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[GaimeGuy]

Why would anyone EVER give EA their money after this?

It's one thing to deliver a defective product or fuck up a launch. We see that all the time with everyone from Nintendo to Team Meat.

It's another thing to openly show contempt for your users like EA has. Censoring their own phone number/email address so users don't contact them. Putting in code to block offline play (there's a difference between requiring online by game design and actively blocking offline play just to be dicks).

EA doesn't give a damn about you or your experience or your satisfaction. They want to get your money and for you to then shut the fuck up and go away.

Don't support them. Regardless of whether or not you like Sim City or Battlefield or Madden or any other title they put out.

 

[Chinner]

entitled gamers, what are you like?

 

[Daingurse]

In fact, this makes five EA franchises in three years that EA ended up devaluing due to vocal consumer backlash (Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 3, The Old Republic, Medal of Honor, Sim City), and more if you count reduced consumer interest (Dead Space 3, Need For Speed though that's cleaned up in the last couple years).

It hurts me so much inside that I can't disagree with anything you said, especially the bolded.

 

[RaffAO]

We live in an exciting age of online social connectivity.

 

[limaCAT]

Why didn't EA just say that the online DRM was just to protect their investment instead of coming up with these lies. I bought the game, but it seems like I just fed the beast.

My theory is that always on connection isn't for DRM, otherwise the .package file would have been encrypted with some code that you had to download every time from the Origin Servers, but rather to make gamers accustomed that being always online is a good thing, because, with EA's magical marketing calculations, if you plop the police district between the city hall and the fire department you are more eager to eat hamburgers rather than if you put it near the industrial district, that instead signals that you are more interested in shopping for a pair of jeans.

I mean online play in this case could have degraded gracefully with AI "evolving" the rival cities, but they wanted always on drm... why? Tracking every fucking click in the game, that is why. Only EA's business department knows which kind of snake oil they can sell to advertisers from that.

I can't think of another game which has suffered through so many PR disasters in its infancy.

Battlecruiser 2K

I really hope this isn't a future scene from the EA 2013 E3 Keynote with Moore being the dude with red pants.

 

[Kaako]

Why would anyone EVER give EA their money after this?

It's one thing to deliver a defective product or fuck up a launch. We see that all the time with everyone from Nintendo to Team Meat.

It's another thing to openly show contempt for your users like EA has. Censoring their own phone number/email address so users don't contact them. Putting in code to block offline play (there's a difference between requiring online by game design and actively blocking offline play just to be dicks).

EA doesn't give a damn about you or your experience or your satisfaction. They want to get your money and for you to then shut the fuck up and go away.

Don't support them. Regardless of whether or not you like Sim City or Battlefield or Madden or any other title they put out.

A lot of people are still going to buy Battlefield 4, no doubt in my mind. But I definitely see where you're coming from.

 

[xenist]

entitled gamers, what are you like?

First, I do not like change.

Second, I live in my parents' basement.

Third, I am still a virgin with no friends.

Fourth, I do not know how the world works.

Fifth, I am a morbidly obese neckbeard endlesly edting .ini files and soldering shit on my motherboard so I can have good enough graphics on my modded Rapelay. I cannot masturbate if my lolis aren't raped at 60 FPS. So I cannot share in the glories of social gaming and innovative multiplayer features with my bros.

 

[Pachael]

So you're saying that The Sims will end at 3? I'm seeing that happening, too...

And THAT would be a blow EA would feel. The Sims is a major franchise, if the base Sims 4 game leave a bad impression, so few people buy the DLC and expansions, well... Bye Maxis!

I do think that part of the issue is that the Sims franchise doesn't have much further to go per se in terms of direction since we've already gone into 'neighbour'hoods... other than via the 'social' methods, it's probable that by now after numerous expansions and retreads of things like the Night Life expansions the fine guys will tack on the social bits and let it rip.

Well, unless they go all uncanny valley on us but that might be more hilarious in another way.

 

[Daingurse]

I do think that part of the issue is that the Sims franchise doesn't have much further to go per se in terms of direction since we've already gone into 'neighbour'hoods... other than via the 'social' methods, it's probable that by now after numerous expansions and retreads of things like the Night Life expansions the fine guys will tack on the social bits and let it rip.

Well, unless they go all uncanny valley on us but that might be more hilarious in another way.

I'd love to play a next-gen Sims game. It would be fucking freaky. Hell disturbing even.

 

[Buzzati]

I'm starting to think SimCity started as some F2P game under EA Play4Free label. But sometime during developement EA changed their mind and converted game to be retail release.
Everything suggests that - smaller regions, UI in javascript, using only one CPU core for computing, forced multiplayer.

I thought this exact thing, too.

 

[Palette Swap]

Battlecruiser 2K

When you're compared to Derek Smart, it's time to seriously reconsider your business.

Before publisher Take-Two Interactive released Battlecruiser 3000AD in September 1996, it had generated one of the longest and largest flame wars in the history of Usenet.[16] This flamewar lasted for several years, garnered over 70,000 posts, and yielded a series of sites that documented and parodied its history.

Man, these were the days.

 

[McNum]

I do think that part of the issue is that the Sims franchise doesn't have much further to go per se in terms of direction since we've already gone into 'neighbour'hoods... other than via the 'social' methods, it's probable that by now after numerous expansions and retreads of things like the Night Life expansions the fine guys will tack on the social bits and let it rip.

Well, unless they go all uncanny valley on us but that might be more hilarious in another way.

This is true. Each The Sims game has pulled back focus one level. Sims 1 was a single generation of a family. Sims 2 expanded that to several generations of a family. Sims 3 is several generations of a neighborhood of families. The next step would be to go beyond the neighborhood, or to let you play multiple families at the same time. I'm hoping for the latter, but expect the former in all the worst ways...

And yeah, going all Uncanny Valley would be awesome to see. The game works because it's still a caricature of people you're playing. If that goes away... it'll get messy. And freaky. I'd probably buy it just for the freakiness, really.

 

[2MF]

Surely it had already been noticed that the game could be offline for 20 minutes? So the "complex server calculations" argument was already known to be false even without seeing the source code?

 

[Fistwell]

So can we now finally all decide, in the words of the great Ben Parfitt, to destroy the EA brand out of spite? It's about damn time.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

Surely it had already been noticed that the game could be offline for 20 minutes? So the "complex server calculations" argument was already known to be false even without seeing the source code?

Yeah, but the fact that it's literally a single line of the simplest code is just the cherry on top. Hugely embarrassing.

 

[Randdalf]

I guess it's only a matter of time now until somebody writes an emulator to simulate the server saving and loading.

 

[TyrantGuardian]

DRM is DRM (and nothing else) in this case regardless of what PR spin they try to put to it. Fuck, at least Ubisoft was honest about being assholes with their always-on uPlay garbage. This is getting ridiculous at this point.

 

[VibratingDonkey]

This has been blatantly implied for a while, but yeah it's quite naff.
SimCity and Aliens: Colonial Marines are postmortems I'm highly interested in reading one day.

 

[old manatee]

I'll bet there is a piece of code that makes god's hand come down from the clouds over the city and give the player the middle finger.

 

[Won]

Surely it had already been noticed that the game could be offline for 20 minutes? So the "complex server calculations" argument was already known to be false even without seeing the source code?

Some people actually still believed in the server calculations while playing it offline I think. It's really weird.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Surely it had already been noticed that the game could be offline for 20 minutes? So the "complex server calculations" argument was already known to be false even without seeing the source code?

Do you work for Maxis? You literally don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Alien Bob]

I'll bet there is a piece of code that makes god's hand come down from the clouds over the city and give the player the middle finger.

A piece of code? Pretty much the entire game!

 

[KKRT00]

So we need second topic for the same thing now?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=523776

 

[solarus]

Arthur gies must be going insane right now.

 

[Respawn]

So which site will have the best timeline/rundown of events for this disaster?

That's what I'm waiting on. I just need to see the shitstorm unravel from beginning to end.

 

[Toma]

So we need second topic for the same thing now?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=523776

Its a bit weird, but its new confirmation/news that would have been buried in the old thread.

 

[Pachael]

And yeah, going all Uncanny Valley would be awesome to see. The game works because it's still a caricature of people you're playing. If that goes away... it'll get messy. And freaky. I'd probably buy it just for the freakiness, really.

That old 'drown your Sim by removing the ladder from the pool when paused' trick would look particularly macabre, wouldn't it.

And for bonus points, because it's a social game other players can try and save the girl by putting the ladder back in, only for the others to remove it just as she reaches the ladder, and she reacts all shocked to the event.

 

[KKRT00]

Its a bit weird, but its new confirmation/news that would have been buried in the old thread.

Its exactly the same information as in OP of this thread
"Most importantly, UKAzzer was able to disable SimCity's disconnection timer, thus setting it tp unlimited"

How did You think the code looked like before?

 

[Alcoholikaust]

First, I do not like change.

Second, I live in my parents' basement.

Third, I am still a virgin with no friends.

Fourth, I do not know how the world works.

Fifth, I am a morbidly obese neckbeard endlesly edting .ini files and soldering shit on my motherboard so I can have good enough graphics on my modded Rapelay. I cannot masturbate if my lolis aren't raped at 60 FPS. So I cannot share in the glories of social gaming and innovative multiplayer features with my bros.

holy cow that was amazing. you described my brother to a T. lol

 

[Toma]

Its exactly the same information as in OP of this thread
"Most importantly, UKAzzer was able to disable SimCity's disconnection timer, thus setting it tp unlimited"

How did You think the code looked like before?

Well the code wasnt mentioned in the other thread, and people tend to not click old threads once they know whats inside.

Either its new thread for new news (which this basically is), or a mod should concentrate everything inside that one thread but update the title with #numbers so that people can keep up. Not even saying that I disagree with you, but I see why people created a new thread for it. Considering how relevant and important this topic is , even sometimes smaller news deserve to get an attention bump.

 

[10101]

This is just too funny, the saga continues....

The only question that remains is: did they think they could get away with shitting on people like that or do they just not care at all?

I'd say both

 

[Dali]

I'm starting to think SimCity started as some F2P game under EA Play4Free label. But sometime during developement EA changed their mind and converted game to be retail release.
Everything suggests that - smaller regions, UI in javascript, using only one CPU core for computing, forced multiplayer.

That's a very interesting possibility. If true they should have kept it f2p. You can do whatever the fuck you want to a game if its free. It's when you charge people for the privilege of being ass fucked they get a little sore.

 

[grimshawish]

Poor Arthur!

 

[superfamicom]

I love how all their jerking honest customers around with DRM is going to force more people to crack/pirate the game than if they didn't do all this useless bullshit.

EA trying to destroy the gaming industry, while gamers ensuring it buy and supporting their shit with money.

Fucking fools.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Well, pre-spectucular blowup I've been thinking that Sims 4 would follow the same path as SimCity in its social, always-connected regions neighbourhoods where you can work with friends to save the nearby forest or party on in a regional neighbourhood campus (as DLC, natch).

Post-blowup, my thoughts are that it'll be the same, but they'll change the .packages.

iirc Sims 3 already does that. I disabled it because keeping TS3 online will do batshit things but you they call it "SimPort". It's been added since the Showtime expansion.

 

[Massa]

Poor Arthur!

He'll still claim he was right since you can't play online offline.

 

[JORMBO]

I've been a huge Sim City fan since the original. I put off buying this until I beat Tomb Raider. Glad I did ...they lost me now with all this bullshit. Saved myself $60.

 

[grimshawish]

He'll still claim he was right since you can't play online offline.

Bring Laptops gaf, we're LANing this shit up!

 

[Muku]

It's not even Christmas and this game... keeps providing to us every single day like it is.

 

[Toma]

I've been a huge Sim City fan since the original. I put off buying this until I beat Tomb Raider. Glad I did ...they lost me now with all this bullshit. Saved myself $60.

Good man. More people should do that.

 

[Htown]

Its exactly the same information as in OP of this thread
"Most importantly, UKAzzer was able to disable SimCity's disconnection timer, thus setting it tp unlimited"

How did You think the code looked like before?

why does it bother you?

stop threadshitting.

if a mod thinks it's redundant, they'll deal with it.

if not, then you just have to deal with it.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Some people actually still believed in the server calculations while playing it offline I think. It's really weird.

This is how religions were born

 

[Pachael]

iirc Sims 3 already does that. I disabled it because keeping TS3 online will do batshit things but you they call it "SimPort". It's been added since the Showtime expansion.

I stand corrected - but at least in this one you can turn online off, and not have to bother about friends, common goals and social stuff if you don't want it?

 

[Escape Goat]

I've been a huge Sim City fan since the original. I put off buying this until I beat Tomb Raider. Glad I did ...they lost me now with all this bullshit. Saved myself $60.

I had both in my hands the other day but I put it back. I had a feeling GAF may not have been overreacting on this one.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

This is how religions were born

the Truth is all the computational power in the world is being used up to render Joakim Mogren. What's left is so little it's really a wonder EA can accomplish even basic server-side calculations on it

 

[KKRT00]

why does it bother you?

stop threadshitting.

if a mod thinks it's redundant, they'll deal with it.

if not, then you just have to deal with it.

Because its stupid? But let the hate flow.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I guess my Mac version is cancelled?

 

[McNum]

I stand corrected - but at least in this one you can turn online off, and not have to bother about friends, common goals and social stuff if you don't want it?

Yup. That's how it works.

You can use your EA account to log in to share Sims and families with others with the Simport thing as well as other online things, or you can just not enter your login and check off "Don't tell me again" and online goes away. You will, however, need to use your EA account to download things off TheSims3.com, both made my other players and from the Sims Store. The store DRM needs to pass through your Sims 3 Launcher with you logged in to get deactivated. But logging in there won't carry over to the game and the DRM stays deactivated even if you play the game without logging in.

It's a nice setup, really. Go online if you want, but if not, then it'll be quiet. Mostly. The game has a link to the Sims 3 Store on the right during build and buy mode,, but you go bannerblind towards that pretty fast.

 

[Mengy]

I've been a huge Sim City fan since the original. I put off buying this until I beat Tomb Raider. Glad I did ...they lost me now with all this bullshit. Saved myself $60.

I also waited until after release to make my buying decision. I played in all the Simcity betas, and although the game showed some promise and has lots of good points, the fact that I got bored with it in all of the beta plays really bothered me. My gut just wasn't giving me good vibes. And now I'm so glad I listened to my gut feeling.

I still play Simcity 4 regularly and will continue to do so for the long future from the looks of it. I would buy the new Simcity in a heartbeat if they just:

- include an offline mode
- increase city sizes
- fix the traffic problems

When either EA or the modding community fixes these three things, then I'll re-evaluate the game and consider buying it again.

Right now I have more faith that the modders will fix the game up before EA does, lol!!!

 

[McNum]

Right now I have more faith that the modders will fix the game up before EA does, lol!!!

Welcome to the world of The Sims. Where grievous bugs get fixed in days by modders, and weeks if not months by EA. And the modders still have the better solution. Like how it actually was possible to uncorrupt a zombie infested save, even if EA said it wasn't...

I have more faith in modders than EA/Maxis when it comes to bugs, too...