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[jamesinclair]

So Lucy just reponded to questions about refunds... no surprise here



https://twitter.com/simcity/status/310485833700487169

Except that it's terrible customer service considering the circumstances, and is the thing that irks me the most. Instead of being flexible with their Origin DD policy, they want to shove it in your face and then offer you a free game in a few weeks from some unknown selection. If they can dig in with the damage control and spin for a week or so, they'll have fixed many of the problems. The magnitude of backlash and frustration will subside and they can sweep it under the rug.

Absolutely idiotic.

The no return policy on opened games is so people can't make a copy and return the original.

That's obviously not an issue here. Further, there are no return costs.....no packaging etc

Idiotic

 

[Metroidvania]

If they can dig in with the damage control and spin for a week or so, they'll have fixed many of the problems. The magnitude of backlash and frustration will subside and they can sweep it under the rug.

Yeah, this is the game plan.

It's worked many a time, gaming consumers tend to have short but vocal attention spans as a larger audience.

Will this bad press stop people from buying in the future? Possibly, though probably limited to this game and not EA in general. Doesn't really matter so much anymore to EA tho, they've made their huge front-load sales with no real risk of refunds, and with the DLC market obviously being a thing for Sim games, they've still got plenty of revenue sources.

 

[Psychoward]

might be know already but these might be the games that sim city owners will get for free

Oh my god, lol, NFS The Run? Jesus christ

 

[JehutyRunner]

This was actually retweeted by the SimCity account.

 

[BigJonsson]

Haha I noticed that, I did a double take

 

[MIMIC]

They posted in the unemployed thread though.

DISTRACTION! +5

Sorry, I'm from HaloGAF.

WUH OH

FIRST STRIKE! +5

 

[JABEE]

So Lucy just reponded to questions about refunds... no surprise here



https://twitter.com/simcity/status/310485833700487169

Except that it's terrible customer service considering the circumstances, and is the thing that irks me the most. Instead of being flexible with their Origin DD policy, they want to shove it in your face and then offer you a free game in a few weeks from some unknown selection. If they can dig in with the damage control and spin for a week or so, they'll have fixed many of the problems. The magnitude of backlash and frustration will subside and they can sweep it under the rug.

This is just nonsense. EA deserves the hate they get. No refunds is a joke. The game doesn't work.

 

[Kade]

This was actually retweeted by the SimCity account.

Their response

https://twitter.com/simcity/status/310490053803646976

@derekdonovan Hey, this is on Maxis. EA does not force design upon us. We own it, we are working 24/7 to fix it, and we are making progress

 

[Unstoppable Lionheart]

Their response

https://twitter.com/simcity/status/310490053803646976

Honestly, after all the companies EA has trashed, who would believe that?

 

[eot]

Honestly, after all the companies EA has trashed, who would believe that?

Well what the hell are they going to say?
Lying might get you banned, but being honest gets you fired.

 

[Escape Goat]

GlassBox responds on Reddit (though no way to verify his identity obviously)

Ok, so this is GlassBox. I want to try to clear this up as best as I can. I am a former EA employee, though haven't been employed by the company for well over a year now. I in no way was deliberately trying to "force a narrative" in so much as I was trying to clarify things about the "DRM" to the best of my ability, though I'm not an engineer. I was simply trying to explain there's more work going on with these severs than a simple "DRM check" and that there is no "quick fix" that can be done to make the game offline.

And I certainly wasn't trying to say "this game is so awesome! Go and buy it right now!" I made that final thread just before I went to bed, simply wanting to hear what members would say about it as it was new news. When I woke up, I was banned, and of course, have no way of clearing things up on that forum now. That's all I think I can say for now. I apologize if people got the wrong impression from my posts. I in no way feel the launch of SimCity was anything other than a huge failure for the customers, and feel bad that so many have had such a rotten experience so far.

 

[Unstoppable Lionheart]

Well what the hell are they going to say?
Lying might get you banned, but being honest gets you fired.

They could say nothing. There isn't a requirement that they respond to every twitter post.

 

[NEOPARADIGM]

Will this bad press stop people from buying in the future?

This situation, coupled with EA charging for custom servers on BF3, has me very, very weary of EA products moving forward.

I was a bit of an EA fanboy for a time. That's over. If this is truly the direction they're trying to take gaming, my days of gaming in general seem limited.

 

[Phineous_2]

Long time lurker (2 years+), first time poster.

DetectiveGAF is INCREDIBLE. This thread has kept a smile on my face for the last hour.

 

[Phil4000]

The game has a 70% rating on Metacritic right now! Can't wait to get it half off in a couple of months lol...

 

[Darkmakaimura]

What Maxis can't do, despite fan requests, Bradshaw said, is simply strip out the always-online architecture of the game.

No, but what you can do is to not include it in future products. If this isn't a wake up call, then you clearly don't care and deserve every bit of negativity thrown at you.

 

[Dr.Acula]

GlassBox responds on Reddit (though no way to verify his identity obviously)

Ok, so this is GlassBox. I want to try to clear this up as best as I can. I made that final thread just before I went to bed, as well as those other two threads, and all those pro-DRM posts.

 

[endresults]

To people in the know: Is there any truth to this post (from the comments section of a Polygon article)?

This is utter crap – run a packet sniffer, there is no “vast amount of simulation data through its database”… apart from some keep-alive (DRM!) traffic, or data needed to save+load cities, all the simulation is happening on your own computer.

Proof? Once you’re logged in to your city, disconnect your internet connection and enjoy 10 minutes of offline play, with everything working perfectly (except for multiplayer features etc) until their DRM timelimit kicks you out of the game. Oh, and your world – with your most recent changes – will be synced (FROM YOUR COMPUTER) to them the next time you login.

This game engine is perfectly capable of running the city builder, with all simulation, without an internet connection – they’re just screwing us (and lying about it).

That would be fantastic if true, since it means the online component could be hacked away like a tumor, leaving us with the game we wanted in the first place. (edit: sort of...)

 

[Deadbeat]

At least hes gone. Is that justin guy gone as well?

 

[thabiz]

edit: nevermind.

 

[electroshockwave]

I think in that anonymous confession thread in off topic we had someone admit to being a viral marketer for DmC. Too bad we couldn't get a name.

I think that might have been someone having a dig at ezekial45 (who would be the prime suspect for being DmC/NT viral marketer). I don't think that if anyone was going to admit to being a viral marketer that they would be that specific.

 

[DragonSworne]

To people in the know: Is there any truth to this post (from the comments section of a Polygon article)?



That would be fantastic if true, since it means the online component could be hacked away like a tumor, leaving us with the game we wanted in the first place. (edit: sort of...)

It pretty much is true IMO. They would need super computers and spend massive amounts of money if they tried to simulate all the city building logic on the cloud for millions of people. It's a shit design also given the fact everyone playing the game has a PC...

EA and Maxis are lying IMO

 

[jWILL253]

Jesus Christ. Joining GAF has been the best decision of 2013 so far...

 

[Nokterian]

GlassBox responds on Reddit (though no way to verify his identity obviously)

Detective gaf is best gaf.

 

[Kinyou]

GlassBox responds on Reddit (though no way to verify his identity obviously)

I am a former EA employee...

Hm, doesn't really fit. I mean why would a former employee ask such a specific question?

Can you provide a tiny bit more detail? What features are you enjoying the most?

What I actually wonder most is if the marketing was intentional or just the natural bias of an employee.

 

[Fistwell]

Hm, doesn't really fit. I mean why would a former employee ask such a specific question?

I think maybe because he worked on the game, and was wondering if maybe people liked some aspects of it he worked on? In his posts in the unemployment thread he mentioned being semi-desperate for attention/acknowledgement, or that's how I read it anyways.

Also, great job detective gaf. You ripped the poor man's heart, broke it into tiny pieces, peed on it, then pranced around about it.

Spoiler

lol gj evil-GAF

Would love this thread to get Mandraked.

Uh?

EA and Maxis are not seperate entities...

Publisher vs studio?

 

[Dmax3901]

Would love this thread to get Mandraked.

 

[markot]

EA and Maxis are not seperate entities...

 

[Freezie KO]

I've been home sick with the flu the past few days, and this thread cheered me up. Thanks, GAF.

 

[Zombie James]

To people in the know: Is there any truth to this post (from the comments section of a Polygon article)?



That would be fantastic if true, since it means the online component could be hacked away like a tumor, leaving us with the game we wanted in the first place. (edit: sort of...)

EA's not helping themselves if this is true.

 

[sangreal]

To people in the know: Is there any truth to this post (from the comments section of a Polygon article)?



That would be fantastic if true, since it means the online component could be hacked away like a tumor, leaving us with the game we wanted in the first place. (edit: sort of...)

For single-city sure but none of the region features work offline. Which can actually screw you over quite often with the server issues if you're relying on another city for services

 

[Haunted]

Lots of people getting giddy in this thread, throwing "DetectiveGAF" around. Looks like the detective work is just reading through old posts. Good job?

Don't blame the investigator for an easy case!

 

[RionaaM]

How did I miss this thread earlier? It's pure gold!

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Are there not companies who rent out servers for a few months? Games or websites, launch demands can always cause issues and you know you will never need that capacity again so it would make sense to rent. Are servers for games special in some way?

 

[Boss Doggie]

Publisher vs studio?

Most of the team were absorbed by EA years ago iirc, and the only reason they "revived" the name is for good faith, it seems.

 

[NekoToshiro]

Was this already posted. I didn't see it.

Spoiler

So sad EA

This makes me scared to see a new Sims Theme Park.

 

[TheBaronOfNA]

Was this already posted. I didn't see it.

Spoiler

So sad EA

This makes me scared to see a new Sims Theme Park.

There is a thread about it.

 

[NekoToshiro]

There is a thread about it.

Awwww link and/or title?

 

[Seik]

Awwww link and/or title?

Here! ^^

 

[PedroLumpy]

GlassBox responds on Reddit (though no way to verify his identity obviously)

Even if he truly believes he was being completely neutral, if there's the slightest whiff of a conflict of interest, you disclose it. Basic ethics, not a complicated concept.

Completely deserves being called out and banned for his shit.

 

[NekoToshiro]

Here! ^^

Thank you Seik.

 

[deviljho]

Another "update" from Lucy, not sure if it's been posted already.

I’ll keep this short since almost everyone who cares is busy building cities and making friends in SimCity...

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-update-2

 

[plutoknight]

There may be an opening at Ocean Stratagy for GlassBox

This is the best comment I've read in the thread thus far.

DetectiveGAF needs a weekly series or something.

 

[Syphon Filter]

this whole situation is one big clusterfuck.

 

[SapientWolf]

EA's not helping themselves if this is true.

Most likely explanation: EA was afraid that an SP only game like SimCity would be pirated to hell and back, so they saddled it with online DRM and tried to justify it with some social/multiplayer features.

Now they're scrambling to do damage control before people take some kind of collective action against the company (like mass chargebacks).

 

[DryvBy]

I posted this in the wrong forum earlier. I found this on Reddit earlier.

Hey, Paul, you might wanna see this. On IGN, another Employee for EA was attacking users (myself included) in the comments section for a cheats wiki for Simcity.

He called me a (quote) “fuckin moron,” stated that “complainers” didn’t have an understanding of how servers are run, and, as such, need to “STFU.” He further labeled user complaints as being “radical” and described them as being fueled by an “an angry mob that doesnt lsiten to reason.”

Here’s the EA employee’s account:

http://people.ign.com/hahajason

You can see his job description: “Interactive Design Specialist at EA”

And here’s the link to the wiki article:

http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Cheats_and_Secrets

All you need to do is scroll down to the user comments and read the ones from user “hahaJason.”

If you browse his Disqus account, you’ll see him insulting upset customers in other postings as well.

Hopefully, someone exposes this butt-hole. Paying customers shouldn’t be subjected to this.

That's a quote from a comment on Forbes here.

 

[TheSeks]

So, wait. Some posts in here were deleted? I'm late to the party so I'm wanting to make sure Reddit has the timeline right?

I posted this in the wrong forum earlier. I found this on Reddit earlier.

That's a quote from a comment on Forbes here.

The IGN account's been scrubbed it seems. And the Steam ID attached to it has been deleted or changed (Steam isn't finding it's profile unless I'm searching wrong). Seems the internet shouted him down or EA told him to nuke everything to hide proof of their spin?

 

[StormyTheRabbit]

Hahahaha

I was having the longest day ever due to work. Somehow, this made my entire day so much better.

Thanks, GAF.

 

[Yagharek]

So, wait. Some posts in here were deleted? I'm late to the party so I'm wanting to make sure Reddit has the timeline right?

I think the ones that were deleted had some personal information, so that's possibly why they were nuked (speculation on my part). In terms of context to what happened, I don't think you missed anything you couldn't infer from what's already posted.

 

[Yagharek]

I posted this in the wrong forum earlier. I found this on Reddit earlier.



That's a quote from a comment on Forbes here.

If that is true, it really paints a picture of EA being full of some spiteful and condescending nasty individuals. Really comes across as a group with some unhealthy levels of hubris.