Amazon Suspends The Sale Of SimCity

ekuest said:
i love steam. offline works great, there are thousands of games, huge sales...

i have never installed origin and i probably never will. the only unfortunate thing about this is that i am clearly the minority.
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Steam's offline mode only works *sometimes*.
They force you to connect, but instead of telling you, that you must go online, they come up with some BS message telling you 'sorry, your offline credentials are not found'.
They just want to authenticate you again.

Huge sales ? Only sometimes. Amazon, GMG, Gamergate and others usually have the same games (that work only on steam) for much cheaper.

Steam's support? What support? It takes weeks to get a simple response back.

Let's face it, while steam is better than what crap EA is tossing with this game, it STILL is a DRM, and you are screwed if you can't go online, when you want to play offline.

Origin's client itself is about the same as steam in my book. Origin's support staff tend to have live support or e-mail you in under 24 hours. Steam can learn from them.


GoG so far is the best, DRM free games.
 
Bladestar said:
Steam's offline mode only works *sometimes*.
They force you to connect, but instead of telling you, that you must go online, they come up with some BS message telling you 'sorry, your offline credentials are not found'.
They just want to authenticate you again.

Huge sales ? Only sometimes. Amazon, GMG, Gamergate and others usually have the same games (that work only on steam) for much cheaper.

Steam's support? What support? It takes weeks to get a simple response back.

Let's face it, while steam is better than what crap EA is tossing with this game, it STILL is a DRM, and you are screwed if you can't go online, when you want to play offline.

Origin's client itself is about the same as steam in my book. Origin's support staff tend to have live support or e-mail you in under 24 hours. Steam can learn from them.


GoG so far is the best, DRM free games.
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i forget to go offline all the time. it just warns me before i play, and next time i connect to the internet and launch the game it asks me if i want to sync my saved data from when i was offline. yeah GoG is great, i buy from them too. i have only dealt with steam support once when my account was hacked, and they were quick and effective.
 
Sounds like the days of Tiger Woods 2008 and the server issues that stole all your money.
 
and EA's stock is up 2$ in the past 2 days so.. they could give a crap :p
 
Top review from Amazon's 1,682 (and growing) 1-star reviews. Worth a read, really crystallizes it.

Fundamentally, SimCity has always been a 'software toy'. That means that there's no real end state, no way to win. It's just a thing that you play and experiment with. You build, and tinker, and mess around. It's a toy, not a game; it's a sandbox, not baseball.

So, in this iteration of the game, you don't even get to buy your toy. Rather, you rent a toy from EA, who lets you play with it only in very limited, circumscribed ways, only on their servers. So you have to have a live Internet connection at all times, and their servers have to be up, and have to have space for you. And the rules for play are draconian. If you want to, say, build a city, save it, blow it up with something terrible, and then restore from save, you can't do that anymore. That's an unauthorized usage of their toy. And if you figure out ways of using their toy that they don't like, they'll ban you forever.

All third-party modding is shut out. One of the best parts of SimCity 4 and The Sims is that users can create and share content among themselves for free. You will no longer be able to do this. You will be required to run only Official Authorized Content.

Further, you're not getting the whole game for your $60 or $80, depending on what version you're buying. EA's plan is to sell you Simcity 5 over and over and over. They've directly admitted that they already have it running with larger cities, but they're not releasing that now. They claim it's because it "won't run on Dad's PC", but the real reason is so they can sell it to you again later. Want subways? That's gonna be $20. Want railroads? Another $20. Bigger cities? Oh, that's in the $30 expansion.

Right now, if you look at The Sims 3, the game costs $30. But if also you buy all the DLC for it, it's *four hundred and seventy dollars*. This is what they are doing with SimCity 5; locking you into their server infrastructure, and then exploiting the heck out of your wallet.

This is a lousy deal, and you would be stupid to take it. Always-on DRM, and a deliberately crippled game, so that they can slowly uncripple it, charging you for every restored feature from prior versions.

Simcity 4 still works pretty well. It's not quite as nice as most current games, and can require you to 'pin' the process to just one processor on a multi-core system (ie, most current machines), but if you want a city builder where you won't have to pay extra to breathe both in AND out, that would be a better option.

But buying this game? In my opinion, you would be wiser to take three twenties out of your wallet, and light them on fire.
 
odditory said:
Top review from Amazon's 1,682 (and growing) 1-star reviews. Worth a read, really crystallizes it.
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A link to it would have sufficed.

In my opinion, you would be wiser to take three twenties out of your wallet, and light them on fire.
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In my opinion, your best bet for getting value out of any game these days is to wait a year or more after release and buy the bug-patched, extensively user-reviewed, "complete pack" game for <$30. Buying games on launch-day, especially EA games with their track record... I can't fathom how anyone could think that would be a good idea at this point. It was another Maxis/EA game (that I pre-ordered) that really locked me into this mindset: Spore.
 
I'm really pissed. I was so looking forward to this SimCity game, but hearing about the online requirement and how poorly it's being handled, I want no part of it.

Technically there are online components where you can interact with other users' cities online, but I don't care about that shit. Just give me an offline Sim City god dammit.
 
Bladestar said:
GoG so far is the best, DRM free games.
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Sure, if all you are looking for are games from 15 years ago or come current indie games and a couple bigger releases like Witcher 2. Other than that, you cannot compare GoG with Steam because their libraries are VASTLY different.
 
I hate EA so much. I mean, I hated them before but that hate has turned into a burning hate. Greed, incompetence, greed, you name it.
 
It's interesting that nowhere in any information about this game, on either physical case or download-sites information does it ever mention Origin. Only persistent online connection. They should be required to state that you need to have Origin installed. That way it's easy to make a filter. I would consider buying EA-games if it's interesting enough, and I do not need Origin installed. I will NEVER install Origin again.
 
This just further exemplifies the fact that every aspect of ea games are rushed and at no point in time directed towards end user satisfaction and experience.
 
Dion said:
Not true. Alot of people have gotten refunds from EA for digital copies. And the funny thing is they don't remove the game from there Origin accounts. free game ftw.
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I would imagine that removing a non-functioning game from a customer's account isn't a high priority for EA while they are hemmoraging potential sales. Wait a week or two until they've at least stabilized their servers and see if the same holds true.
 
meanwhile, simcity sales on gog skyrocket
 
Bladestar said:
Steam's offline mode only works *sometimes*.
They force you to connect, but instead of telling you, that you must go online, they come up with some BS message telling you 'sorry, your offline credentials are not found'.
They just want to authenticate you again.

Huge sales ? Only sometimes. Amazon, GMG, Gamergate and others usually have the same games (that work only on steam) for much cheaper.

Steam's support? What support? It takes weeks to get a simple response back.

Let's face it, while steam is better than what crap EA is tossing with this game, it STILL is a DRM, and you are screwed if you can't go online, when you want to play offline.

Origin's client itself is about the same as steam in my book. Origin's support staff tend to have live support or e-mail you in under 24 hours. Steam can learn from them.


GoG so far is the best, DRM free games.
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I've never had problems with Steam's offline mode - it's pretty up front that it wants you to connect once a month to verify that you're not just giving your account out to all your mates, and I've never hit that limit anyway.

GOG isn't actually competing with modern DRM systems in any way as the only games publishers give to them are ones they don't care about people pirating anyway.

Steam seems to be the way to go - the public is too impatient for anything else really. Blizzard got crucified for the Diablo 3 launch, where the login servers stabilised after 1.5 to 2 hours (I got in just after 1am). I don't see how you can satisfy that level of impatience at launch with proprietry login servers.
 
dmfg said:
I've never had problems with Steam's offline mode - it's pretty up front that it wants you to connect once a month to verify that you're not just giving your account out to all your mates, and I've never hit that limit anyway.

GOG isn't actually competing with modern DRM systems in any way as the only games publishers give to them are ones they don't care about people pirating anyway.

Steam seems to be the way to go - the public is too impatient for anything else really. Blizzard got crucified for the Diablo 3 launch, where the login servers stabilised after 1.5 to 2 hours (I got in just after 1am). I don't see how you can satisfy that level of impatience at launch with proprietry login servers.
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Just a quick FYI. Diablo 3 was not stabilised after 1.5 to 2 hours. I was unable to play for about 7-8 hours. We had a LAN setup in my kitchen, the wife was off to bed after a girl's night out, and we had steaks, alcohol, and games installed waiting. Then we called it off after 2 hours of waiting to sleep.
 
After several rounds of email, a phone call, and other crap -- Amazon finally refunded my money.

Don't know if it will be removed from my Origin account or not -- and I really don't care. They can leave it, or delete it, either way there is no way to play it.

Thanks EA for crushing yet another successful franchise - we look forward to your continued raping of Command and Conquer and the Battlefield series.
 
C&C4 was a steaming pile of turd and was the last EA game I bought. No more.
 
dbonetrain said:
Just a quick FYI. Diablo 3 was not stabilised after 1.5 to 2 hours. I was unable to play for about 7-8 hours. We had a LAN setup in my kitchen, the wife was off to bed after a girl's night out, and we had steaks, alcohol, and games installed waiting. Then we called it off after 2 hours of waiting to sleep.
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Perfect example of how DRM fucked up what was supposed to be for you, one of the most epic gaming nights of your life.
 
TheToE! said:
Perfect example of how DRM fucked up what was supposed to be for you, one of the most epic gaming nights of your life.
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Fuck ea, hard. This should be a wake up call to the apologists out there. Companies will keep doing shit like this as long as we give them money. Send their ass a message, and close your wallet to this bullshit.
 
After watching all the SimCity YouTube channel tech demo videos, I was so tempted to pre-order the game. I have been a huge fan of the franchise since the original was released.

Three things held me back:
1. It's an EA product.
2. The always online requirement.
3. The exorbitant price tag.


Thank you, better judgment, for saving me some money and frustration again. Hope they get it all ironed out and soon, as I would still like to play this iteration someday.
 
dbonetrain said:
Just a quick FYI. Diablo 3 was not stabilised after 1.5 to 2 hours. I was unable to play for about 7-8 hours. We had a LAN setup in my kitchen, the wife was off to bed after a girl's night out, and we had steaks, alcohol, and games installed waiting. Then we called it off after 2 hours of waiting to sleep.
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Ugh, that sucks. You should send them an e-mail letting them know this, it's the only way they are ever going to change.
 
DejaWiz said:
After watching all the SimCity YouTube channel tech demo videos, I was so tempted to pre-order the game. I have been a huge fan of the franchise since the original was released.

Three things held me back:
1. It's an EA product.
2. The always online requirement.
3. The exorbitant price tag.


Thank you, better judgment, for saving me some money and frustration again. Hope they get it all ironed out and soon, as I would still like to play this iteration someday.
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The number 1 can be ignored in some cases, and I didn't think the price tag was so big. It's the always online requirement that really kills it for me. I wanted this game so much too...
 
ballistic90 said:
The number 1 can be ignored in some cases, and I didn't think the price tag was so big. It's the always online requirement that really kills it for me. I wanted this game so much too...
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True...in some cases. Although I still EA as having a bad track record with shenanigans they have pulled, and not listening to their customer base.

As for the price, I am wanting the Digital Deluxe Edition, which tips the scale at $80. Now to me, the pricing should have been $40 for the regular version and $50-60 for the DDE. But that is my opinion on the matter.
 
because im so cheap, i was never tempted to buy this game at full price, but i really love SC. i have SC 4 and somewhere i have the original. I want this game but i will not buy something that forces me to be online to play it. i can see a one-time registration, but thats it. i remember when i first installed half life 2, i was soo pissed that i had to use steam, at the time i didnt realize the value of steam and i was frustrated because it would not register and all i wanted to do was play, i even sent them an email bitching about it. So i have an idea of what people are going through right now. You pay for something you should be able to use it. Maybe they should have a holding company and EA does not get your money till your up and running? maybe a 24hr play period so you can either refund or fund. the only way to stop this crap from happening is to take your money elsewhere.
i do feel your pain though. good luck!
 
I felt dirty buying mass effect 1 & 2 for my girlfriend (because I loathe EA).

This is just another example of their shitty policies. /circlejerk

I know I'll be buying ME3 used (so EA doesn't get their cut) and none of the DLC will be downloaded for all three games... The only reason I'm buying ME3 for her is because she got so sucked into the story.

After that, EA on the box is just a big DO NOT BUY label, it's just a shame I need to miss out on potentially good games because they buy everyone in sight. I WAS excited for Battlefield 3, until I heard EA was publishing it. Now I won't touch their games.
 
Kaitian said:
C&C4 was a steaming pile of turd and was the last EA game I bought. No more.
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Surprisingly a demo of that, I thought "WTF is this s#!t?" promptly removed, had more fun playing Generals, and the original.
 
dbonetrain said:
Just a quick FYI. Diablo 3 was not stabilised after 1.5 to 2 hours. I was unable to play for about 7-8 hours. We had a LAN setup in my kitchen, the wife was off to bed after a girl's night out, and we had steaks, alcohol, and games installed waiting. Then we called it off after 2 hours of waiting to sleep.
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And to build on that. For a few DAYS after release, there were terrible connection, latency, and additional login issues. Not to mention the random bugs thereafter that disconnected you when you did certain things. I figured that launch night would be like any other Blizzard launch but considering how they've gotten a lot better with wow I also figured I would at least get to play on launch night. I will NEVER buy an always online single player game again.
 
Bladestar said:
Steam's offline mode only works *sometimes*.
They force you to connect, but instead of telling you, that you must go online, they come up with some BS message telling you 'sorry, your offline credentials are not found'.
They just want to authenticate you again.
Click to expand...

At least it's pretty much always based on whether or not YOU have a connection, not their servers fucking up constantly.
 
Here's two questions to anyone who WAS looking forward to this game:

1) For the game, as it is, with the online requirement (and with it WORKING, that is) how much would you think was a fair price to pay for the game?

2)If you were to remove the online requirement and give bigger plots of land for your city instead, would you pay for the full price?

Now I think these are valid questions. I hate EA as much as the next guy, but in the tiny, individual moments where they might actually do something right, I still like to reward them, or at least not be a dick to them all the damn time.
 
EA did an excellent job of deterring me from buying any and all future games from them with this release. The online requirement is obscene enough, but when its THEIR server issues preventing me from playing...........yea, this is it for me. No more Madden, no more Tiger. Sorry EA, I can't with good conscience support you in any way, shape or form.

Back to X-Com and Team Fortress I suppose.
 
ballistic90 said:
Here's two questions to anyone who WAS looking forward to this game:

1) For the game, as it is, with the online requirement (and with it WORKING, that is) how much would you think was a fair price to pay for the game?

2)If you were to remove the online requirement and give bigger plots of land for your city instead, would you pay for the full price?

Now I think these are valid questions. I hate EA as much as the next guy, but in the tiny, individual moments where they might actually do something right, I still like to reward them, or at least not be a dick to them all the damn time.
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1. $20. As it is, I don't feel that I can do everything I want with the city. I'm sure they will add DLC bullshit that makes it so i can do what I want to do. But fuck that. I got more functionality in SimCity 2000/4. You give me a third the functionality, I give you a third of the "normal" market game price.

2. No.

I'm in chat with EA getting a refund now. For me it's more about the principal of the matter than the game. Don't charge people money for a product that you don't allow them to use.

I work hard for my money, they should do the same instead of intentionally gimping their product for the sake of DLC money. We as gamers need to stop rewarding companies like EA when they fuck us over with half-assed & broken games.
 
And suddenly I don't feel so bad paying real money to get space bucks in Eve Online.
 
avatardelta said:
And suddenly I don't feel so bad paying real money to get space bucks in Eve Online.
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Compared to this EA shitfest, that seems like a wise investment.

Personally, I'm on a EA boycott on the PC. I will always think twice about spending money on something that has the EA logo on it.
 
Zomoa said:
Don't charge people money for a product that yo
I work hard for my money, they should do the same instead of intentionally gimping their product for the sake of DLC money. We as gamers need to stop rewarding companies like EA when they fuck us over with half-assed & broken games.
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Like the review I posted a few pages back from Amazon pointed out, its clear they're trying to make SimCity a cash cow, with the example of The Sims 3 given - base game + all the DLC = $450. Verified this myself. So SimCity has jumped that trendy bandwagon of software as a service, you essentially are renting the game and they'll slowly add back features that they took away and call it DLC.

Ignoring all the AODRM and connectivity issues for a moment though my biggest deal breaker and reason for holding off is the gimped city size, combined with the fact they said they have 'larger cities already running' but won't be added yet. I want to build a metropolis not a town. Running multiple smaller cities that are chained together through multiplayer or solo just isn't the same
 
odditory said:
Ignoring all the AODRM and connectivity issues for a moment though my biggest deal breaker and reason for holding off is the gimped city size, combined with the fact they said they have 'larger cities already running' but won't be added yet. I want to build a metropolis not a town. Running multiple smaller cities that are chained together through multiplayer or solo just isn't the same
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So did they confirm that the larger cities will be paid for DLC, or didn't they confirm?

Considering the added complexities (resources like water are finite in some cases), and the graphics engine they are using, I wouldn't be surprised if QA is still being conducted on the larger maps, or that there are converns of performance quality.

If they did confirm that it's a paid DLC/expansion, then that is complete garbage.
 
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