Electronic Arts Suspends SimCity Marketing - UPDATED

WouldYouKindly

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Lord_Jaroh said:
WouldYouKindly said:
Rule #1 of picking up online multiplayer focused games: DO NOT PICK UP ON LAUNCH DAY!

Actually, I'm kinda waiting to get my new PC though. My laptop can run it, but it'll look like ass so there's that.
Don't pick up the game at all. If you buy this game, you are part of the problem.

Just say no to bullshit DRM.
I don't risk that with EA. They just assume the dev is the problem and shut them down.

Also, we broke Ubisoft of their bad habit by continuing to buy their games and constantly bitching about it. EA might be more dense, but they'll figure it out eventually... hopefully.

I'm also not completely opposed to what they are trying to do. It's difficult to get a city to interact how it should, let alone get more cities to interact with each other in significant ways. So yeah, there's that.
 

Groenteman

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'We want people to buy our game, so we use allways online DRM!' Theres so much wrong with this, but not enough for EA!

'We want allways online DRM, so people realy need to stop buying our game!' This company should burn and die. Evolution demands it.
 

Malk_Content

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Mar 20, 2011
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WouldYouKindly said:
Lord_Jaroh said:
WouldYouKindly said:
Rule #1 of picking up online multiplayer focused games: DO NOT PICK UP ON LAUNCH DAY!

Actually, I'm kinda waiting to get my new PC though. My laptop can run it, but it'll look like ass so there's that.
Don't pick up the game at all. If you buy this game, you are part of the problem.

Just say no to bullshit DRM.
I don't risk that with EA. They just assume the dev is the problem and shut them down.

Also, we broke Ubisoft of their bad habit by continuing to buy their games and constantly bitching about it. EA might be more dense, but they'll figure it out eventually... hopefully.

I'm also not completely opposed to what they are trying to do. It's difficult to get a city to interact how it should, let alone get more cities to interact with each other in significant ways. So yeah, there's that.
Actually we broke Ubisoft when Valve decided to let all users who bought From Dust a no questions asked refund based on the DRM policy Ubisoft put in place. Ubisoft learned not because we complained but gave them money anyway, but because we showed them how many people wanted the product (initial sales) but are unwilling to put up with bulshit (amount of refunds within 24hrs.)
 

Li Mu

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I refuse to install Origin on my lovely machine. To do so would be like rubbing shit over a brand new expensive suit...or deliberately infecting yourself with AIDS.
That's right, EA is a horrible disease.

I'm not normally one to boycott or ***** about a company, but I really don't want to buy any EA products. Luckily, it's easy for me since I don't want any of the games they are currently publishing.
 

The Lugz

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Apr 23, 2011
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oh, really? every game should be online multiplayer only should it ea?

hmm

shame ya'll don't know your ass from your elbow when networking comes into it
that's right folks, the internet cannot support this kind of game! ( by itself at-least )

why? when packets get lost ( they inevitably do, by many means that i wont go into. ) things get out of sync and your game has irreparable conflicts
saved in it's database ( you loose progress, get reset, loose items, resources failing to be retrieved, ect ect. )
or it runs like a snail waiting for things to be re-sent

( ever had a webpage freeze, run like a slug or load a whole bunch of symbols and nonsense?, this is why things break, s&^t happens. )

now imagine sending a request every time anything happens in a game ( any variable change, position update, resource change, ect )
times that by the number of people playing and the number of people co dependant on each other in a multiplayer session
clearly then, it's a recipe for disaster

this is usually resolvable with custom networking systems, latency tolerant code, and some simplifications
( ea chose the cheap option, you should note. )
that's ontop of the fact that it's a brand new game and inevitably there will be some bugs in the code too
and when those bugs collide well be ready for your account to die.
nobody can really predict what might happen, other than the generic game modifiable data gets erased or cant be resolved and crashes.
( your cloud saves break )

the game will need to be re-coded to some degree or have a database sanitize-r ( google, i just don't believe that's a word. ) of some kind built into the server

and yes, as a matter of fact i have a copy of sybex windows networking on my desk right now!
maby i should mail ea a copy.

and we can avoid this stupidity in the future.
 

Poetic Nova

Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
Jan 24, 2012
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spartandude said:
EA - "one small side step for technology, one giant leap backwards for the industry"
More like this: EA - "one small step for technology, one giant leap of failure"

OT: They wen't from being ignored to completely boycotted in less then a second after reading this news. They continu to screw their customers.
 

Signa

Noisy Lurker
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Jul 16, 2008
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You can tell things are bad when EA doesn't want any more peoples' money.

I have to wonder if things are so bad, they are trying to recode part of the game in a patch, instead of getting a lot of new hardware into the mix. If that's the case, I'm just waiting for the news of the patch server crashing due to the high demand too.
 

RedDeadFred

Illusions, Michael!
May 13, 2009
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Kalezian said:
ViciousTide said:
Never going to post or view this website again, because this Star Craft 2 ad blocks up 90% of my screen when trying to comment.
because as we all are aware by now, there is no 'close' button on the top right hand corner of the ad.


dont worry, Im sure /vg/ will be more accommodating.
You have the perfect avatar for that response.

OT: Wow, this has gotten really out of hand for them. I didn't realize just how badly they fucked this up. I guess that's because one of my friends bought the game and he hasn't had any problems yet. He must have gotten pretty damn lucky by the looks of it.
 

Skeleon

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FEichinger said:
ohnoitsabear said:
The plus side to this mess is that it seems highly unlikely that EA is going to try always-on DRM again anytime soon. The SimCity launch has just been too much of a disaster. Hell, this may even encourage other companies to not do similar things in the future.
We saw how well that worked out with Diablo 3.
Exactly. Folks can stomp their feet and yell all they want, but as long as they still buy these games developers and especially their publishers will keep doing it. I haven't bought any of these always-on DRM games and I wish more people didn't. The wallet's the only place where these publishers might listen.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Legion said:
Wow, they really screwed this one up, didn't they?

I find it strange more than anything else. This is not a small company trying to do something big, this is one of the industries largest, and they can't even manage it.

Who the hell tested all of this? Why did they not do it more thoroughly?

I just can't see it from their perspective, how they couldn't have this sort of thing sorted out. They need to win people over more than any other company.
Nobody tested this. What, you expect odern age companeis to do any actual testing? are you mad? all they do is release apha state games and blame the users for not "reporting bugs good enough".

They dont need to win people,because gaming industry is this strnage beast, where everyone complains but still throws money in abundance at people they complain about.

Kalezian said:
ViciousTide said:
Never going to post or view this website again, because this Star Craft 2 ad blocks up 90% of my screen when trying to comment.
because as we all are aware by now, there is no 'close' button on the top right hand corner of the ad.
does not matter.
ANY advertisement that pops up from its designated window to overlay any other information should not only be purged by fire but
 

Ashannon Blackthorn

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Sep 5, 2011
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Ickabod said:
I'm actually getting a bit of entertainment out of this trainwreck. Considering that I spend $60 on the game, it does help offset that expense.

Tune in next week when Starcraft 2 blows up the internet too.
So I wonder how much Blizzard is going "Oh shit, not a SimCity launch, oh shit not a SimCVity launch...." :)
 

Don Reba

Bishop and Councilor of War
Jun 2, 2009
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Adam Jensen said:
How could they not see this coming? It happens with every game that demands constant connection in order to run.
I'm sure that at some point there was a long meeting with a PowerPoint presentation on why this time would have been different.
 

Luca72

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Dec 6, 2011
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Consumers gonna consume, and EA will probably not learn their lesson in that regard. I'm sure these broken-ass AAA games will sell more in their first month than FTL or The Witness ever will. But if EA is actually making a concerted effort to remove advertisements for the game, that means one irrefutable thing - they are losing enough money to be forced to take action.

There's no way EA is going to walk away without learning something.
 

R.Nevermore

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Mar 28, 2008
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I don't know where you guys are getting this... But I'm guessing that it was blown out of proportion by the EA hate machine. But EA is NOT refusing refunds anywhere. There was one case where a customer service rep fucked up and refused, but isolated incidents don't render company policy.
 

Tien Shen

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Mar 25, 2010
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Once again, draconian DRM intended to combat piracy ends up inconveniencing LEGITIMATE owners who actually paid for it.
 

Eveonline100

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Feb 20, 2011
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ohnoitsabear said:
The plus side to this mess is that it seems highly unlikely that EA is going to try always-on DRM again anytime soon. The SimCity launch has just been too much of a disaster. Hell, this may even encourage other companies to not do similar things in the future.

While it certainly sucks that loads of people can't effectively play something they paid sixty dollars for, I do think that SimCity's horrific launch will probably be good for the long-term, as it will probably reduce the amount of draconian DRM that companies use. And less draconian DRM is certainly good for the consumer.
Never under estimate the stupidity of both EA and corporations in general.