I'm not saying your reasons for not buying EA products isn't a valid one but quoting metacritic is laughable at best and downright pathetic at worst. You have people voting who never have and never will play it. I'd much rather somebody gave an opinion based on .. you know.. actually having played the game?
Try read some of them posts at metacritic and tell me if they haven't played it.
I have and it's quite a mixed bag of people having played it (supposedly) and people who just rant about the DRM which people have known about for quite some time
I can't take metacritic or amazon reviews seriously when it comes to EA. Too much EA hate to sort through fake and legit users
I have not bought it, but I find a 30 min line to play a single player game hilariously terrible.
I'm curious about how many of the people that rail against EA and like the Sim City series still went and bought this game.
I'm a big fan of the series and I have played almost every Sim City that came out, but this Origin crap was the last straw for me with that company.
I was actually going to buy the game this morning, but then I checked metacritic and saw the 9.2ish reviewver scrore and 2.7 user score. That made me investigate further and I learned about:
1. Always Online DRM
2. Day one DLC
3. And worst of all...Cities limited to 2x2km maps. Seriously, WTF? I'm guessing EA is planning to sell bigger maps later with microtransactions.
So I passed...and I wound up dropping $125 on the new Torment kickstarter instead .
Originally posted by Vhaln Never bought D3, and won't be buying this. I just wish there were a good indie alternative, the way TL2 and POE are alternatives to D3.
Yeah, I have.. and some of the annual updates for it, which never seem to be anything substantial. I did like its predecessor, City Life, but Cities XL seems like the dullest city builder I've ever played.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Its done in a small part for pirating sure, but pirating really isn't as big on draining money away as its made out. A big factor in this is to prevent cheating, thus forcing people to PAY for stuff in order to get 'cheats' basically. I'll bet thats actually the largest factor in the game, the pirating is just a nice conveinient excuse.
I was in beta for this title. I loved it, but upon finding out that it would all be server side/DRM I was greatly disappointed. Because of this I didn't, and won't buy it. A single player game requiring that is nothing but being paranoid of pirates by the company because of their bean counters. If they're afraid of losing sales I can tell them that due to this they lost one sale. Mine. I also don't buy anything of ubisoft anymore. There's more than enough choices out there.
So the game people have been asking not to have online DRM for over a year on their forums and reddit subforums kept their online DRM with the continuous promise that they would be able to handle launch time. Then EA has a statement that they're upset that they couldn't handle launch and apologize for a frustrating launch in addition to limiting people who preordered from downloading the game and then placing a huge queue (that half the time just reset the game from what I read) all the while allowing people who buy a second copy to get in and play instantly.
I honestly want to say it's EA just being EA, but this is actually the best they've been to customers in a very long time. Their own hubris is amazing as always, though. I do feel sorry for those who bought it, especially when their traditionally single player game lagged out when they finally got in, suffered roll backs on data, or deleted their progressions with their cities altogether. It was a bargain bin game for me the first time I read that you couldn't save your data manually and that it was all auto saved and cloud stored. The small size for each city just solidified that choice, in addition to the joke of a DRM they put in place. The reasons for these thigns were stupid to begin with, and easily remedied with a little imagination and proper consumer good will tactics.
Originally posted by Purutzil Its done in a small part for pirating sure, but pirating really isn't as big on draining money away as its made out. A big factor in this is to prevent cheating, thus forcing people to PAY for stuff in order to get 'cheats' basically. I'll bet thats actually the largest factor in the game, the pirating is just a nice conveinient excuse.
This is what I've read as well. There are even in game advertisements for their presumably large amounts of DLC that will be coming in. Not the first to advertise day one DLC and future DLC on a starting screen, but it's still a horrid practice in my opinion.
Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing). German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century. Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now). I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things). In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while. If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
lol, no people just kind of forgot about it. Sure, there are some that stayed and played but most moved on after their rants. Most though left, you kind many of them in PoE currently.
In any case, the "screaming' as you like to call the complaints has actually been good for games as of late. FFXIV received this "Screaming', War Z, D3, SWTOR, etc. Some things were fixed due to the "Screaming".
I would also advise you not to get overly attached to the game. With it being online only, if the revenue goes below what EA wants then guess what... they are going to shut the servers down like they have for many many other games (Even a few newer games lol!) and you no longer get to play the game you enjoy so much. When EA pulls the plug, it's over. The only way to play at that point is of course snagging a pirated version.
When EA ceases making enough profit in their eyes to justify spending resources on keeping the servers up they will shut them down.
When EA releases a sequel to SimCity5 and not enough people are buying it they will shut down the servers to force the migration.
If SimCity6 does well then they will still shut down the servers to try and force those that remained in SimCity5 to spend more money even if they don't want to.
This is EA's track record. This is crap they have already pulled with other games.
Advocate this always on DRM for single player EA games all you want but do realize that it is entirely possible that a few months after launch they can take the game away from you regardless of how much fun you have or how much time/money you have invested in the game.
It's no different than buying any MMO. You go into it knowing that one day the servers will go offline. At least EA isn't trying to charge a monthly fee like Cities XL did.
When we are discussing an MMO feel free to come back and make this post. Since we are discussing a single player centric game I'm not sure what your point is.
It's no different than buying any MMO. You go into it knowing that one day the servers will go offline. At least EA isn't trying to charge a monthly fee like Cities XL did.
When we are discussing an MMO feel free to come back and make this post. Since we are discussing a single player centric game I'm not sure what your point is.
This SimCity isn't a single-player centric game, it's meant to be played with other people. Just like with an MMO, if a person chooses to play solo they can, but by doing so they're missing out on the experience that the devs intended.
I'm not calling this an MMO, but like it or not it is an online game. An online game means servers that are going to have issues that keep you from playing (as is currently happening) and that will one day go offline forever. A person just has to take that into consideration and decide if the purchase is worth it to them or not.
I do wish there was an offline single-player component, especially when you consider that all the previous titles were single-player titles. But, the devs chose to go multi-player only and I don't see any reason to fault them for it.
My point is, there's as much reason to get attatched to this game as there is with any online only game, MMO or otherwise. And, for people on a website that's dedicated to online only games to be complaining about a game that's online only seems a little silly.
There are multiple sides to each coin, and many different discussions which derive from various points. One such being that recent statement by EA saying that henceforth they will never, ever publish a game without Online capabilities. The shrewed person would take this as meaning (knowing EA) that they want to have 1) An excuse to have an always online DRM or DRM in general and 2) They want to milk the game in question and the audience that enjoys it by being able to assail them with constant DLC on the front menu of their games.
"We are very proud of the way EA evolved with consumers," he said. "I have not green lit one game to be developed as a singleplayer experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365."
There is little reason that Sim City could not be made into a Single Player game from the onset; it was a choice made by either Maxis or EA to do limiting (if there is limiting) calculations server side and using that in part to justify their horrid idea for customer service and always on DRM. It's likely that Maxis caved and absolutely had to make an online game at the wishes of the EA Boss who decided this was a good business model.
To add to that there was over a year of people pleading multiple issues, none of which EA paid any attention towards (even the subreddit which has massive amounts of good feedback). In the end it was all ignored, and in the end people were screwed over with the failed day one launch, losing their starting cities in server roll backs and lag, or being unable to access a game that they purchased that shouldn't of been online restricted in the first place.
Ultimately it does not matter, as you said. People will still purchase all of EAs games and EA will continue to treat their consumer base like crap. Not many people claim that they make bad games, in fact they make great games; it's their business practice that is horrid for both developers and consumers alike (in my and many others' opinion) and there are a lot of people who will aimlessly defend such practices so long as they can just get their fix on the next EA title. Then there are those who think the whining is too much, yet it is these people who are fighting for the rights of people like us. When it is something that is unforseen and only an issue in the last few days, then yeah... there might be an excuse. But when there is page after page, site after site, thread after thread, concern after concern, Q&A after Q&A of the worries of the masses that get ignored since the game's reveal... There is definitely something for people to complain about, and in my opinion rightly so.
When even critics have to either outright refuse to review a game, or note that they were on private servers and can't tell you the experience you would have on live servers, it just screams a type of deception. It may just be an honest thing on their case, but the fact that so many people who preordered and couldn't access the game due to being locked out (not by a queue but by EA randomly locking people from downloading the game) and then allowing people who buy on the spot instant download access... Well, you can imagine how many people bought two versions of the game just so they could have a change to download it at a slow speed, and get in line for a line for the queue which may crash the client at the end (as many reports said). Not to mention the lag one got if they managed to get it, with many losing their cities due to the lag.
Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing). German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century. Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now). I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things). In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while. If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
I was just about to buy this game when I started poking around for dicussion threads about it. I found far too many topics like this one. Yep, I'll wait. Maybe buy it down the road when its a $20 bargian bin title.
SimCity Is Online Only, But It Promises Not To Repeat Diablo III’s Mistakes
Hahahaha!!!
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Just like in any game, cheaters and hackers only ruin the game for the rest of us, which in turn ruins the game for themselves. What's the point of playing a game when you can do anything you want without working towards it...that gets old fast.
"Figure out some way to sell SimC as a competitve game. We can sell more goodies if we can make them compete for e-status."
"I know, how about perma-death!? We can sell them on Hardc0re, just like all those other titles do."
"You really haven't ever played this game, have you?"
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Originally posted by Gravarg Just like in any game, cheaters and hackers only ruin the game for the rest of us, which in turn ruins the game for themselves. What's the point of playing a game when you can do anything you want without working towards it...that gets old fast.
Its a singleplayer game, so who cares if people cheat on it.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
i don't care how good a game is or how bad i want to play it if it has always on DRM and no offline mode in a traditionally offline game i will not buy it and i will hope it fails.
any of you that support this are the problem, EA and companies like EA think they can screw over their customers and apparently they are right many gamers are more than happy to bend over and take whatever EA gives them.
shame on you.
Its always been like that. This DRM nonsense has been going on for *many* years. Every time they come up with yet another "unhackable" system, its broken very shortly (some times within hours). EA has to know that, as they have had it happen time after time. DRM is more of a problem for legitimate customers, than the real "pirates".
But people just keep giving them money, so EA and Ubisoft and other such laugh all the way to the bank. The hysteria over "pirates" has become a growth industy. It feeds back on itself, and produces nonsense like the DMCA and "sanctions" by Mordor on the Potomac on entire countries, because of the lobby groups generous "contributions" to various powerful politicians.
The "always on" dodge is just the latest in a long, LONG line of failed (software and hardware) attempts at DRM. Some very clever people look at breaking these systems (software and hardware) as a hobby, so the more time/talent and money the companies dump into these methods, the better they like it. Its been like that since the very start of computers.
I have not bought it, but I find a 30 min line to play a single player game hilariously terrible.
I do not intend to buy this game solely because of this style of DRM. I've been burned in the past with this style...
Anyone here ever buy Darkspore? Same DRM style... Try installing it now and playing it. You can't because the servers were brought offline permanently... I refuse to buy a game and have a chance that I can't enjoy it later if I want simply because a company realizes how expensive keeping their DRM enforcement in place costs them...
I, personally, have no problem with DRM. It does reduce the number of pirated games, but this is just going too far. Maybe they should do it like Anno 2070. If you don't want to play online (or can't) have a button below the play button for an offline mode. Then when you have access or the desire to play online, do so. I play online Anno 2070 quite frequently with my roommate and older brother. That system works for me. I already expect people to come on here bashing why Anno is such a garbage game or why their DRM system sucks so much, but I'm putting out my opinion. Nothing you say or do can change it...
Originally posted by Gravarg Just like in any game, cheaters and hackers only ruin the game for the rest of us, which in turn ruins the game for themselves. What's the point of playing a game when you can do anything you want without working towards it...that gets old fast.
Its a singleplayer game, so who cares if people cheat on it.
stayontarget,
This is a game that can be played single player or multiplayer, whether it's through private (friends and family) or public "zones"... Each zone consists of multiple areas that you can build a city in... You can trade between cities for various resources, regardless of if you are playing single or multiplayer. To do this in Single Player you simply have to have multiple cities that you have built up that can have a mutual trading need/desire.
Originally posted by Gravarg Just like in any game, cheaters and hackers only ruin the game for the rest of us, which in turn ruins the game for themselves. What's the point of playing a game when you can do anything you want without working towards it...that gets old fast.
Its a singleplayer game, so who cares if people cheat on it.
stayontarget,
This is a game that can be played single player or multiplayer, whether it's through private (friends and family) or public "zones"... Each zone consists of multiple areas that you can build a city in... You can trade between cities for various resources, regardless of if you are playing single or multiplayer. To do this in Single Player you simply have to have multiple cities that you have built up that can have a mutual trading need/desire.
I'm having a hard time getting trading to work. So far, the resources never show up (even though they're deducted from the source city). I've tried to trade between Bittersburg and Clingerville, and I know it takes some time for the trade to actually go through; but the problem is the trade has never gone through.
Comments
I have and it's quite a mixed bag of people having played it (supposedly) and people who just rant about the DRM which people have known about for quite some time
I can't take metacritic or amazon reviews seriously when it comes to EA. Too much EA hate to sort through fake and legit users
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
I was actually going to buy the game this morning, but then I checked metacritic and saw the 9.2ish reviewver scrore and 2.7 user score. That made me investigate further and I learned about:
1. Always Online DRM
2. Day one DLC
3. And worst of all...Cities limited to 2x2km maps. Seriously, WTF? I'm guessing EA is planning to sell bigger maps later with microtransactions.
So I passed...and I wound up dropping $125 on the new Torment kickstarter instead
.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Same here buddy huge fan of simcity not going for this one because of EA
I am with you!
Complaints about always on DRM on an MMO forum... it makes me smile. MMO's invented always on DRM... and guess what? Its effective.
I don't mind, the game is fun.
Yeah, I have.. and some of the annual updates for it, which never seem to be anything substantial. I did like its predecessor, City Life, but Cities XL seems like the dullest city builder I've ever played.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Sorry being playing a lot of Impire letting out my inner demon.
Here's a rainbow cookie, no hard feelings.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/I was in beta for this title. I loved it, but upon finding out that it would all be server side/DRM I was greatly disappointed. Because of this I didn't, and won't buy it. A single player game requiring that is nothing but being paranoid of pirates by the company because of their bean counters. If they're afraid of losing sales I can tell them that due to this they lost one sale. Mine. I also don't buy anything of ubisoft anymore. There's more than enough choices out there.
So the game people have been asking not to have online DRM for over a year on their forums and reddit subforums kept their online DRM with the continuous promise that they would be able to handle launch time. Then EA has a statement that they're upset that they couldn't handle launch and apologize for a frustrating launch in addition to limiting people who preordered from downloading the game and then placing a huge queue (that half the time just reset the game from what I read) all the while allowing people who buy a second copy to get in and play instantly.
I honestly want to say it's EA just being EA, but this is actually the best they've been to customers in a very long time. Their own hubris is amazing as always, though. I do feel sorry for those who bought it, especially when their traditionally single player game lagged out when they finally got in, suffered roll backs on data, or deleted their progressions with their cities altogether. It was a bargain bin game for me the first time I read that you couldn't save your data manually and that it was all auto saved and cloud stored. The small size for each city just solidified that choice, in addition to the joke of a DRM they put in place. The reasons for these thigns were stupid to begin with, and easily remedied with a little imagination and proper consumer good will tactics.
This is what I've read as well. There are even in game advertisements for their presumably large amounts of DLC that will be coming in. Not the first to advertise day one DLC and future DLC on a starting screen, but it's still a horrid practice in my opinion.
When we are discussing an MMO feel free to come back and make this post. Since we are discussing a single player centric game I'm not sure what your point is.
There are multiple sides to each coin, and many different discussions which derive from various points. One such being that recent statement by EA saying that henceforth they will never, ever publish a game without Online capabilities. The shrewed person would take this as meaning (knowing EA) that they want to have 1) An excuse to have an always online DRM or DRM in general and 2) They want to milk the game in question and the audience that enjoys it by being able to assail them with constant DLC on the front menu of their games.
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-boss-proudly-refuses-to-publish-single-player-games-234402.phtml
"We are very proud of the way EA evolved with consumers," he said. "I have not green lit one game to be developed as a singleplayer experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365."
There is little reason that Sim City could not be made into a Single Player game from the onset; it was a choice made by either Maxis or EA to do limiting (if there is limiting) calculations server side and using that in part to justify their horrid idea for customer service and always on DRM. It's likely that Maxis caved and absolutely had to make an online game at the wishes of the EA Boss who decided this was a good business model.
To add to that there was over a year of people pleading multiple issues, none of which EA paid any attention towards (even the subreddit which has massive amounts of good feedback). In the end it was all ignored, and in the end people were screwed over with the failed day one launch, losing their starting cities in server roll backs and lag, or being unable to access a game that they purchased that shouldn't of been online restricted in the first place.
Ultimately it does not matter, as you said. People will still purchase all of EAs games and EA will continue to treat their consumer base like crap. Not many people claim that they make bad games, in fact they make great games; it's their business practice that is horrid for both developers and consumers alike (in my and many others' opinion) and there are a lot of people who will aimlessly defend such practices so long as they can just get their fix on the next EA title. Then there are those who think the whining is too much, yet it is these people who are fighting for the rights of people like us. When it is something that is unforseen and only an issue in the last few days, then yeah... there might be an excuse. But when there is page after page, site after site, thread after thread, concern after concern, Q&A after Q&A of the worries of the masses that get ignored since the game's reveal... There is definitely something for people to complain about, and in my opinion rightly so.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/394529/ea-apologises-as-demand-crashes-simcity-servers/
When even critics have to either outright refuse to review a game, or note that they were on private servers and can't tell you the experience you would have on live servers, it just screams a type of deception. It may just be an honest thing on their case, but the fact that so many people who preordered and couldn't access the game due to being locked out (not by a queue but by EA randomly locking people from downloading the game) and then allowing people who buy on the spot instant download access... Well, you can imagine how many people bought two versions of the game just so they could have a change to download it at a slow speed, and get in line for a line for the queue which may crash the client at the end (as many reports said). Not to mention the lag one got if they managed to get it, with many losing their cities due to the lag.
I posted i liked the game because i do...just because someone says they like something doesnt mean that have to give a reason why
I like sex but do i really have to explain to you why?? *face palm*
Guess what, they are not. The most pirated games are the ones with DRM.
http://kotaku.com/5915377/like-diablo-iii-sim-city-will-require-an-online-connection
"Title of the artical in bold letters"
SimCity Is Online Only, But It Promises Not To Repeat Diablo III’s Mistakes
Hahahaha!!!
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
lol...
"Figure out some way to sell SimC as a competitve game. We can sell more goodies if we can make them compete for e-status."
"I know, how about perma-death!? We can sell them on Hardc0re, just like all those other titles do."
"You really haven't ever played this game, have you?"
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Its a singleplayer game, so who cares if people cheat on it.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Its always been like that. This DRM nonsense has been going on for *many* years. Every time they come up with yet another "unhackable" system, its broken very shortly (some times within hours). EA has to know that, as they have had it happen time after time. DRM is more of a problem for legitimate customers, than the real "pirates".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
But people just keep giving them money, so EA and Ubisoft and other such laugh all the way to the bank. The hysteria over "pirates" has become a growth industy. It feeds back on itself, and produces nonsense like the DMCA and "sanctions" by Mordor on the Potomac on entire countries, because of the lobby groups generous "contributions" to various powerful politicians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_of_software
The "always on" dodge is just the latest in a long, LONG line of failed (software and hardware) attempts at DRM. Some very clever people look at breaking these systems (software and hardware) as a hobby, so the more time/talent and money the companies dump into these methods, the better they like it. Its been like that since the very start of computers.
I do not intend to buy this game solely because of this style of DRM. I've been burned in the past with this style...
Anyone here ever buy Darkspore? Same DRM style... Try installing it now and playing it. You can't because the servers were brought offline permanently... I refuse to buy a game and have a chance that I can't enjoy it later if I want simply because a company realizes how expensive keeping their DRM enforcement in place costs them...
I, personally, have no problem with DRM. It does reduce the number of pirated games, but this is just going too far. Maybe they should do it like Anno 2070. If you don't want to play online (or can't) have a button below the play button for an offline mode. Then when you have access or the desire to play online, do so. I play online Anno 2070 quite frequently with my roommate and older brother. That system works for me. I already expect people to come on here bashing why Anno is such a garbage game or why their DRM system sucks so much, but I'm putting out my opinion. Nothing you say or do can change it...
*EDITED due to typos*
stayontarget,
This is a game that can be played single player or multiplayer, whether it's through private (friends and family) or public "zones"... Each zone consists of multiple areas that you can build a city in... You can trade between cities for various resources, regardless of if you are playing single or multiplayer. To do this in Single Player you simply have to have multiple cities that you have built up that can have a mutual trading need/desire.
I'm having a hard time getting trading to work. So far, the resources never show up (even though they're deducted from the source city). I've tried to trade between Bittersburg and Clingerville, and I know it takes some time for the trade to actually go through; but the problem is the trade has never gone through.