SimCity - EA shows us all how to ruin a landmark game with DRM.

[40hz]

From the It Just Keeps Getting Worse Playbook.

EA has elevated hubris to a whole new level. Check out this recent posting over at TechDirt (link here)

Maxis GM: Our Vision Is More Important Than Our Customers & Lots Of People Love Our Crappy DRM
from the so,-so-much-wrong dept

Well, it's been several hours, so obviously someone must have done something stupid over at the SimCity franchise. I could run through a long list of links from our coverage of this debacle, but I'll make it easy on you. The key links are the launch debacle, the backlash, and the evidence that all of this is wholly unnecessary. That last one is important because during the initial stages of this muck up, EA/Maxis came out hard, saying that offline modes were logistically impossible because of all the cloud-based resources needed to run the games simulation calculations. The evidence in the link proves rather conclusively that that is absolutely not the case. In that post, I had suggested that it was time for the game's producers to finally come out with a strong mea culpa. Here is that mea culpa, from Maxis GM Lucy Bradshaw:

    So, could we have built a subset offline mode? Yes. But we rejected that idea because it didn't fit with our vision. We did not focus on the "single city in isolation" that we have delivered in past SimCities. We recognize that there are fans – people who love the original SimCity – who want that. But we're also hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the Always-Connected functionality. The SimCity we delivered captures the magic of its heritage but catches up with ever-improving technology.

Okay, so it isn't so much a mea culpa as a, "Hey, customers, why don't you go outside and play hide and go f@#$ yourself!" ...

 

[KynloStephen66515]

[kyrathaba]

@Stephen:

The ones I DO buy, I buy so I can play offline (Older games) - And I buy hard copies only.

+1

[KynloStephen66515]

[pilgrim]

I have never been a gamer and these days anything that requires quick reactions is beyond me anyway.
I did put MS Pinball on Windows 7 but I suspect a 3 year old could beat my highest score.

I am not sure if I had ever heard of SimCity until the fiasco with version 5, around the same time I found a Java version of Micropolis which I downloaded (all 1MB of it) and not only found it quite interesting but I can actually keep up with it.

The following week I found a new copy of SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition on Amazon for just a few pounds so in a 'what the hell' moment I bought one.
I have to confess that I have not got as far as installing it yet (still wading through the instruction book).
There's no rush, it's 10 years old already so I guess it will keep.

[gameaddict20]

I don't think I've seen any game, hackers haven't managed to hack. So all EA are doing with this DRM software is pissing off their real customers

Here's a link to a much better game :-)

-f0dder (March 08, 2013, 07:39 PM)

Couldn't agree more, love that game!

[KynloStephen66515]

No matter how much I hate EA...I can't deny I fucking LOVE the Army of Two series, the new one Army of Two: The Devils Cartel is beyond awesome.

Yes it is expensive (£60 on PSN) but, luckily a friend of mine bought a hard copy, and we borrowed it to complete the story mode

Although, if he had bought on PSN, we would have just done what we do with everything else...login to the other persons account, download it, and enjoy playing it

Done it with a few games on PSN now, including DRM for games (More recently, the Revolution pack for Black Ops 2) - Split the cost, share across PS3s.

 

[justice]

Controversially, I like the game I'm aware of the limitations of the simulation but that's how I treat all games regardless, so the problems are just challenges to me. So far have not found anything that I can't build around.

[Deozaan]

Done it with a few games on PSN now, including DRM for games

-Stephen66515 (April 03, 2013, 08:41 AM)

You mean DLC for games? Why would you want to share DRM? And how does that even work?

[KynloStephen66515]

Yes...DLC...All this talk of DRM screwed with my brain