of people to how terrible that website is. P

I actually never heard of the site until yesterday, thanks to GAF!

 

[Omikaru]

So glad I wasn't roped into this scam. Though I'm sure when the next online-only game comes up, people will be lining up to buy it, just as they did with this after Diablo III had shat its pants.

 

[Neuromancer]

You just can't win.

If you don't buy SimCity you may not get a SimCity game for another 10 years, or never again, as EA will cite low sales to justify not bothering with the series in the future.

If you buy SimCity you can't play it because of awful infrastructure and choices made by EA/Maxis, on top of that you get berated by fellow gamers as if your inability to play the game is your fault.

 

[Sethos]

Would be sweet if we had to stick it to the companies and avoid games with microtransactions, DRM, features lacking from previous games and some servers not working at launch.

I'd basically be playing Monopoly all day long then.

 

[Nibel]

Welcome to PC gaming and soon to be console gaming :/

Yeah, because PC gaming is the issue - well observed, they should tag you "GAF's observer of EA's server issues"

 

[Philia]

And to think I almost bought this game.

I'd had bought it if it was SP and fucking offline. :\

 

[GoddyofAus]

What! Is this still under maintenance? Just got released in Australian stores..

For fuck sake, don't buy it. It's bad enough they've done this for 60 bucks, but for 100!?

 

[Deadstar]

The small cities don't impress me. I want complexity and I want to do it all myself.

 

[Raide]

You just can't win.

If you don't buy SimCity you may not get a SimCity game for another 10 years, or never again, as EA will cite low sales to justify not bothering with the series in the future.

If you buy SimCity you can't play it because of awful infrastructure and choices made by EA/Maxis, on top of that you get berated by fellow gamers as if your inability to play the game is your fault.

The second choice is something they can actually fix. They might just hear the outcry and drop the need for the Online access. Stranger things have happened.

 

[Branduil]

You just can't win.

If you don't buy SimCity you may not get a SimCity game for another 10 years, or never again, as EA will cite low sales to justify not bothering with the series in the future.

If you buy SimCity you can't play it because of awful infrastructure and choices made by EA/Maxis, on top of that you get berated by fellow gamers as if your inability to play the game is your fault.

I really think the only way for consumers to win is for another crash to happen and EA/Activision/etc. to go under.

 

[red731]

:lol
I've nostalgia'd a bit of the older times and went to search for something like Transport Tycoon.
What haven't I found! OpenTTD!
It ran and I've made some roads! Yay

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

More like ... "she walked down that dark alley for the 20th time and got raped every single time".


Keep walking down that alley.

If people keep getting raped walking down an alley, you'd think someone would police the alley better, or create an alternate and well-lit route.

 

[Kun Aguero]

Not my type of game, but disappointing to see fellow gamers getting screwed. Just a pity many will forgive this when the next shiny thing from EA comes along.

 

[Robot Pants]

Why the hell do you need to be connected to the Internet to play sim city?

 

[Atilac]

In the companies eyes its better to underestimate demand than overestimate demand, the cost of having excess capacity is higher than the cost in customer service.

 

[Bleeether]

i really wanted to buy this but i learned my lesson from Diablo.

 

[vagabondarts]

:lol
I've nostalgia'd a bit of the older times and went to search for something like Transport Tycoon.
What haven't I found! OpenTTD!
It ran and I've made some roads! Yay

Yeah man, that game is a lot of fun.
I'm still learning how to play after putting in considerable hours.

 

[rac]

:lol

There is a simple solution, don't review games that have always-on DRM. Then explain to your user base what it is and what games use it.

 

[Atilac]

Why the hell do you need to be connected to the Internet to play sim city?

To combat piracy and to sell bits and pieces of DLC to the costumer at the slightest provocation. Supposedly

 

[GoddyofAus]

Why the hell do you need to be connected to the Internet to play sim city?

Because you aren't the customer that comes first, you're a pirate.

 

[Raide]

Why the hell do you need to be connected to the Internet to play sim city?

Mainly due to them pushing the co-op aspect of larger regions where people work together. Sure they could have made it A.I based and then let players Host/Join Online games, which would have cut out most of the salty tears but they obviously made a gameplay choice which may not be the right one.

 

[antitrop]

I think my favorite part about this is that the page is running giant Sim City banner ads, flash ads, and pop-up ads.

I saw Halls. Now I want to let the cool in. (tm)

 

[red731]

Yeah man, that game is a lot of fun.
I'm still learning how to play after putting in considerable hours.

I can't wait to get into it more again. Such a long time had passed.

 

[Lionel Mandrake]

What is Will Wright even doing these days?

 

[Neuromancer]

Why the hell do you need to be connected to the Internet to play sim city?

The focus on multiplayer. And supposedly some of the computational stuff is done 'in the cloud', I really don't believe it myself.

To be fair, the multiplayer is pretty neat when the game is actually working.

 

[Poyunch]

So what's the best Sim City game to buy? The last one I played was the one for the SNES. Been getting the urge to play some Sim City but I don't want to pay $60 for something I might not like, especially with this DRM debacle.

 

[Liamario]

No.

Thanks. I was hoping that maybe EA made an attempt to explain it. Not interested now. Lost interest in purchasing Diablo 3 for the same reason.

 

[jambo]

So glad I didn't end up buying this.

I'll definitely play some SimCity 4 tonight though

So what's the best Sim City game to buy? The last one I played was the one for the SNES.

SimCity 4 is great and on Steam. Grab the Rush Hour expansion as well. Plus there are widescreen hacks.

2000 is also great, but very old school. On Gog for cheap.

 

[Neuromancer]

Supposedly servers are back up

http://answers.ea.com/t5/Miscellaneous-Issues/NOTIFICATION-Applying-Server-patch-to-Oceanic-1-NA-East-1-and-NA/td-p/628648

Edit : not for me

 

[Dark Octave]

So what's the best Sim City game to buy? The last one I played was the one for the SNES. Been getting the urge to play some Sim City but I don't want to pay $60 for something I might not like, especially with this DRM debacle.

Same here. SNES was the last Sim City I have ever seen even a picture of.

I was really looking forward to this one and I may still get it down the line, but not tonight. Not until they fix these problems witht he servers at least.

 

[Kinyou]

I sort of defend EA from time to time, but servers are a BIG problem for them.

The thing is, they demanded that Microsoft and Sony let them run their own servers for games. This was done for a variety of business reasons, including the ability to shut down older versions of games and force consumers to buy newer versions (e.g. Madden and a whole list of other games). But whether on console or PC, they don't want to cough up the money to pay for enough servers when a major game launches. Let's look at history:

SW:TOR - launch problems. Not enough servers. Server disconnects, etc.
Battlefield 3 - Not enough servers at launch across all platforms. All the past Battlefield games had some sort of server issues at launch too, if I remember correctly.
SimCity (2013) - Server problems at launch.

Of the top of my head, this is the third time in 2 years that EA has botched a launch of a big game. Blizzard botched D3's launch as well. The lesson here is that these companies simply don't care, or they continually underestimated demand.

What was the Starcraft 2 launch like? I'm suddenly wondering if it's even worth to get Heart of the swarm on day 1

 

[Grief.exe]

There is a simple solution, don't review games that have always-on DRM. Then explain to your user base what it is and what games use it.

The problem is these sites are motivated to get content up with a score as early as possible.

The site with the content up first, gets the most clicks, and, conversely, the most revenue.

Now they could attempt something like getting the review up, but withholding the score until after the first week. This way, people get a formal review, the site gets the clicks, and they can post a more accurate score down the line.

Total Biscuit:

What can you do when people demand that information and will go to the first place that provides it regardless?

If I compare the videos I get of AAAs out on the embargo date vs those that I get out a couple of days afterwards, I can make triple, sometimes more money on those videos than I would otherwise. They just get so many more views that it's in my best interests to get them out ASAP. Hell even hours matter, Rev3 and other sites got some Sim City stuff out today, mine is still uploading (because it's 90 minutes long, manmode) and it'll have less views because Rev3 and other sites beat me to the punch.

This is the reality of the industry. We run on an ad-supported model that relies on views. If the gaming community keeps flocking to the first person that provides the review/preview/first-impressions then they are voting with their views and saying to every reviewer out there "you gotta be first otherwise you don't get paid". With sites shutting down on a regular basis, it's a competitive industry with low profit expectations, ads don't pay that much unless you display an awful lot of them.

My hope is that over time gamers will get more savvy and will willingly wait for content from guys they trust, however right now we have a culture of people that willingly preorder and will look for any excuse to do so rather than just WAIT until the game comes out and people have had more time to test it out. Gamers are for the most part pretty impatient and the state of the "journalism" scene is a reflection of that.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/19n7se/why_you_shouldnt_trust_our_simcity_review/c8pmq87

What was the Starcraft 2 launch like? I'm suddenly wondering if it's even worth to get Heart of the swarm on day 1

We all know you are going to be playing AoE II anyways.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=517122

 

[sp3000]

So what's the best Sim City game to buy? The last one I played was the one for the SNES. Been getting the urge to play some Sim City but I don't want to pay $60 for something I might not like, especially with this DRM debacle.

Simcity 4 is pretty much the final Simcity game that still follows the original formula. Also the most complex and in depth one.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

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

I understand and agree with everything you said, but:

Sadly, the "digital future" is coming whether we like it or not. I simply don't believe most people have the willpower to stop buying games. Most of us can't even stop buying Steam games we'll likely never play. Kinda sad if you think about it. Sure there may be a game or two we rail against at launch and boycott but if the game is decent a year later most people will cave and buy it on sale for <$10 and the pub will still get our money. Debbie Downer, I know.

 

[Yagharek]

With any luck this will be long remembered and more people will boycott EA scams. And anything that's pulls an always online scam.

Disgusting all round, fuck this shitty industry and the direction it's heading.

 

[depths20XX]

I don't get some of the posts "I learned my lesson from Diablo" learned what? That it had server issues the first day or so and then it ran fine? The problem with Diablo was that it was a shitty game.

This game is actually held back by the always online and they have made game play changes that downgrade the experience from past Sim City games. Even after the servers are working smoothly I don't think this game is gonna hold up well.

 

[Raide]

I don't get some of the posts "I learned my lesson from Diablo" learned what? That it had server issues the first day or so and then it ran fine? The problem with Diablo was that it was a shitty game.

Its almost like people have never played an online game that has server issues over the first few days.

 

[G_Berry]

I'm really glad I didn't pick this up.

Same. Learned my leasson with Diablo 3.

 

[antitrop]

What was the Starcraft 2 launch like? I'm suddenly wondering if it's even worth to get Heart of the swarm on day 1

I bought and installed StarCraft II day 1 and was playing it all day without getting disconnected or running into any significant problems at all.

I expect no issues with the launch of Heart of the Swarm.

 

[Kinyou]

We all know you are going to be playing AoE II anyways.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=517122

oh boy

I bought and installed StarCraft II day 1 and was playing it all day without getting disconnected or running into any significant problems at all.

I expect no issues with the launch of Heart of the Swarm.

Thx, good to know.

 

[smr00]

What was the Starcraft 2 launch like? I'm suddenly wondering if it's even worth to get Heart of the swarm on day 1

I had absolutely 0 problems with SC2 at launch. Matter a fact i don't recall anyone having problems with it at launch.

World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 on the other hand were fucking trainwrecks.

Also i am gonna ask this again and hopefully get an answer. I bought the physical version off Amazon, can i get a refund through them? Do i have to go through EA?

 

[Poyunch]

Simcity 4 is pretty much the final Simcity game that still follows the original formula. Also the most complex and in depth one.

Well there you go EA, this is where my money will go instead.

 

[depths20XX]

I had absolutely 0 problems with SC2 at launch. Matter a fact i don't recall anyone having problems with it at launch.

World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 on the other hand were fucking trainwrecks.

Also i am gonna ask this again and hopefully get an answer. I bought the physical version off Amazon, can i get a refund through them? Do i have to go through EA?

Honestly Amazon has such great customer service I wouldn't be surprised if they refunded you even if it was at a loss to them. It's worth trying if you really don't want it.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

There is a simple solution, don't review games that have always-on DRM. Then explain to your user base what it is and what games use it.

That doesn't pay the bills.