The irony of this post, is that Rotten-Chello stepped down a couple days ago. Not to say his replacement will be any better though.

I thought it was ironic too, and a bit unexpected... If I had to guess though, SimCity was just a nail in the coffin. When the stock price drops nearly 70% during your tenure, even in a global recession, you're on shaky ground. And I suspect after the enormous expectations of SWTOR failed whatever goodwill he might have garnered must have finally wore off entirely.

Wasn't he the one in charge when things started really going bad? As in the introduction of Securom, more spyware, and now this?

I don't like that they took out riots, and more that you can't make your citizens miserable and ask God what they've done to deserve it. The Sims 3: immure your victims in walls and starve them in filth. Drown them or immoliate them in flames for being lousy with the stove. Make them kiss their mother-in-law. Sim City: nada.

My point was just that a lot of other people feel the same way you do (I'm one of them), and while I acknowledge that the game was designed to be multiplayer and require players to interact with other cities from the beginning, I think making that necessary even for people who want to play alone was a mistake.

I have memories of playing Simcity games and enjoying them, and it sucks to see the newest game in the franchise turn out like this. It's like having a favourite actor as a kid and watching all their movies and watching them grow up to be a washed up drug addict. T_T

Actually, I doubt that there is very much programming which needs to happen to make the game work offline. What modders have done so far, along with what I know about programming and testing, lead me to believe that it would probably be less than one day's work for one person.

No, the problem is not the amount of programing required, or even the amount of testing required. The problem is that EA is not willing to make the game offline.

I have not got sims city due to the price and the always online. I hate that they sell this game at full price when it's not working. I have played the old sims city game and I have enjoyed that but I am unsure whther I am gong to buy sims city even if it gets fixed.

I loved SimCity 2000, 3000 and 4 and played them for years. But I didn't buy the new one because of the Origin and always-online requirements. Get rid of those, and I'd buy it, even with its other flaws.

It makes me sad to realize that EA doesn't want my business. That they are aiming this game at other people, when I've loved the series so much. Luckily, 2000, 3000 and 4 all still run on my computer and EA can't stop me from playing them.

I only ever played 4 and the original (for Commodore 64.) I actually have the C64 version on my computer - playable with a C64 emulator.

I played them all when they came out. If I stop buying their products they're not going to listen to me at all. As a customer at least I've got a direct say in their product.

How do you have a say if you buy them no matter what? You have more of a say if you buy them under certain conditions. If literally nobody would buy games that had extreme DRM companies wouldn't use it. The more people who refuse to buy games with extreme DRM the less financial sense it makes to include it - especially if it's all over social media that that's the reason they aren't being sold as much as they'd like. If you buy it no matter what they can make it as bad as they feel and it won't make a difference.

I'm staying WELL away from this mess until it's sorted out.

I didn't say "no matter what," I said I had all of them so far. If they were supporting third world juntas or being assholes about gay marriage or something? I'd drop them in a heartbeat.


That's entirely unsubstantiated by anything resembling the way the market works though. People who don't buy products aren't customers. Do you take advice for how to have sex with your significant other from people who aren't them? I'm never going to purchase a 777, should I be consulted about where they're going wrong there? Furthermore, about half of you guys essentially are saying "I'm never going to buy this game you've made, you evil pooty headed EA!!!" Well, if you're never going to be a customer then I can ditch your opinion entirely, the same way that no one gives a shit about all of the reasons I don't like cricket.


If no one bought any games that game companies are prepared to sell then there would be no games and no game companies and everyone who sat on their ass protested and boycotting rather than engaging the company on their terms would still be not playing games and the people who did want to play games wouldn't have them either.

So why should I sacrifice what I want for your principles? I don't owe you anything.



You've essentially mixed up two shitty reasons and painted them with one brush. DRM and bad games. I don't care about DRM - it's there or it isn't, and ultimately there's not a single game out there with DRM that I haven't sidestepped with ridiculous ease if I've needed to. It's pickles on the sandwich. You don't like them? Take them off.

The other part, the bad game part? Well again: You've stated over and over that you don't own and don't play the newest SimCity. You might as well tell me how screwed up and horrible being an astronaut is for all I think anyone should take that sort of review seriously. I have played it. It's not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement on SimSocieties and a step in the right direction in a lot of ways. It's nowhere near as disappointing as many other games have been straight out of the box at launch I've had, many of which eventually turned into amazing games that I like very much.

But if people just shit on certain games all the time for not meeting or exceeding their expectations? Well EA's got plenty of money coming in from Madden games. They could easily simply choose to not make games that I might like and still be a monolithic IP Factory sitting on game properties hoping folks like you eventually drop dead so they can make the games they're wanting to make. That doesn't contribute anything to "having new games I'd like to play," it just kills the economic incentives for large studios to even try to make those games.

The difference is between shooting the cop because you're fed up with government and voting. I'm never going to be absolutely satisfied with anything, game or not; but it's just terrible practice to disengage with something as a form of protest. You're marginalizing yourself and sending feedback that "my opinion no longer matters."

It's not like that at all. It's saying "I will buy this game if you don't include extreme DRM and such, but won't if you do." They're not going to put themselves out of business just because they like DRM and being dicks so much. I don't own and won't buy the latest Sim City BECAUSE it has an online only requirement and no modding. If that wasn't the case and it was a good game I almost certainly would have. Is that really so hard to understand? YOU are the one saying your opinion doesn't matter if you are willing to buy it even if it's like that. Someone who wouldn't buy a Sim City game no matter what is the other extreme of whose opinion doesn't matter. It's the ones who want the game but won't buy it if it is like that who affect their bottom line more. Again, it isn't rocket science. As to Sims games, it's the best selling game title EVER They would be stupid to not make it because its players don't want online only - and a Sims game with no CC/mods would be a chunk of shit not worth playing because that is what makes it so good. I almost guarantee they would lose less money to piracy if they had no DRM whatsoever than they will lose to people just refusing to buy, even if they completely eliminate pirating of the game, if they do this for Sims 4.

I can form a limited opinion on games I don't play; enough to decide whether I want to buy or not. At the moment, I am extremely hesitant about buying but cautiously optimistic about it improving to the point where I would want to buy it.

I provide constructive feedback and suggestions on Simtropolis Forums and the official (EA) forum and I like the SimCity and Sims franchises. Money is all that separates me from the Sims 3.

--Ocram

So, Yahtzee has done a review of Simcity.

Break out the popcorn folks.

Love that! And they have disasters non-player controlled? You can't give a city an obscene name? Ugggh at this point I wouldn't put this abortion of a game on my computer if EA paid me to. The people running EA make the 3 Stooges look like members of Mensa. They keep pulling the same crap in sims games the players hate. Have'nt they ever heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results?
I absolutely will never buy anything that requires Origin or especially a constant online connection. Don't they get games are a good thing to do when your internet goes down???

The requirement of a sewage system seems too complex (I always turn off the requirement for plumbing in SC4 for that reason) and even more so the needing resources (that's what made Civilization 4 way too difficult even on the easiest settings.) I also hate games that don't have cheats, and given the online thing I guess it doesn't (I always use money cheats in SC4, too - a lot.)

My personal opinion: I don't like it. There are so many numerous faults with the game. I'm quite saddened that I bought it. £30 I could have put to much better use, being a poor student. With the disaster that is Simcity I think I've decided to stop buying anything EA. I give up with them. Time and time again we get the same old garbage, get given the same rubbish treatment and we're expected to deal with it. Not anymore. They've had hundreds of pounds of my precious money over the course of my childhood and into my adulthood, but no longer!

LGR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV_94TQUvBA

I'm actually really enjoying the game so far. I play a few hours on the weekend (perhaps slowly), I've only played one region, all cities, privately; so I haven't run into the issue that cities are too small. I remember my biggest functional city in SimCity 4, if that was a real city, it would take a person hours to get from the residential area to the industrial area or commercial area. I like that my region is separated by cities and each city has it's own specialization. I actually like that it's online, so I don't have to worry about hitting the save button every 2 minutes just in case my computer zoned out and shuts the game down (happened way too often with SimCity 4). You guys talk about being forced into multiplayer, I haven't felt forced to do that yet, though I do see the benefits in it, and it's intriguing, but I barely know anyone who plays sim games other than myself and I wouldn't want to subject a random stranger to my slow paced and occasional playstyle, especially if they're asking for resources and I can't give it to them for weeks.

Here's the problem: you are able to play the way that you want to, but we aren't. EA could have easily given us all the ability to play the way that we want, but they decided to exclude many of their formerly loyal fans.

Who is the collective "we" in your statement? I consider myself one of the Sims and SimCity franchise's loyal fans; which is why I bought SimCity regardless of the reviews.

People who don't want to play online.

Which is why I said "EA [...] decided to exclude many of their formerly loyal fans. If you'd like, I can add: Specifically, EA decided to exclude any of their formerly loyal fans who are unwilling to subject themselves to this type of DRM.

It sounds like your loyalty is to the brand, not to the gameplay.