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SimCity sells over 1.1 million copies in two weeks, biggest SimCity launch ever
- Thread starter Neuromancer
- Start date
Of course it's wrong to hope for the best, this is EA. Hell, even hoping for the worst is better than what EA eventually does to fuck you over.
But it seems people like getting fucked over so good for them, I'll have no part in that.
T
thepotatoman
Unconfirmed Member
This is more a sign that EA was stupid for waiting so damn long to release another Sim City game than it is a sign that people were excited for an "MMO" Sim City experience.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I think sentiments like this are often wildly off the mark when it carries with it the implication that consumers who are spending $50 - $60 on a diversion that they intend to play as a means of having fun when they have free time carries with it some sort of moral implication to be informed. Now, granted, there can be some extenuating circumstances where I would suggest that people would be better served to care a little bit more about how the product is made. For instance, "I just want to have fun playing a video game" becomes a less compelling rationale if I explain to you that the game was coded by starving children in sweat shop conditions, just as an absurd example.
However, lamenting that the uninformed consumer let me down because they didn't research the DRM of a game they wanted to play -- an anti-piracy mechanism that I find egregious -- just strikes me as unnecessarily elitist. The ire should be directed first at the company that implemented the DRM and then failed to make sure that everything was up to snuff, not at consumers who just wanted to spend money on a video game because they hoped they'd have fun.
TheGreyHulk
Member
anyone get their special email f/ a free game through origin?
I haven't gotten an email from them. They said it would go out on 3/18.
I regret paying full price for this title, but I have had fun with the game even though it is still broken. Traffic, patrol cars, fire trucks, all buses make managing my 3 city region a living hell right now. I also want that cheetah speed back.
I haven't gotten an email from them. They said it would go out on 3/18.
I regret paying full price for this title, but I have had fun with the game even though it is still broken. Traffic, patrol cars, fire trucks, all buses make managing my 3 city region a living hell right now. I also want that cheetah speed back.
OrangeYouGlad
Banned
Emails went out today. If you just log into Origin you should be prompted with one of those promo windows to pick your free game*
*From a list of pre-selected titles.
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
This game is the prime example of never preorder, never day one, never pay full price. Water cooler talk isn't worth it.
BruiserBear
Banned
This really is the problem, and why things have gone the way they have.
Eat me.
As if anyone knew for sure it'd turn out this bad or even bad in general. The actual game is pretty god damn fun.
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Again, I'm not expecting people to predict the extent of what happened in this situation, but I do expect that at the very least gafers are smart enough to know how these kind of launches go, how these kind of systems react, how buying a game like this digitally leaves you with very few options, etc. If you're still fine with all that and purchase it, great.
Poohblaster
Member
I think I'll buy a couple of copies. 1.1 million people can't be wrong amirite?
You can't blame people for buying this 'sight-unseen', most of the SimCity target market have no reason to be informed about this stuff, and shouldn't need to be.
It is amazingly disappointing that this will give EA the greenlight to push more of this bullshit in all of their games, and that any consumer dissatisfaction will not hit until it is way too late.
It is amazingly disappointing that this will give EA the greenlight to push more of this bullshit in all of their games, and that any consumer dissatisfaction will not hit until it is way too late.
At least we're doing our part to help fix it now--getting refunds, chargebacks, all that jazz. It's not like we shelled out 60 bucks, saw the problems, and went "Awww doh"
Code doesn't write itself. Maybe you should consider that your vision for SimCity might not line up with Maxis' vision.
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
But I think it's safe to say you guys are the minority. Most people probably sat on it till it was fie and that's that. I can't blame them, or you, just that I think a lot of gafers who did do that could have avoided the headache if they used a bit of their gamer sixth sense.
If the online community dies shortly after launch and no one buys their upcoming DLCs (games as service, remember?), then there's still hope for the city builder genre. Otherwise, enjoy your shitty online future. I don't care for the genre, but I'd hate that to happen to my favourite ones.
I knew the EA servers would go down for this at launch. It happens with every one of their games.
Now no one expected it to be this bad I think but when you put that money down for this you accepted the risk of something like this happening. Whining about it afterwards when you knew it could happen means you deserve at least partial blame for this. People who didn't know at all still get the blame for blindly buying a product without doing even the minimum amount of research.
Don't misunderstand me though, most of it is still on EA.
More proof how important appeal is when it comes to impulse sales. When it comes down to sales, it only matters how the game looks and whether it's any good. The massive coverage Sim City is getting is basically free marketing. More people tune on to check the game out and may buy it as a result of the relatively good word of mouth and general impression of the game. The game is visually appealing, stands out from the crowd and fun to play (despite the AI being relatively fucked up and map size being too small). Thus it is no wonder this may end up as a major success, and refurbished been-there-done-that sequels like GoW:A may fail.
AHA-Lambda
Member
Didn't you buy the game after all the bad press started to come out?
SteveWinwood
Member
Well duh. It was always going to be the biggest launch.
polyh3dron
Banned
Yeah well someone did
Boom Boom Pow
Banned
ppl in here are mad that Simcity did well? it's like you almost want the game to fail so that ppl can be fired and lose their jobs...
Honestly, the sales don't say much about voting with anyone's wallets one way or the other - the vast majority of people who purchased SimCity likely didn't get the heads up in time to cancel their pre-order/orders before word came down about the horrendous problems the title had. Most casuals just thought it was SimCity with The Sims thrown into it, which is a gold mine for EA.
Also, I don't deserve anything these assholes bring - I'm voting with my wallet left and right up in this mofo
Boom Boom Pow said:
Gaming isn't a charity. I want the game to fail because it is a piece of anti-consumer shit that is filled to the brim with bugs, huge gameplay issues and straight up features that don't work.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I don't necessarily think people want the game to fail, so much as they wanted a clear message being sent that consumers won't stand for these kinds of practices. The most effective way for the message of consumer disenfranchisement to be delivered would be via poor sales. However, I don't necessarily think the end goal would be to see EA rot and Maxis close (at least not everyone feels this way).
I think ideal circumstance would have been launch sales underperforming with the prevailing reason being cited as "disdain of DRM." Release an update that removes the DRM and fixes some of the fundamental problems people are finding with the title, and I think most would probably be happy to give it a second chance, here.
Of course, I realize a lot of this is kind of pie-in-the-sky, but I just want to make it clear that I don't think that people are clamoring for a studio shut down just because they don't care for the DRM.
Boom Boom Pow
Banned
Honestly, the sales don't say much about voting with anyone's wallets one way or the other - the vast majority of people who purchased SimCity likely didn't get the heads up in time to cancel their pre-order/orders before word came down about the horrendous problems the title had. Most casuals just thought it was SimCity with The Sims thrown into it, which is a gold mine for EA.
Also, I don't deserve anything these assholes bring - I'm voting with my wallet left and right up in this mofo
Gaming isn't a charity. I want the game to fail because it is a piece of anti-consumer shit that is filled to the brim with bugs, huge gameplay issues and straight up features that don't work.
great, what's your job? And what's your product?
A game takes what, hundreds of ppl to make. For the fault of a few, you would like for everyone else to get fired as well?
Poetic.Injustice
Member
I can see more PC games being online-only in the future.
Yeah PC games and consumers have always been leading the charge with this stuff, and they prove time and time again that the DRM doesn't matter if they want the game.
Assassin's Creed, Diablo III, SimCity, if it's happening on PC and people are willing to take it, what is going to change?
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Do. not. care. Are you also one to believe that day one-ing a game for full price "supports the devs"? Those hundreds of people doing the grunt work are still let go/shipped off somewhere else. You're only supporting the publisher's pockets.
Whether or not SimCity sold well would not have changed this.
Boom Boom Pow
Banned
who in turn uses that money to sponsor new/more games...
or did you think EA forced Maxis to work for free?
Kill Your Masters
Member
Seriously? Most of the profits go to the bigger fish, not the people working their asses off. But yeah keep living in that bubble while you buy Kotick and co. a new Lambo every year.
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
i now hate 1.1 million more people.
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
Suddenly, all the scary hilarious threads don't matter anymore....its just scary now.
=/
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I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Give them all the money you want for them to sponsor your always online multiplayer microtransaction fest. Shit, facebook gives that to you for free.
What is this, your spin on the ol' "if you don't paint then you can't criticize paintings" bullshit?
Well, no matter what the spin on it, it's still bullshit. One doesn't need to create games nor have released anything to point out and criticize the plethora of real problems SimCity (or any other game) has.
Similarly, I don't work in an industry that depends on that sort of direct consumer support for my job... and if I did, I would expect that if I did my job poorly, I would run the risk of being fired. I hope the people at Maxis all the best, genuinely, but they are responsible for the quality of the game and what released and they are also therefore responsible for the penalties that come as a result of that. Many people spent full price on a game that not only barely worked for a huge span of time after release day, but has feature after feature that is either not working or an outright deception.
So as much as I would never hope anyone be fired ever, I also cannot forever pity the fair result of a job poorly done. And that's the only thing anyone can call SimCity: a job very poorly done indeed.
If you think failures of this magnitude were the failings of only a 'few' people, I don't know what to tell you - but in either case, I don't want anybody to be fired. I do want SimCity to fail, because it's a miserable product filled with anti-consumer nonsense. As I am a gamer and a consumer, and the game fails for everyone from both perspectives, I'm not sure what you expect people to say. A shitty game deserves to fail.
Feel like I dodged a bullet with this one. I was really excited but didn't get it at launch because requiring an internet connection meant it was obviously going to break in the first week, and now knowing about all of bad design decisions that were made on this game I have no interest in ever buying it.
Even though the sales are good I'm hoping they realise that they could have been a LOT more if it weren't for their clusterfuck of a launch.
Even though the sales are good I'm hoping they realise that they could have been a LOT more if it weren't for their clusterfuck of a launch.
Put out shitty game, thats is broken. Constantly lie to everyone saying it's almost impossible to sort out without a lot of work. Delete threads on their forums that show how to play modded but apparently are all for mods.
Yeah it's a wonder why people want this to fail.
I think the frustration rises toward people that purchase these obviously broken and consumer unfriendly games because the high sales of such games at a minimum nullifies the drive for the developer or publisher to improve their ways and at worse encourages future lazyness and poor behavior.
I dont think anyone can be mad at people who day one purchased the game because they had no clue all the shit would be this bad. However I have no problem taking issue with people that - knowing full well of the problems - went out and still purchased.
Businesses operate solely to generate ever increasing profit for their shareholders and owners. So unless they are hit where it matters you are only encouraging these practices and/or preventing the company from rectifying them whole-heartedly.
EmCeeGramr
Member
Honestly, the sales don't say much about voting with anyone's wallets one way or the other - the vast majority of people who purchased SimCity likely didn't get the heads up in time to cancel their pre-order/orders before word came down about the horrendous problems the title had. Most casuals just thought it was SimCity with The Sims thrown into it, which is a gold mine for EA.
Also, I don't deserve anything these assholes bring - I'm voting with my wallet left and right up in this mofo
Well I meant we as in gamers. Yeah me and you and a bunch of people didn't buy it but a lot of us did, and the sad thing is that we're the ones who mostly knew about all of the shit they were pulling. We can't use ignorance as an excuse like casuals can.
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
Well you are, and you should.