SimCity 5 Disappointment-All

And, to stay on topic, a double post to show that Ocean Quigley has started posting videos:

Don't make me nostalgic for that gatefold packaging, or i'll go all ebay and that only ends in tears.

Posted on the SimCity Facebook page:

Heads up, Mayors – it’s been brought to our attention that there’s been some confusion regarding the bug-reporting policy in the EA beta test agreement for SimCity.

Don’t worry – EA has never taken away access to a player’s games for failing to report a bug. In fact, we’re in the process of updating our agreement to make this point clear before the beta starts this Friday. If you have any more questions, read our FAQ: http://bit.ly/UCpuAA

Hope to see you in the beta Friday!

Has anyone gotten confirmation for the beta yet, or are they sending this out later in the week?

Tkyl wrote:

Posted on the SimCity Facebook page:

Heads up, Mayors – it’s been brought to our attention that there’s been some confusion regarding the bug-reporting policy in the EA beta test agreement for SimCity.

Don’t worry – EA has never taken away access to a player’s games for failing to report a bug. In fact, we’re in the process of updating our agreement to make this point clear before the beta starts this Friday. If you have any more questions, read our FAQ: http://bit.ly/UCpuAA

Hope to see you in the beta Friday!

Seems like a similar situation to the various Origin EULA upsets (monitoring, games expiring after 2 years without use). Have something in there until someone actually reads it and doesn't like it. If it was just a one off I'd say it's not a big deal, but this is looking like a trend or general tactic for EA.

Yup. While I'm still going to grab it and play it, ever since they revealed the online only aspect I've known better than to plan to pick it up within the first week.

I love that they can't even fake a perfect 'online only' environment for a press preview (kotaku):

11:23 AM Our preview session appears to be having server issues, which is making it difficult for some people to play. Hmm. My game is still okay.

11:30 AM They're showing us another video. While they're doing that, they're also shutting down all of our games to cycle the server, which will theoretically fix the server issues some people are having. Again, huh. This does not bode well for a game where whenever they turn off the servers, every person in the world has to stop playing.

11:37 AM We are still not playing the game, because the servers are still down. The launch of this game may well be pretty interesting! And by "interesting" I mean "possibly a disaster."

Edit: Also, for those hoping to link 'regions' to make a larger city, you're limited to 10 regions per origin account and your regions aren't actually adjacent, so you're out of luck there.

Farscry wrote:

I've known better than to plan to pick it up within the first week. ;)

There's something ironic about selling a game with a gaggle of Day 1 DLC bonuses for people who pre-order when the servers are most likely to catch fire on that specific day.

Here's a preview from PC Gamer that has some images showing the max 'city' size. They're even smaller than I was expecting from previous discussion.

IMAGE(http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2013/01/SimCity-4-copy.jpg)

billt721 wrote:

Here's a preview from PC Gamer that has some images showing the max 'city' size. They're even smaller than I was expecting from previous discussion.

That's really disappointing. Throw a river/lake/mountain in there and you'll need to rename the game simvillage. Even simtown would be misleading ... and forget having an interesting shape to your city.

Read the Kotaku preview and I'm sorry but if a Mac book is short circuiting things, then you have issues with your game and preview event. I also continued to get the feel that they really need to delay this and rethink some of their design decisions. The more previews I read and the more I see the more I think they need to go back to the drawing board and make this game somehow able to run without that internet connection because what I see is it is becoming more of a hassle than a feature.

Designers are supposed to solve problems, they've created a problem with the solution to a problem they've tried to solve so thus their solution is proving a bit ineffective right? Doesn't that deserve a delay?

If anything I will bet that Sim City 6 has multiplayer as a side option and isn't the whole game.

Wolfen Victrocious wrote:

If anything I will bet that Sim City 6 has multiplayer as a side option and isn't the whole game.

Or there won't even be a Sim City 6. That's certainly an option if this crashes and burns.

I keep hearing great previews from people getting their hands on the closed beta today via Twitter. Seems like a lot of people are digging on it. Now, granted, that is a closed beta. Also, I guess it is a small section that's only around an hour (?), so it could be a very misleading thing. But I am *super* interested again about checking out the beta. And everything that I heard early on was very cool. So I'm still throwing my hat in the optimistic train and wanna get my hands on this as soon as I can!

Also, is there any truth to the statement that if you preorder you get access to the closed beta? Heard that randomly today, and not sure if that's truth. Seems to good to be true/Then is it really a "beta?"

I'm on the fence. On the one hand it's SimCity, there's a multiplayer aspect (meaning GWJ communities) and a lot of the early stuff coming out sounds promising and the game looks beautiful. On the other: always on DLC, small city sizes, and Origin. Somebody care to enable/disable me?

Le0hart85 wrote:

I keep hearing great previews from people getting their hands on the closed beta today via Twitter. Seems like a lot of people are digging on it. Now, granted, that is a closed beta. Also, I guess it is a small section that's only around an hour (?), so it could be a very misleading thing. But I am *super* interested again about checking out the beta. And everything that I heard early on was very cool. So I'm still throwing my hat in the optimistic train and wanna get my hands on this as soon as I can!

Also, is there any truth to the statement that if you preorder you get access to the closed beta? Heard that randomly today, and not sure if that's truth. Seems to good to be true/Then is it really a "beta?"

Yeah, the Amazon page for the game mentions getting access to the beta.

billt721 wrote:

Yeah, the Amazon page for the game mentions getting access to the beta.

Yea, I went ahead and did some digging as well. I guess it is the "physical/disk" version that mentions beta access for this weekend and a $20 credit. The Direct Download version only says something about a $5 credit and bonus items. Not sure if I want to just snag up a pre-order just for a small beta, but been hearing great things that's making me consider just pre-ordering for the beta and credit. I'm almost positive that I'm gonna grab this up come launch, unless things start to sound *really* bad between now and then.

Always on connection seems to be the way of things for the most part now-a-days, and I can't make too much of a fuss about it to get access to some cool things like communities. I'm really looking forward to more chatter about this game!

Xeknos wrote:

I'm on the fence. On the one hand it's SimCity, there's a multiplayer aspect (meaning GWJ communities) and a lot of the early stuff coming out sounds promising and the game looks beautiful. On the other: always on DLC, small city sizes, and Origin. Somebody care to enable/disable me?

Sounds like you're well informed, you need to decide for yourself it it's for you.

Wolfen Victrocious wrote:

I'm going to buy this but EA is leaving me with a sour taste in my mouth lately. What happened to the good EA about 4 years ago? The one where I actually was cheering for them when they released Mirrors Edge? I miss that EA. Oh well, I'll gladly join up with a few GWJers for a region when 5 comes out.

That EA got smacked down by the market. They tried new things (Mirror's Edge, anybody?) and the buying public was proven to be liars. While EA lost tons of money on new IP, Activision raked it in with Call of Duty. You want that EA back? Convince everybody that buying Call of Duty 13 is a bad idea. Until that happens, EA is going to go where the money is, and right now it's not in original IP.

I'm definitely going to buy SimCity, because I'm no longer aversed to online requirements and I think they have some really amazing ideas going on here.

ahrezmendi wrote:

That EA got smacked down by the market. They tried new things (Mirror's Edge, anybody?) and the buying public was proven to be liars. While EA lost tons of money on new IP, Activision raked it in with Call of Duty. You want that EA back? Convince everybody that buying Call of Duty 13 is a bad idea. Until that happens, EA is going to go where the money is, and right now it's not in original IP.

But at least we got this little ditty out of it:

ahrezmendi wrote:
Wolfen Victrocious wrote:

I'm going to buy this but EA is leaving me with a sour taste in my mouth lately. What happened to the good EA about 4 years ago? The one where I actually was cheering for them when they released Mirrors Edge? I miss that EA. Oh well, I'll gladly join up with a few GWJers for a region when 5 comes out.

That EA got smacked down by the market. They tried new things (Mirror's Edge, anybody?) and the buying public was proven to be liars. While EA lost tons of money on new IP, Activision raked it in with Call of Duty. You want that EA back? Convince everybody that buying Call of Duty 13 is a bad idea. Until that happens, EA is going to go where the money is, and right now it's not in original IP.

That's pretty much it. Companies learn what they're taught. The self-delusions of gamers doesn't help in changing the syllabus.

Wolfen Victrocious wrote:

Read the Kotaku preview and I'm sorry but if a Mac book is short circuiting things, then you have issues with your game and preview event. I also continued to get the feel that they really need to delay this and rethink some of their design decisions. The more previews I read and the more I see the more I think they need to go back to the drawing board and make this game somehow able to run without that internet connection because what I see is it is becoming more of a hassle than a feature.

Designers are supposed to solve problems, they've created a problem with the solution to a problem they've tried to solve so thus their solution is proving a bit ineffective right? Doesn't that deserve a delay?

If anything I will bet that Sim City 6 has multiplayer as a side option and isn't the whole game.

Time to see if I need to eat my own words, just got an invite.

Scratched wrote:
Xeknos wrote:

I'm on the fence. On the one hand it's SimCity, there's a multiplayer aspect (meaning GWJ communities) and a lot of the early stuff coming out sounds promising and the game looks beautiful. On the other: always on DLC, small city sizes, and Origin. Somebody care to enable/disable me?

Sounds like you're well informed, you need to decide for yourself it it's for you.

True. I suppose a demo/beta would help.

Wolfen Victrocious wrote:
Wolfen Victrocious wrote:

Read the Kotaku preview and I'm sorry but if a Mac book is short circuiting things, then you have issues with your game and preview event. I also continued to get the feel that they really need to delay this and rethink some of their design decisions. The more previews I read and the more I see the more I think they need to go back to the drawing board and make this game somehow able to run without that internet connection because what I see is it is becoming more of a hassle than a feature.

Designers are supposed to solve problems, they've created a problem with the solution to a problem they've tried to solve so thus their solution is proving a bit ineffective right? Doesn't that deserve a delay?

If anything I will bet that Sim City 6 has multiplayer as a side option and isn't the whole game.

Time to see if I need to eat my own words, just got an invite.

As did I. Shall we attempt to set up the United Stans of GWJ?

Got my beta invite... installing Origin... We'll see how it goes.

Not sure what the demo will allow in the (repeatable) hour, but my Origin id is clever_id.

Guess I don't know how to get into the beta.. is it only by buying the game?

ahrezmendi wrote:

That EA got smacked down by the market. They tried new things (Mirror's Edge, anybody?) and the buying public was proven to be liars.

Not liars, just the vocal minority. Sadly, we here at GWJ are the exception, not the rule. I just finished Mirror's Edge and it was a lot of fun.

IMAGE(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8217/8416139724_36ea925b42_o.png)

Got a key in my email!

double post excitement!

Manach wrote:

Guess I don't know how to get into the beta.. is it only by buying the game?

A year ago they were asking for people to register for a closed beta. About a week ago that site reappeared for a few. I signed up a year ago so they must be inviting a mix of those who registered back then and recently.

merphle wrote:
Wolfen Victrocious wrote:

Time to see if I need to eat my own words, just got an invite.

As did I. Shall we attempt to set up the United Stans of GWJ? ;)

I'd like to but the "beta" is restricted to single player it seems.

Warning thoughts on beta might change and are only reaction based on a brief hour with the game.

Spoiler:

My only thought was "Man was that a decent demo." That is in no way shape or form a beta, that was a demo. A beta is where there is room to fix issues and how can you fix issues when half your content is locked? The only Mass transit unlocked was buses, the rest were hidden behind a wall. Heck you can't even play with multiple cities because the other cities are locked behind a wall called "Not in Beta."

I might buy this sometime after the game comes out, maybe a month after patches and reviews. My only major bug was that all street intersections seemed to be having graphical glitches, and the city claimed it needed more power went in fact according to the power grid it had too much.

Beta impressions over.

I want to love it, I loved the ploppables and the element they add but claiming this was a beta and then locking me out of what I'm supposed to be "testing" leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.

The beta left me a bit cold. Not quite the evolution in gameplay I was expecting based on a 10-year gap in releases. (I'm not counting SimCity Societies. ;))

Plus, it looked like a** on the recommended settings for my system and chugged when I upped the eye candy. Not Maxis's fault, of course, but it would certainly make me think twice about buying it until I've had a chance to upgrade my computer.

My 12-year old and I played through the hour together and when we were done, he looked at me and said, "I think I'll stick with SimCity 4." About says it all.