They still sell Sim City?

[Tev]

Well, apparently they don't sell it very well...

Despite positive reviews from many critics, EA's disastrous SimCity launch might go down as one of the worst debacles in the history of gaming. How bad is it? So bad that Amazon briefly stopped selling SimCity not 48 hours after its launch.

According to the BBC, Amazon temporarily suspended digital sales of SimCity on March 7 after customers complained that they were not able to connect to the game's servers. While the sale of the game resumed after a few hours, there is now a warning alerting potential buyers to EA's ongoing server woes.

SimCity, the latest iteration of the classic city-building simulation, requires players to be online to play. That aspect is a game-changer in the literal sense; previous titles in the series were single-player, standalone applications.

EA has spun the change in design as a way to introduce a social element to the game, but some critics said that it is primarily an anti-piracy strategy. And the connectivity issues are not sitting well with consumers.

Outrage over the "Always Online" Digital Rights Management (DRM) in SimCity has spawned a Change.org petition asking EA to remove the feature from it and all future games.

But no, I recently started seeing ads for Sim city on TV and was confused because I was pretty sure that game died out in the 90's once we all started playing God on a more personal level with The Sims and its endless iterations.

Anyway, apparently this new relaunch is full of bugs and glitches (beyond the whole "trying to hide online DRM as social networking and failing miserably" thing) and is just downright poor quality all around. I'm kind of sad about that since I was thinking about giving it a spin for old time's sake.

[Bells]

There are a few Sim city-alike games out there. Cities in Motion XL for example... Sim city is just your typical reboot...

EA is burning out spectacularly, they survive on Hype and burning rage alone now... speically since they haven't caught up to the fact that you can bypass the "always online" feature in a pirated game really easy. So, it's pointless for one... and counter intuitive at the same time.

They managed to drive their very own FPS brand to the ground... they actually managed to beat a dead horse to death with that one! Then, there was the entire "Dead space is totally horror sci fi you guys!! srzly!", and now this...

Just you wait untill E3 when they annouce the new Mass Effect 4 Prequel will be Full Online Coop all the time semi-MMORPG game... just you watch...

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Tev

is just downright poor quality all around

I've actually heard the opposite, and that the real tragedy is that the game, itself, when you are, on rare occasion, allowed to play, is pretty damn good.

That said, with a launch like this, it may as well be complete trash because buying it is like telling EA that, no, really, you like it this way. Lube and foreplay are just distracting.

[Loyal]

As I mentioned in chat...

(14:29:51) Loyal: Basically Sim City's built from the ground up to support always-online DRM.
(14:30:20) Loyal: because something about game calculations being partially held server-side to help people with slower computers play the game.
(14:30:47) Loyal: so if your internet flickers, you get booted. And playing while on the go or in other non-ideal conditions is just not happening.
(14:31:30) Loyal: Further, despite the extensive testing for exactly that purpose, SimCity still pulled a Diablo 3 and failed to have enough servers running at launch to handle the stress.
(14:32:42) Loyal: There's also complaints about the game feeling too simple, and of cities being more like small villages in terms of size, and airports, and some other stuff that I don't remember because I didn't pick up the game.
(14:37:05) Loyal: But yeah, people are mostly pissed that a single player game once again requires a persistent internet connection.
(14:37:11) Loyal: And there's' no offline mode.

Citation on the calculations bit.

I'm sure it'll be pirated eventually, but it'll take some time because they need to figure out how to get the game to use the PC for all of its calculations and not connect to EA. There's always the possibility EA's lying out its ass about this, but I imagine it'd be mighty embarrassing if their hail mary of anti-piracy turned out to be a bluff.

[Sifright]

Originally Posted by Loyal

As I mentioned in chat...



Citation on the calculations bit.

I'm sure it'll be pirated eventually, but it'll take some time because they need to figure out how to get the game to use the PC for all of its calculations and not connect to EA. There's always the possibility EA's lying out its ass about this, but I imagine it'd be mighty embarrassing if their hail mary of anti-piracy turned out to be a bluff.

doesn't matter how they've done it some one will reverse engineer a way to perform the calculations client side.

Would require a packet sniffer and debug hook into the games dlls but the game being pirated is inevitable.

[Bells]

Actually, i know people were trying but i`m not aware of anybody actually succeeding in pirating Diablo 3 completely. So, with the information i have right now... yeah, Always online DRM actually "works" as a means to stop direct piracy... sure...

It is still hugely invasive, counter intuitive and unfriendly to the user. Ea is just shoving it down on us with it, because they are hoping if they do it enough eventually we'll just take it as "This is just how it is"

[Loyal]

NFL Player Chris Kluwe also thinks Sim City's handling is bullshit.

[Sifright]

Originally Posted by Bells

Actually, i know people were trying but i`m not aware of anybody actually succeeding in pirating Diablo 3 completely. So, with the information i have right now... yeah, Always online DRM actually "works" as a means to stop direct piracy... sure...

It is still hugely invasive, counter intuitive and unfriendly to the user. Ea is just shoving it down on us with it, because they are hoping if they do it enough eventually we'll just take it as "This is just how it is"

no it doesn't, as an example Settlers seven is always online drm you can't even save games client side as standard.

it's been pirated and all of the protection schemes Ubisoft came up with are emulated client side curtsy of Razor 1911.

If a cracking group decides they want to spend the time to break game protection because they think the challenge is worthwhile it will be broken.

[Aldurin]

Remember back when EA had sensible approaches to development?

Me neither.

[Aerozord]

I am fairly anti-piracy, but I still want DRM to die in a fire burning and screaming. Stop punishing people who legitimately purchase your game. DRM turns the pirated version into the superior easier to use one. Stop giving them ammunition on why your system sucks