Sim City: Ruined by DRM?

[Smudger]

Looks like it, if you read the reviews on Amazon.com

Even the 5-star reviews are sarcastic...

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Art...DateDescending

[kalniel]

That's the problem with user reviews - they'll obliterate any useful opinion just to rant about something.

Just like any other new game with always on component (MMOs, Diablo 3 etc.) the release time always sucks, but if you are in anyway a critical purchaser then you will be waiting before buying the game rather than jumping in with a pre-order. Just like other MMOs and online single player games, I expect it'll all be sorted in time so if you don't object on principal you'll be able to enjoy a game without many problems in a few months.

[TheAnimus]

The problem is unless people simply don't buy it, they won't learn. It has to be a spectacular failure, with the tech press circling like hungry sharks before anyone would admit its the DRM.

[Jay]

EA doing well again I see!

[Smudger]

Always online for the single-player game seems a bit daft, and storing your saved games server side, without a cache on your machine seems extremely daft...

[melon]

The problem is unless people simply don't buy it, they won't learn. It has to be a spectacular failure, with the tech press circling like hungry sharks before anyone would admit its the DRM.

It amazes me how these big companies are showing their true colours by screwing everyone unequivocally just because some people are screwing them. They forget people dont have the money they did and people in general are already pissed off and angry with their lot thanks to the 1% .
If anything all these companies should be ganging up together to bring them down instead of punishing us .

Its the rich and 1% who have stolen their market and will continual to do so .

m

[HalloweenJack]

Amazon have pulled simcity online from sale citing `unfit for purpose` rom user reviews.


servers are down again btw

[jim]

The problem is unless people simply don't buy it, they won't learn. It has to be a spectacular failure, with the tech press circling like hungry sharks before anyone would admit its the DRM.

Problem is, it'd probably just be lumped in with the "nobody likes strategy games anymore" criticism.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There are even deeper problems to the game,and one is the fact the cities only have a relatively small allowed size.

[TheAnimus]

Amazon have pulled simcity online from sale citing `unfit for purpose` rom user reviews.


servers are down again btw

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21712910

Well if the beeb are picking up on it.....

[kalniel]

There are even deeper problems to the game,and one is the fact the cities only have a relatively small allowed size.

Yeah I'd read that from the reviews as well - sounds like they've gone to a multiple cities approach rather than allowing you a have much fun with a decent sized single one.

[directhex]

Holy ****balls, the features they've disabled server-side to try & decrease the server load include... switchable simulation speed? So every player is restricted to low-speed mode? For a SimCity game, that's catastrophic.

[HalloweenJack]

so EA havent learnt a single damn thing from the Diablo 3 launch last year , which crushed blizzards servers.....

[TheAnimus]

They forget people dont have the money they did and people in general are already pissed off and angry with their lot thanks to the 1% .

Actually even with inflation, the average UK household is better off now than they've ever been in history. The only difference is people might have been about 3-5% better off 3 years ago according some ONS figures mostly due to inflation, and increased pressure on commodities. The biggest impact that is going to happen to say the classic nuclear family is going to be food and fuel. If you spend any time with some 3rd world farmers you know what their main cost is; fuel. Water is an oddity for some locations, and worthy of note, but compared to the fact that ALL of them depend on fuel, it really becomes apparent.

This is going to have tremendous strain on people, the 1st and to some extend the 2nd world will suffer a drop in quality of life due to this. It's not to do with some mythical device one percent, it's entirely due to the developing world becoming better. We've never shared our luxury with them, as we have too, we will be loosing our luxy.

Anyway, its completely off topic, but I'm try to eloquently say something other than "zomfg how dumb are you".

Game Piracy is massive, it is REALLY massive. Even in the indie scene. People say "oh I just want to try before I buy" and such, but this can be shown to be utter bollocks:
http://smellslikedonkey.com/wordpress/?page_id=274
This was a game that was the price of a coffee. The fun thing is their stat for piracy was from user scores. These aren't people trying the game. They are just out right relying on the labour of the developers and not giving any money in return. They saw sometimes 90%+ piracy.

Just think for a second about that. Your only getting 10% of the revenue at that time you should be, and your a small indie house. Everyone playing your game bought a VERY expensive phone, yet choose not to buy your very cheap game.

Piracy is a real problem, it is differen't when someone who is a kid pirates photoshop, learns the tool, becomes a graphics designer and becomes a life time of sales. This is a game, which will have been forgotten as soon as they are bored of it. Their conversion rate showed that no one was buying it after trying it.

Now take that effect in a large firm. The sales figures aren't good. What can you say to people? No one wants to say its because the games a turd, even if it is. Piracy is a good excuse isn't it? Any measure which can be taken to reduce it, will probably lead to sales. If 90% of people are stealing your work, who cares if you loose 5% of the existing customer base, to get 10% of the pirates to give up, because its too complex.

Companies are struggling to adapt to our changing consumer demands (the split between casual and blockbuster titles gaming) the cost for the latter is growing geometerically every year, with deminishing returns. Games with twice as many polygons as last years look only marginally better. Compared with say how games improved in the 90s, the 00s saw little boost and stuff this year looks like it could have been from the year before. All of this leads to a massive increase in cost for little percieable benefit.

Bankroling a big project then is a risk, people are nervious about loosing their money even on an existing brand like SimCity. The problem here is EA have just made such a bad mess of it. They went far to far. There are all sorts of other measures to make those who refuse to pay for the game, feal they are missing out.

However, people love to blame EA entirely for this, I can't help but feel its disengenious too. It's akin to a dog, which we've eaten infront of, whilst not giving much food too, pushed it in to a corner and we behave suprised when it bites us, even thou we feed it, because it wasn't enough. It's not a healthy situation, but the solution doesn't come entirely from EAs side, people think its OK to just take something entirely for free. So EA either have to switch to advert supported (not thanks, and often blockable) or to in game DLC/Pay To Progress (again no thanks, I've no idea what the TCO is). Or perhaps, just perhaps we could make people feel a little bit ashamed of piracy, and not spout the same crap every time to condone the theft?

[melon]

There are even deeper problems to the game,and one is the fact the cities only have a relatively small allowed size.

Wow , I thought half the funny was seeing how big you could build it ?

m

[HalloweenJack]

perm online for a game with a frequent server check will be the next ` norm` whether you want it or not ; although it will only be time before someone cracks it for offline

but how will you get your micro transactions if your offline