SimCity 5 Disappointment-All

Guys, this is an EA product. They will f*ck it up trying to monetize it, guaranteed.

Transportation Adviser: The citizens of Youville are complaining about heavy traffic. Buy a traffic reducer for just 5.99?

Demyx wrote:

Transportation Adviser: The citizens of Youville are complaining about heavy traffic. Buy a traffic reducer for just 5.99?

Haha. Wouldn't surprise me. They already have pre-order DLC listed on the Origin site.

My usual solution to traffic complaints was Godzilla. That was a long time ago, and may no longer be applicable though.

Malor wrote:

Guys, this is an EA product. They will f*ck it up trying to monetize it, guaranteed.

I dunno, dude. Normally I'd agree with you, but the SSX reboot they've done is absolutely fantastic, so EA has a bit of credit with me right now.

Coldstream wrote:

I dunno, dude. Normally I'd agree with you, but the SSX reboot they've done is absolutely fantastic, so EA has a bit of credit with me right now.

This is why I have a love-hate relationship with EA. A lot of their corporate maneuvers make me wish I could ignore them, but they do put out some good stuff on occasion which means I can't get away from them entirely.

Also, reports from GDC say that they're going to allow modding like with Simcity 4 and The Sims, so that's going to be interesting to see alongside the expected DLC/micro-transaction pipeline.

They've already split some bits off to DLC with the deluxe edition, which is what I think Malor is concerned about.

All I need to know is that it requires Origin. Until that software is fixed, no EA PC games for Ken.

Makes me sad, too, because this game looks really interesting. I would really love to play it (and Mass Effect 3, but at least I can get ME3 on a console).

Oh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

SimCity will require constant connection in order to play, no matter what.

It's not DRM, it's because of the "internet-dependent experience".

Quintin_Stone wrote:

It's not DRM, it's because of the "internet-dependent experience".

Great, the one feature from Anno nobody liked

Call it what it is, DRM. The only other reasoning I can think of is that they couldn't be bothered coding a offline/disconnected version, or it's deeply rooted into the gameplay that it can't just be turned off. That's a negative for me, if not for the fact that I like some singleplayer games, that there's the external reliance for the game to work.

If it's a good enough feature, then people will want to use it anyway without you forcing them. Doing it at the cost of disconnection in a singleplayer game is just dumb.

Scratched wrote:

Call it what it is, DRM.

I'm totally jiving with all the new doublespeak coming out of EA PR the last few weeks. I wonder what's going to top "game content initiatives" and "internet-dependent experience"?

shoptroll wrote:
Scratched wrote:

Call it what it is, DRM.

I'm totally jiving with all the new doublespeak coming out of EA PR the last few weeks. I wonder what's going to top "game content initiatives" and "internet-dependent experience"?

Blizzard-Activision (Diablo 3) calls it "a hacking prevention mechanism" ... "hey, by making it online only, we're just looking out for you ... the end user. You're welcome!"

I'm out on Diablo 3, and I'm out on SimCity 5, and any other game that uses this method. I hope the gaming press gets on this and rides it hard.

Looks like I need to find a way to keep my Win98 machine around a little longer.

Joystick[/url]]"Right now we've got our work cut out for us to build the product up to the quality level it deserves as a SimCity," Quigley said. "Then after we ship, we'll make decisions about how we can and when exactly we'll support mods. But it's worth pointing out that the reason people are still playing SimCity 4 almost ten years later is because the modding community essentially re-created it and filled it with new content and fixed bugs and made it as much of a hobby as it is a game.

"We're very cognizant of that -- we're not idiots."

By going to forced-multiplayer, stripping out singleplayer entirely, being able to play SimCity 5 is only possible as long as EA maintains those servers. And the developers have the gall to talk about the long life of SimCity 4? They're building in planned obsolescence that they can activate any time they want to push players to SimCity 6. EA shuts down online game servers all the time.

"Does that matter?" people will ask. When I get the city sim bug, I launch or reinstall SC4 and go to town (pun intended ). Will I get SC5 knowing that may not be possible down the road? No, I will not.

Then there's the fact that I just want to play the game by myself, not worrying about how other players might affect me. And I still haven't figured out why my network card drops my connection for a couple seconds about once a day.

The thing it boils down to in my mind is their motivations versus my motivations. Theirs is obviously money, through DLC or the RMAH in D3, and mine is playing the game itself with the least amount of hastle. Looks like I won't be playing either of those.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I'm out on Diablo 3, and I'm out on SimCity 5, and any other game that uses this method. I hope the gaming press gets on this and rides it hard.

Diablo 3 doesn't bother me nearly as much as this because I played that predominantly online, and I've been lucky enough to not have trouble with it on SC2. I definitely don't like this and it's not like EA doesn't have a track record of pulling the multiplayer plug after 2-3 years. Fortunately, I have a stable connection but that's not always going to be the case and I can certainly see why it's a problem for other people.

I really do hope this cloud-based mentality is just a phase/fad like arcade FMV games were back in the 90's.

momgamer wrote:

Looks like I need to find a way to keep my Win98 machine around a little longer. :(

Is a free virtual machine system if you need to run legacy titles. No trouble with SimCity 2000 in there. Alternatively, GOG has SC2000 for DOS.

shoptroll wrote:
momgamer wrote:

Looks like I need to find a way to keep my Win98 machine around a little longer. :(

Is a free virtual machine system if you need to run legacy titles. No trouble with SimCity 2000 in there. Alternatively, GOG has SC2000 for DOS.

I need a noun in that first sentence. I'm super-confused.

shoptroll wrote:
Jeff-66 wrote:

I'm out on Diablo 3, and I'm out on SimCity 5, and any other game that uses this method. I hope the gaming press gets on this and rides it hard.

Diablo 3 doesn't bother me nearly as much as this because I played that predominantly online, and I've been lucky enough to not have trouble with it on SC2.

I played D1 and D2 predominantly sp, and LAN play with friends. I have an equal issue with both D3 and SC5, because for me it's the principle of the thing, and it feels like I'm paying $50 to rent server time.

Anyone remember the old days, when you gave your $50, and got a nice artistic box, a thick paper manual, and the game you bought was yours?

I think the problem is that things have gotten too mainstream, and this mess was inevitable when the publishers grew to a ginormous size.

momgamer wrote:

I need a noun in that first sentence. I'm super-confused.

Virtual Box. My bad.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I think the problem is that things have gotten too mainstream, and this mess was inevitable when the publishers grew to a ginormous size.

Kinda. The core problem is budgets have swollen dramatically in size this generation and profit margins are razor thin.

momgamer wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
momgamer wrote:

Looks like I need to find a way to keep my Win98 machine around a little longer. :(

Is a free virtual machine system if you need to run legacy titles. No trouble with SimCity 2000 in there. Alternatively, GOG has SC2000 for DOS.

I need a noun in that first sentence. I'm super-confused.

DOSbox should work. I think you can even install win9x within DOSbox.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I think the problem is that things have gotten too mainstream, and this mess was inevitable when the publishers grew to a ginormous size.

IMAGE(http://hipsterhausfrau.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/hipster-glasses.jpg)

I'm looking forward to the day when AAA games require a Facebook connection to log in.

No wait, the other thing. Dreading.

Demyx wrote:

I'm looking forward to the day when AAA games require a Facebook connection to log in.

Give it two years.

SC2000 is actually too new for me. I might get it, though.

Thanks for the heads up on that. I want to replay my old copy of Pandora's Box, and it just flat won't run even in emulation mode on XP or Windows 7. I doubt sincerely GOG will ever pry that one out of Microsoft's clutches.

Jeff-66 wrote:

Anyone remember the old days, when you gave your $50, and got a nice artistic box, a thick paper manual, and the game you bought was yours?

Uh, no?

Because I remover paying $70 for all that stuff, and you never actually owned the game. But hey, rose colored glasses and such.

Cube is young. I guess he doesn't remember the early days of Ultima. Didn't cost $70. No EULAs back then either.

shoptroll wrote:
momgamer wrote:

I want to replay my old copy of Pandora's Box, and it just flat won't run even in emulation mode on XP or Windows 7.

This? http://www.microsoft.com/games/pando... (The old MS Games logo is sooo 90's)

Yep. That's the one. The disk is sitting on my desk mocking me as we speak.

edit: I wonder if the gang at MS knows that site is still live? The news ticker is announcing the launch of Mechwarrior 4!

cube wrote:
Jeff-66 wrote:

Anyone remember the old days, when you gave your $50, and got a nice artistic box, a thick paper manual, and the game you bought was yours?

Uh, no?

Because I remover paying $70 for all that stuff, and you never actually owned the game. But hey, rose colored glasses and such.

I bought many games for $50 (in the U.S.) in the 90's, and got all the stuff I named. I've never paid $70 for a game in my life. By "own the game" I didn't mean I could make a million copies and start my own publishing company. I meant the game was yours to install as many times as you pleased, could be played entirely offline, included things like LAN play. When you bought it, you didn't have to wonder if the server would be up in two years.

What part of what I said was "rose colored glasses"? All I said the games came with was a box, a manual, and some freedom.

Quintin Stone wrote:

Cube is young. I guess he doesn't remember the early days of Ultima. Didn't cost $70. No EULAs back then either.

^^^

I remember when you had to type the code in yourself.

I guess it's hard to imagine in these days of "always on connections" and "software as a service" if you were not born yet or too young to care about anything beyond putting in the floppy and typing the command to start the game.