Always hated those games anyway. I remember, years ago, I'd be reading while my sister was playing them and I'd have to hear the characters frequently babble in... well, no language known to man. It's one of my pet peeves. Along with furbies. Destroy them. All of them.

My mistake.

If you zoom in close enough to them.

Of you.

No, really. What?

No. Not really. I'm not that sort of gnome. Does no one remember the old cartoon? David The Gnome was cool, he fought trolls and stuff and he was really small.

Lorem Ipsum.

As an avid fanboy of Maxis Games, I hate that EA has tarnished their brand.

But I'm over it now and I thank EA for admitting they fucked up.

LOL.

if you wanted to see real gamer hatred toward developers you should have seen the outcry over the ending(s) in ME3

You bastards - don't let my friends die!

but my joke was supposed to be about the "get one free game" spiraling to three due to it being a compilation. I'm waiting for it to dip to the $40 price mark before I get it.

The ME trilogy is available on Origin right now for $25.00

ETA: The sale ends on 3/12/2013.

So no deal for me...

Hardcopy is still $60.00.

I'm just mad because I picked up the digital download of ME 3 for $19.99 and the next day they made the entire trilogy available for $25.00. Could have gotten all 3 for about the same price if I'd only waited another day.

On the latter, because I know the former's expensive. Although, it may still be a good buy, depending on the DL prices of the other two.

...go to Amazon and read the 5-star reviews. Gut bustingly funny.

The only way for EA to live this down would be for them to change their entire business model, and that isn't going to happen. Maybe they'll go down the tubes, and someone else can buy up Maxis and return it to its former glory.

SimCity 5 garnered a high rating among press reviews, because the press reviewers were all shepherded onto a dedicated server which was scrupulously maintained.

Upon release, however, the game's Metacritic score fell into the unacceptable range before EA reviewers swarmed the site and pumped it back up to "so-so."

That suggests to me that the major problem with the game is the implementation of DRM, not the game itself. As usual, EA is unwilling to supply server space to cover initial demand, instead letting early adopters twist on the vine until enough of them stop playing to allow the rest to fit into the allotted server space.

Because hey, if you can get them to buy the game and not cost you money by playing it, why would you do anything else?

the anger issue is simple. Steam had the same issue when they first launched, but they were the trail blazer in DRM. And problems were to be expected, but that was several years ago now.

Fast forward to today and by EA having problems with their DRM is more a sign that they didn't prepare properly for the overwhelming demand for SimCity and to me that shows a gross amount of neglect on their part. That, is the sad take away from this. For a company that makes it's money making games, the really dropped the ball on this massively.

Anybody with a credit card can spin up a few dozen servers on Amazon EC2 in a matter of minutes. You can tear them down even faster after demand wanes. It is stunning that the Sim City 5 server architecture is so bad that it apparently was not built to scale in this way.

They just had to tack always-on Internet connection onto a single-player game for two reasons only: first, so that they can track what their users do and sell that data to others; second, to open up a revenue channel within the game, to further soak users beyond the sixty bucks they blew on this.

EA claims that some of the processing and data storage is performed on their own servers, but we'll know they're lying about that when a functional cracked version of the game makes the rounds (a quick look suggests it may already be loose).

Think for a moment about how messed up that will be: those who paid sixty bucks (plus Internet fees) will have a shitty game that doesn't work, while those who steal it will have the module that causes all the problems completely removed, thus rewarding the thieves and punishing the law-abiding.

EA is setting a standard with which millions are already familiar: if you want an EA game that works, you have to steal it.

(The Lucas I reference in the title is Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness, the genius behind every British car that doesn't start, but if you want to replace Joe with George, that might work as well.)

The reason the brits drink their beer warm -- Lucas builds the refrigerators.

As for George, LucasArts put out a ton of really great PC games in their time. (That would be the Sierra Era.)

A lot of those old Lucas jokes are now transferable to EA:

"If EA went into vacuum cleaners, they'd be the only EA products that don't suck."

"Bell invented the telephone, Edison the light bulb, and EA invented, 'there is a problem with your connection.'"



http://www.mez.co.uk/lucas.html

...the Brits really were more concerned about gluing wood to the dashboard than getting the mechanicals correct.

"If your british roadster isn't leaking oil, it's empty."

Dark Forces! Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe! Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis! Maniac Mansion! Zombies Ate My Neighbors!

I better stop, if I had to stay here and scream out every good LucasArts game from the late 80s-Mid 90s, I'd be here all week.

Because when the "Disconnected from the server" message appears, the game keeps running.

I think it's especially so with expansions. They rush it and .... kaboom on the day it goes gold.

as they add space, they can sell more licenses.

instead of lots of unhappy people as a result of a game they paid for but cannot play.

they have lots of people rushing to be the first to buy a limited offering, which would play well and give good publicity and support the later offerings as they scale up their systems to meet increased demand.

this is not that hard to do right.

that it works and works very well.

Steam works phenomenally well.

EA, not so much.

And given that, EA should know better.

Alas they didn't and failed.

That's why the anger.

Why can't there be an offline version? C'mon!

the majority if not all of the big game makers are going this route.

I hated it forever, but I finally got over it and just accepted it as the new business model.

The upshot is: updates and patches happen almost seamlessly and free DLC is easier to deal with.

Just my two cents.

I play left 4 dead and while there is a single play option, you have to be online to play it.

The reasoning behind this is a few things 1) marketing is direct 2) no packaging involved 3) no reselling of games 4) can make general announcements that reach all players 5) can pull titles when they want if they feel it's run its course for playability.

The other thing is by going to this type of model game makers basically are telling players, "you rent our games" you don't own them.

This is the future.

Personally speaking, I hated this, but I finally drank the kool-ade (what choice did I have) and have embraced my "renting" of games that I buy. I try to justify this by convincing myself that I no longer have games cluttering up my shelf. Anything that gets me through the night, you know?

But there are games I'd like to play in single mode without interference of other players.

All sorts of DRMs have been tried before, many disasterous and abandoned. Remember this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal

iTunes also used to be insanely DRMed. That too has been removed.

Some developer will basically start using "You don't have to be online!" as a selling point. I think Ubisoft already has after getting a chilly reception after using it with a few titles.

the simcity non-trovercy will vanish into a haze as soon as players are able to play.

We are a fickle bunch.

EA is pretty much one of the worst companies ever; as they are known for acquring titles and then running them INTO THE GROUND. They were supposed to make the latest star wars MMO; something that could have made a million dollars a month if done right. They spent 200 million, and then started to make "changes" that were so bad they made the game free to play.

By this time in 2015 I more or less guarantee that they'll turn off the login servers so that nobody will be able to play this version of Simcity again.

I even though about buying this as a time waster until I learned that you have to play it online.

I've been waiting to buy it ( I have all the other Sim City versions) but did want to hold off because some of the Beta testers didn't like the online aspect. The amazon reviews are scathing.

2,041 of 2,371 people found the following review helpful
Helps me zone out, March 7, 2013
By Sim Lover= Fun:
This review is from: SimCity - Limited Edition (DVD-ROM)
I was looking for something new for my computer, when I stumbled upon this game on Amazon and decided, what the heck, lets give it a shot!

I have to say it far exceeds my expectations.

Thankfully, the game never actually loads. I was looking for a program where I could zone out, and stare at my computer screen in a meditative state for hours on end with no interuptions.

There's no actual gameplay, sound effects, or graphics to distract you from your meditation.

You may be forced to run the same "Tutorial" over and over again, but don't worry about that minor problem, because as soon as you exit the tutorial you'll be returned to a program that blissfully crashes or just, never logs onto any server succesfully, once again giving you peace and quiet.

Incredible job EA, will there be a sequel?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BQ88T77DIPNS/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3BQ88T77DIPNS

Some clever wag put this up here last night...I am still laughing...

This one may end up setting a new record.

It is hilarious. Awful AND hilarious.

I think it resonates because most of us have gotten a righteous ass chewing at some point in our lives; we've had to stand and be held to account, by a parent, at school, at work, in the military, certainly...and we can relate to being held captive by one unreasonably angry and unhinged, pissed off individual who is not getting his way.

The fact that it is perhaps the greatest monster of the 20th Century, in this case crabbing about a video game, is just so absurd that one can't help but roar with laughter at the juxtaposition. And the terrified "supporting characters"--their reactions are great, especially when the dialogue is clever.

I've seen a number of them, and this one is up there with some of the more clever ones!

Wow! Here it is, enjoy!

Bet the nazi leadership/wealthy lied on their usa immigration and citizenship papers.

Right now, the games industry hires developers on a per-game basis. "You'll have a job while we write this one game, and then we're gonna lay you off. Oh, and we're gonna work you 60-80 hours a week."

In that environment, you're not going to get and keep particularly good developers. And you're definitely going to skew younger and less experienced - a developer with 10 years experience produces code that works about 100x better than one with 4 years. Lastly, what's the incentive to show your boss you really know your stuff? You're just going to get fired whether you're a superstar or you're mediocre, and it's really hard to pull off "superstar" during 80 hour weeks.

So, game companies produce buggy crap.

Now, back in the day (queue rocking chair and front porch):

Game companies, including EA, had "A" titles and "B" titles. Just like movie studios. There were the giant blockbusters that got a huge budget and lots of effort, and then there were the smaller-budget, less spectacular titles. The company would have the development team make an "A" title, and then split them up to make 3-ish "B" titles. But they still had a job. There was a reason to do a good job, just like any other business. The company treated the developers like professionals, and in return the companies got professional-grade work out of them. As an added bonus, occasionally a "B" title would become wildly successful.

Well, game companies have abandoned "B" titles. The MBAs figured out that "A" titles make more money, so they assume making only "A" titles would be a great plan. The problem is you can't make a continuous stream of "A" titles with one development team. You finish one, but the new title isn't designed or written yet - those people were busting their ass on the previous title. So the company lays off all the developers while the game writers and designers come up with the next game. There's no "B" titles to employ the developers while the new "A" title is getting started.

So we get the output of burnt-out kids with no hope of career advancement. And it shows.

I'd never trust EA with any game

I wouldn't consider SWTOR MMO gold, but I still play and have a boatload of fun with it. As long as you treat it as a single-player game with some multiplayer elements, you're fine. Go in expecting a Guild Wars or WoW, and you'll be disappointed.

Until I started seeing the swarm of hack/cheats. Then I learned they had no way of fixing it and they refused to ban people they did catch. I played a MM Sniper and the mechanics were totally broken. I gave it a chance but EA didn't give a damn about most of the problems.

Then 1.2 hit

/quit

It is a very nice game while leveling up.

After reading the reviews and seeing that you can't even play SINGLE-PLAYER mode offline, I decided against it. I can understand the online system having first-day jitters, but I cannot understand the restrictions placed on being able to play a game you purchased.

Actually pre-ordered it months ago. Origin screwed up my pre-order and "lost" my product key (on an electronic download). This was actually told to me by the rep I talked to(after waiting nearly 2 hours) on the night of game launch. They refunded my purchase and I was able to immediately order from Amazon and download the game. After that, I was never able to log on. I finally called Amazon and got a refund (again) on Saturday.

Worst game launch ever of my most favorite game franchise ever. They destroyed it.

Now the servers are up and running pretty consistently, the only good thing Ive got to say about the game is that the graphics are fantastic. But the map you get given for yr city means that the map's full pretty quickly and there's no room to expand. There's no terraforming, and no way of saving a game, destroying it with a disaster, then rolling back to the last save to move on again.

And after the huge disaster of the launch, I really didn't need to see a firebreathing monster disaster stomping through my new city less than half an hour after I'd started playing.

I'm considering giving it up and moving back to SimCity 4...

Jesus, EA. Really? After a bazillion successful launches, you fuck up Sim-goddamn-City?

I was looking forward to playing, but I couldn't connect for three days. I got fed up with it and sold it and purchased Tomb Raider instead.

Fuck EA.

Somebody smarter than us has already figured out how to drop the game into debug mode, which allows for unlimited-time offline play as well as some spiffy hacks.

Saving the game still requires going online, but that's not a terribly complicated hack for an enterprising author. I give it a couple months at most.