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[thesuperfunk]

They didn't expect preorders to increase in the last week even though that was when the tv ads started?

The amount of times this excuse has been used is beyond ridiculous.

 

[Valnen]

Blizzard said the same shit about Diablo 3 before and at release, and now they have offline play for the console versions. You seriously expect us to believe the same bullshit twice?

They had to change the game for consoles for offline play to be possible. I guarantee you that. Because on the PC version, a lot of the stuff happens server side. It's not bullshit, it's the truth. It's extremely sad that people can't seem to understand that.

I'm really disappointed by all this. That's all I'm going to say on this topic.

 

[ambientmystic]

They had to change the game for consoles for offline play to be possible. I guarantee you that. Because on the PC version, a lot of the stuff happens server side. It's not bullshit, it's the truth. It's extremely sad that people can't seem to understand that.

I'm really disappointed by all this.

Careful now Valnen, you might be considered an EA shill in this thread if you continue down this line of reasoning lol.

Tread lightly, furry cat.

/sarcasm

 

[Xater]

I wonder if this is a phenomenon we'll see more of (or already do).

Marketing department gets account(s) on NeoGAF, hands it off to low-level employees to do enough posting to get member status and be active and then takes over when some 'messaging' is required.

I see some posts from people who speak marketing lingo and it always gets me to wondering.

Of course, naming the account GlassBox is sort of a dead giveaway!

Every time I see anti-consumer decisions by companies defended I get suspicious. I just can't comprehend a normal consumer looking out for the interests of these companies.

 

[ambientmystic]

Every time I see anti-consumer decisions by companies defended I get suspicious. I just can't comprehend a normal consumer looking out for the interests of these companies.

Agreed. They should all be identified by DetectiveGAF and tagged with the Corporate Ballwashers tag, and THEN allowed to roam free and defend their company of choice for our amusement lol.

Once we can identify and isolate their kind, the general discourse on GAF should be noticeably all the better for it.

EDIT:- Kinda ot, but nice avatar, I've only seen one other user with a Gundam avatar and that's Jubern.

 

[Valnen]

Every time I see anti-consumer decisions by companies defended I get suspicious. I just can't comprehend a normal consumer looking out for the interests of these companies.

Making an online game is an anti-consumer decision? Really? So is Path of Exile anti-consumer? That game seems to get a pass. It also had server issues when it hit open beta (effectively launch).

 

[InPlosion]

Every time I see anti-consumer decisions by companies defended I get suspicious. I just can't comprehend a normal consumer looking out for the interests of these companies.

Yeah, but behind such posts there might just be a random fanboy, desperatly trying to rationalize, to himself first of all, the underhanded and shady stuff companies pull on us players.

I know that because....I was one of them. Not on this site mind you, but I do distinctively remember myself defending blizzard with the very same arguments a year ago, on some foreign speaking gaming forum.
Thank god I opened my eyes shortly there after....

 

[Team Filler]

Agreed. They should all be indentified by DetectiveGAF and tagged with the Corporate Ballwashers tag, and THEN allowed to roam free and defend their company of choice for our amusement lol.

Once we can identify their kind, the general discourse on GAF should be noticeably all the better for it.

Wouldn't stop the sycophants from defending their corporations of choice, though, as proven by posts above.

 

[StayDead]

This thread was amazing, good work again Detective Gaf! Can't believe EA even tried to do this. It's kind of laughable, but I doubt it's the first time something like this has happened either.

 

[LuchaShaq]

They had to change the game for consoles for offline play to be possible. I guarantee you that. Because on the PC version, a lot of the stuff happens server side. It's not bullshit, it's the truth. It's extremely sad that people can't seem to understand that.

I'm really disappointed by all this. That's all I'm going to say on this topic.

Oh it's easy to understand. I'm just not 1% convinced they do it for any reason other than to be able to give their viral marketers something to say in their forum posts/articles defending the always online aspect as not drm.

EA has proven time and time again that they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Danj]

Making an online game is an anti-consumer decision?

Making a single-player game an online game is an anti-consumer decision, yes. Previous SimCity games had no need for an always-on Internet connection, so why should it be a requirement for the new one? You can argue that the online thing is a feature that adds something to the game, but maybe they should have made it a separate thing for people who actually wanted that, and then kept the proper single-player experience for the rest of us.

 

[IISANDERII]

I just think it's way too cynical to think designing an engine that works this way is only an excuse/front for their anti-piracy scheme.

No no, it's not just that. It's also all the stuff they left out so they can sell it back to you later.

 

[spirity]

Making an online game is an anti-consumer decision? Really? So is Path of Exile anti-consumer? That game seems to get a pass. It also had server issues when it hit open beta (effectively launch).

PoE is an indie game run entirely on microtransactions. Its also completely free and doesn't have any sort of legacy of offline play.

Server issues? They are a New Zealand start up of around 20 employees. One person wrote the whole engine. Of course they had server issues.

 

[Kouriozan]

Every time I see anti-consumer decisions by companies defended I get suspicious. I just can't comprehend a normal consumer looking out for the interests of these companies.

Yeah, and it's just like how DLC started to be popular.
They are forcing it until it'll be the norm in a few year to have always online DRM.
Next gen will be fun...

 

[Neuromancer]

Going by his posts about SimCity I was thinking there was something fishy about that guy, but I just couldn't put my finger on it...

 

[Team Filler]

Yeah, but behind such posts there might just be a random fanboy, desperatly trying to rationalize, to himself first of all, the underhanded and shady stuff companies pull on us players.

I know that because....I was one of them. Not on this site mind you, but I do distinctively remember myself defending blizzard with the very same arguments a year ago, on some foreign speaking gaming forum.
Thank god I opened my eyes shortly there after....

Ah yeah, Blizz fanatics can get religiously dogmatic, especially when they feel the mothership is threatened. I nearly became one myself years ago, but have since seen the folly in that. Glad to hear you escaped that terrible gravity as well.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Exactly. One simply just doesn't "vote with your wallet" when you have people who are easily swayed. You have to make a point and show it.

 

[blurredvision]

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

 

[Xater]

Making an online game is an anti-consumer decision? Really? So is Path of Exile anti-consumer? That game seems to get a pass. It also had server issues when it hit open beta (effectively launch).

How about you don#t compare apples to oranges?

Making a single-player game an online game is an anti-consumer decision, yes. Previous SimCity games had no need for an always-on Internet connection, so why should it be a requirement for the new one? You can argue that the online thing is a feature that adds something to the game, but maybe they should have made it a separate thing for people who actually wanted that, and then kept the proper single-player experience for the rest of us.

What he says. I would have been perfectly fine with all this online stuff if it was an optional thing in my SimCity. Now I have to be online even if I want to play alone and even then my experience is further diminished by their dumb specialization idea.

 

[blurredvision]

Exactly. One simply just doesn't "vote with your wallet" when you have people who are easily swayed. You have to make a point and show it.

I dislike that me buying the game makes me weak-minded or easy prey. I bought it because I don't care about always-online, I honestly don't care about these servers issues either because I know it'll be worked out very soon. The way I see it, the game was delayed a week and I would've still bought it.

Can't I just buy games I like without caring about the developer? Why do you have to assume everybody agrees with your stance but they're just too retarded to say no?

 

[rpmurphy]

What are they running on those servers, a simulation of the entire SimCity world economy? If they architected the engine in such a way that adding more machines to parallelize the computations wouldn't be the solution to scaling issues, they've messed up hard. The other option left is to segment the community.

 

[blurredvision]

Ah yeah, Blizz fanatics can get religiously dogmatic, especially when they feel the mothership is threatened. I nearly became one myself years ago, but have since seen the folly in that. Glad to hear you escaped that terrible gravity as well.

What's interesting is how "religiously dogmatic" the detractors have become as well. Gaming forums are no better than political forums these days, it's night or day, black or white, ketchup or mustard....nobody can have an actual conversation because of the finger pointing. Everyone is standing in 2 feet of mud and they aren't budging.

Neither side is better than the other.

 

[SkyTurnsRed]

Threads like this... thank you, DetectiveGAF. Best thing to wake up to.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Hardly the detective work as long as you look for someones post history but either the user was a viral shill or he/she was really supportive of EA. Oh well, at least we get a free game for this mess.

 

[Sojgat]

Making an online game is an anti-consumer decision? Really? So is Path of Exile anti-consumer? That game seems to get a pass.

It's a problem of expectations. EA should have called it SimCity Online, and pushed that angle to make it clear to consumers. Then if people couldn't play it all after paying money for it, well that would be all right.

SimCity has a huge casual fanbase, it's good for EA to get that wider audience used to the concept of "games-as-a-service". You're right though, SimCity is just like Path of Exile, they're both free after all. Oh wait...

 

[DaBuddaDa]

I'm just disappointed that they seem to think that the game is fine as long as the server stuff gets fixed. The arbitrary, awkward looking, square shaped city size limitations and lack of geomod tools is unacceptable IMO, and the few reviews that are out there have said the same thing. The server issues are just serving to mask critical flaws in the game's design.

 

[BolognaSoup]

Just accept it EA. You flat out made the wrong game. You should have made SimCity 5. Not SimTowns Online.

 

[mr. puppy]

wait so glassbox says marketing people are all over indulgent douchebags, and when he/she tries solo marketing/spin he/she gets caught out and fumbles all over herself and fails hard? apparently marketing takes more skill then you think?

 

[Team Filler]

What's interesting is how "religiously dogmatic" the detractors have become as well. Gaming forums are no better than political forums these days, it's night or day, black or white, ketchup or mustard....nobody can have an actual conversation because of the finger pointing. Everyone is standing in 2 feet of mud and they aren't budging.

Neither side is better than the other.

I disagree. Not that there are only two sides of this particular ordeal, but were we to limit it to that, I'm still the one trying to convince others from "voting with their wallets" in the wrong direction, thus telling theses large companies that it's still okay to continue their mad science experiments with our wallets. These attempts by Blizzard and EA to monetize every facet of these previously lauded series is little more than franchise rape.

 

[Boss Doggie]

I dislike that me buying the game makes me weak-minded or easy prey. I bought it because I don't care about always-online, I honestly don't care about these servers issues either because I know it'll be worked out very soon. The way I see it, the game was delayed a week and I would've still bought it.

Can't I just buy games I like without caring about the developer? Why do you have to assume everybody agrees with your stance but they're just too retarded to say no?

That's exactly how they get people though - they can keep problems behind the walls, and because people don't really care about entertainment products, they can get away with it a lot. You don't have to agree with their practices, but at the same time you are indirectly being part of it.

 

[spirity]

wait so glassbox says marketing people are all over indulgent douchebags, and when he/she tries solo marketing/spin he/she gets caught out and fumbles all over herself and fails hard? apparently marketing takes more skill then you think?

There may be an opening at Ocean Stratagy for GlassBox

 

[inky]

I dislike that me buying the game makes me weak-minded or easy prey. I bought it because I don't care about always-online, I honestly don't care about these servers issues either because I know it'll be worked out very soon. The way I see it, the game was delayed a week and I would've still bought it.

Can't I just buy games I like without caring about the developer? Why do you have to assume everybody agrees with your stance but they're just too retarded to say no?

Because people like you (and I'm not saying you specifically, but either people who don't give a shit or ones who defend the practice) tend to think that because you are not bothered by it no one else should be either, or that it isn't a problem that will only get worse.

 

[Dali]

I dislike that me buying the game makes me weak-minded or easy prey. I bought it because I don't care about always-online, I honestly don't care about these servers issues either because I know it'll be worked out very soon. The way I see it, the game was delayed a week and I would've still bought it.

Can't I just buy games I like without caring about the developer? Why do you have to assume everybody agrees with your stance but they're just too retarded to say no?

You can do whatever you want but just don't put your head in the sand and pretend like these practices aren't part of a continuing trend of monetizing things that were never monetized in the past and reducing the flexibility we as gamers once enjoyed with the games we played.

You enjoy the game yes? You may want to come back to it in a few years? Well now that's entirely up to EA if you'll have that ability. You are deaf to the issues surrounding the game now but will you be when they're staring you in the face?

 

[Fistwell]

What's interesting is how "religiously dogmatic" the detractors have become as well. Gaming forums are no better than political forums these days, it's night or day, black or white, ketchup or mustard....nobody can have an actual conversation because of the finger pointing. Everyone is standing in 2 feet of mud and they aren't budging.

Ha! I'm only mildly interested in Sim City. I do think shoehorning always-online, when the game doesn't necessarily call for it, is kind of a dick move for a number of reasons (what happens in 3 years when EA kills the servers to push SC6?). I asked earlier in this thread what the online aspect concretely brought to the game, couldn't get an answer. Feel free to enlighten me, I'd love to move from this here spot of the mud pool.

 

[Philia]

That's exactly how they get people though - they can keep problems behind the walls, and because people don't really care about entertainment products, they can get away with it a lot. You don't have to agree with their practices, but at the same time you are indirectly being part of it.

That AND proactively keeping the game small enough for a lot of expansion packs to sell. :\

 

[old manatee]

This is why I stopped buying anything from EA. They have such obvious contempt for their customers.

 

[Rapstah]

If anything, Randy Pitchford must be happy as hell this debacle happened so people would forget about Aliens:Colonial Marines. Perhaps he should send EA a fruitbasket.

Aliens was in the news long enough for it to matter. Dead Space 3 is the real winner here. Compared favourably to Aliens, no one ever had time to discuss the ending because of Aliens releasing, people will be bringing its micropayments up positively to compare to SimCity, etc.

 

[Projectjustice]

I just woke up to this thread and I am truly amazed at the length EA goes to. Worst gaming, no scratch that. Worst Company in the world period. I refuse to buy anything EA and this just strengthens my resolve.

 

[Superior]

Nvm.

 

[Open Source]

It's funny that they pushed "always online" but also limited the game so that it could run on a wide range of computers. If they were serious about the audience-limiting "always online" requirement being for game design reasons, then why didn't they push the system hardware specs up for the same reason, so that you could play more a city larger than 7x7 city blocks?

A "we do it so that we can realize our creative vision" argument doesn't fit. "We wanted more revenue" is the only scenario in which their approach makes sense in both cases.

 

[Fistwell]

So did anyone find out if he was hired to do marketing or just trying to do damage control because he has worked on it, and felt a sense of loyalty to the end product (I only read the first four pages)?

Not to the best of my knowledge, but the latter sounds more probable.

 

[FullMetalx117]

We all may hate EA but there is no sight of EA ever stopping their practices. The fact is that investors love what they are doing. Look at their stock. It's approaching/hitting its 52 week high.
EA's allegiance is to its investors, not customers.

 

[hwy_61]

Holy shit, DetectiveGAF on the case! Very impressive. If only there was a Bond like way this would play out...

"So, you found me out, DetectiveGAF! Good work, good work, BUT YOU DIDN'T DESTROY THE KENNEL!! AT THEM, BEE SHOOTING DOGS!!"

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Brofield]

Never change, NeoGAF <3

Wish I could propose the idea to make it a bannable offence for astroturfing, but that's a whole can of worms/slippery slope anytime someone would play devil's advocate.

At the same time, MUCH more entertaining to watch one of these accounts go up in flames like a gas station explosion.

 

[Devilgunman]

They had to change the game for consoles for offline play to be possible. I guarantee you that. Because on the PC version, a lot of the stuff happens server side. It's not bullshit, it's the truth. It's extremely sad that people can't seem to understand that.

It is bullshit and what you're saying is as bullshit. You don't even know what you're talking about. What are "stuffs" happening on server side that can't be handled locally? If they can make changes on the game to play offline on console, why can't they do the same for PC?

 

[Rebel Leader]

They had to change the game for consoles for offline play to be possible. I guarantee you that. Because on the PC version, a lot of the stuff happens server side. It's not bullshit, it's the truth. It's extremely sad that people can't seem to understand that.

I'm really disappointed by all this. That's all I'm going to say on this topic.

Bullshit. What is this "lost of stuff" that's need for always online? This isn't no battlefield where there is alot of shit happening.

It is bullshit and what you're saying is as bullshit. You don't even know what you're talking about. What are "stuffs" happening on server side that can't be handled locally? If they can make changes on the game to play offline on console, why can't they do the same for PC?

exactly

PC's can't handle it offline but consoles can?

 

[Zzoram]

At least with Diablo III, Blizzard has a history of keeping online servers running for over a decade so we can feel reasonably secure that the game will work in 15 years. Diablo II servers are still working. Even Starcraft 1 servers are still working and that game has been out about 15 years now.

EA has a history of turning off servers in 2 years or as a sequel comes out. EA is therefore less trustworthy for online-required games.

 

[Zafir]

It is bullshit and what you're saying is as bullshit. You don't even know what you're talking about. What are "stuffs" happening on server side that can't be handled locally? If they can make changes on the game to play offline on console, why can't they do the same for PC?

Because they don't want to.

SimCity they could take away the online, but I do imagine it will require a lot of recoding to do so, that combined with they did it always online for a reason(Whether people liked it or not). They aren't going to take it out.

The thing I most worry about is what happens when they shut the servers. =/ EA's track record is hardly the best for it.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Join Date: 04-03-2012

The official announcement took place on March 6, 2012

Takes about a month to get GAF account approved.....



Poster has also started threads about Oakland and BART...

Maxis is based right by Oakland. (Emeryville).

This + his name being Glassbox has me convinced.

 

[doomquake]

EA...you did this to Warhammer Online in 2009 you bastards.