Electronic Arts Disables "Non-Critical" SimCity Features - UPDATED

[itsthesheppy]

I just want you know, life over here in "I've never dealt with Origin and I don't purchase EA products" is going very well.

Eventually, the market will learn. EA's long, protracted, bloated death will come sooner or later. I'm keen to be patient, while playing good games made by respectable developers.

 

[Gorrath]

So get this. That Adrian person/whatever...isn't wrong or misrepresenting company policy at all.

https://help.ea.com/article/returns-and-cancellations

Relevant text

What is your refund policy for PC digital downloads?
Unfortunately, EA does not offer refunds on any products downloaded through Origin. EA reserves the right, however, to offer refunds under exceptional circumstances at its sole discretion.

That is highly questionable, to say the least.
Caveat emptor.

It's not great, granted. But tell me, does Valve offer refunds on any product downloaded through Steam? I know about the Day Z thing, but that was A) an exceptional circumstance, and B) done at their discretion.

There's another rather sizeable part to this equation that seems to get missed a lot in these conversations. It isn't simply what a company's policies are, but how they employ those policies. In my very long time with Steam, I only ever felt the need to ask for a refund once. In my very short time with Origin, it happened twice. In the case of Steam, my request was granted. In the cases of Origin, neither was granted.

Valve has earned great goodwill from me by providing me an immense amount of hassle free gaming, and so I do not have to run afoul of any Valve policy I might find problematic. EA on the other hand has garnered no such goodwill because of the lack of quality gaming I've had on the platform mixed with how they employ those exact same policies. It may be true that EA and Valve even have the exact same language in their TOS, but this doesn't matter to me in the least so long as my overall experience with one is positive and the other a constant headache.

Of course I would never begrudge anyone their opinion of the two companies if their own experiences were reversed. However based on the usual flotilla of hate launched EA's way, I can only guess that many have had the same sort of experiences I have had.

 

[james.sponge]

I am in shock.

Nobody saw this coming, especially after Diablo 3's stellar launch.

Oh wait.

I love how people can't seem to wrap their heads around how hard it is to organize, set-up, protect, and keep hundreds of millions of people on servers at once.

Nope. It is all easy. Simple as flipping a switch.

/facedesk

Sure it's hard, but EA must have known this thing would happen but they decided to go with DRM anyway. I sincerely cannot understand the logic of those guys 'we will get lots of bad press, our reputation among customers will be undermined... f*uck it, launch the DRM!'

 

[Ldude893]

I'm just eating my vinegar popcorn while watching this wonderful, wonderful commotion.
I'm not going to press my luck, but I hope whatever 'reputation' EA gains from this be impossible to get rid of, unless they actually start treating their customers well.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Fair enough. I just wanted to make sure you were aware that this policy is not just an EA thing. I have nothing against people sticking to their guns over something they are against. Where the problem comes in is when people complain about EA doing something that Valve has been doing for a while without complaint, just because they think Valve is better than EA.

Bringing up Steam is something of a Strawman to my original point, since this was more about discussing what Origin's policy was and why people are not guaranteed a refund (quite the opposite, really); however, I do believe that your point has further merit as a word of caution given the changing reality of the gaming business.

I do not dispute that while Valve has earned their largely positive reputation, however, they have implemented a number of changes to their EULA and policy that makes me doubt their goodwill towards customers will continue indefinitely and why I have taken a more passive stance when the tired Origin vs Steam argument is brought up.

To butcher an analogy:
If you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out immediately, but if you put a frog into lukewarm water, and slowly heat it up, it will gladly tolerate it till death.

 

[Something Amyss]

Agreed, and you know the "Servers cost moneys!" excuse doesnt even fly, because its not like EA wouldnt be able to find another use for a few less than used servers after the launch rush was over.

Plus, you know what else costs money? Games. Like the one that a ton of people paid for and can't play.

 

[Agente L]

Well, this is a slap to the face to everyone who say "Get better internet" to people that dislike always online drm.

Just like Diablo 3 was.

 

[RicoADF]

I like that their always-on DRM bullshit causing EA grief, but I am dismayed at the same time because it means that a lot of people bought it.

EA, with their unending Tunnel Vision that can only see the bottom line, will see the massive sales and think "Okay, gamers don't care if the game is always online and has microtransactions. I guess we'll make that mandatory for everything now! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!" They don't care if people are unhappy with the product, they paid a non-refundable sum (Just because they said "you can ask for" a refund, doesn't mean they'll give you one, because they wont).

Ugh.

It doesn't matter what they say, some places have laws that require them to refund a faulty product.

OT: its unfortuent that its come to this, buying a game on launch is worse than waiting for a discount. EA has turned economy on its head and not in its favor.

 

[gibboss28]

I am in shock.

Nobody saw this coming, especially after Diablo 3's stellar launch.

Oh wait.

I love how people can't seem to wrap their heads around how hard it is to organize, set-up, protect, and keep hundreds of millions of people on servers at once.

Nope. It is all easy. Simple as flipping a switch.

/facedesk

If EA wants to use a system like this then they should have been prepared for this eventuality, clearly they weren't. I agree, not easy, but if you want to do something like this then be prepared.

 

[weirdee]

Oh, look, all of the features that forced multiplayer and online capabilities were supposed to support had to be disabled, because the servers were unable to handle the load of.....THE GAMES THEY KNEW THEY WERE EXPECTING TO SELL.

At this rate we could get our money back if we sell memberships to the "failed online" club. The floor is paved with the shattered remnants of all the claims that online only is the way of the future.

Btw, did anybody notice how fucking obnoxious the kid in the SC commercial was?

 

[Fireprufe15]

EA guess what! I have a solution for you that is WAY cheaper than getting more servers and such. Patch out the DRM, like now. Just do it.

 

[Doom972]

What? Always online DRM causes server overload and people can't play? This never happened before!!!

Is anybody really surprised? What should be surprising is that so many people bought it in the first place. I wonder if it was mostly due to people not knowing about it, not caring, or being too overhyped about a new SimCity game.

At least when it happened to Ubisoft, they toned it down to just checking with the server when starting the game and when exiting. I think they completely disabled it for some of their games.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Yeah, I'm not celebrating here. Sim City 2000 was one of my all-time favorite games, and although I really didn't like its immediate sequel, to see this happen to the franchise... it's kinda sickening.

 

[KelDG]

I am in shock.

Nobody saw this coming, especially after Diablo 3's stellar launch.

Oh wait.

I love how people can't seem to wrap their heads around how hard it is to organize, set-up, protect, and keep hundreds of millions of people on servers at once.

Nope. It is all easy. Simple as flipping a switch.

/facedesk

Are you being sarcastic with the hundreds of millions thing? I honestly can't tell.

PS: BTW I am not being sarcastic with this post.

PPS: That last statement also was not sarcasm.

 

[gibboss28]

I am in shock.

Nobody saw this coming, especially after Diablo 3's stellar launch.

Oh wait.

I love how people can't seem to wrap their heads around how hard it is to organize, set-up, protect, and keep hundreds of millions of people on servers at once.

Nope. It is all easy. Simple as flipping a switch.

/facedesk

Are you being sarcastic with the hundreds of millions thing? I honestly can't tell.

PS: BTW I am not being sarcastic with this post.

PPS: That last statement also was not sarcasm.

What about that last last statement, was that?

 

[Woodsey]

I am in shock.

Nobody saw this coming, especially after Diablo 3's stellar launch.

Oh wait.

I love how people can't seem to wrap their heads around how hard it is to organize, set-up, protect, and keep hundreds of millions of people on servers at once.

Nope. It is all easy. Simple as flipping a switch.

/facedesk

Try "a few million", at most. And perhaps they should have thought of that beforehand.

 

[direkiller]

So get this. That Adrian person/whatever...isn't wrong or misrepresenting company policy at all.

https://help.ea.com/article/returns-and-cancellations

Relevant text

What is your refund policy for PC digital downloads?
Unfortunately, EA does not offer refunds on any products downloaded through Origin. EA reserves the right, however, to offer refunds under exceptional circumstances at its sole discretion.

That is highly questionable, to say the least.
Caveat emptor.

It's not great, granted. But tell me, does Valve offer refunds on any product downloaded through Steam? I know about the Day Z thing, but that was A) an exceptional circumstance, and B) done at their discretion.

I think gamers gate is the only one who takes returns NQA on digital products within a certain time.

 

[KelDG]

I don't understand the reasoning here. If a company insists on selling their games as a service instead of a product, the difficulty of that business model is not a valid defense for incompetence. EA made the design decisions here and should be held fully accountable for delivering the promised product when it is purchased, not at some later, unspecified date with several features still missing. What's worse is blaming the paying customers for being upset about the situation, as if their expectation of a working service is somehow unreasonable. My inability to grasp the difficult logistics of running a restaurant should in now way preclude me from complaining that my food was served cold, three hours after I ordered it, with half the meal missing.

Thank you. You have written in text exactly what has been bouncing around my head while reading all these threads. I really do not understand people defending this mess. It is as if they have already given up on hoping to be treated well, and are quite happy and enthusiastic to defend being treated like crap. I really don't get the attitude.