EA SimCity fiasco

Ixzion · **Posted:** March 7th, 2013, 12:27 am

So the always-online EA game SimCity has been offline for hours at the time of this writing. Apparently, a higher-up said that if anyone had a problem with the game, that they could be issued a refund. Wel...:

ShadowFox1001 · **Posted:** March 7th, 2013, 12:39 am

EA man... I'm just glad the Sims 3 isn't online only. If it was, I wouldn't purchase anything else for it.

Duel · **Posted:** March 7th, 2013, 3:37 am

t

Here is a review of SimCity.

http://www.jonathancresswell.co.uk/2013/03/review-simcity/

Fayorei · **Posted:** March 7th, 2013, 4:54 pm

Love, EA.

PS: Suckerrrrrrsssss!!!!!

But, people will continue to support EA, so this will keep happening. Boo. Why is a game like Sim City online only anyways?

ShadowFox1001 · **Posted:** March 7th, 2013, 5:17 pm

SO YOU CAN INTERACT WITH OTHER CITIES AND HELP EACH UDDER!

You could do that with your own cities offline.

Lantis · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 10:17 am

I'm sorry, but anyone still willingly gives money to these moronic assholes after this is a complete idiot. I'd unbuy Dead Space 3 if I could.

Fayorei · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 12:17 pm

I don't see any EA games I want to buy, but what is saddening is that they go from stuff like the Spectrum LGBTQ event in NY, which was amazing and muchly needed- and then with the other hand they hit consumers with these sorts of things. It makes it hard for me as a consumer a bit- especially since they've also bought out numerous studios.

That being said, nothing from EA has caught my real interest in a while, however.

ShadowFox1001 · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 1:05 pm

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ea-scr ... d=18677568

Quote:

Electronic Arts said it'll be patching SimCity to remove "non-essential" gameplay features as the Origin servers struggle to handle demand for the game.

EA made this announcement in a support forum post after more than two-and-a-half days of troubles for fans who were eager to play the game. Its servers were hammered as soon as the game dropped earlier this week, with players reporting wait times to get on the servers.

RELATED: Mashable's SimCity Review

Most of the options removed from the game were features like leaderboards, but fans also spotted in the patch notes that "Cheetah Speed" is being removed. "Cheetah Speed" is a speed of time passage option in the game that makes events happen at the fastest rate possible.

Subreddits like r/games and r/simcity feature discussions with sometimes thousands of upvotes and comments. Gamers' main complaints have been about inability to join games or find their friends, being dropped from servers, and other bugs great and small handily compiled into one thread. Other game-stopping issues included a bug in the game's mandatory tutorial where players couldn't access any menus or progress forward.

I personally experienced that bug, along with issues in the multiplayer. SimCity is played in regions containing multiple cities where players can combine their efforts. In our region Wednesday night, two other players and I couldn't cooperate by trading goods or services. At least one of us always had a warning we were offline, and finally all three of us were dropped from the server around 11 p.m. EST. It wasn't a satisfying play experience.

SimCity requires an always-on Internet connection, and gamers cannot experience any part of the game without the ability to connect to one of the servers. On Wednesday night, the game developer Maxis' senior producer Kip Katsarellis said in a forum post that EA was adding servers to meet demand.

Launches of games with an always-on component often don't go smoothly. Last May's Diablo III launch was plagued with similar issues after 3.5 million gamers bought copies on launch day. The Internet unleashed the same fury until the game became playable by all.

The server issues have also dampened both consumer and editorial reviews for SimCity. The game's Amazon review score is just slightly above one star. Kotaku's review of the game cautioned fans to wait and see if the issues would be fixed before picking up the game. Polygon revised its generous 9.5 score to an 8 because of the connectivity troubles.

Fans have also created a Change.org petition to ask EA to remove the always-on features from SimCity.

EA responded to the problems with this statement:

"We are experiencing extremely high server volume and it's preventing some players from gaining access to the game. Our server team is working around the clock to resolve this issue so that we can get the rest of our fans into the game. We are aggressively undergoing maintenance on our servers to add the necessary capacity to meet the demand. Players may continue to play throughout the weekend but we want to note that performance will fluctuate during this time. We thank our fans for their continued patience."

So instead of adding an offline mode, they're going to remove some gameplay features and won't turn off the always-on feature.

Fayorei · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 1:20 pm

Wow. Well, I'm not generally interested in Sim City... but in regards to Diablo III, you use a Battle.net account for everything. Even Torchlight II has you log in with an online service, and it might as well be online only since my copy if from Steam. There was an Auction House in D3, and I could chat with my friends in other Blizzard games with my login. There were error 38 problems for like one week, and people blew that up with complaining, etc. I never minded D3 being always online. And, lately- they've confronted their design issues. They admitted they had them. They added Paragon levels, and also the best of the best gear cannot be bought- you have to find it. And it's soulbound. That's what people wanted, though. D3 will also feature offline play on the PS4, which is more than any EA console game could with the mandatory Origin crap.

EA should take a page out of Blizzard's playbook(Blizz is always pretty dynamic, and actually the most recent WoW patch contained a lot of community requests and quality of life changes), and actually treat a consumer well. EA has already done this sort of dance with Dragon Age II, and Mass Effect 3- their last hugely controversial games. They have a group of people ready to 1-star any game they release. I realize that while there are legit trolls, their business practices absolutely do need work.

Sounds to me like Sim City needs the following: Origin-always-on being dropped. And not messing up how people play the core game. It's not an online Action RPG, or an MMO of any kind.

ShadowFox1001 · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 1:25 pm

Precisely. SimCity, like The Sims, should be able to function offline. It's not a game that needs to be played online (it's cool to be able to do so). That's the only reason why I'm planning on getting Sims 3 expansions for me and my girlfriend is because it's offline. If it was always on, I wouldn't even touch them. It just lacks sense, and they keep avoiding the issues and the promises they made.

Lantis · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 2:03 pm

The irony here is that if a pirated version did surface that did have an offline mode (which I'm sure it has had to by now), it would be more worth paying for than the legit version.

This entire thing makes me a very sad gamer. Not for just what EA is doing, but for the companies that will follow suit behind them because people won't stop ripping this sh*t off the shelves.

Duel · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 2:10 pm

This fiasco pretty much proves why online DRM can be trouble not only for people that want to play the game but the people that release it as well. When you deny a gamer their game and constrict them, they're going to bite back and with greater numbers. This is indicated by the flood of negativity EA is getting via social networks.

They're not making the situation any better by denying people a refund to at least try to compensate for such a rocky release.

I say wait to buy Simcity until later. SimCity doesn't need to be online, I agree. I can go back and play other SimCities without worrying about servers somehow destroying my saved games. This sorta thing seems like a step back.

http://m.kotaku.com/5989441/they-want-250000-to-make-a-drm+free-clone-of-simcity

Fayorei · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 3:16 pm

I feel the most bad for the fans. And regardless, Maxis agreed to this which is even worse. I am kind of done with the Sims as well if they ever take them off Steam. I didn't want their DRM, so I chose Steam instead. They insisted on microtransactions. They put things in the customizing part and say you can buy it. The base item amount seems way less than the original Sims because of this. The DRM had a lawsuit at one point, it's called SecuRom. ...And SecuRom was invasive offline DRM.

People just want a good sim. And it sucks that they're ruining both of their franchises.

ShadowFox1001 · **Posted:** March 8th, 2013, 4:04 pm

Yeah. I noticed in Sims 3 now is that you can use Sim Points to buy clothes. The hell would I want to do that? I buy the game, I don't need to buy more clothes for a game. And they have expansion packs that should come with some extra clothes and objects. The microtransactions can go. It's nice that I'm not forced to buy them, but it's stupid.

Also, I tried registering my game or using my account I previously registered on, and it can't find any of my accounts on the Sim website. Not that it's important, but I'd like to be able to download content so I could have more stuff that others made. EA can't make things work. I'm fine with only getting expansions and leaving it at the base itemization. I enjoy the interactions and stuff more anyway.

Fayorei · **Posted:** March 10th, 2013, 1:43 pm

EA brings out the dumb in people too, apparently. It reminds me of the whole Mass Effect 3 drama. People knew Dragon Age II got watered down, and then were surprised when EA made ME3 more streamlined or whatever. It's apparent.

I support not having DRM. I do. But starting a White House petition for it? That's about as useful as tits on a bull. GOVERNMENT PLEASE I CAN'T ACCESS MY SEWAGE CONTROL IN-GAME!

The real way to help this problem- vote by wallet. Two, if they must complain to someone, actually have it make sense and be the Better Business Bureau or otherwise(actually, in this case- bad press on a lot of the games blogging platforms out there). Cause a petition on that site, in a sea of internet garbage, will do nothing. It would be like putting a re-release Earthbound petition there. Points for nerdrage righteous indignation, however.

Destructoid had a pretty nice post on the issue, and they weren't very pro-EA at all. I think a lot of other sites have followed suit.

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