SimCity V (2013) - screens/artwork and information

bigdogchris said:
You guys are going to love this...

via Rockpapershotgun
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Simply astounding, this has surely got be the biggest PR cluster fuck in the history of the video games industry! Easily dwarfs the Diablo 3 debacle by a country mile.

Whats more astonishing is just how little humility they have and the complete absence of respect for their customers. They lied, and keep on lying, and despite being caught with their hands in the cookie jar they continue to lie, obfuscate and use PR double talk in the hope that this whole thing will blow over.

I really hope this incident sticks in peoples' memories to remind them just how dishonest some AAA publishers are when marketing their games in the lead up to release.
 
Just wait till the next COD or other AAA game by EA comes out and watch them take in millions in preorders. People will never learn, and EA knows this. I'm willing to bet good money none of this is Maxis's fault, it's all due to EA, and yes I know they own Maxis.

I hope SimCity is not cancelled and the team that worked for years gets to keep their jobs. If EA had any sense they wold enable offline, however it works, apologize, lower the price and move on. They keep trying to control this disaster and it's not working.
 
The worst part of this is no matter how much worse things get, the head honchos at EA who make the big decisions to force everything online, add DLC, microtransactions etc are not going to be affected.
 
So has anyone actually gotten a refund and been deactivated? I mean if you got a refund why would you get mad if they deactivated the key? Were you guys expecting something for free? I mean its one thing that you inquire and didnt get a refund and get it deactivated but its another if you expect something for free.
 
So on my fifth city attempt I finally got enough hang of the game to make $10million. My city is losing over $60,000 an hour though :p Ill just keep this going and gift my other cities money when I reach $20mil

How much are you guys losing per hr in your cities?
 
///AMG said:
So has anyone actually gotten a refund and been deactivated? I mean if you got a refund why would you get mad if they deactivated the key? Were you guys expecting something for free? I mean its one thing that you inquire and didnt get a refund and get it deactivated but its another if you expect something for free.
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This is what I don't get, it sounds like people that either got a refund from Amazon, or did a chargeback on their CC are pissed that they can no longer play.

WTF Did they expect? This is like going to wal mart to return something you bought and when they ask for the item back before giving you your money back you're like "what? No, I want to also KEEP the item.....but still want my money back!"

It doesn't work that way, if you wanted a refund you should expect to no longer have the game.

I bought it via Amazon and mine still works fine, I don't think anyone who bought from Amazon is having their game's deactivated unless they've gotten a refund/chargedback.
 
MrCrispy said:
Just wait till the next COD or other AAA game by EA comes out and watch them take in millions in preorders. People will never learn, and EA knows this. I'm willing to bet good money none of this is Maxis's fault, it's all due to EA, and yes I know they own Maxis.
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And the name of that next big AAA is Battlefield 4, which *will* make millions in preorders "Preorder Battlefield 4 And Get Exclusive Early Access To The Beta!™" and funny enough they seemed to escalate the hint dropping of revealing the game at the GDC on Mar. 26 with the sudden appearance of "Save The Date" promotionals in the midst of the SimCity backlash. Sure maybe they'd already had it scheduled that way, but the timing is certainly interesting.

In any case if "anti cheating" is so damn important for SimCity (a sandbox game -- go figure - as if anyone gives a shit about leaderboards that will be full of CheatEngine hackers anyway), I dont see any reason they couldn't have made the online/multiplayer/multi-region parts require a connection, and had Offline mode be forced Sandbox mode so they dont factor into leaderboards. That would be the most dead simple solution. The fact they didnt bother means all the doublespeak from Lucy Bradshaw about "embracing social", and "we made an MMO" and "in the spirit of multiplayer" and other such tripe in her latest post is little more than smokescreen for DRM and anti-piracy.
 
odditory said:
And the name of that next big AAA is Battlefield 4, which *will* make millions in preorders "Preorder Battlefield 4 And Get Exclusive Early Access To The Beta!™" and funny enough they seemed to escalate the hint dropping of revealing the game at the GDC on Mar. 26 with the sudden appearance of "Save The Date" promotionals in the midst of the SimCity backlash. Sure maybe they'd already had it scheduled that way, but the timing is certainly interesting.
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Except that BF3 actually turned out to be a major kick to the groin for long standing players who felt that they were misled and lied to by DICE in the lead up to BF3's release and who have been treated as second class citizens in favor of console users.

BF3 sold well based on the good will of the existing player base which expected a proper sequel to BF2, what we got was a half baked pile of shit which was still however sufficient to satisfy a lot of people who wanted an alternative to CoD.

The impression I have from various forums is that many people who would have in the past pre-ordered each BF iteration without hesitation are now very suspicious of and cynical about BF4, particularly given the short development cycle and the host of issues with BF3 which are yet to be fixed. Just look at how badly MoH: Warfighter bombed despite being bundled with beta invites for BF4, whereas I wouldn't be surprised if a large volume of sales of MoH 2010 were incentivised by the BF3 beta.

I guess its entirely possible that the sheeple population will still buy it in droves, but on the other hand just about every major EA release in recent memory has been marred by one controversy or another (e.g. BF3, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Dead Space 3, Sim City) which may be enough to cause consumers to think twice before preordering BF4 (I sure as hell won't be!).
 
///AMG said:
So has anyone actually gotten a refund and been deactivated? I mean if you got a refund why would you get mad if they deactivated the key? Were you guys expecting something for free? I mean its one thing that you inquire and didnt get a refund and get it deactivated but its another if you expect something for free.
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Stiler said:
This is what I don't get, it sounds like people that either got a refund from Amazon, or did a chargeback on their CC are pissed that they can no longer play.

WTF Did they expect? This is like going to wal mart to return something you bought and when they ask for the item back before giving you your money back you're like "what? No, I want to also KEEP the item.....but still want my money back!"

It doesn't work that way, if you wanted a refund you should expect to no longer have the game.

I bought it via Amazon and mine still works fine, I don't think anyone who bought from Amazon is having their game's deactivated unless they've gotten a refund/chargedback.
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Did you read the actual post?

A word of warning to all of you with Amazon keys. After speaking with Amazon support it seems that every single person who bought a key through Amazon and has contacted Amazon regarding the game, for a refund or not, is at risk for deactivation.
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I dont understand who goes through the trouble of contacting Amazon support but then doesn't want a refund?

Customer: "Hi I just wanted to let you know this game blows herds... "
Amazon: "Do you wish for the refund?" <-- notice the accent i threw in there, see that?
Customer: "No, just letting you know it sucks."
 
odditory said:
I dont understand who goes through the trouble of contacting Amazon support but then doesn't want a refund?

Customer: "Hi I just wanted to let you know this game blows herds... "
Amazon: "Do you wish for the refund?" <-- notice the accent i threw in there, see that?
Customer: "No, just letting you know it sucks."
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Some people asked for a refund and I guess they said no? Not sure what the whole story is.
 
odditory said:
I dont understand who goes through the trouble of contacting Amazon support but then doesn't want a refund?

Customer: "Hi I just wanted to let you know this game blows herds... "
Amazon: "Do you wish for the refund?" <-- notice the accent i threw in there, see that?
Customer: "No, just letting you know it sucks."
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techie81 said:
Some people asked for a refund and I guess they said no? Not sure what the whole story is.
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Sometimes people contact Amazon to complain about the abysmal service and or seedy activities of a seller or product on Amazon. I did it during the Touchpad debacle. As always, if you don't let someone know you're pissed and someone needs to shape-up, everyone assumes everything is hunky-dory.
 
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Si...yone-Online-City-Thanks-Always-DRM-53685.html

Since the top brass at EA were dumb enough to go through with the hated and repined always-on DRM, there were consequences to be had. SimCity has been a disaster in the media circles since launch all because of the DRM, and now things have gone to the next level as a hack has been discovered that lets anyone invade any of the online cities and lay waste to them...permanently.

CVG noted that EA's director of communications, Erik Reynolds, has been transparent about removing all talk about hacks on the official EA forums due to their terms of service, as noted in Reynolds' tweet.

As a quick recap: Modders found out that you can play SimCity in offline mode as a single-player game. In addition to playing the game offline, the modders have also opened up additional things like larger cities, expanded highways and better population management. In other words, they fixed the broken game that EA shoved down your throats.

However, with all this good news also comes some bad news. Modders have also discovered that it's possible to mess with files client-side to affect server-side activity. I think you all know where this is going.

Basically, as the video shows below, you can enter into another person's online town and wreak havoc, however the modder notes that he turned off synching to the server so as not to actually cause permanent harm to his friend's city.

It's still awesome because this hack is only as destructive as it is because of EA's decision to make the game always-on. If the game hadn't had always-on DRM then this hack wouldn't be half as devastating as it is. Having EA delete these kind of topics from their forums is great damage control but don't be surprised if there's another furor when people start raging on the forums when some hacker decides to go through and Godzilla everyone's town. Enjoy.
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Bahahahahahaha! :D
 
Blade-Runner said:
Except that BF3 actually turned out to be a major kick to the groin for long standing players who felt that they were misled and lied to by DICE in the lead up to BF3's release and who have been treated as second class citizens in favor of console users.

BF3 sold well based on the good will of the existing player base which expected a proper sequel to BF2, what we got was a half baked pile of shit which was still however sufficient to satisfy a lot of people who wanted an alternative to CoD.

The impression I have from various forums is that many people who would have in the past pre-ordered each BF iteration without hesitation are now very suspicious of and cynical about BF4, particularly given the short development cycle and the host of issues with BF3 which are yet to be fixed. Just look at how badly MoH: Warfighter bombed despite being bundled with beta invites for BF4, whereas I wouldn't be surprised if a large volume of sales of MoH 2010 were incentivised by the BF3 beta.

I guess its entirely possible that the sheeple population will still buy it in droves, but on the other hand just about every major EA release in recent memory has been marred by one controversy or another (e.g. BF3, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Dead Space 3, Sim City) which may be enough to cause consumers to think twice before preordering BF4 (I sure as hell won't be!).
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I'm a BF guy, and there is no way in hell I'll be pre-ordering BF4 after BF3. I got the game Dec 2011 (game came out 2011/12), I finally stopped having server problems until like 4 months of getting the game, and of course the hacks and bugs are STILL in the game.

I want in on Simcity, but I'm waiting until they unfuck things.
 
techie81 said:
Did you read the actual post?
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I don't think they did.
Skripka said:
Sometimes people contact Amazon to complain about the abysmal service and or seedy activities of a seller or product on Amazon. I did it during the Touchpad debacle. As always, if you don't let someone know you're pissed and someone needs to shape-up, everyone assumes everything is hunky-dory.
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Some people had problems solved with technical support too.
 
I had to hound Amazon for a few days before they gave me my refund on my digital download version of SimCity.

They kept bouncing me to EA, and EA kept bouncing me back to Amazon. After the backlash from the game REALLY started to get bad is when Amazon gave me my $50 dollars back.

And yes -- it will eventually be removed from your Origin library - mine disappeared about 4 days after I got my money back. Good riddance.

I don't see why anyone would be pissed when it gets removed from your library - you got your money back, you shouldn't get to play. Funny enough in the few days lag time before they removed it, I fired it up. (after they said they made all their server fixes and patches) and guess what I still couldn't fucking get onto a server or load any of my cities due to errors.

It would be so much easier for EA to just shutup, eat crow, make the game offline, fix the AI, lower the price, and basically do everything they should have from the start. But they are a lumbering idiot game killing corporation. So that won't happen.

Sucks that they have the Battlefield game under their wing -- I have actually gotten 500 hours of GOOD gaming time out of that game, hate to see how they are going to screw the next one up.
 
Just noticed on the server status page that over half of the servers (almost all) are full to new players and only available to those with existing regions.

This is going to get ugly when they run out of room for new players.
 
techie81 said:
Did you read the actual post?
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At "risk" with ZERO proof it's happed.

Yet the only people I've read that had it deactivated are people who either got a refund or did a chargeback.

There's NO ONE that I've seen say "my game was decactivated even though I didn't get a refund or do a chargeback."
 
Stiler said:
At "risk" with ZERO proof it's happed.

Yet the only people I've read that had it deactivated are people who either got a refund or did a chargeback.

There's NO ONE that I've seen say "my game was decactivated even though I didn't get a refund or do a chargeback."
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Except the OP of that thread. I was just saying its crazy if its true. I have seen a few others saying the same thing.

I mean at this point I don't care but would it really surprise anyone that they did something like this?
 
bigdogchris said:
Just noticed on the server status page that over half of the servers (almost all) are full to new players and only available to those with existing regions.

This is going to get ugly when they run out of room for new players.
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Why you complain? Be patience and thankful to EA for great cloud feature. Your game is always update!
 
Worst launch in gaming history? Can't really think of anything else. This has almost reached the mainstream press.
 
lilbabycat said:
personally I don't consider it mainstream until it's on yahoo news
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Have to agree. I associate Forbes and Times to be more upscale media while yahoo panders to the lowest common denominator. Forbes/Times is like Arma or BF while yahoo is like COD...at least thats my opinion.
 
Stiler said:
Isn't the "times" and "forbes" both mainstream press?
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Times tech articles? No. Forbes tech articles? Fuck no. Go read that shit, its online only and the forbes tech guys are utter morons. Far from mainstream and neither will ever see the light of day in the actual publication. Just a couple blog posts on their sites.
 
'Video games cause violence' - complete nonsense and a total lie, yet repeated in every newspaper, tv show and news report. That's mainstream press/media.
 
you know they fucked up big, when even the mainstream press shows up for the feeding frenzy. another amusing bit I don't think was posted here yet, someone over at neogaf figured out how to play in offline mode:

kNoRepeatNetworkAlertSeconds : 15,
kNetDownForceQuitAfterMinutes : 20,
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2 lines of js, that's all it takes. no saving of course since they didn't bother to make the ui elements for it, but there you go. I'm sure there's a way to work it so that a trigger could be added to fire up the connection again at some point and have it upload the save as well, like in user specified increments or the end of your session.
 
when they come up with a way to make the play area bigger I'll jump back in. Right now, after you figure out how it all works it kind of gets boring.
 
remotely interested in what the free game is going to be and I highly doubt it will be worthwhile otherwise, I'm done with Origin/EA in the near future. I've had my fill of Battlefield and Need for Speed and Mass Effect has been destroyed so not much to see here.

Also - I cant believe IGN gave it a 7/10. AHAHAHAH DAN STAPLETONS AN IMBECILE. Too Bad IGN wasn't shuttered along with Gamespy.
 
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