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

[Lazybones]

So they skipped play testing altogether on this one, despite all the issues the reporters also had.

1) Take a popular single player game people have loved for years and update the graphics and engine
2) add online social components to attract the facebook / farmvill crowd
3) Now make item number 2 mandatory and dependent on always on shared servers as both a form of DRM and game play.

Fail so bad at 3 that it takes the whole game down with it.

[Melbosa]

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:

Yeah I can attest, this speed is paramount if you want to really be engaged in constant activities as you need the cash flow and building mechanics to be at a premium response.  Otherwise you might as well be playing a second game of something else on your PC while you wait for things to happen.

[Melbosa]

Wow EA must be really unprepared for the demand: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/03/08/simcity-marketing-pulled-by-ea

Hello Affiliates,

EA Origin has requested to pause all SimCity marketing campaigns temporarily, until further notice. We have deactivated all SimCity text links and creative and we ask you to please remove any copy promoting SimCity from your website for the time-being. To be clear we are continuing to payout commissions on all SimCity sales that are referred, however we are requesting that you please stop actively promoting the game. We will notify you as soon as the SimCity marketing campaigns have been resumed and our promotional links are once again live in the Linkshare interface. We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause, and we thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Origin.com Affiliate Team

[Lazybones]

An Open Letter to EA on SimCity: You Could Have Prevented This
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416387,00.asp


The writing was on the wall, or um online EA...

[Melbosa]

This is funny, from the SimCity Twitter Account:

Dan Seamans ‏@carbonfibah
@simcity What are all of these yellow people running around my city with briefcases? Are they zombies/infected people?

13 mins SimCity ‏@simcity
@carbonfibah Thank you for the report, we will look into this.

2:27 PM - Mar 8, 2013 ? Details
7 mins Hardik desai ‏@harry2258
@simcity @carbonfibah Those are homeless people i think. Low wealth people who abandon their house become homeless.

5 mins G ‏@mijo028
@simcity @carbonfibah lol they thought it was an error LMFAO this guy probably doesnt even read the stuff

1 min Ralph Brandt ‏@dynamitenl
@simcity how long do we have to wait?? You have been working for 4 days already and still server problems! When will it be solved?

Even I guessed it when I first saw them in game...

[Darren Dirt]

Wow EA must be really unprepared for the demand: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/03/08/simcity-marketing-pulled-by-ea

Hello Affiliates,

EA Origin has requested to pause all SimCity marketing campaigns temporarily, until further notice. We have deactivated all SimCity text links and creative and we ask you to please remove any copy promoting SimCity from your website for the time-being.

"Don't advertise for our just-released product!" wow. imo this is UNHEARD OF for a non-tiny release of a product (that isn't causing death/injury to customers). This is gonna be retained in the mass tech-consciousness far more longly, deeply, and laughingly than the Sony rootkit and similar corporate faux-pas in recent memory.

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.
...

I just discovered that this dude has a total of 6 Amazon "reviews". All are Comedy Gold. GOLD, Jerry!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1XAECQ86E7KCK/

[Mr. Analog]

you know what the real sad thing is? I really wanted to play this on modern architecture.

That's the part that really burns, I have the money, I have the power, I want to buy in but I can't. Because it's dumb. We're all the same generation, what gives?

Vastly saddening.

[Lazybones]

you know what the real sad thing is? I really wanted to play this on modern architecture.

That's the part that really burns, I have the money, I have the power, I want to buy in but I can't. Because it's dumb. We're all the same generation, what gives?

Vastly saddening.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-modern-alternatives-simcity/

Cities XL, Tropico, Dawn of Discovery and SimCity 4 are available on Steam.

[Mr. Analog]

I know what I'm downloading tomorrow...

[Tom]

* Tom gets his NES out...

edit: apparently the forum didn't like me typing NES?

[Melbosa]

I own CityXL which is ok, but not SimCity.  I think it held my interest for 10h before I was done as it just wasn't the same.

SimCity 4 would be a better choice I think.

[Tom]

Woah, someone managed to recreate SimCity in minecraft!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnZvOUvxRws

Check it out. It is incredibly accurate and awesome.

[Lazybones]

That minecraft video was great


EA is apparently making some progress on fixing the issues.

http://www.simcity.com/en_AU/blog/article/simcity-update-2-lb

[Mr. Analog]

Woah, someone managed to recreate SimCity in minecraft!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnZvOUvxRws

Check it out. It is incredibly accurate and awesome.

The accuracy is astonishing!

TBH I wish they would just patch it so you could play local without having to go online

[Darren Dirt]

The SC-in-MC video got me to this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00XJ9qrtyHM#t=2m9s

which is hot-linked to the part where the EA decision-makers decide to open up the internet blogs etc. and see what people had to say about the SC launch.