Sim city anyone?

[theparanoid]

I stand by my earlier statement. This game is a great game, probably one of the better ones since they started, but the biggest problem lies in the execution. Right now, there is only one server marked as available, that being East Europe 2. It won't let me in though. I can join a cue for another server, waiting 20 minutes before it'll check to see if there is room for me, and then it'll repeat that process apparently every three minutes thereafter, or I can take my chances with another server, where apparently none of my saved cities will be, meaning I've got to start over again.

This would be an amazing game had they either A offered offline play, or even still B prepared their servers better. They didn't have enough server load to handle the preorders, let alone the other sales. You cannot tell me that EA did not have a figure for what they thought they'd sell on the first day of release. Let's look at this scenario:

they had sold 7 million Preorders. their marketing department said, okay, expect another 5 million on day one of the release, and another 5 when the rest of the world gets it. That means they need to be able to support 17 million players within the first two days. Now let's pretend that everyone is on the game at the same time, which is a likely occurrence, at least for the first few days. Let's start by allocating server places for 20 million for the first few weeks. This allows you to be prepared for initial sales, and then the rest that follow. Once the game has been out for a little while, you can scale it back to say only support 15 million at a time, even when 25 million own the game (because more than likely people are going to roll back their playing after the first little while).

The problem lies with them being FAR from prepared for this. It's like they said, okay, we've got 7 million preorders, so we'll get 6 million spots. No one that didn't preorder would buy it, duh! Plus, there's no way everyone who preordered is gonna be on at the same time on the first day, that's just silly!

Thanks EA, really appreciate it.

My resolution is to keep my Sim City game, deal with the frustrations until it gets to the point where I have in excess of 24 hours in which I cannot play the game, and then get a full refund (I have my ways.) As for every other game EA will ever release, I won't be paying for it. They robbed me once, shame on them, if I let them do it twice, shame on me.

more like they had 7 million pre order and only had room for like 1 million. I finaly apply to get further today then i did yesterday but it seem the cap the connection speed cause put this way. EM4 with biggest mod loadest faster then sim city today. opps spoke to soon. the game lost connection to server before the city would load.

[Xandarb]

They robbed me once, shame on them, if I let them do it twice, shame on me.

Amen!

I agree on your (whole) post completely! EA knew what was coming, come on they've released games before! However it seems like they just don't care, and I don't understand why. They will lose loads of customers on bad reviews etc, several big game sites recommend their readers not to get this game until they fix it. This will show in the sales for sure!

What amazes me is the way EA tackles this though. They don't admit on having global problems neither do they apologize correctly.

I'm Not gonna preorder EA games again, I did preorder BF3 and obviously this one, but I'm going to read reviews before buying more games. BF3 did go smoothly, but seriously, why pre-order? You get some fancy in-game trash? No thank you!

Not gonna try to get a refund, I bought the hard copy and I'm sticking with it, stores aren't that eager to accept returns. Besides I'm sure this will be fixed within a week.

[Newfoundking]

Fixing is one thing, if it was an honest mistake, like say some programmer missed that if you plop a water and a sewer next to eachother, you lose all your power, then yeah, I'd be okay with that. This is careless negligence, and fixing isn't enough. They need to do a little more than fix it to earn me back as a customer

[theparanoid]

agreed. this was the last ea game I buy. I current have swtor sub that was thinging of renewing. not anymore

[erfd]

I'm lucky enough to be able to play during daytime when the server load is much lower. However, I've never been able to play past 3:00 US Central Times. I really hope they fix this quick because it is a great game under all the BS.

[Voodoo_Operator]

By the way, I don't know if any of you have heard how EA is refusing to hand refunds and even threatening to ban the accounts of customers who attempt to legitimately stop payment for a broken product by contacting their bank or credit card provider...

Way to go.

[theparanoid]

By the way, I don't know if any of you have heard how EA is refusing to hand refunds and even threatening to ban the accounts of customers who attempt to legitimately stop payment for a broken product by contacting their bank or credit card provider...

Way to go.

Yup well my swtor sub ends in six days. It not getting renewed. EA Games got the last dime out off me. The only way they see another dime for me if they change the game to have offline single player mode.

[Rlast]

This game, although I have not played it, is probably the prime example of why you shouldn't pre-order games, and why you shouldn't buy a game in series, just because it has the series stamp on it.

If you consider your options, are there any real benefits to pre-ordering games? Sure, you might get a cut price and a few extra items, but have you really achieved anything? The only thing that a pre-order confirms is that if on the off-chance the game is bad, you're already pretty much screwed when it's released, and nothing works properly. In fact, the items that come with many pre-order packs aren't even that special in many circumstances, and if you consider it, how many of these items would you ever buy in a DLC setting, or would you even care about them at all if they were part of the original game you were paying for? The only people who win in a situation like this is the companies themselves, because it means they don't even have to release a good game, they can simply just make huge profits even before their game has come out, and so it becomes less about creating a brilliant product that'll entice people on release, but more about creating content that'll lock people on to a deal of buying that game months before letting it out to the general public; although people can cancel pre-orders, on systems like Steam you'll almost certainly not, and probably won't even know of the horrendous errors in the programming until bought and arrived at your residence; another headache for you to refund your product.

Furthermore, I know many people probably only bought this game because it was part of the Sim City Series, which of course is legendary in its presence in the gaming world. I totally understand this impulse, because I feel the same way with Total War, and cannot wait until Rome Total War II is released. However, I know how hard it can sometimes be to believe someone when they tell you that your favourite game series, that you've not shut up about for years, has suddenly been ruined, you'll refuse to admit that it's just blatantly bad; that's why these companies win, because sometimes these hardcore fans will even convince themselves that they've bought a good product just to save on the embarrassment to them and their friends that they've been ripped off; it's hard to admit you've been cheated.

I'm in total agreement with Voodoo_Operator on this one; people need to admit they've been cheated, and decide not to give EA their money until they've proven on release that their game is worthy, and people have total rights to the product they've bought. This sadly reminisces of the 10 only installs per disk for some software programmes.

If I could leave everyone with one word of advice; don't be tricked by this clever marketing, and certainly don't be tricked by these pre-order ploys and schemes. You can see it works because they're inventing ever more in-ingenuous ways to scam people blind, like the progressive unlocks for purchases on pre-orders.

I can admit this because I frankly bought a game that in my honest opinion was not good enough, namely Red Orchestra 2 on pre-order, and I've now made my case; games companies won't be taking my money, until they prove to me they deserve it.

[Newfoundking]

If the game included better support, it'd be a great game.

I'm waiting to see who the first one to start a class action lawsuit is

[TacticalRooster22]

Once I heard about this, I was very disappointed. SimCity 4 was awesome, and I was very excited to see another one coming out. Hopefully, EA will resolve this issue. I've pre-ordered the game but have yet to buy it. I think I'm just gonna wait to get it until this gets fixed. The idea of online servers for a city simulation game is just kinda stupid. They should still include a single-player mode...

[theparanoid]

If the game included better support, it'd be a great game.

I'm waiting to see who the first one to start a class action lawsuit is

Had the server still been unplayable this Tuesday. I would contact my State Attorney general office and report consumer fraud.

I did however right a ticket in swtor to tell why my sub was ending and why they where not going to see another dime from me.

And I post this on simcity facebook page

Dear EA Games and Maxis. Simcity launch on scale of 1 to 10 with 10 outstanding and 1 = the worst game launch ever. You guys get a -10 in my book. now that he server are up we can see all the bug in this game. Maybe that why you had limit servers to start with? Cities not loading, traffic jams ruining cities. Let not even get into the incredibly small map sizes.

So since you launch such a buggy product and had pretty much to worst launch ever. I decide EA will not see another dime from me ever until the following happens.

1. Simcity offline mode for single player.

2. Large map size for free for all players that preorder and endore this royal mess you created.

3. Fix the AI issues with this game

4. Fix the cities that can be loaded again

5. I should not see server when I log in. I should hit the play botton and play what ever city I played last. If the server are not working or I have no internet. I Should still be able to play.

That the only way you get me back as customer. Oh and by the way. My SWTOR sub ends in another day or so. I had debating renewing it. Forget it. Why because it EA product just like simcity.

[Voodoo_Operator]

1- Customer rep at EA sees your message.

2- Prints it.

3- Adds it to the pile of customer complaints. They probably have a whole warehouse to store those by now.

4- Sub-minimal wage worker picks up your message.

5- Glues it to a string of similar messages.

6- Rolls the string up.

7- Lifetime supply of toilet paper for EA offices around the world.

[theparanoid]

1- Customer rep at EA sees your message.

2- Prints it.

3- Adds it to the pile of customer complaints. They probably have a whole warehouse to store those by now.

4- Sub-minimal wage worker picks up your message.

5- Glues it to a string of similar messages.

6- Rolls the string up.

7- Lifetime supply of toilet paper for EA offices around the world.

Very possible but it will effect there bottom line as they lost all income form me.

[Newfoundking]

Honestly, I doubt they care. Thing is, with giants like this, they just rely on the passivity of people. It takes too much effort to hold a grudge in most cases, therefore in six to eight months at the next release of a big game under their brand, they'll still sell loads. People say, well they attempted to make good, I'll give them another try, because it looks like a good game.

Theoretically, they'd fall victim to the market choosing, but their sheer size makes them almost immune, as they can basically say screw it, and just keep releasing games. In practice, I'd say a small group, maybe a percent or two, tops, of the first round buyers of this game that had all the problems with this game, will keep pissed off, not play SimCity, nor any other EA game ever again. I paid a small fortune for it, they fixed it, and are working to iron out the game's bugs, and have given me a free game for my troubles. Realisitically, aside from two days of being pissed off, and a day of having to turn the game on, then go get a shower or something, I wasn't mortally wounded by this game, and the effort to hold a grudge just isn't worth it..

That being said, I will not be buying anymore games that are so DRM locked, however I am not straying from EA forever, after all, they own Deus Ex, and if they make a fourth one, I have an almost religious obligation to buy it

[Voodoo_Operator]

That being said, I will not be buying anymore games that are so DRM locked, however I am not straying from EA forever, after all, they own Deus Ex, and if they make a fourth one, I have an almost religious obligation to buy it

Isn't that Square Enix? Unless something horrible happened while I wasn't looking.

[Xandarb]

Some modders managed to disable the always online drm. Mind you, EA said that this is impossible.

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/modder-proves-simcity-can-run-offline-indefinitely-20130314/

[Voodoo_Operator]

So it took about, what, a week? Ha.

I bet someone's trying to figure out offline saves as we speak. Then again, I bet this guy's going to get raped by EA's lawyers by the end of the day.

[Newfoundking]

The game will eventually be cracked by someone and made to run offline some how.

And Square Enix did make Deux Ex, correct, however I believe they are partners with EA (they aren't owned by them, but they work together)

[Voodoo_Operator]

The game will eventually be cracked by someone and made to run offline some how.

I have no doubt that this will happen. However, I don't know if the general public will ever be able to benefit for it. EA is probably already lawyering up for that one, and whoever claims to be able to do it will have their blog posts, download links or Youtube videos taken down in a matter of hours - and that will probably just be the tip of the iceberg of their troubles.

Of course such a patch could make it into a torrent seeded from the darkest, coldest craphole in Siberia, but by then, I doubt it will be worth all the spyware and malware trouble.

[Guest]

Should I get a torrent?

[Newfoundking]

No, no you should not.

[Voodoo_Operator]

No, no you should not.

Or, you know, just do whatever you want, but don't ask or tell us about it.

Anyway, even if you look past the always-online component, the game is buggy as hell, and a lot of lies have been told about gameplay components that aren't even there (Maxis says they're "working on fixing them", but we all know how profitable is work done on free patches, so don't count on it). As one reviewer put it, the game is nothing more than a pretty screensaver, but gameplay is utterly broken, and a big step down from previous titles. So meh.

Waste of bandwidth if you ask me.

[Newfoundking]

Okay, maybe I'm a sucker for punishment, maybe I'm just loyal. I took them up on their free game offer, solely because I could, and I kept playing Sim City:

Some things I've noticed that are much better:

Gameplay doesn't take years to happen

Traffic issues are slightly improved (No more stupid drivers)

Some things that are still not functional, or far from what I consider good:

-The advisors still suck. I've got the worst citizens in the world. "We're upset garbage wasn't being picked up." They were still complaining about it, three days after I fixed the issue, and then I decided to let the city burn to the ground. I closed the fire station and blocked the highway when a house fire started. Suddenly they forgot all about the fires.

-Money is way too ridiculous. I don't know how real cities function, but I don't have a positive hourly budget in any of my cities, it's almost all based on sales and kickbacks, but they're separate from your budget, so if you are making a million a day in deals with business and whatnot, but you are losing money in taxes, they complain about budgets.

-Emergency vehicles still suck. Fire trucks do not think, I had eight go to one trailer (it was a hillbilly burning to death) and leave the other 6 giant industrial buildings burning to the ground. Not to mention the priority system. They drive around with these whiny little sirens, which would be okay if they used them, but traffic doesn't pull over, they don't run lights or stop signs, they just patiently wait, which causes more emergencies to happen, like me getting angry and burning the city to the ground.

I thought I'd hate the game totally, until I unlocked the comet/meteor/asteroid thing, now I feel much better. "Bad day? Just sling a space rock at your citizens"

All in all, it's an addictive game, but it's nothing impressive really. It's far from perfect, and I'm still not happy with the MMO idea, but I don't hate it anymore

[hunter42]

So what free game did people choose? I went for Mass Effect 3. Been wanting it for a while, but not so much that I'd buy it. Also, I had every other game offered except Dead Space 3.

-Emergency vehicles still suck. Fire trucks do not think, I had eight go to one trailer (it was a hillbilly burning to death) and leave the other 6 giant industrial buildings burning to the ground. Not to mention the priority system. They drive around with these whiny little sirens, which would be okay if they used them, but traffic doesn't pull over, they don't run lights or stop signs, they just patiently wait, which causes more emergencies to happen, like me getting angry and burning the city to the ground.

My favourite bit is when you have lots of police cars patrolling and a crime is committed at night - Streets light up like a disco ball.

I'm annoyed at how dumb things can get in the game, especially since they boasted that the glassbox engine is smart.

-High Density Avenue leading to workplace? Nah, I'll just take the High density street like EVERYONE ELSE because it's a shorter drive.

-Your sims are going to your Neighbour's city for University education? That's cool, just don't expect to benefit from any of it.

-Mayor, there's people protesting outside the city hall! What do they want? idk,lol.

And I hate that disasters aren't unlocked in Sandbox worlds. All I've got is the stupid Lizard.