SimCity 5 Disappointment-All

momgamer wrote:

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.

Yes, and code-wheels, and "turn to page 17 in the manual and type in the 4th word from the 3rd paragraph"

Remember the manual from Civ II? it was about an inch thick. Or the best example, Falcon 4, which came with a manual in a binder that was 600+ pages.

IMAGE(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/ziffel66/imagesqtbnANd9GcRLjdSCL_Y71CTaXbV7t.jpg)

I paid $49.99 for that, and it zero DRM.

Jeff-66 wrote:

Yes, and code-wheels, and "turn to page 17 in the manual and type in the 4th word from the 3rd paragraph" :D

Oh, you mean the DRM that kept you from playing the game if you misplaced the manual or code-wheel?

My mom was cleaning out their office desks this weekend and found some old 3.5 disks. Win95, MS Works, and so on.

I told her to toss them since neither their, nor my, PC even has a floppy drive anymore.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Jeff-66 wrote:

Yes, and code-wheels, and "turn to page 17 in the manual and type in the 4th word from the 3rd paragraph" :D

Oh, you mean the DRM that kept you from playing the game if you misplaced the manual or code-wheel? ;)

I'd take that over this always-on business any day.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Oh, you mean the DRM that kept you from playing the game if you misplaced the manual or code-wheel? ;)

Assuming the verification code was in synch with the manual. I remember not being able to play Street Fighter II on the PC 99% of the time because the manual didn't line up with the DRM.

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)

EDIT:

cube wrote:

you never actually owned the game

Diablo II had the best EULA ever written for the battle.net service

Our copy of Ultima 4 was not exactly "legal". My brother had gotten a friend's manual photocopied. It was, I don't know, 30 pages or more. I don't remember a manual-DRM scheme, but the manual was definitely needed to tell you what the keyboard keys and spells were.

And it didn't require a constant internet connection!

So are we going to do a GWJ simtropolis?

At this point I don't think anyone has said they even plan to buy it.

EA keeps making games that I want to buy but won't because of their user-hostile policies. At least I still have THQ...

BadKen wrote:

At least I still have THQ...

... until EA buys THQ

Along with the always-on DRM B.S., I hope the concept of creating endless additional online accounts with publishers dies a painful death. I'm getting so fed up with remembering additional passwords, getting additional spam, etc. All of it leading to the awful realization that there will be a point in time when I'll no longer be able to play the games I've paid to play.

And, yeah, Diablo3 and Simcity 5 are off my wishlist. I hope someone who matters is listening.

shoptroll wrote:
BadKen wrote:

At least I still have THQ...

... until EA buys THQ ;)

Or Ubisoft does.

D-Man777 wrote:

Along with the always-on DRM B.S., I hope the concept of creating endless additional online accounts with publishers dies a painful death. I'm getting so fed up with remembering additional passwords, getting additional spam, etc. All of it leading to the awful realization that there will be a point in time when I'll no longer be able to play the games I've paid to play.

And, yeah, Diablo3 and Simcity 5 are off my wishlist. I hope someone who matters is listening.

Not on this website... since last I checked this wasnt www.blizzard.com or www.ea.com

I'm buying.. this will be my first Sim City experience.. and from the videos this looks like it might be pretty cool for someone who is new to the whole Sim City experience... I would love though to see this integrate with the iPad so you could essentially "manage" aspects of your City when you are away from your PC.

At this point I'm kind of numb to this whole thing. I can think of a game or two that I have that are like this and while I know the DRM thing has effected me a time or two it honestly didn't bother me enough that I can remember specifics or even which games it happened with.

I guess I just really don't care about the DRM thing anymore. There's already too many games and not enough time to play them. If I start to hop on one and it isn't working because my internet is down or there's a server problem somewhere I'll... do something else?

I know that's not a solution for most, but like I said, numb. I can't dredge up whatever it takes to even care anymore.

If I see Sim City 5 and I think it looks great and I want to play it then that's what I'll do.

Thin_J wrote:

At this point I'm kind of numb to this whole thing. I can think of a game or two that I have that are like this and while I know the DRM thing has effected me a time or two it honestly didn't bother me enough that I can remember specifics or even which games it happened with.

I guess I just really don't care about the DRM thing anymore. There's already too many games and not enough time to play them. If I start to hop on one and it isn't working because my internet is down or there's a server problem somewhere I'll... do something else?

I know that's not a solution for most, but like I said, numb. I can't dredge up whatever it takes to even care anymore.

If I see Sim City 5 and I think it looks great and I want to play it then that's what I'll do.

I can certainly understand your position, and the idea of just playing something else -- you're right, there are a lot of games and entertainment choices. I'm just taking it a step further and not buying draconian DRM games to begin with. I'll just do something else, and maybe in a year or two they'll drop the DRM, and I'll buy it then.

Jeff-66 wrote:

and maybe in a year or two they'll drop the DRM, and I'll buy it then.

Except in a year or two, after the sales boom, they won't allocate the resources to remove such an online system as they're putting into SC5/D3 because it's one of the ingredients of the game's recipe. They will be putting out expansions/DLC for it which still need 'protecting'.

Scratched wrote:

Except in a year or two, after the sales boom, they won't allocate the resources to remove such an online system as they're putting into SC5/D3 because it's one of the ingredients of the game's recipe. They will be putting out expansions/DLC for it which still need 'protecting'.

Or, knowing EA they'll have killed the multiplayer servers in that time frame.

Thin_J wrote:

I guess I just really don't care about the DRM thing anymore. There's already too many games and not enough time to play them. If I start to hop on one and it isn't working because my internet is down or there's a server problem somewhere I'll... do something else?

For me, it's that there are too many games and so I'll still have plenty of games to play when I skip the ones doing stuff I don't like.

Regardless of whether one considers this DRM or not, I have absolutely no desire to be forced to interact with a "global economy" when playing the game. Pass.

Blizzard has decided that Diablo III is a lightweight MMO. I can understand why, and though I may not entirely agree with their reasoning, the always-on thing makes sense. For a sim game, it doesn't make sense to me. It is unlikely we will be seeing rare drop in-game items, there probably won't be competitive multiplayer, no auction houses or exchange of real currency for in-game goods/simoleans. I'm not sure whether this is a deal-breaker for me, I guess it depends more on the game itself and the future decisions about DLC/multiplayer/etc.

I wish people would just say 'I'm numb, I'll do something else. I don't need [X title that is taking the piss]'. Apathy could be a force for good.

Loved the original on c64 and SNES, didn't experience 2000 or 3000, dabbled in 4. I was interested in 5 until this news.

Isn't this the DRM that Ubisoft tried and has since dropped? You'd think EA would have noticed.

Let me draw your attention to the top of Page 3:

Malor wrote:

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

Didn't take long, did it?

Malor wrote:

Let me draw your attention to the top of Page 3:

Malor wrote:

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

Didn't take long, did it?

Yeah, when I was skimming the thread, I saw that post, and meant to say that you nailed it. Not that it was hard to predict, mind you.

Not that it was hard to predict, mind you.

Falling off a log would be harder, honestly, or predicting that the sun will rise.

It makes me sad, because I was super into what they were showing about this game.

I just don't like the direction things are headed. I really dislike the limited resources thing they are pushing and I'm not interested in the cloud play. I think some of game mechanics that they are exploring are crossing over from a city simulator to a society simulator. That combined with Origin and now the always connected DRM? I'm out.

Oh well. I hope it turns out awesome and I can eat some crow.

Is it a facebook game now?

Social, interaction, internet-only... It's a facebook game that cost 60$ and more..

I love City building games... When I bought a computer when I was a kid, that was to play those games only (Some buy console for one game, I bought a Pc.. :\)

I'll keep an eye on the game, but can't reason myself to pay that much for a game that is more and more similar to a free game elsewhere..

Turns out the internet requirement is at startup only, plus origin.