EA Gifting Free Game to SimCity Players

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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In an attempt to schmooze the ruffled feathers back into place of SimCity players, Electronics Arts is offering a free game from the EA portfolio. It’s a goodwill gesture, but is it too little, too late for EA?

“So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it.”
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So many people already passed over this terrible launch. Nothing is going to save this game in the near future.
 
Considering that the "free game" they will most likely offer is something out of their bargain bin that is crap anyway....I'll pass. I agree with the refund bit.
 
“So what went wrong? The short answer is: origin. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we know that a free game that costs is nothing at this point will pacify the majority of our sheep err customers and they will keep buying anyhow.”
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Fixed.
 
I like how they blame the problems on the game being too successful, instead of just saying that having always-on internet for a single player game is the dumbest trend in gaming. How any company could watch the D3 launch mess and actually manage to do a worse launch, just amazes me.
 
Typical lame excuse; oh, it's doing so much better than we anticipated so you can't blame us.
 
Did anyone really expect to be able to play on the week of release?
Sure you SHOULD have been able to play, but have we learned nothing from D3?
 
Dark12 said:
Did anyone really expect to be able to play on the week of release?
Sure you SHOULD have been able to play, but have we learned nothing from D3?
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Maybe we learned how short sighted we are, considering D3 isn't the first game to have online problems on the day of release.
 
EA's mistake was in having this happen in the first place: it was in changing SimCity, a previously off-line single-player game, into an on-line, semi-single-player game. You made your own bed, EA.
 
PornoSatan said:
Maybe we learned how short sighted we are, considering D3 isn't the first game to have online problems on the day of release.
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Wise words my friend. D3 certainly wasn't the first, just the most high profile, or at least the freshest in our minds. I know a lot of people keep saying this, but as long as you guys keep buying this shit, they're gonna keep shoveling it.
 
Lol no offense but who the hell actually plays these sim games anyway besides little kids?
 
According to Joystiq or Engadget, the free game is supposedly Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

That's your consolation gift from EA.
 
Will people get to choose any game, choose from a list of titles, or get crap they wouldn't play anyway? I can see EA unloading one of the games they talked about stuffing full of DLC on them. Okay, more likely it'll be crap they couldn't even give away before.
 
The free game requires you to be online all the time to connect to their servers which work once a week.
 
We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.
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You've got to be fucking kidding me.

I get the impression that they're being very careful about their specific language in these statements to avoid any sort of admission of guilt. There's no apology, the problem is described as "disrupted experiences" and "a launch issue" caused by how awesome their product is. They deflect from the fact that the whole problem is caused by their DRM system by saying "...this SimCity is made to be played online, and if you can’t get a stable connection, you’re NOT having a good experience. So we’re not going to rest until we’ve fixed the remaining server issues."

Fuck you EA. If you can't get a 'stable connection' you can't play the game at all.

They can't even be bothered to mention what the free game will be, probably because their legal team still hasn't actually decided the best course of action yet.

Non-apology apologies are not helpful.
 
Im sure they have a some game codes laying around that they would be willing to send out for free. MoH all around, haha.....
 
Sooooo, they were able to tally all the pre-sales right up to launch day which gave them before-hand knowledge of what kind of load would be placed on their dedicated game server infrastructure, yet they STILL use the excuse that they didn't realize it was going to be as popular as it is and that's why nobody can even play it?

Start Button -> Control Panel -> Uninstall a Program -> Origin

Well holy shit, when EA takes that out of the equation, it's an instant fix to the problem. Whodathunkit besides every game coder and beta tester that has been providing useful feedback to EA management long before this game even launched?
 
I still can't believe any one on this forum purchased this game knowing what they know about EA and their current direction for the SimCity franchise.

With their reduced features, smaller city size, and the constant raping of your wallet as well as day 1 dlc I'm flabbergasted anyone with an IQ over pocket lint bought this title.
 
Climber said:
I still can't believe any one on this forum purchased this game knowing what they know about EA and their current direction for the SimCity franchise.

With their reduced features, smaller city size, and the constant raping of your wallet as well as day 1 dlc I'm flabbergasted anyone with an IQ over pocket lint bought this title.
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I didn't. Even though SimCity is one of my all time favorite franchises, I saw this shit coming a mile away. This is why I will not under any circumstances buy a game that requires origin.
 
Climber said:
I still can't believe any one on this forum purchased this game knowing what they know about EA and their current direction for the SimCity franchise.

With their reduced features, smaller city size, and the constant raping of your wallet as well as day 1 dlc I'm flabbergasted anyone with an IQ over pocket lint bought this title.
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Of course someone on this forum bought it. You'll always have that one guy who thinks "well, maybe they won't completely screw it up this time".

Now getting someone to admit to being that gullible... that's another story.
 
babixg said:
wait so we don't get to choose?

I wanted to grab Crysis 3 for free
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Probably not, lol.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw that, but I'm willing to bet they choose the title. Someone somewhere said it was MoH: Warfighter but I haven't seen any confirmation on that.
 
I'm honestly surprised at how EA is handling this whole mess. Given how they handled the fallout from C&C4, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, TOR, their MH reboot, and a slew of other games, I was anticipating a few weeks worth of active denial that there was a problem (both from EA and from the heads of the dev team), followed by an ad campaign to discredit/reverse any negative feedback, then ending with a bunch of in-the-pocket game sites calling anyone who complains entitled.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
I get the impression that they're being very careful about their specific language in these statements to avoid any sort of admission of guilt. There's no apology, the problem is described as "disrupted experiences" and "a launch issue" caused by how awesome their product is. They deflect from the fact that the whole problem is caused by their DRM system by saying "...this SimCity is made to be played online, and if you can’t get a stable connection, you’re NOT having a good experience. So we’re not going to rest until we’ve fixed the remaining server issues."
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Glad others are picking up on this, and you're right. The language is very carefully chosen -- its supposedly the Maxis G.M. Lucy Bradshaw doing all the verbal dancing around. She must be from a P.R. background rather than an engineering or technical one.

Ive been following her statements on twitter just for the lulz.. people are posting screenshots of stuff that's upside down broken and the response is "thanks! right now we're looking into some of those concerns". CONCERNS.

The other statement that cracked me up was responding to somebody giving them a high-five "dont listen to all the haters @simcity multiplayer gaming is awesome!" and her reply "Thanks, we're doing our best to stay positive in the face of extreme negativity."

LMAO.they put out a broken game, get called out for it in worldwide press and customer reviews and somehow THEY'RE the victim.

Just keeps getting better.
 
I just find it funny that the problems with Simcity launch mirror alot of bad MMO launches - long queues just to log in to play.

The only difference here is in an MMO you actually have to be online to play multiplayer on a server shard.
With Simcity such a requirement is not necessary to play the game, but it is tacked on purely to frustrate paying customers just to earn a few more $$.
 
Morphy said:
I just find it funny that the problems with Simcity launch mirror alot of bad MMO launches - long queues just to log in to play.

The only difference here is in an MMO you actually have to be online to play multiplayer on a server shard.
With Simcity such a requirement is not necessary to play the game, but it is tacked on purely to frustrate paying customers just to earn a few more $$.
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I could get behind a company stating that they were making the game always on for a 2-3 month period, and afterwards would allow offline play, to prevent piracy.

The main problem I have is I honestly despise multiplayer games, and don't want to be permenantly multiplayer if I don't have to be.
 
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