SimCity 2013 - Oh how you sucker punched me in Love!

[Darren Dirt]

I think it's a fair complaint for many of them "I bought the game and I can't play it therefore it's defective by design"

Also for some it's a chance for their comedic wit to shine for the whole world to see...

Half of the "good" reviews are joking sarcastic, this most helpful one is great:

"You'd think I'd be mega unhappy like everyone else at the constant waiting and lack of actually being able to play a game I purchased.
Well, you'd be wrong.

The hours upon hours since launch that I haven't been able to log in, whether it be sitting in queues, or server busy messages, or just plain old not working screens, I've managed to do a heap of things that I never do when I'm locked in my man cave playing video games.

I've washed the dishes, the laundry, changed the oil in the car, mopped the floors, dusted, did a spot of gardening, greeted my children who I hadn't really seen since Christmas, walked the dog, asked how my wife's day has been and listened to the entire response, restocked the groceries and many more things! My family has never been happier that they've got a father and husband again.

In fact, I feel like Simcity has given me a new lease on life. This wouldn't have been possible without the seemingly crazy decision to have constant online connections and server side save points even for single player.

So I can only thank EA and Maxis. Your failures have been my rewards. 5 stars!

in related "chance for good PR" news...

Last month Bungie revealed its next project as Destiny, and described it as an online shared-world shooter. It?s a massive undertaking that?s expected to have a 10-year lifecycle ... With less than 10 months until that tentative release date, and this being an online game, Bungie will need to do some external testing with a few thousand gamers at least.

Testing is good. #areyoulisteningEA?

[Thorin]

Well, maybe the publishers will sit up and take notice.

..

But probably not.

Meanwhile, companies that find less invasive ways of confirming their games are not pirated are still pulling in big bucks.  Maybe not as much as they possibly could if only everyone paid for the game, but what's worse, a few pirates not paying or half your possible consumers deciding not to buy future titles based on too many botched releases?

[Darren Dirt]

#areyoulisteningEA?

I wonder if Microsoft's Xbox team is also listening, and/or reading between the lines.

"If the Xbox 720 does turn out to be an always-connected device, this is a big plus point in Sony?s favor. Nobody likes being forced to maintain a connection in order to play." - http://www.geek.com/articles/games/why-the-playstation-4-should-have-microsoft-worried-20130221/?page=2

[Mr. Analog]

It's dumb, that's for sure, but I'm sure they will strongly consider it or at the very least make it a bit part of the allure of the device.

As if XBox Live Gold wasn't bad enough.

[Lazybones]

No one likes online access requirements.  That was a big issue when steam launched an they also had some early issues, but at least it was just authentication . You can play offline for a very long time once you authenticate at least onces.


Always on dependencies for DRM locking or saves must work and be very reliable. EA has made what is mostly a single player experience into an unnessary mess.

[Tom]

Have you guys seen this yet?

http://kotaku.com/5989350/nfl-punter-kicks-the-crap-out-of-ea-and-simcity

[Mr. Analog]

My god, those are hilarious

[Lazybones]

All Of The Jokes http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/03/08


I like the Tetris analogy. 

[Mr. Analog]

All Of The Jokes http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/03/08


I like the Tetris analogy.

Hah! Classic!

[Darren Dirt]

Have you guys seen this yet?

http://kotaku.com/5989350/nfl-punter-kicks-the-crap-out-of-ea-and-simcity

Mr. Punter has some pretty sharp wit! https://twitter.com/ChrisWarcraft


from...



to...

[Mr. Analog]

There's a great collection of quotes of his floating around already haha

[Darren Dirt]

Hey Kids! Check out this "Ironic Video Title Of The Week" gold medal award winner!
SimCity is a Beautiful Disaster

Spoiler

29Nov2012 Maxis Producer Jason Haber talks about all the things that can go horribly wrong for your beautiful metropolis in SimCity.



(comments)

Rikaelus Feb 6, 2013
A "Beautiful Disaster" indeed. A beautiful looking game destroyed by EA's fixation on multiplayer (have fun playing when they shut down the servers) and the requirement of their Origin software (enjoy EA monitoring all the apps you run).


kohle36 7 days ago
@Rikaelus That's actually what I thought the title meant when I followed the link here lol. I was hoping for some actual critique, not just another promo vid

(/comments)

[close]

btw, thanks blogspot for the free webspace -- someone created a blog JUST TO COMPLAIN ABOUT SIM CITY! in advance! (25Aug2012)
http://sc2013thedeception.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/message-to-maxis.html

[Melbosa]

Here is a good article summing up the whole state of the game: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/03/08/simcity-burning-a-warning-to-microsoft-sony-and-all-publishers-on-the-dangers-of-always-online-drm

[Mr. Analog]

Here is a good article summing up the whole state of the game: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/03/08/simcity-burning-a-warning-to-microsoft-sony-and-all-publishers-on-the-dangers-of-always-online-drm

The comments are especially insightful here; "I never considered piracy until this"

In many ways I'm glad this has happened, especially to the "casual" gamer market because this kind of consumer abuse has been growing for years and needs to stop.

With luck, the Simolean stops here.

[Mr. Analog]

The fun continues...

EA disables "Cheetah Speed" to lessen server load, if anyone out there has played SimCity in the past you know how important being able to speed up what's going on in your city:

http://bit.ly/ZwwlMT

Amazon has the download version for sale again though now with a disclaimer about connectivity issues.